Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Minnesota

Re: published wills

Wills are sometimes filed for safe keeping at the probate court; but usually the will would not be at the courthouse unless it had been filed as part of a probate proceeding.

A will can be kept by the person who made it, by a relative or friend, or by the lawyer. I have a safe full of them, but I am starting to wish that I was not in the business of being a storage facility. In my spare moments I have been tracking down old clients and giving them back their wills. Some of them have been in my safe for decades.

If the lawyer has it, you would have to show the lawyer that you are the person entitled to get the original. If it were me, I would file it with the court rather than getting involved in a battle over who gets possession of the will.

Many times the will never goes into play, because it only has effect if it becomes part of a probate proceeding. If there is no probate, the will has no effect - there is nothing for it to act upon.

Can you contest a will? Yes. Are there time limits? Yes. What are the limits? That depends. The time limits all key off of the initial order or orders issued by the court when a probate proceeding is started.

You need a face to face consult with a lawyer. There's no substitute for that.