Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina
Contesting the Will of My uncle
My uncle died recently and let a estate of toward one million dollars. My sisters and I recently a small amount of two thousand dollars. The circumstances of the writing of the wills are questionable. The will was quickly written four days before he died of Lou Gerig's disease. He was depressed and very ill. It was said that the attorney handling the signing of the will actually had to move his hand across the paper so he could sign the papers. Many of the other heirs are up in arms about the small amount they received. The bulk of the estate went to the person that is the power of attorney and her son. When my brother heard of the small amount that he was to receive , he call the power of attorney who agreed to give him half of the estate when it was settled. We have contacted a specialist in contesting wills whose fees are exorbinate. I have much other info to give you, but right now I do not have time to type it in. Please accept my apologises for this quickluy typed description. I will write more in later. My qusetion is this. Do you have information, books, websites or any other info that would help my sisters and I be more informed about the criteria for contesting this will
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Contesting the Will of My uncle
I'm not surprised that you were quoted a large fee by the attorney. Few challenges to Wills succeed and such cases usually involve extensive litigation time.
A second issue to consider is whether you would inherit in the event that the Will is successfully contested. You should check the intestate statutes for your state, unless there was a previous will. "Intestate" means the person died without a will.
There are several ways to challenge a will; undue influence, incompetency, failure to follow proper legal formalities. Depression, illness, or frailty probably aren't good bases for a challenge.
If you have discussed this with more than one attorney and been quoted high fees, it may indicate that the case is weak and a challenge is not likely to succeed. In general, the law presumes that a person is competent to execute a will. Overcoming that presumption is usually very hard to do.
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