Module 3

Defects and challenges: undue influence, fraud, forgery and mistake, the burden of proof, how a will is contested and no-contest clauses

Many wills are never challenged, and many that are challenged stand. But a contest over a will is among the most bitter disputes in law, because it is fought between people who were once a family, over money, with the main witness dead. The grounds are few and the proof is hard. This module sets out who may challenge a will, the grounds that matter beyond capacity and formalities, what each ground does to the will if it succeeds, how the burden of proof is shared, and how a contest runs in practice. It ends with the no-contest clause, which tries to stop challenges before they start, and with the steps a careful lawyer takes to make a will hard to attack.

General education on the law of wills and succession, using invented people and estates. It states common principles in simplified form and does not describe any one country’s law, which differs and changes; rules on wills, intestacy, family claims and probate are strict and local. It is not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer in the place that matters.