Feeling Left Out? A California Will is Being Contested, What Should I Do?

[Music] Hi those Keith Davidson Albertson and Davidson in this video I want to talk about will contests and in particular if you're the beneficiary under the will but other family members who were left out are trying to contest that will in California the last written will the one that was properly signed and witnessed is deemed to be or presumed to be the valid last will of the decedent written documents have a presumption of validity we presume that at the time that they were signed the decedent had full capacity was not operating under undue influence and that the document will express the true intent of the decedent what that means is that the person contesting the will has the burden of proof to overcome those presumptions and that's where if you're trying to defend the will if you like the will and you think that it is a proper will and a proper expression of the decedent's intent you actually have the easier side of the case because contesting will can be very difficult and that's especially true if the decedent wasn't ever diagnosed with any type of mental disorders that would call their capacity into question for example if there was no dementia no Alzheimer's no strokes then the will is even stronger because there's not going to be medical evidence to overturn capacity and if you weren't involved in creation of the will you just found out after the decedent's death that here's the will that's even better because it can show that you didn't have any participation in the creation of that will so it really comes down to the individual facts of your case some cases are better than others but if you have the written document and somebody's contesting it you are probably going to have pretty strong grounds to defend that will contest depending on your case and you're going to have to defend that will contest unless you are voluntarily willing to share the estate with the left-out family members and some people do want to do that other people don't that's a personal decision that you're going have to make so that's a little information about what you can expect to happen if the will that you like is being contested. [Music] [Applause] [Music]