Can You Contest a Will in California? Grounds, Deadlines, and No-Contest Clauses
A will is read, and someone in the room is certain it does not reflect what the person really wanted. Whether anything can be done about it depends on three things: whether you have standing, whether a recognized legal ground exists, and whether you act within a short deadline. This article walks through each.
Who can contest
Only an interested person may contest a will — someone whose financial interest would be affected by the outcome. That typically means heirs who would take if the will were invalid (a child left out, for example), beneficiaries under an earlier will, and sometimes creditors. A friend or relative who simply thinks the will is unfair, but who would receive nothing either way, cannot bring a contest.
Grounds that succeed
Unfairness is not a ground. A competent adult may leave property to anyone, and may disinherit a child or a spouse (subject to the spouse’s community property rights). A contest has to establish that the document is not a valid expression of the testator’s intent. The recognized grounds:
Lack of testamentary capacity. The testator must have been able to understand the nature of the act, the nature and situation of their property, and their relationships to the people affected by the will. The standard is not high — a person with a diagnosis of dementia can still have capacity on a good day — and the question is capacity at the moment of signing. Medical records, the drafting attorney’s notes, and the observations of people who saw the testator around that time are the evidence.
Undue influence. This is the most common ground and the most fact-intensive. California defines it as excessive persuasion that overcomes a person’s free will and causes them to act in a way they otherwise would not, and directs the court to consider the testator’s vulnerability, the influencer’s authority over them, the tactics used (isolation, control of information, urgency, secrecy), and whether the result was inequitable. The law also creates a presumption of undue influence when a gift goes to the person who drafted the will, to a care custodian of a dependent adult, or to certain others in a position of trust — shifting the burden to the beneficiary to prove the gift was not the product of fraud or undue influence.
Fraud. The testator signed because of a deliberate misrepresentation — for example, being told that a child had died or had stolen from them.
Improper execution. A formal California will must generally be in writing, signed by the testator, and witnessed by two people present at the same time who understood that the document was a will. A holographic will — one whose material provisions are in the testator’s own handwriting — needs no witnesses. Defects in execution can sometimes be overcome if there is clear and convincing evidence that the testator intended the document to be their will, so a technical flaw is not automatically fatal.
Revocation, forgery, or a later will. A will can be challenged on the ground that the testator revoked it, that a later valid will supersedes it, or that the signature is not genuine.
The deadlines
Timing is everything, and the clock runs from court events, not from the death or from when you learned of the will.
- Before the will is admitted to probate, an interested person may file written objections to the petition for probate and contest the will at the hearing on that petition.
- After the will is admitted, an interested person who did not participate in a prior contest may petition to revoke the probate of the will, but only within 120 days after the order admitting the will. Once that window closes, the will is effectively final except for a person who was a minor or incompetent without a guardian at the time.
Because the notice of a probate hearing is mailed to heirs and beneficiaries only about two weeks before the hearing, and because the admission order can be entered at that first hearing, the practical deadline can be far shorter than 120 days from when you first hear about the estate. If you receive a notice of petition to administer an estate and believe the will is invalid, that is the moment to act.
Trusts have their own, separate clock: a beneficiary or heir generally has 120 days from the trustee’s statutory notification after the settlor’s death to contest a trust, and the trustee is required to send that notice. The same grounds — capacity, undue influence, fraud — apply.
No-contest clauses
Many California wills and trusts contain a clause providing that a beneficiary who contests the document forfeits whatever they were left. These clauses are enforceable, but more narrowly than people assume. Under current law a no-contest clause is enforced only against a direct contest — one alleging invalidity on grounds such as capacity, undue influence, fraud, or improper execution — that was brought without probable cause. If the contestant had a reasonable basis to believe the challenge would succeed, the clause does not apply even if the contest loses. The clause can also reach certain challenges to the ownership of property and creditor’s claims, but only if it expressly says so. A beneficiary weighing a contest should have the probable-cause question analyzed before filing, because the downside of guessing wrong is losing the inheritance already provided.
What the case looks like
A will contest is a lawsuit within the probate case. Discovery is available: the drafting attorney’s file, medical and pharmacy records, bank records, phone and text records, and depositions of the witnesses and the beneficiaries. Handwriting experts and geriatric psychiatrists are common. Many contests settle, frequently through mediation, because the cost of trial is high and the outcome depends on how a judge (there is no jury right in a California will contest) weighs conflicting accounts of a person who is no longer available to testify.
Where the underlying problem is that an elder was financially exploited during life — assets transferred before death rather than by will — a will contest may be the wrong tool. See Financial Elder Abuse in California: What the Law Lets You Recover for the remedies that address lifetime transfers.
Think a will does not reflect what the person actually wanted? Ask a legal question.