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- 1). Check to make sure you have legal standing according to the court. A person is considered to have legal standing if he inherits under the will, would be a beneficiary of any trust set up by the will, or if he would have inherited if there was no will. Next of kin, such as spouses or children, fall under that category.
- 2). File a motion contesting the will with the probate court via a qualified probate attorney. The attorney can assist you with the proper paperwork and forms.
- 3). Produce copies or show proof of any prior wills or estate plans to the court that show that original intentions existed that are different than the contested will. This includes prior conversations between the deceased and any witnesses that can be called to testify.
- 4). Show evidence of fraud, defined as a willful intent to deceive, to the court. You must show that the will would read differently if the fraud had not occurred and that the deceased relied on the lie when making her decisions about the will. Verification of the fraud is needed, and it must be exposed that the person committing the fraud knew he was telling a lie or making a misrepresentation at the time of the fraud.
- 5). Show evidence of undue influence by the use of physical or psychological force or pressure on the deceased by another person to the court. The person using undue influence must have benefited from this use of force in a way that would not have existed without the use of force.
- 6). Show evidence that the deceased was unable, due to her health or mental state, to resist this force or pressure. The court looks at the deceased's state of mind at the time of the signing of the will as much as the actions of the person accused of using undue influence.
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