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Florida Will Contest Lawyer

The will read at the funeral is not the will your father described to you. It was signed eleven months before he died, it favors the one person who was driving him to appointments, and nobody else knew it existed.

Florida law can set that will aside, and it puts the burden of proof on the person defending it once you establish the right facts. The window to object is three months from service of the notice of administration, and it is almost never extended.

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Quick Overview

A Florida will can be set aside when the person who signed it lacked capacity, when someone in a position of trust steered it, or when it was not signed the way the law requires. The law gives real tools for that, including a presumption that shifts the burden of proof onto the person defending the will. What it does not give is time. Once the personal representative serves a notice of administration, an objection to the validity of the will has to be filed within three months, and that period can almost never be extended.

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Below, we walk through the 9 issues that decide whether this is the right move for you. Jump to any one.

  1. The Three-Month Clock Service of the notice of administration starts it. The only extension is for a misstatement by the personal representative about the deadline itself, and no other reason counts.
  2. The Four Grounds That Void a Will Fraud, duress, mistake and undue influence. Any part procured that way is void, and the rest of the will survives if it was not.
  3. Undue Influence and the Burden That Shifts A substantial beneficiary in a confidential relationship who was active in procuring the will. Establish that and the person defending the will has to prove there was no undue influence.
  4. The Seven Signs Courts Look For Who found the lawyer, who gave the instructions, who was in the room, who kept the will afterward. You do not need all seven.
  5. Capacity, and Why a Diagnosis Is Not the Test Florida asks whether the person was of sound mind when they signed. Dementia in the chart does not decide it, and a good day can be enough.
  6. When the Signing Itself Was Botched Signed at the end, two witnesses, everyone in the same room watching. The self-proving affidavit makes the proponent’s job easy, which changes where the fight happens.
  7. Who Can Bring the Contest Any interested person, including a beneficiary under an earlier will. The person cut out of the new document usually has standing through the old one.
  8. The Trust That Goes Down With the Will Failing to contest the will can waive the right to contest a trust the will incorporates. The notice says so, and people miss it.
  9. What a Will Contest Costs

That’s the quick version. The details below are what decide your situation, and where the costly mistakes hide.

The Three-Month Clock

Start here, because everything else on this page is worthless if this deadline passes.

When a Florida estate opens, the personal representative serves a notice of administration on the surviving spouse, the beneficiaries, and others with an interest. That notice must tell you, in terms, that any interested person served with it has to file an objection challenging the validity of the will, the venue, or the court's jurisdiction on or before the date three months after service. Miss it and the objection is forever barred, however strong the underlying case.

Read what the statute says about extending it, because people assume there is more give than there is. The three-month period may be extended only for estoppel based on a misstatement by the personal representative about the time period within which an objection must be filed. The statute then closes every other door by name. It may not be extended for any other reason, including affirmative representation, failure to disclose information, or misconduct by the personal representative or any other person.

So the sibling who hid the will, drained the accounts and lied to you for two months has not bought you a single extra day. Only a misstatement about the deadline itself does that. There is an outer limit as well, whatever else happens: all objections must be filed no later than the earlier of the order of final discharge or one year after service of the notice.

The practical instruction is simple. If a notice of administration arrives and something about the will looks wrong, have a lawyer read it that week.

The Four Grounds That Void a Will

Florida law is short and blunt on this. A will is void if its execution was procured by fraud, duress, mistake, or undue influence. Any part of the will procured that way is void, and the remainder of the will stands if it was not so procured and is not invalid for other reasons.

That last clause matters more than it looks. A contest does not have to be all or nothing. Where one gift was the product of pressure and the rest of the document reflects what the testator actually wanted, a court can strike the tainted part and leave the rest standing.

The same protection covers revocation. If someone procured the revocation of a will, or of part of one, by fraud, duress, mistake or undue influence, that revocation is void. A caregiver who pressured an elderly man into destroying the will that provided for his children has not accomplished anything the law recognizes.

Two further grounds sit outside that list and get their own sections below, namely a testator who lacked capacity when signing, and a signing that failed Florida's execution requirements.

Undue Influence and the Burden That Shifts

Undue influence is the ground most of these cases run on, and Florida gives contestants a genuine advantage in proving it.

The ordinary allocation runs against you. The proponent of the will first has to establish, on the face of it, that the will was formally executed and attested. Once that is done, the contestant carries the burden of establishing the grounds for opposing probate.

The presumption of undue influence changes that. It arises where a substantial beneficiary under the will occupied a confidential relationship with the testator and was active in procuring the will. Establish those elements and Florida law treats the presumption as implementing public policy against the abuse of fiduciary and confidential relationships, which makes it a presumption that shifts the burden of proof. The person defending the will then has to prove the absence of undue influence.

There is a piece of legal history worth knowing here, because older material still gets it wrong. The 1971 Florida Supreme Court decision in In re Estate of Carpenter held that the presumption shifted only the burden of coming forward with a reasonable explanation, not the burden of proof. The Legislature changed that by statute in 2002. Carpenter remains the authority for what active procurement looks like, and Florida courts still apply its factor list. It is no longer the authority on who carries the burden.

The Seven Signs Courts Look For

Carpenter set out the criteria for active procurement, and Florida courts have applied them for more than fifty years.

The Court was explicit that these are not exclusive and that a contestant does not have to prove all of them, observing that it will be the rare case in which every criterion is present. In practice three or four, backed by records rather than recollection, is a serious case. The evidence that carries them is usually the drafting attorney's file, phone and appointment records, the witnesses, and whoever else was around the testator that year.

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Capacity, and Why a Diagnosis Is Not the Test

Florida's requirement is that a person making a will be of sound mind, and either eighteen or an emancipated minor. Sound mind is measured at the moment of signing.

That timing is what disappoints families who arrive holding a diagnosis. Dementia in the medical chart is evidence and it is not the answer, because people with cognitive decline have periods of clarity, and a will signed during one can stand. The question a court asks is about that day.

Which means capacity cases are built from records. The medical notes closest to the signing date, the drafting attorney's file and recollection, what the attesting witnesses saw, hospital and facility records, and the testator's own conduct in the surrounding weeks. Where the same evidence shows both a declining person and someone steering the process, capacity and undue influence are usually pleaded together, because the weaker the testator, the less pressure it takes to overcome their wishes.

When the Signing Itself Was Botched

This ground feels technical and it wins cases, particularly where a will was signed in a hospital room or printed off the internet.

Florida requires a will to be in writing and signed by the testator at the end, or signed by someone else at the testator's direction and in the testator's presence. That signing, or the testator's acknowledgment that they previously signed, must occur in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses. The witnesses must then sign in the presence of the testator and in the presence of each other. A codicil must be executed with the same formalities.

Read that last requirement carefully, because it is the one that fails. Everyone has to be together. A witness who signs in the corridor afterward, or who signs the following day, or who never actually watched the testator sign, breaks the chain. A will in the testator's own handwriting is not exempt, and our page on handwritten wills in Florida covers why a document that would be valid in other states fails here.

The self-proving affidavit changes the shape of this argument. A will made self-proved establishes formal execution and attestation on its face, so the proponent does not need to call the witnesses to get past the first step. That does not make the will unassailable. It means the contest is about capacity, influence, fraud, duress or mistake rather than about the paperwork.

Who Can Bring the Contest

Any interested person, and that expressly includes a beneficiary under a known prior will. This is the answer to the question people ask first, which is how someone written out of the current will has any standing at all. The stake usually comes from the earlier document. If the will from 2015 left you a third of the estate and the will from 2024 leaves you nothing, the 2015 will is your interest.

A proceeding to revoke the probate of a will is brought in the court with jurisdiction over the administration, and it may be commenced before the personal representative's final discharge, unless the notice of administration deadline has already barred it. While the revocation proceeding is pending, the personal representative carries on administering the estate as though nothing had been filed, except that no distribution may be made to beneficiaries in a way that contravenes the rights of the people who would take if the will fell.

One timing rule surprises nearly everyone. You cannot contest a will while the person who made it is alive. An action contesting the validity of all or part of a will, or of the revocation of a will, may not be commenced before the testator's death. Where a parent is alive and being influenced right now, the tools are different ones, and they are covered on our pages on financial exploitation of the elderly and the vulnerable adult injunction.

The Trust That Goes Down With the Will

Most Florida estate plans are not really built on the will. They are built on a revocable trust, with a short pour-over will that sweeps whatever is left into it. So the will looks like a formality and the money is somewhere else.

The notice of administration carries a warning about exactly this. It must state that under certain circumstances, by failing to contest the will, the recipient may be waiving the right to contest the validity of a trust or other writing incorporated by reference into that will. Someone who reads the two-page pour-over will, decides there is nothing in it worth fighting about, and lets the three months run, can find they have given up the challenge to the document that controls the estate.

The trust side has its own deadlines and its own mechanics, including a separate six-month bar that starts when the trustee sends the trust instrument with a statutory notice. Our Florida trust litigation page covers those. When both a will and a trust are in play, the two clocks run at once and neither waits for the other.

What a Will Contest Costs

A will contest is litigation, so it is quoted after we see the documents and the size of the estate rather than off a price list. What we can tell you at the consult is whether the case is worth bringing, which is a different question from whether the will looks unfair.

A meaningful share of these matters resolve well before trial. The drafting attorney's file arrives, the medical records arrive, and the picture either supports the contest or it does not. Where it does, the other side's incentive to settle usually improves quickly, because a presumption that shifts the burden of proof is an expensive thing to litigate against. Where the file shows an independent lawyer, a competent testator and a considered decision, we will tell you that, and you will have spent a fraction of what a trial would cost to find out. The 30-minute consult is free.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Do I Have to Contest a Will in Florida?

Three months from the date the notice of administration is served on you. The statute is specific and it uses months rather than days. An interested person served with that notice must file a petition or other pleading objecting to the validity of the will, the venue, or the court’s jurisdiction on or before that date, or the objection is forever barred. There is exactly one extension available, and it is narrow: estoppel based on a misstatement by the personal representative about the time period within which an objection must be filed. The statute then says plainly that the period may not be extended for any other reason, including affirmative representation, failure to disclose information, or misconduct by the personal representative or anyone else. There is also an outer limit regardless: all objections must be filed no later than the earlier of the order of final discharge or one year after service of the notice.

What Are the Grounds to Void a Will in Florida?

A Florida will is void if its execution was procured by fraud, duress, mistake, or undue influence. Any part of the will procured that way is void, and the remainder stands if it was not procured that way and is not invalid for some other reason. The same rule protects against a procured revocation, so if someone pressured the testator into tearing up an earlier will, that revocation is void too. Separate from those four grounds, a will can fail because the person did not have capacity when they signed it, or because the signing did not meet Florida’s execution requirements.

What Is Undue Influence in a Florida Will Case?

It is over-persuasion that replaces the testator’s own wishes with somebody else’s. Florida practice runs it through a presumption rather than requiring you to prove what happened behind a closed door. If a substantial beneficiary under the will occupied a confidential relationship with the person who signed it, and was active in procuring the will, the presumption of undue influence arises. That matters enormously, because under Florida law the presumption shifts the burden of proof to the person defending the will. They then have to prove there was no undue influence, rather than you having to prove there was.

What Does “Active Procurement” Mean?

It means the beneficiary was involved in making the will happen. The Florida Supreme Court set out seven signs courts weigh: the beneficiary was present when the will was executed; the beneficiary was present when the testator expressed a desire to make a will; the beneficiary recommended the attorney who drew it; the beneficiary knew the contents before it was signed; the beneficiary gave the drafting attorney instructions; the beneficiary secured the witnesses; and the beneficiary kept the will after execution. The Court said those criteria are not exclusive and that a contestant does not have to prove all of them, adding that it will be the rare case where all of them are present.

My Parent Had Dementia. Does That Win the Case?

It helps and it does not decide it. Florida asks whether the person was of sound mind at the time of signing, so a diagnosis in the chart is evidence rather than an answer. People with dementia have lucid intervals, and a will signed during one can stand. What moves these cases is contemporaneous proof about the day itself, meaning medical records around that date, the drafting attorney’s notes and recollection, what the witnesses observed, and the testator’s own behavior in the weeks either side. Capacity cases are won on records, not on adjectives.

Can a Will Be Thrown Out for How It Was Signed?

Yes, and this ground gets overlooked because it feels technical. A Florida will must be in writing and signed by the testator at the end, or signed by another person at the testator’s direction and in the testator’s presence. The signing or the testator’s acknowledgment of it must happen in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, and those witnesses must sign in the presence of the testator and in the presence of each other. That last requirement catches homemade and rushed hospital signings, where one witness signs in the hallway or a witness signs later. A codicil has to be executed with the same formalities.

Who Is Allowed to Contest a Will?

Any interested person, which includes a beneficiary under a known prior will. That is the usual route for someone cut out of the newest document, because their stake comes from the earlier one. A proceeding to revoke the probate of a will is brought in the court handling the administration, and it can be commenced before the personal representative’s final discharge, unless the objection is already barred by the notice of administration deadline. One rule catches people by surprise: you cannot contest a will while the person who made it is still alive. An action to contest the validity of all or part of a will, or of its revocation, may not be commenced before the testator’s death.

Does the Self-Proving Affidavit Make the Will Bulletproof?

No, but it changes where the fight starts. In a will contest the proponent first has to establish that the will was formally executed and attested. A self-proving affidavit does that on its face, so the proponent clears that hurdle without calling the witnesses. From there the burden is on the contestant to establish the grounds for opposing probate. So a self-proved will does not end the inquiry into capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress or mistake. It just means the argument is about those things rather than about whether the paperwork was done properly.

Can Contesting a Will Cost Me My Inheritance?

That depends on the document and the facts, and it is one of the first things to review. Many Florida wills and trusts contain a no-contest clause purporting to disinherit anyone who challenges them. Whether such a clause can be enforced in Florida, and against whom, is a question to run past a lawyer before you file anything, alongside the arithmetic of what you stand to gain and lose. There is also a quieter risk in the other direction, which is doing nothing. If your three months run out, the strongest case in the world is barred.

Will Contesting the Will Also Reach the Trust?

Sometimes it has to, and this is a trap sitting in plain sight. The notice of administration itself warns that in certain circumstances, by failing to contest the will, the recipient may be waiving the right to contest the validity of a trust or other writing incorporated by reference into that will. Many Florida estate plans are built as a pour-over will feeding a revocable trust, so the will is a short document and the money is in the trust. Treating the will as unimportant because it looks like a formality is how people lose the right to challenge the document that actually controls the estate. Our trust litigation page covers the trust side, which runs on its own clock.

Common Situations

The caregiver who found the lawyer. A widower in declining health signs a new will nine months before his death leaving the house to the neighbor who had been driving him to appointments. The neighbor found the attorney, sat in on the meeting, and kept the signed original. Three of the seven active-procurement signs are on the face of the drafting file. With the presumption established, the burden of proving no undue influence sits with the neighbor, and the case resolves with the house returning to the estate.

The witness in the hallway. A hospital-room will is signed with two witnesses, one of whom stepped out and signed at the nurses' station a few minutes later. The will is not self-proved. Because the witnesses did not sign in the presence of the testator and of each other, the execution fails on its own terms and the prior will governs, without anyone having to prove anything about the testator's mind.

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Updated on August 21, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Deadlines and outcomes depend on the specific facts; past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.

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