By Corcoran Smith Law Corp. · Updated
Contesting a Will in California — Grounds and Deadline
A California will contest challenges whether a will, or part of one, is legally valid. The common grounds are undue influence, duress, menace, fraud, and lack of capacity. A petition to revoke probate of a will must generally be filed within 120 days after the will is admitted to probate.
On what grounds can a will be set aside?
California law is direct about the effect of pressure on a will. Under Probate Code section 6104, the execution or revocation of a will, or of any part of a will, is ineffective to the extent it was procured by duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence. Those four are distinct: duress and menace involve coercion or threat; fraud involves deception about what is being signed or about a material fact; undue influence involves persuasion that overcomes the testator’s free will, and typically shows itself through isolation, dependency, and control of the drafting. Lack of testamentary capacity is a separate ground, asking whether the person understood the nature of the act, the property involved, and their relationships to those who would ordinarily receive it. Timing then governs everything: a petition to revoke probate of a will must generally be filed within 120 days after the will is admitted to probate.
Sources: Probate Code s.6104 - Duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence · Probate Code s.8270 - Petition to revoke probate of will · Verified 2026-08-04.
Grounds compared
| Ground | Core question | Typical evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Undue influence | Was their free will overcome? | Isolation, dependency, who arranged the drafting, sudden change of beneficiary |
| Duress or menace | Were they coerced or threatened? | Witness accounts, contemporaneous statements, the surrounding relationship |
| Fraud | Were they deceived? | Misrepresentations, substituted pages, concealed facts |
| Lack of capacity | Did they understand what they were doing? | Medical records, cognitive assessments, the drafting attorney’s notes |
Will or trust — they are not the same case
Most California estates of any size are held in a living trust, not disposed of by will alone, and the two run on different clocks. A trust contest usually turns on the trustee’s notification and a 120-day period that starts when that letter is served; a will contest turns on admission to probate. If you have received a letter and are not certain which one you are dealing with, that is worth ten minutes on the phone rather than a guess.
See contesting a trust for the trust-side rules, or estimate a trust contest deadline.
Common questions
What is the deadline to contest a will in California?
A petition to revoke probate of a California will generally must be filed within 120 days after admission to probate under Probate Code section 8270, subject to statutory exceptions. A pre-admission objection follows a different procedure. Trust contests use a separate notice-and-delivery rule under section 16061.8, so the date a will was admitted does not establish a trust-contest deadline.
How do duress, menace and undue influence differ in a California will contest?
Duress, menace and undue influence are separate grounds under California Probate Code section 6104. Duress and menace involve coercion or threat, and typical evidence includes witness accounts, contemporaneous statements and the surrounding relationship. Undue influence involves persuasion that overcomes the testator's free will, and typically shows itself through isolation, dependency and control of the drafting, along with evidence such as who arranged the drafting and a sudden change of beneficiary.
What is lack of testamentary capacity in California?
Lack of testamentary capacity is a separate ground for contesting a California will. It asks whether, at the time of making the will, the person understood the nature of the act, the property involved, and their relationships to those who would ordinarily receive it. Typical evidence includes medical records, cognitive assessments and the drafting attorney's notes. California law starts from a rebuttable presumption that all persons have the capacity to make decisions.
Can part of a will be challenged instead of the whole will?
Yes. A California will contest challenges whether a will, or part of one, is legally valid. Under Probate Code section 6104, the execution or revocation of a will, or of any part of a will, is ineffective to the extent it was procured by duress, menace, fraud or undue influence. The question a will contest asks is narrow: whether the document was the free expression of the person who signed it.
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How contingency fees work in California
A contingency fee means the attorney is paid from what is recovered rather than by the hour, so a beneficiary who cannot fund litigation out of pocket can still bring a claim. California regulates these agreements closely. Under Business and Professions Code section 6147, the agreement must be in writing and the attorney must give the client a duplicate copy, signed by both, when the contract is made. It must state the agreed contingency rate; how disbursements and costs incurred in prosecuting or settling the claim will affect that fee; and to what extent the client could be required to pay for related matters. Unless the matter falls under section 6146, the agreement must also state that the fee is not set by law and is negotiable. These are not formalities: failure to comply with any provision of section 6147 makes the agreement voidable at the client’s option, leaving the attorney entitled only to a reasonable fee.
Sources: Business and Professions Code s.6147 - Contingency fee contracts · Verified 2026-08-03.
Not every matter suits a contingency arrangement, and the firm does not take every case on one. Whether yours qualifies depends on the facts, the likely recovery, and the assets actually available to satisfy a judgment. Ask when you call.
Call Anytime — Answered 24/7 · (213) 695-7353The Probate Code sections behind this page
Each section links to its official text at the California Legislature’s own site. The full index of sections covers the rest of the Code.
- Probate Code section 8270
- Petition to revoke probate of will. Read section 8270
Also cited above, explained elsewhere on this site
- Probate Code section 6104
- Duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence. Where section 6104 is explained
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