Contesting a Will in California
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.
Need help with legal fees?
We litigate select cases on contingency, with no upfront fees.
Costs are separate from the fee, and whether you are responsible for them is set out in the written agreement before you sign anything.
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.
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