Florida will contest attorney
A Florida will contest attorney challenges a will that should not stand — one signed by someone who no longer understood it, procured by the person who benefited, or executed in a way Florida law does not accept. Contesting a will is not an argument that the division was unfair. It is a claim that the document is not the testator’s.
Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr. handles contested estates in all 67 Florida counties, in English and in Spanish — so the will contest lawyer who reviews your file is the one who argues it. The initial consultation is free.
Updated August 7, 2026. Every statute below was read against the current Florida Statutes this week. The deadline that ends most will contests before they begin is §733.212(3) — 3 months from service of the notice of administration, after which the objection is “forever barred.”
What is a will contest in Florida?
A formal challenge, filed in the probate case, to the validity of a will offered for probate or already admitted.
It is not a lawsuit filed separately. It happens inside the estate proceeding, before the judge who is already administering it, and it takes one of two forms:
- An objection, where the will has been offered and you are served with a notice of administration
- A petition for revocation of probate under §733.109, where the will has already been admitted
People search for a will contest lawyer, a will contest attorney, or simply a lawyer to contest a will. It is the same work.
What a will contest is not: a complaint that one child received more than another, that a promise was broken, or that the testator changed their mind late in life. Florida permits all of that. The question is always how the document came to say what it says.
Who can contest a will in Florida?
Only an interested person — and the test is financial, not familial.
§731.201(23) defines an interested person as “any person who may reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome of the particular proceeding involved.”
In practice: would you receive more if this will fell than you receive under it? If yes, you have standing. If no, you do not, however close you were to the person.
| Who you are | Standing to contest? |
|---|---|
| Child, grandchild, parent — an intestate heir | Yes, if you would take without this will |
| A beneficiary under an earlier will this one replaced | Yes |
| A beneficiary under this will, who would take more without it | Yes |
| A surviving spouse | Yes — but the elective share is often the better route |
| A stepchild, not adopted, not named in any will | Normally no |
| A creditor | Only on questions touching the debt |
| A friend or carer named in no document | No |
Being written out does not remove your standing — it usually creates it. If you would inherit under the intestacy statute or under a prior will, cutting you out is the very thing that gives you the right to object.
Can you contest a will if you are not named in it?
Yes, and this is the most common misunderstanding in Florida probate.
Standing does not come from being named. It comes from what happens to you if the will is set aside. A child left nothing by a will would inherit under §732.103 if there were no will at all — so that child is an interested person, and may object.
The reverse also holds. Someone named in the will who would receive less without it has no incentive and no standing to attack it.
There is a second route people miss: an earlier will. If a prior document left you substantially more, you have standing to challenge the later one — and if the later will is set aside, the earlier one can be admitted in its place.
How long do you have to contest a will in Florida?
Three months from the day you are served with the notice of administration — §733.212(3). Miss it and the objection is “forever barred.”
Five things about that clock that decide cases:
- It is 3 calendar months, not 90 days. Served 1 January, the deadline is 1 April.
- It runs from service on you, not from the death, not from the funeral, not from when you learned the will existed. Two siblings served three weeks apart have two different deadlines.
- If you were never served, it never started. Check the court file before accepting that you are late — out-of-state and foreign beneficiaries are frequently served late or not at all.
- The only extension is estoppel arising from the personal representative’s own misstatement about the deadline, and it never runs past the earlier of final discharge or one year after service.
- A different clock applies to a will already admitted — see the next section.
| Situation | Deadline | Section |
|---|---|---|
| You were served with a notice of administration | 3 months | §733.212(3) |
| The will was already admitted to probate | Before final discharge | §733.109 |
| Any claim against the personal representative | Ends at discharge | §733.901 |
| A trust is being challenged too | Not until irrevocable or the settlor dies | §736.0207 |
| A trust accounting has been received | 6 months from receipt | §736.1008 |
| Surviving spouse’s elective share | 6 months from notice, or 2 years from death | §732.2135 |
Can you contest a will after probate has started?
Yes. Probate being open does not close the door — discharge does.
§733.109 provides for revocation of probate: a will already admitted can be challenged, and the proceeding can be brought until the estate is closed and the personal representative discharged.
Two practical consequences:
- The court can restrain distribution while it decides. Assets do not have to keep moving out of the estate while a genuine challenge is pending.
- Discharge is the real wall. Once entered, §733.901 provides that discharge “shall bar any action against the personal representative, as such or individually, and the surety.”
If you have been served, the three-month clock is the one that binds you — the revocation route does not rescue a missed objection. It exists for people who were never served, or who learned late what the will contained.
What are the grounds to contest a will?
Florida gives four in a single sentence, plus two more from elsewhere in the code.
“A will is void if the execution is procured by fraud, duress, mistake, or undue influence.”
| Ground | What has to be shown |
|---|---|
| Undue influence | Someone in a position of trust overbore the testator’s own will. The most common ground by a wide margin. |
| Lack of testamentary capacity | The testator did not understand the nature of the act, the extent of their property, or the natural objects of their bounty — at the moment of signing |
| Improper execution | §732.502: signature at the end, two attesting witnesses, everyone signing in one another’s presence |
| Fraud | The testator was deceived about a fact or about what they were signing |
| Duress | Signature compelled by threat |
| Revocation | A later will or codicil superseded this one |
Two structural rules shape strategy:
- Only the procured part is void. The remainder of the will can survive, so a successful contest does not always mean intestacy.
- A procured revocation is also void, which can restore a will someone believed had been cancelled.
What is not enough to contest a will?
Worth saying plainly, because it saves families money.
None of the following is a ground, on its own:
- The division is unequal or feels unfair
- The testator was elderly, frail, forgetful, or in hospital
- The testator had a diagnosis of dementia — see below; it is evidence, not proof
- Someone influenced the testator in the ordinary sense: asked, persuaded, was kind, was present
- A promise was made and not kept in the will
- The will was homemade or drafted cheaply, if it was properly executed
- One child did more caregiving than the others and received more
- The testator changed their mind late in life
Florida law protects the right to make an unfair will. What it does not protect is a will that is not the testator’s own decision. The distinction is everything, and it is the first thing assessed at a consultation.
Can you contest a will because of dementia?
A diagnosis is evidence. It is not the answer, because capacity is measured at a moment, not over a period.
Florida asks whether, at the time of signing, the testator understood the nature of making a will, the general extent of their property, and who their natural beneficiaries were. That is a lower threshold than the capacity needed to run a business or manage investments, and it can exist in someone who is confused on other days.
Lucid intervals are real and are frequently decisive. A person with a dementia diagnosis can execute a valid will in the morning and be unable to by evening.
What actually moves a capacity case:
- Medical records for the days either side of execution — not the diagnosis date, the signing date
- Cognitive assessment scores with their dates
- Medication changes, particularly sedatives and analgesics, in the same week
- The drafting attorney’s notes on what the testator said and understood
- Contemporaneous accounts from people with no financial interest
- The document itself — sudden complexity, or errors about property or family, tell their own story
Where a dementia case usually becomes a strong case is where it stops being about capacity. A diminished testator plus a beneficiary who arranged everything is an undue influence case, and undue influence has a burden-shifting presumption that capacity does not.
What evidence do you need to contest a will?
Documents. Almost never testimony about what the testator “would have wanted.”
The most valuable evidence in a Florida will contest, in rough order:
- The drafting attorney’s file — who made the appointment, who attended, who gave instructions, what the testator said. This single file decides more contests than any other item.
- Medical records covering the twelve months around signing, including cognitive assessments and medication.
- Bank and brokerage statements for the final two years — new joint owners, signature cards, transfers, powers of attorney.
- The prior will, and every version in between. The pattern of change is often the case.
- The execution documents — the self-proving affidavit, witness identities, where the signing happened.
- Communications — messages and emails showing isolation, or showing who controlled access.
- Care records — who was present, who was paid, who held the keys.
Undue influence is proved by circumstances, not confessions. Florida courts look for a beneficiary who stood in a confidential relationship, was substantially benefited, and was active in procuring the will — choosing the lawyer, being present at signing, knowing the terms in advance, instructing the drafter, arranging the witnesses, keeping the document afterwards.
And when that pattern is established, §733.107(2) does something unusual: the presumption of undue influence shifts the burden of proof under ss. 90.301–90.304, “adopted to implement the public policy of this state against abuse of fiduciary or confidential relationships.”
The favoured beneficiary then has to disprove undue influence. The family stops having to prove what happened behind a closed door.
Who pays the legal costs of contesting a will?
Usually each side pays their own — but Florida has several exceptions, and they are worth knowing before you decide.
§733.106 governs costs and fees in probate proceedings:
- (1) “In all probate proceedings, costs may be awarded as in chancery actions.”
- (2) A person nominated as personal representative, or a proponent of the will, if in good faith justified in offering the will, “shall receive costs and attorney fees from the estate even though probate is denied or revoked.”
- (3) “Any attorney who has rendered services to an estate may be awarded reasonable compensation from the estate.”
- (4) Where fees are paid from the estate, the court has discretion over which part of the estate bears them.
Read subsection (2) carefully, because it surprises people: the person who offered the will can be paid from the estate even if the will is thrown out, provided they acted in good faith.
And read subsection (4) with it. The court can direct that fees come out of a particular share — including the share of the person whose conduct caused the litigation. That is the provision that makes some contests economic.
Separately, where assets were taken rather than merely misdirected by a document, §772.11 civil theft carries treble damages and attorney’s fees on clear and convincing proof, subject to a written pre-suit demand.
Ask about fee exposure and fee recovery at the first meeting, not the last. It changes which cases are worth bringing.
How much does it cost to contest a will?
It is priced by what the other side must defend, not by the size of the estate.
- Cheapest — an execution defect. §732.502 is objective, the evidence is on the face of the document, and out-of-state wills fail it more often than people expect.
- Middle — capacity, where the medical records largely decide it.
- Most expensive — undue influence with lifetime transfers to trace, unless the §733.107(2) presumption is available, in which case the burden moves and the case shortens considerably.
What drives the number: the volume of medical and financial records · whether the presumption applies · whether a trust and lifetime transfers are also in play · how many beneficiaries must be served and how many are abroad · whether fees are contested as well · and whether the personal representative is also the favoured beneficiary.
What you will not find here is a prediction of your odds. Rule 4-7.13 prohibits promises about outcomes, and no honest lawyer prices a case they have not seen.
How do you contest a will in Florida — the process
- Get the court file. The petition, the will as filed, the notice of administration and its date of service on you. The deadline is computed from that date and nothing else.
- Preserve evidence immediately. Request the drafting attorney’s file and the medical records. Banks and medical providers destroy records on their own schedules.
- File the objection or the petition to revoke inside the deadline, stating the ground.
- Formal notice and adversary status. The matter becomes adversarial, and the Florida Probate Rules bring in the civil discovery tools — depositions, document requests, subpoenas to banks and doctors.
- Discovery, which is where most cases are actually decided.
- Mediation. Most Florida circuits require it before trial, and the large majority of will contests resolve there.
- Trial, before a probate judge — there is no jury in Florida probate.
Interim relief matters. Where property is being dissipated, §733.501 allows appointment of a curator, and where notice would cause delay and property may be “wasted, destroyed, or removed beyond the jurisdiction of the court,” the court may appoint one without notice.
What happens when a will is contested?
Administration does not simply stop, but it changes shape.
- Distribution generally pauses as to the contested assets. The court can restrain it.
- The personal representative’s position becomes awkward where they are also the favoured beneficiary — that conflict is itself a ground for removal under §733.504.
- A curator may be appointed to hold the estate neutral while the contest runs.
- Costs accrue against the estate, which is why speed favours whoever is right.
- Most contests settle. A negotiated share, paid without a trial, is the ordinary outcome — and the strength of the evidence gathered early is what sets the number.
Contesting a trust at the same time
In a large share of Florida estates the will is a two-page pour-over document whose only job is to feed a revocable trust. Contesting it alone achieves nothing, because the assets are in the trust.
§736.0406 mirrors the will statute and reaches further: “If the creation, amendment, or restatement of a trust is procured by fraud, duress, mistake, or undue influence, the trust or any part so procured is void.”
Amendments and restatements are covered. The typical case is not an attack on a trust signed twenty years ago — it is an attack on the amendment executed weeks before the death.
One timing rule catches people: §736.0207 bars contesting a revocable trust until it becomes irrevocable or the settlor dies. The evidence has to be preserved while you still cannot sue.
Are no-contest clauses enforceable in Florida?
No. §732.517 is a single sentence: a provision in a will penalising an interested person for contesting the will, or for instituting other proceedings relating to the estate, is unenforceable.
In terrorem clauses do work in many other states, and Florida is full of wills drafted elsewhere by people who retired here. In Florida they are void — in wills and in trusts alike. The paragraph may still sit in the document, and it may still read as though it bites. It does not.
More people are stopped by that clause than by any deadline on this page, and it has no legal effect whatsoever.
Where will contests are filed in Florida
In the probate division of the circuit court for the county where the estate belongs. Because a contest turns on how fast you can get before a judge, the county rules matter more here than in an uncontested estate — each page below sets out that county’s court, its filing traps and its hearing procedure.
| County | Circuit | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | Eleventh | Miami probate litigation attorney |
| Broward | Seventeenth | Fort Lauderdale probate litigation attorney |
| Palm Beach (north) | Fifteenth | West Palm Beach probate litigation attorney |
| Palm Beach (south) | Fifteenth | Boca Raton probate litigation attorney |
| Hillsborough | Thirteenth | Tampa probate litigation attorney |
| Pinellas & Pasco | Sixth | Pinellas County probate litigation attorney |
Where venue itself is disputed — a decedent who split the year between Florida and elsewhere — §733.101 decides it, and that argument is made in the first weeks or not at all. Will contests are handled in all 67 counties.
Credentials you can check
The Florida Bar certifies in Wills, Trusts and Estates, and Rule 4-7.14 permits specialist or expert only where the claim is objectively verifiable.
- Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002 — confirmable free through The Florida Bar’s member directory.
- Practice concentrated in probate, wills, trusts and the transfer of Florida real property.
- Solo practice: the person who answers the phone files the petition and appears at the hearing.
- Service in English and Spanish, in all 67 counties.
Rule 4-7.13 prohibits unsupported comparisons, so you will not read that this is the best firm in Florida.
What to do this week
If you have been served with a notice of administration, §733.212(3) is already running, and the drafting attorney’s file and the medical records are the two things that get harder to obtain every month.
Bring five things:
- The will, and any earlier version you have.
- The notice of administration, with the date it was served on you — that date, and no other, sets the deadline.
- Anything from the drafting lawyer — correspondence, invoices, the engagement letter.
- Medical records or a list of treating physicians for the year around the signing.
- Bank statements for the final two years, if you can reach them.
Speak to a Florida will contest attorney directly — a will contest lawyer who has read the drafting file, not just the will. Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr. — (305) 224-6811. Free consultation in English or Spanish, statewide. You can also write from the contact page.
Related: contesting a will in Florida — the full guide · Florida estate litigation attorney · Florida inheritance lawyer · Florida probate litigation lawyer · Florida trust litigation attorney. Esta página en español: impugnar un testamento en Florida.
About this page. Author and reviewer: Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002. Every statute cited was read against the Florida Statutes on August 7, 2026.
This page offers general information about Florida law and is not legal advice for a specific case. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every estate turns on its own facts, and the law changes.