How to Contest a Will in Florida: Grounds, Deadlines, and Standing

To contest a will in Florida, you file a Petition for Revocation of Probate in the circuit court in the county where the deceased person lived, and you generally have three months from the date you receive the Notice of Administration to do it.¹² To win, you have to prove a specific legal defect: improper signing, lack of mental capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress, or the existence of a later valid will. Disagreement with how the estate was divided is not a ground.

Who Can Bring a Challenge

Only an “interested person” can contest a will in Florida, meaning someone who could reasonably be affected by the outcome.³ In practice that means:

People who would inherit under Florida’s intestacy laws if there were no will, such as a surviving spouse or children.
Beneficiaries named in the current will or a prior valid will. A child written out of the newest will but named in an earlier version has standing to challenge the newer document.²
The personal representative of the estate.

Creditors generally cannot contest a will’s validity, because their claims exist regardless of which will controls distribution.

The Deadlines Are Strict

Two clocks can apply, and missing either one usually ends the case before it starts.

The main deadline runs from the Notice of Administration, which the personal representative sends to known heirs, beneficiaries, and the surviving spouse after probate opens. Once you receive that notice, you have three months to file an objection challenging the will’s validity, the court’s jurisdiction, or the venue. That window cannot be extended for any reason other than a misstatement by the personal representative about the deadline itself. If you miss it, the court will permanently bar your challenge.¹

A shorter clock applies when someone petitions to admit a will to probate and serves you with formal notice under Florida Probate Rule 5.040. In that situation you have 20 days from receiving formal notice to file written defenses, or the court may act on the petition without further notice to you.⁴

The outer boundary in any case is the earlier of the personal representative’s final discharge or one year after the Notice of Administration was served.¹ Treat these dates as non-negotiable. Courts enforce them mechanically.

Grounds You Have to Prove

Florida makes a will void if its execution was procured by fraud, duress, mistake, or undue influence.⁵ A viable contest usually rests on one of five arguments.

Improper execution. Florida requires the person making the will to sign at the end in the presence of at least two witnesses, who must then sign in the presence of the person making the will and each other. Skipping any part of that sequence — a witness who signed in another room, only one witness present — is grounds for challenge.⁶

Lack of mental capacity. The person must be “of sound mind” when signing.⁷ Courts ask whether they understood what property they owned, who their natural heirs were, and what signing the will meant. A diagnosis like dementia or Alzheimer’s does not by itself prove incapacity. The question is whether the person had a lucid understanding at the moment of signing.

Undue influence. Someone in a position of trust manipulated the person so thoroughly that the resulting will reflects the influencer’s wishes rather than the person’s own. Courts look for patterns: isolation from family, control over access, a sudden change in the will that benefits the influencer.

Fraud or duress. The person was deceived about what they were signing (told the document was a power of attorney, for example) or physically threatened into signing.

A later valid will. A more recent will that meets all execution requirements can revoke probate of the earlier one and replace it.

Who Has to Prove What

Florida splits the burden. The person offering the will must first establish that it was properly signed and witnessed. A self-proving affidavit — a notarized statement by the person making the will and the witnesses, usually attached to the will — satisfies that initial burden without live testimony. Once execution is shown, the burden shifts to you, the contestant, to prove your specific ground.⁸

Undue influence claims get special treatment, and this is where many Florida contests are won or lost. If you can show three things — that the alleged influencer received a substantial benefit under the will, that they had a relationship of trust with the person who made it, and that they were actively involved in getting the will prepared or signed — the court presumes undue influence occurred. The full burden of proof then shifts onto the defenders of the will to demonstrate that the will was freely made.⁸ Proving those three elements is often easier than proving the manipulation itself directly.

Filing and What Happens Next

The formal challenge begins when you file a Petition for Revocation of Probate with the circuit court in the county where the deceased lived.² The petition identifies you as an interested person, names the will you are challenging, and states the legal grounds.

After filing, everyone with a stake in the outcome has to be formally notified: named beneficiaries, the personal representative, and any other interested persons. The case then moves into discovery. Attorneys request financial records and medical files, send written questions to be answered under oath, and take depositions of witnesses, caregivers, the estate planning attorney, and the parties themselves.

Discovery decides most cases. Medical records from the months around the will signing often settle capacity claims. For undue influence, the drafting history — who contacted the attorney, who gave the instructions, who drove the person to the signing — tends to be decisive. Many contests settle during or shortly after discovery, once both sides can evaluate the evidence realistically. If no settlement is reached, a judge decides the case at trial.

What Happens to the Estate During the Contest

A contest can take months or years, and the estate does not freeze. The personal representative continues administering it, with one significant restriction: no distributions may be made to beneficiaries that would undercut the rights of the people who would inherit if the contested will were thrown out.² Debts get paid, property is maintained, taxes are filed, investments are managed. Meaningful asset distributions are effectively on hold until the court rules. If the personal representative’s own authority is challenged as part of the contest, the court may appoint a temporary administrator to protect assets during the litigation.

What a Successful Contest Actually Produces

Winning does not automatically send the estate to the next of kin. The outcome depends on what the court invalidates and what other documents exist.

If the court strikes down the most recent will, the next most recent valid will controls distribution. This is the most common result when only the latest revision is under attack.
If there is no prior valid will, the estate is distributed under Florida’s intestacy statute. A surviving spouse’s share depends on family structure: if all descendants are also the spouse’s descendants and the spouse has no other children, the spouse inherits everything; if there are descendants who are not also the spouse’s, the spouse receives half.⁹
Courts can strike only the portions of a will procured by undue influence or fraud, leaving the rest intact. A clause benefiting the influencer might be removed while bequests to other beneficiaries stand.

No-Contest Clauses Do Not Apply in Florida

Some wills include a clause threatening to disinherit anyone who challenges the document, commonly called a no-contest or “in terrorem” clause. In many states these clauses have teeth. Florida is different: any provision purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting a will is unenforceable.¹⁰ You can bring a challenge in Florida without risking whatever you were originally left. Advice from a family member or an out-of-state attorney about a no-contest clause does not apply here.

What a Contest Costs and Who Pays

Contests are expensive, and Florida’s rules are more nuanced than “loser pays.” The court has broad discretion to award costs and attorney fees from the estate and can charge those costs against any person’s share of the estate in whatever proportions it considers fair.¹¹

Judges weigh how actively each party participated, whether their claims or defenses had merit, who prevailed on the key issues, and whether anyone unnecessarily drove up expenses. Fees can be assessed against your share of the estate without any finding of bad faith.¹¹ One protection runs the other direction: if the personal representative or proponent offered the will in good faith, they are entitled to attorney fees from the estate even if probate is ultimately denied or revoked.

Probate litigators in Florida typically bill hourly, and a contested case involves depositions, expert witnesses, document review, and possibly a full trial. Initial court filing fees generally run from a few hundred dollars upward, and the total cost varies widely with the estate’s complexity and how aggressively both sides litigate. Get a realistic cost projection from your attorney before filing and weigh it against what you stand to recover.

If You Are a Surviving Spouse, Consider the Elective Share First

A surviving spouse who has been largely cut out of a will may not need to contest it at all. Florida law guarantees the surviving spouse an “elective share” equal to 30 percent of the elective estate, regardless of what the will says.¹² The elective estate includes not only probate assets but also certain trust assets, joint accounts, and other transfers, so it reaches further than many spouses expect.

Claiming the elective share is a separate legal process, and it is usually faster and more predictable than a contest. You can pursue both, filing a will contest while claiming the elective share as a fallback. If the contest produces more than 30 percent, the elective share becomes unnecessary; if the contest fails, the elective share still guarantees a minimum. When the concern is being left with too little rather than exposing manipulation on principle, the elective share is often the more practical route.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.212 – Notice of Administration; Filing of Objections
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 733.109 – Revocation of Probate
3
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 731.201 – General Definitions
4
The Florida Bar. Florida Probate Rule 5.040 – Notice
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.5165 – Effect of Fraud, Duress, Mistake, and Undue Influence
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.502 – Execution of Wills
7
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.501 – Who May Make a Will
8
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.107 – Burden of Proof in Contests; Presumption of Undue Influence
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 732.102 – Spouse’s Share of Intestate Estate
10
Cornell Law School. In Terrorem Clause
11
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 733.106 – Costs and Attorney Fees
12
Florida Senate. Florida Code 732.2065 – Amount of the Elective Share