Probate Law

[kwirl]

I've been doing some research online and at the local law library, but I don't have any experience with probate law, so I'm gonna toss out some details and see if anyone bites the hook.

A friend is in a problematic situation regarding her inheritance, and she asked me to look and see if I could find out if retaining a lawyer would be a feasible option.

The situation, which I suppose is relevant to understand my question, is as follows;

Her grandmother passed away, leaving a sizeable inheritance. With regards to intestate succession, her husband was deceased, of her two children one daughter had also passed away, but her surviving daughter is contesting the will against the deceased daughter's son. (Did that make as much sense as I tried to make?)

The problem is that during the grandmother's later years, her surviving daughter lived in Chicago, which is a sizable distance, and so her basic needs were being overlooked by her grandson (The son of the deceased daughter). The will contest is being considered because they believe that while he was taking care of the grandmother, he convinced her that the surviving daughter was being negligent by preventing her access to communicate or contribute to her welfare.

From what research I've found, since a compromise between the two parties is not possible, the two options available to the daughter would either be a will contest, which would be a major pain, since the burden of proof for undue influence in this case might not be very abundant; or two nullify the will itself on technicalities, as intestate succession would presumably restore the daughter's share of the estate.

What sort of technicalities in a will would allow a judge to reconsider the validity of its contents?

[Corth]

If there is actually a substantial amount of money at stake then she would be a fool not to lay down a couple hundred bucks for a consultation with an attorney who has a lot of experience litigating these types of matters.

[kwirl]

Its about 200 thousand dollars inheritance with maybe 5 surviving family members, she just asked me to find out what i could, since i like research a lot. i've been scouring the law library, internet resources, and publicly available court records, for me its sort of a personal challenge. I love spending hours scouring for information, i wish there was a job that paid me to just find things lol

[Corth]

It might be interesting to look into it, but trust me its worth a couple hundred bucks for her to consult an expert.