Do I have the legal right to see my deceased fathers Will?

[palmettomoon]

I suspect she may have had power of attorney To handle their affairs.

Me too and that's too bad. Good luck. I hope you can prove he was not of sound mind when he signed that last will.

 

[keith089]

Can you redo a will if you had brain trauma? It says being in right mind.

 

[GeauxLSU]

If I end up contesting this will, I believe the original will would possibly show a distinct change that would support my position. not to mention, she waited until he was 80 y/o and the brain injury had progressed significantly before she had the Will rewritten.

I really hope this works out in your favor. I'm the type of person that would spend $10,000 to make a $1,000 point. Keep us posted!

 

[gh1950]

My father passed last years, he had been remarried for many years 30ish. I have a brother and sister but neither were close. My father had always told me he was leaving everything to me ( he was not wealthy, but very comfortable.)

He had a car wreck 20 years ago a suffered some brain damage. his wife has been very difficult since the wreck.
she took him to do or reduce their will a few years ago. She also gave all of his possessions to her kids.

We have not spoken since the funeral.

Do i have a right to see his will and also see his previous Will that they recently changed?

There is no love lost between her and I.

If the current will was drawn up by a competent attorney, that will was torn up and destroyed when the new one was signed.

The attorney may have a copy in his file, but you cannot see it.

 

[gh1950]

Can you redo a will if you had brain trauma? It says being in right mind.

The leading case in Georgia involves a plantation owner who went and lived in a log in the woods, and was known to come out at night and howl at the moon.

Because he occasionally had a "glimmer of reason (legal standard)", he was found to have sufficient capacity to execute will.

The stock language is "sound mind" not "right" and one must only have that at the moment of executing the will. Five minutes before and five minutes after, has no bearing.

 

[davans]

If the current will was drawn up by a competent attorney, that will was torn up and destroyed when the new one was signed.

The attorney may have a copy in his file, but you cannot see it.

If the previous Will was a different State/county. Would it still be on file?

 

[gh1950]

If the previous Will was a different State/county. Would it still be on file?

The fancy word for wills is that they are "ambulatory". Meaning they don't become effective or filed until the maker parts this mortal vale - the will is not officially filed until after the death of the maker.

That said, in some rural counties, there was (and may be) an extralegal procedure where the local probate judge would "file" a will for testator, and keep in the judge's vault. This arose because so many country people did not have a way to safe keep documents. So it's possible that in some rural county an original will is in a vault somewhere. That would depend entirely on the local probate judge and his practice. It's a "favor" he does for the local voters.

All that said, being as very few people distribute copies of their will prior to death, absent some happenstance like described in the previous paragraph, it is unlikely that there is a copy of the prior will laying around.

"Best practices" for an attorney is to NOT KEEP a copy of a signed will, just to avoid becoming involved in disputes. An unsigned will has no probative value, and any discussions leading to the creation of the will would be protected by attorney client privilege.

So bottom line is that there may be a copy laying around in someone's file somewhere, but it's not part of any official file where you can go the courthouse and ask for a copy (referring to prior wills). The current will would have to be on file, and a copy should have been served on the heirs, especially if distributions have been set aside.

Also, some inside baseball is, that even if the current will is set aside for some reason, doing so does not automatically validate the prior will. Even if the current will is invalid for some reason, the testator can revoke his prior will in any number of ways, some of which may be inadvertent. In that case, the deceased dies intestate.

If the original prior will cannot be found or produced (with all original signatures), that is strong evidence that the testator revoked it.

 

[davans]

I sure do appreciate all of the info.
I’ll keep you posted.

 

[Bshaw]

My father passed last years, he had been remarried for many years 30ish. I have a brother and sister but neither were close. My father had always told me he was leaving everything to me ( he was not wealthy, but very comfortable.)

He had a car wreck 20 years ago a suffered some brain damage. his wife has been very difficult since the wreck.
she took him to do or reduce their will a few years ago. She also gave all of his possessions to her kids.

We have not spoken since the funeral.

Do i have a right to see his will and also see his previous Will that they recently changed?

There is no love lost between her and I.

Should be recorded in county of death.

 

[davans]

Update,
I was able to get a copy of the Birth Certificat, anyone can do this in their own probate court.

There is no Will on file in the county he lived in when he passed or the other Counties he lived in Previously.

I am certain he has one and may know who the attorney is.
Would he be obligated to share it?
Is his wife obligated to share it?

Do I have to wait until she dies?

How do I find out what’s in it?

Seems to me that I have a right to at least know what’s in it.
Options from here?