Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog
A family member who has been left out of a will often focuses first on why the document says what it says, and whether the person who signed it was pressured or confused. Those are the grounds, and they are the second question. The two that come before them are narrower and decide whether a court reaches the grounds at all. Who is permitted to bring the challenge, and how long they have to bring it.
Both answers sit in the Texas Estates Code. Contesting a will in Texas requires an interested person, a defined term rather than a description of how someone feels about the outcome, and the challenge has to be filed inside a limitations period that runs from a specific event. A contest with strong grounds and no standing does not proceed, and neither does one filed too late. McCulloch & Miller handles probate matters for families in Dallas, Houston, and across Texas.
Who Has Standing When Contesting a Will in Texas
Standing in a Texas will contest belongs to an interested person, which Texas Estates Code § 22.018 defines as an heir, devisee, spouse, creditor, or any other person having a property right in or claim against an estate being administered, and additionally anyone interested in the welfare of an incapacitated person, including a minor.
The common thread in the first category is a property right or a claim. A person who stands to gain or lose financially depending on whether the will is upheld can qualify. A person with only a moral or emotional stake generally cannot, however close the relationship was.
That distinction disposes of several situations quickly. A longtime friend promised something verbally, a caregiver told a bequest was coming, and an adult child of a living parent all tend to struggle on standing rather than on the merits, because none holds the interest the statute describes.
A Disinherited Child Is Still an Heir
The provision that answers the most common version of this question is the definition of heir. Under § 22.015, an heir is a person entitled under the statutes of descent and distribution to a part of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate, and the term includes the surviving spouse.
The test looks to intestacy, not to the will. A child written out of a parent’s will is still someone who would inherit if there were no valid will, so that child remains an heir under § 22.015 and an interested person under § 22.018. Being disinherited is the injury, and it is also the source of the standing to complain about it.
The same logic reaches further out in some families. A sibling, a niece or nephew, or a more distant relative may qualify where the intestacy statutes would reach them, which depends on who else survived the decedent. Someone who would take nothing in intestacy and takes nothing under the will has no financial stake either way and may have no standing.
The Two-Year Deadline Runs From the Probate Order
The limitations period appears in Texas Estates Code § 256.204(a). After a will is admitted to probate, an interested person may commence a suit to contest its validity not later than the second anniversary of the date the will was admitted to probate.
Two features of that sentence are worth pausing on. The clock starts when the will is admitted, not when the person died and not when the family learned what the will said. And the deadline is an outside limit rather than a target, because evidence about capacity and influence tends to get harder to gather as witnesses become unavailable and memories fade.
Section 256.204(b) adds an accommodation for one group. An incapacitated person may commence the contest on or before the second anniversary of the date that person’s disabilities are removed, so a minor or an incapacitated adult is not cut off by a period that ran while they could not act.
Fraud and Forgery Run From Discovery Instead
Section 256.204(a) contains a second period inside the same sentence, and collapsing the two is a serious error. An interested person may commence a suit to cancel a will for forgery or other fraud not later than the second anniversary of the date the forgery or fraud was discovered.
That period runs from discovery rather than from the probate order. A forged signature found four years after a will was admitted may still support a timely suit, because the two years began when the forgery came to light. The general period would have expired; this one had not started.
The carve-out is narrow, and it reaches forgery and other fraud rather than every objection to a will. A claim that the person who signed lacked capacity, or was unduly influenced, generally sits under the general period measured from the probate order. Which characterization applies to a particular set of facts can decide whether the case is viable, and it is worth analyzing early rather than assuming the discovery rule is available.
Where a Dallas County Will Contest Is Filed
Dallas County has three statutory probate courts, and a contest is ordinarily filed in the court where the will was admitted rather than opened somewhere new. Harris County has five, and the surrounding counties handle probate matters through county courts at law.
Practically, that means the file already exists and the contest joins it rather than restarting the Texas probate process. Obtaining the probate file early is usually the first substantive step, because the order admitting the will carries the date the two-year period runs from, and the application and any self-proving affidavit show who was notified and what was represented to the court.
McCulloch & Miller reviews these files for families deciding whether a challenge is worth bringing. The grounds themselves, including undue influence, capacity at the time of signing, and the effect of a no-contest clause, are covered separately in the firm’s writing on those subjects, and each carries its own evidentiary demands once standing and timing are cleared.
Common Questions About Texas Will Contests
Can a Beneficiary Under the Will Also Contest It?
Potentially, where that person would receive more under an earlier will or under intestacy. A devisee is expressly within § 22.018, so the question is usually whether the challenge would improve that person’s position rather than whether they may bring it at all.
Does a No-Contest Clause Prevent a Challenge?
A no-contest clause does not remove standing, and Texas law limits when such a clause can be enforced. It does create real risk for a beneficiary who challenges and loses, since the clause may forfeit what that person was left. Weighing that exposure against the potential recovery is part of deciding whether to file.
What If the Will Was Never Admitted to Probate?
Section 256.204 measures its general period from the date a will was admitted, so a document that has not been offered sits in a different posture. Objections may be raised when the application is heard rather than through a later contest suit, which is one reason monitoring whether an application has been filed can be worthwhile.
Reviewing a Possible Will Contest in Dallas
Standing and timing decide whether the rest of a will contest ever gets heard, and both can be assessed from the probate file before anyone commits to litigation. McCulloch & Miller helps families in Dallas and across Texas determine whether a challenge is available and what the realistic options are. To have a probate file reviewed, contact McCulloch & Miller or call (713) 333-8900.