Objecting to a Will: When You Can Object and How It Works
Who may object to a will, the four main grounds, the deadline for filing, what happens once an objection is lodged, and why home-made wills are vulnerable.
Not everyone disappointed by the contents of a will can have it set aside. There are specific legal grounds that have to be proved. That said, where the grounds genuinely exist, anyone with an interest in the estate has the right to file a formal objection.
Who May File an Objection
Anyone with a genuine interest in the estate: an heir under the law, a person who was a beneficiary under an earlier will, or any other interested party. The objection is filed within the window that opens when the public notice of the application for the order is published.
The Main Grounds for Objection
Lack of capacity: the testator was not legally competent to make a will at the time it was made, for example because of their cognitive condition at that time
Undue influence: someone exploited their position, or the testator's dependence on them, in order to influence the contents of the will improperly
Fraud or forgery: the will, or parts of it, do not reflect the testator's true wishes
A defect in the process of making the will: failure to meet the formal requirements of the relevant type of will, for example incompetent witnesses to a will before witnesses
What Happens Once an Objection Is Filed
The moment a formal objection is filed with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs, the Registrar loses the power to decide. The entire file, both the original application and the objection, is transferred to the Family Court, where it proceeds as a full-fledged action, including the hearing of evidence and witnesses.
A Person Who Took Part in Making the Will, and Their Spouse
This is one of the points on which home-made wills most often fail, and it is broader than people tend to think. A provision in a will that benefits the person who drafted it, a person who witnessed its making, or a person who otherwise took part in making it, and likewise a provision benefiting the spouse of any of these, is void. In other words, it is not only a witness who benefits under the will: a son who typed up the will for his father and left something in it to his wife falls within the rule as well. The defective provision is void, and usually the rest of the will remains in force. The rule does not apply to an oral will.
FAQ
The period stated in the public notice is usually 14 days, and the Law provides that it shall not be less than two weeks. In practice an objection may be filed as long as the order has not yet been issued, and even after it has been issued there is a separate route of applying to amend or set the order aside. That said, the longer you wait the heavier the burden becomes, so anyone considering an objection needs to act quickly.
Yes. You can challenge only a particular provision in the will, for example on the ground that it was added as a result of undue influence, rather than the will as a whole. The invalidity of one provision does not necessarily invalidate the rest of the will, and that depends on the ground and the circumstances.
An objection concerns the legal validity of the will itself. In certain cases separate causes of action may accompany it, for example against someone who acted in bad faith or misappropriated the deceased's property during their lifetime. These are separate questions that require their own legal examination, and they proceed along a different track.
If you are dealing with a similar situation and would like to review the specifics of your own case, you are welcome to contact me by phone at 054-4417869 or by email at leon@sverdlov.co.il.
The content of this guide is general information only, intended to explain the legal background in accessible language. It does not constitute legal advice and is not a substitute for individual legal advice that takes the circumstances of the particular case into account. Nothing set out here should be relied upon for the purpose of making decisions or taking action. The law, the case law, the amounts and the deadlines may change from time to time, and every case is judged on its own facts. © All rights in the content of this guide, including its wording, its structure and its editing, are reserved to the Law Office of Leon Sverdlov. The content may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, published, translated or used for commercial purposes, in whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the firm.
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