When you visit an estate lawyer in Baltimore to have your last will and testament drawn up, you might think that the document is beyond anyone else’s ability to challenge. But in fact, after a person dies, a will may be challenged in court. A disgruntled relative might try to claim that the will isn’t valid, for example. This is why you might want to talk to your estate lawyer about including a no-contest clause in your will.
A no-contest clause cannot definitively prevent anyone from challenging the validity of your will in court. However, it can certainly discourage your heirs from trying to do so. For example, if you leave your child $10,000 and your child feels that he or she should have received more, the presence of a no-contest clause means that if your child contests the validity of the will, he or she will receive nothing. On the other hand, if you entirely disinherit the child, then he or she has nothing to lose by attempting to challenge the validity of the will.
