When a will or an estate is not right.

Grounds to challenge a will in Kentucky

• Lack of testamentary capacity. The person did not understand what they owned, who their family was or what the document did when they signed it. Dementia, medication and end-of-life illness are the usual contexts.
• Undue influence. Someone in a position of trust, often a caregiver, a new companion or one child among several, pressured or manipulated the person into a will that benefits them. Kentucky courts look at the relationship, the opportunity, the change from prior plans and the circumstances of the signing.
• Improper execution. Missing witnesses, witnesses who did not sign in the testator's presence, or a document that was never actually signed.
• Fraud or forgery.
• Revocation. A later will, or a physical act of destroying the will, that the person offering it does not mention.

Claims against executors, administrators and trustees

A personal representative or trustee owes fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries: loyalty, prudence, full accounting and impartiality. When one sells the house to a friend below value, uses estate funds for personal expenses, delays for years or refuses to provide an accounting, beneficiaries can ask the court to compel an accounting, surcharge the fiduciary for losses and remove them. Justin brings those claims, and he also defends executors who are being accused unfairly by a beneficiary who simply disagrees with the will.

Disputes that do not involve the will

Many estate fights are about what happened before death: joint accounts that were "supposed to be" for convenience but passed to one child by survivorship, deeds signed in the final months, beneficiary designations changed on a laptop, powers of attorney used to move money. Kentucky law allows those transactions to be challenged and, in the right case, undone.

How Justin approaches an estate dispute

These cases are about families, and most of them can be resolved without a trial if someone competent gets involved early. Justin gathers the medical records, the financial records and the prior estate documents, assesses the claim honestly and opens a conversation with the other side. Mediation resolves many. When it does not, the case is litigated in Jefferson Circuit Court or the appropriate court, and Justin's trial experience is what makes settlement possible.

Defending a will or an executor

Justin also represents beneficiaries and personal representatives defending a valid will against a disappointed relative, and executors accused of wrongdoing by a beneficiary who mistakes disagreement for misconduct. A well-drafted, properly executed will with a self-proving affidavit is the best defense, which is why Gooch Law prepares them that way.