A will contest is a lawsuit asking a Bexar County probate judge to refuse to admit a will, or to set aside an order admitting it, because of how the will was made or the mental state of the person who signed it. An unfair will is not enough. Whether you have a case depends on your evidence, a deadline that runs from a specific date, and sometimes a clause in the will meant to discourage challenges.
Estates Code 256.204(a) gives you until the second anniversary of the date the will was admitted to probate. The clock runs from the date the court signed the order admitting the will, not from the date of death or the date you learned what the will said.
If the ground is forgery or other fraud, the two years run instead from the date it was discovered. Section 256.204(b) gives an incapacitated person two years from removal of that disability.
Estates Code 256.204(a), (b).
Two years goes by faster than people expect. Witnesses move, medical and financial records are destroyed on routine schedules, and a drafting lawyer’s file may not survive the lawyer’s retirement.
Most families start with a sense that the will is not what their parent would have done. That concern has to fit a legal ground, because the ground determines what evidence you need.
| Ground | What has to be shown | What usually decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of testamentary capacity | That on the day of signing, the person did not understand what they owned, who their family was, or what the document was doing. | Records from the weeks either side of the signing, the drafting lawyer’s notes, and people who spoke with the testator that month. A diagnosis alone rarely carries it. |
| Undue influence | That someone else’s pressure took the place of the testator’s own choice. Persuasion and pleading alone are not undue influence. | Who found the lawyer, who paid, who drove, who sat in the room, how isolated the testator was, and how far the will departs from earlier ones. |
| Forgery | That the signature on the instrument is not the decedent’s. | The original rather than a copy, handwriting exemplars from the right years, and what the witnesses and notary say under oath. |
| Fraud | That the will reflects a lie told to the testator: that a child was dead, had stolen, or refused to visit. | The paper trail of what was said and by whom, and the reasons the testator gave others. |
| Defective execution | That the will was not signed and witnessed the way Texas requires. | The face of the document, the self-proving affidavit, and whether the witnesses signed in each other’s presence. |
| Revocation | That the will offered was cancelled, by a later instrument or an act of destruction. | Whether a later signed document exists, who held the original, and why it cannot be produced. |
The grounds overlap, and a contest often raises more than one. Who carries the burden of proof depends on whether the contest is filed before or after the will is admitted.
Only an interested person has standing to contest a will, such as someone who would inherit if the will fell, someone named in an earlier will, or a creditor of the estate. A disinherited child usually qualifies. A nephew who is not an heir and appears in no version does not.
Expect the other side to challenge standing early. It is an inexpensive motion that can end a case before the merits are reached.
Many wills include an in terrorem clause, also called a no contest or forfeiture clause: a beneficiary who challenges the will gives up whatever it left them. These clauses are meant to discourage beneficiaries who received something from challenging the will.
Texas does not enforce these clauses in every circumstance, but the analysis turns on the wording of the clause and the facts behind your challenge. Before filing, compare what the will gives you, what you would receive if the contest succeeds, and what the case will cost.
Setting aside the newest will does not send the estate to the heirs by intestacy on its own. If a prior will exists, someone will offer it, and you have a second proceeding about whether that one stands. The earlier will may leave you better or worse off than intestacy would. Read every version in order, because the pattern of changes is often the best evidence of undue influence.
Under the Bexar County probate courts’ local rules, approved September 25, 2026, Rule 6.1(a) provides that filing a contest or written opposition to any application makes the matter contested. No separate ruling is needed. The court may then set a scheduling conference, where discovery and trial dates are set.
Bexar County has three statutory probate courts under Gov’t Code 25.0171(c): Court No. 1 with Judge Oscar J. Kazen, Court No. 2 with Judge Veronica Vasquez, and Court No. 3 with Judge Barbie Scharf-Zeldes, all at 100 Dolorosa. Apart from mental health matters, which go to Court No. 1, cases are assigned among the three courts when filed, so you do not choose your judge.
Estates Code 55.002 says that in a contested probate proceeding in a probate court, a party is entitled to a jury trial as in other civil actions. Capacity and undue influence are fact questions juries regularly decide, and the possibility of a jury affects how both sides value a case.
Bexar County has two deadlines for this. Local Rule 6.3(a) requires the jury demand and fee at least 30 days before the non-jury trial setting. Rule 6.3(b) requires proposed jury questions and instructions to the court and opposing counsel at least seven days before trial. Draft them early, because the questions the jury answers define what you must prove.
Estates Code 55.002; Bexar County Local Rules 6.3(a), 6.3(b).
KREIG San Antonio is a probate litigation practice. We do not take routine uncontested probate administration, muniment of title, small estate affidavits, or affidavits of heirship, Another firm can handle that work for less. If a will is going to be challenged, call us.
The two-year deadline started the day the will was admitted. The sooner we review the order, the more options you will have.
The first consultation is short and free.