You can contest a will in Colorado after probate starts, but there’s a catch. You need to act fast because the law gives you a very limited window to raise objections once the probate process begins, and if you miss those deadlines, you’ll lose your right to challenge the will entirely.

Who Can Challenge A Will

Not just anyone can walk into court and contest a will. You need what’s called “interested party” status under Colorado law. That typically means you’re either named in the will, you’d inherit under Colorado’s intestate succession laws if there weren’t a will, or you were named in a previous version of the will but got removed or reduced. Common interested parties include:

Surviving spouses
Children and grandchildren
Parents or siblings of the deceased
Previous beneficiaries who were removed or reduced in later versions
Creditors in specific situations

If you don’t fall into one of these categories, the court’s going to dismiss your challenge before you even get started. Standing matters, and the court won’t waste time on objections from people who have no legal stake in the outcome.

Valid Grounds For Contesting A Will

You can’t contest a will just because you’re unhappy with what you received. Colorado law requires legally recognized grounds, and “I deserved more” doesn’t qualify. The most common reason is a lack of testamentary capacity. This means the person who made the will didn’t actually understand what they were doing when they signed it. Dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other cognitive impairments often play a role here. If your father signed a will during the late stages of dementia, that’s potentially grounds for a challenge. Undue influence is another frequent basis for contesting a will. This happens when someone in a position of power or trust manipulates the person into changing their will in ways they wouldn’t have chosen on their own. Caregivers who isolate the deceased from family members often face these accusations. So do new spouses who suddenly appear and convince an elderly person to disinherit their children. Fraud, forgery, or improper execution also provide grounds for a challenge. Colorado has specific requirements for how wills must be signed and witnessed, and if those weren’t followed correctly, the will might be invalid. Working with a probate lawyer in Fort Collins can help you figure out whether your situation actually qualifies under the law.

Time Limits Matter

Here’s where things get serious. Colorado gives you a relatively short window to contest a will. According to Colorado Revised Statutes Section 15-12-108, you generally have four months from the date the court admits the will to probate to file your objection. In some cases involving fraud or mistake, you might have up to three years, but you shouldn’t count on the longer timeline. Once you miss these deadlines, your ability to challenge the will disappears. Courts take these time limits seriously. They rarely grant extensions, even if you’ve got a compelling reason for being late.

What The Process Involves

Contesting a will means filing a formal objection with the probate court. You’ll need to state your specific grounds and provide actual evidence supporting your claims. This isn’t something you can handle with a simple letter or phone call. The process requires legal filings, potential depositions, document discovery, and possibly a full trial. The burden of proof falls squarely on you as the challenger. You need to present convincing evidence that something was genuinely wrong with how the will was created or executed. Medical records become important. So do witness testimonies, handwriting analysis, and financial documents showing suspicious transfers or changes right before the will was signed. A probate lawyer in Fort Collins can evaluate the strength of your case before you invest significant time and money into a challenge. Many will contests actually settle before trial, particularly when the evidence clearly supports one side and continuing becomes too expensive or risky for the other.

Costs And Consequences

Challenging a will can get expensive fast. You’re looking at attorney fees, court costs, and potentially expert witness fees if you need medical professionals or forensic document examiners to testify. These cases can drag on for months or even years, during which time the estate remains in limbo, and assets can’t be distributed to anyone. If you lose, you might be responsible for the estate’s legal fees in addition to your own. That can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. Some wills also include “no contest” clauses that automatically disinherit anyone who challenges the will and loses. Colorado enforces these clauses in most situations, so you’re taking a real financial risk.

Getting Help With A Will Challenge

If you believe you’ve got legitimate grounds to contest a will, time isn’t on your side. The clock’s already ticking. W.B. Moore Law can review your situation, explain your options honestly, and help you understand whether pursuing a challenge actually makes sense for your specific circumstances. Sometimes the right answer is to move forward with a challenge. Sometimes it’s not. The right legal guidance can make the difference between a successful challenge and a costly mistake that leaves you worse off than when you started.