Do I Have a Strong Case?
A Step-by-Step California Course: Understanding Legal Grounds, Evaluating Evidence, and Making Informed Decisions
$197 | Eight Modules | Self-Paced Online Course
You believe something wasn't right.
Maybe your parent changed their trust shortly before passing away. Maybe one sibling suddenly inherited everything. Or perhaps you believe someone took advantage of your parent when they were vulnerable.
You have questions. You have suspicions. And you may have reasons to believe something went wrong.
But is that enough to bring a case to probate court?
Believing something was wrong and having the evidence to establish a legal claim are two different things.
This course helps you examine your circumstances, understand the legal grounds for contesting a will or trust in California, and begin evaluating the evidence that may support your case.
You'll learn how to look beyond what you believe happened and focus on what you may be able to establish through documents, testimony, and other evidence.
What You'll Learn
This course helps you understand the legal and evidentiary issues involved in contesting a will or trust in California.
You'll learn how to:
- Understand the major stages of a contested probate case, from petition to trial.
- Distinguish between wills and trusts and recognize how those differences may affect your case.
- Understand lack of capacity, undue influence, and financial elder abuse as potential legal grounds.
- Recognize other possible grounds, including fraud, forgery, and duress.
- Identify the types of evidence that may be relevant to different legal claims.
- Organize your documents, information, and questions so you can evaluate your circumstances more systematically.
The goal isn't to convince you that you have a strong case. It's to help you understand what a case requires so you can make a more informed decision about what to do next.
What's Inside the Course?
Module 1: Start Here — Welcome & Course Overview
Get oriented to the course, understand its purpose, and learn how to approach evaluating your own circumstances.
Module 2: The Big Picture — From Petition to Trial
What actually happens after someone files a probate petition?
Explore the major stages of contested probate litigation and develop a clearer picture of the process, from filing a petition through a potential trial.
Understanding the overall process can help you recognize where you are, what may come next, and what pursuing a case could involve.
Module 3: Wills vs. Trusts
A will and a trust are not the same thing, and the differences matter when you're considering a legal challenge.
Learn how these estate-planning documents work, how they differ, and why identifying the document you're challenging is an important part of evaluating your case.
Module 4: Legal Ground — Lack of Capacity and Evidence
Was your parent legally capable of understanding the document they signed?
Learn about the legal requirements for capacity and the types of evidence that may be relevant when someone challenges a will or trust on this ground.
Explore how medical records, witness observations, and circumstances surrounding the signing may help you examine a potential capacity claim.
Module 5: Legal Ground — Undue Influence and Evidence
Did someone improperly influence your parent when they created or changed their estate plan?
Learn about undue influence under California law and the circumstances and evidence that may be relevant to this type of claim.
Explore how relationships, vulnerability, conduct, and the circumstances surrounding an estate-planning decision may factor into the analysis.
Module 6: Legal Ground — Financial Elder Abuse and Evidence
What if you believe someone took advantage of your parent financially?
Learn about financial elder abuse as a potential legal claim and the types of evidence that may help establish whether it occurred.
Explore how financial documents, transactions, and other records may help you examine the circumstances.
Module 7: Other Legal Grounds — Fraud, Forgery, Duress, and More
Not every contested will or trust involves lack of capacity or undue influence.
Explore other potential legal grounds for challenging an estate-planning document, including fraud, forgery, and duress.
Learn why identifying the appropriate legal ground matters when deciding how to proceed.
Module 8: Organizing Your Case
You may have medical records, emails, financial documents, text messages, and years of family history.
But how do you make sense of it all?
Learn how to organize your information, identify potential evidence, and begin connecting the facts of your situation to the legal grounds you've studied.
Bring what you've learned together to develop a clearer picture of your case and the questions you still need to answer.
Who Is This Course For?
This course is designed for individuals considering a challenge to a will or trust in California who want to better understand the legal and evidentiary issues before deciding how to proceed.
It may be particularly helpful if:
- You believe a parent or loved one lacked capacity when signing a will or trust.
- You suspect someone exerted undue influence over an estate-planning decision.
- You have concerns about possible financial elder abuse.
- You were unexpectedly disinherited and want to understand whether you may have legal grounds to challenge the document.
- You're considering representing yourself and want to understand what pursuing a contested probate case may involve.
Not sure whether you meet the basic requirements to bring a probate case?
Start with the free course, Do I Belong in Probate Court?, which introduces standing, filing deadlines, and legal grounds.
Why I Created This Course
When my siblings and I learned that we had been disinherited, we had a lot of questions.
We knew our mother's health had declined. We knew her estate plan had changed. And we knew the circumstances surrounding those changes didn't sit right with us.
But believing something was wrong wasn't enough.
We needed to understand the law. We needed to identify the legal grounds for our petition. And we needed to figure out what evidence might support those claims.
I had to learn the difference between what I suspected, what I knew, and what I could potentially establish in court.
That distinction changed how I approached our case.
I created this course to help others begin that same process: understanding the legal grounds, examining the evidence, and making informed decisions about whether to pursue a challenge.
I'm an educator, not an attorney. I created these lessons from my experience navigating probate litigation as a self-represented petitioner and researching the legal issues involved.
My goal is to help you better understand the process and approach your own circumstances with greater clarity.
— Angelique Hamane
Author of Self-Represented: A Step-by-Step Guide to Contesting a Trust or Will Without a Lawyer
Ready to Get Started?
Educational Disclaimer: This course provides general educational information about California probate law and contested wills and trusts. It does not provide legal advice, establish an attorney-client relationship, or determine whether you have a legally viable case. The strength of any legal claim depends on its specific facts, available evidence, applicable law, and procedural requirements. Consult a qualified California attorney for advice about your particular circumstances.