How Do I Prepare and File My Probate Petition?

A Step-by-Step California Course: From Organizing Your Case to Filing and Serving Your Petition

COMING SOON | Self-Paced Online Course

You've decided to challenge a will or trust.

You believe you have legal grounds. You've started gathering evidence. And now you're facing a question that may feel overwhelming:

How do I actually prepare a probate petition?

Maybe you've searched online for examples but aren't sure which ones apply to your situation. Maybe you've found court forms but don't know what information belongs in them.

Or perhaps you've started writing your petition and realized that knowing what happened and explaining it in a legal document are two very different things.

This course is designed to help you understand how to turn the facts of your case into a structured probate petition.

You'll learn how to organize your information, understand the parts of a petition, identify the legal grounds and relief you're seeking, and navigate the process of preparing, filing, and serving your petition in California.

The course will be released in parts so you can focus on one stage of the process at a time.

What You'll Learn

This course will guide you through the process of preparing and filing a probate petition in California.

You'll learn how to:

Identify the essential components of a California probate petition and explain the purpose of each section.
Organize the facts and evidence relevant to your legal claims.
Identify the information that belongs in each section of your petition.
Understand how legal grounds and supporting facts fit together.
Prepare and organize supporting exhibits.
Review your petition for completeness before filing.
Understand the filing and service process.

The goal is to help you approach each stage with a clearer understanding of what you're preparing, why it matters, and what comes next.

How the Course Is Organized

Preparing a probate petition involves several steps, and trying to understand everything at once can feel overwhelming.

That's why I've organized this course into manageable parts, each focusing on a different stage of the process.

You'll work through instructional videos, examples, and companion materials as you learn how to prepare, organize, file, and serve your petition.

The entire course will be available upon enrollment, so you can work through the lessons at your own pace and revisit them whenever you need to.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for individuals preparing to file a petition challenging a will or trust in California, particularly those considering representing themselves.

It may be helpful if you've already identified potential legal grounds for your challenge, have begun gathering evidence, and want to understand how to prepare the documents needed to initiate your case.

Still deciding whether you have grounds to challenge a will or trust?

Start with Do I Have a Strong Case?, which explores legal grounds, evidence, and the considerations involved in deciding whether to pursue a probate case.

[EXPLORE: DO I HAVE A STRONG CASE?]

Why I Created This Course

When my siblings and I decided to challenge our mother's trust, I had to figure out how to prepare our petition.

I wasn't an attorney. I didn't know how to structure a legal document or what information the court expected to see.

I knew what had happened in our family. I knew why we believed the trust should be challenged.

But I had to learn how to translate those experiences into facts, legal grounds, and requests for relief.

And I had to learn how to navigate the filing process.

As an educator, I approached the problem the way I approach teaching: break a complicated process into smaller pieces, understand each piece, and then put them together.

That's the approach I'm bringing to this course.

I'm an educator, not an attorney. My goal is to share what I've learned and help other self-represented individuals better understand the process of preparing and filing a probate petition.

— Angelique Hamane

Author of Self-Represented: A Step-by-Step Guide to Contesting a Trust or Will Without a Lawyer