Wills and Estate Dispute Lawyers in Melbourne

Left out of a will, or watching an executor stall? You have six months

Someone has died. The will reads wrong, the executor has gone quiet, or a sibling has helped themselves to the house before probate. You feel sick about fighting over money at a funeral. You also know that if you do nothing, the deadline runs out and the wrong outcome becomes permanent.

In Victoria, the clock for a family provision claim is six months from the grant of probate. The Supreme Court rarely extends it, and an extension is worth little once the estate has been paid out. Most of the advice online was written for other states, so check your dates against contesting a will in Victoria before you assume you still have time. If probate has just come through, this page is the one to read.

If you are inside that window, call MK Law Group on 1800 130 120 today. The first call is free and confidential.

A will dispute is not really a fight about money. It is a fight about being seen. The estates that settle cleanly are the ones where a lawyer reads the will, the deadline and the family history early, then writes a claim the other side cannot ignore. The estates that bleed dry in fees are the ones where everyone waited and hoped it would sort itself out.

Contesting a will, or challenging it: two different fights

People use “contest” and “challenge” as if they mean the same thing. In a Melbourne estate dispute they point at two very different claims, and the one you run decides the evidence you need.

Contesting a will accepts that the document is valid. You are not saying the will is fake. You are saying it failed to adequately provide for you, and you ask the Supreme Court of Victoria to redistribute the estate in your favour through a family provision claim. This is by far the most common type of will dispute we run.

Challenging a will attacks the validity of the document itself. If the will is set aside, an earlier will revives, or the estate passes under the intestacy rules. The grounds are narrower and the evidence is heavier, but a successful challenge changes everything.

We assess both routes on the first call, because some matters are clearly one or the other, and some can be run as either.

Contesting a will under Part IV

A Part IV claim under the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) is the workhorse of will disputes in Victoria. The argument is not that the will is invalid. The argument is that the deceased had a moral duty to make proper provision for you, and the will failed to do it.

The court looks at the size of the estate, your relationship with the deceased, what you received under the will, your financial position, your age and health, the position of other beneficiaries, and any conduct that disqualifies you. An adult child with their own home and a good income faces a steeper climb than a dependent child or a long-term partner. That said, plenty of successful claims come from adult children where the estate is large and the exclusion was driven by a falling-out the parent never resolved.

If you think you have been left out unfairly, our contesting a will page walks through eligibility in detail, and our family provision claims page sets out the tests the court applies.

How a family provision claim actually runs

Most matters start with one document: the will that left you out, or left you far less than you were promised. We read it on the first call and tell you whether you are an eligible person, how strong the claim looks against the estate, and how much time is left on the six-month clock. If there is a claim, we collect the will and the grant of probate, map the next steps, and aim to resolve it at mediation. By the end of the call you have a written view, or an honest reason we would not run it.

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Who is an eligible person

You cannot bring a family provision claim simply because you feel hard done by. You have to be an eligible person under Part IV. The main categories are a current or former spouse or domestic partner, a child of the deceased (including an adult child, a stepchild or an assumed child in defined circumstances), a registered caring partner, a grandchild who was dependent on the deceased, and a member of the deceased’s household who was wholly or partly dependent. Stepchildren and grandchildren sit in the harder categories and usually have to prove dependency. If you are not sure whether you qualify, that is exactly what the free first call is for.

Challenging the validity of a will

Where the problem is the will itself, not the size of your share, the claim is a challenge to validity. The common grounds in Victoria are:

Lack of testamentary capacity. The will-maker did not have the mental capacity to understand they were making a will, the extent of their estate, or the claims of those they should provide for. Wills signed during advanced dementia, serious illness or heavy medication are the usual flashpoints, and medical records carry real weight.

Undue influence. The will-maker was pressured into a will that did not reflect their true wishes. This is one of the hardest grounds to prove, because it needs more than a suspicious result. It needs evidence of coercion that overbore the will-maker’s own judgment.

Fraud or forgery. The will, or a signature on it, was forged, or the will-maker was deceived about what they were signing.

Improper execution. The will failed the formal signing and witnessing requirements of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic). A homemade will that was not properly witnessed is a frequent example.

Suspicious circumstances around the making of a will, a sudden change late in life, an isolated will-maker, a new beneficiary who arranged the appointment, can shift the practical burden onto the people propounding the will. Where capacity or undue influence is genuinely in doubt, the matter is run as estate litigation in the Supreme Court.

Family provision claims, in plain English

A family provision claim asks the Supreme Court of Victoria to order that you receive a share, or a bigger share, of the estate. It is not about overturning the will. It is about adjusting the distribution where the will failed to provide adequately for someone the deceased had a responsibility to look after.

Typical outcomes range from a lump sum, to a life interest in a property, to a percentage of the residue. The exact figure depends on the estate’s value, the size of any existing gift in the will, and what other eligible claimants are entitled to. Most matters settle at mediation before a hearing date is reached.

If you are an executor or a named beneficiary on the other side of one of these claims, you also need advice. Defending a claim badly is how estates get bled dry in legal fees.

Defending an estate against a claim

If you are the executor, you are the one served with the originating motion, and you carry the duty to defend the estate even if you personally agree with the claim. Get advice early. The right defence often involves a frank assessment of the claim’s strength, an early mediation, and a settlement that protects the bulk of the estate for the residual beneficiaries.

If you are a beneficiary watching the executor handle a claim, you have the right to be heard. We act for beneficiaries who want to push back on a soft settlement or, just as often, who want to encourage one to stop costs running.

Estate litigation, run by people who file in this court

The Supreme Court of Victoria holds the probate jurisdiction, and that is where family provision claims, executor removals, validity challenges and trustee disputes are decided. We file, mediate and run hearings in this court. We are not generalists who dabble in estate litigation between conveyancing files. If your matter goes the distance, you want a lawyer who knows how this court runs a contested probate list and who prepares every file as if a judge will read it.

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Executor disputes

Executors carry real duties. They have to identify estate assets, pay debts, lodge tax returns, distribute the estate in line with the will, and account to the beneficiaries. When they fail at any of these, beneficiaries can apply to the Supreme Court of Victoria for orders.

The remedies include an order for accounts, an order for delivery up of estate property, the removal and replacement of the executor, and personal cost orders against an executor who has caused loss. We also act for executors being attacked unfairly. Plenty of well-meaning executors get accused of misconduct simply because they took too long to communicate. Our executor disputes page covers the common flashpoints.

Probate, and why it matters here

Probate is the Supreme Court’s grant confirming that a will is valid and that the executor has authority to deal with the estate. Where the deceased left no will, the equivalent grant is letters of administration. Without one or the other, banks, share registries and land titles offices will not release assets above modest limits.

Probate also starts the family provision clock. A contested grant, where a competing will surfaces or where testamentary capacity is doubtful, can delay the whole estate by months. We handle straightforward grants and litigate contested grants in the Supreme Court. Our probate lawyers page has more detail.

Estate litigation in the Supreme Court of Victoria

The Supreme Court holds the probate jurisdiction in Victoria. Family provision claims, executor removal applications, claims to set aside a will for lack of testamentary capacity or undue influence, claims against attorneys under powers of attorney, and trustee disputes under the Trustee Act 1958 (Vic) all sit there. Many matters resolve at compulsory mediation. The ones that do not are decided by a judge after a hearing that usually runs two to five days.

We file, mediate and run trials in this court. If your file goes the distance, you want a lawyer who has stood in this list before. Our estate litigation page covers how a contested estate matter is run from filing to judgment.

Digital assets in estates

Crypto wallets, cloud storage, photo libraries, loyalty points, online businesses and social-media accounts now sit alongside houses and shares as estate assets. Executors who ignore them lose value. Heirs who ignore them lose memories. We help executors identify, secure and pass on digital assets in a deceased estate, working within the will and the terms of service of each platform. It is a small but growing slice of what we do, and the only part of an estate that can vanish while you wait for the grant.

What it costs

The first call is free. The early work is contained: we collect the will and the grant of probate, then advise you on whether you are eligible and how the claim looks. From there it depends on how far the matter runs, and most claims settle at mediation rather than reaching a contested hearing. Where a claim succeeds, the Supreme Court will often order the estate to pay reasonable costs for the claimant as well as the executor. We go through the cost risk with you at the start, while you can still decide not to run. Most callers also want to know how fast we can begin and what happens on that first call, both of which we answer in our frequently asked questions.

Talk to a Melbourne wills dispute lawyer today

This was never really about the money. You are trying to put right something that feels deeply wrong, on a deadline you did not ask for. We get that, and we move quickly.

Call 1800 130 120 or use the form on this page. We answer evenings and weekends for new estate matters because we know how the six-month rule works. If your dispute reaches into property or family-law territory, our property dispute lawyers and family lawyers work alongside the estates team, and you can see the full range on our civil lawyers Melbourne hub.