That's shocking, Ricci. I am so sorry that happened to you. My half-sister robbed our mother and threatened her safety, but still managed to successfully challenge the Will despite having no genuine needs and having inherited heaps from her father (while I got nothing from either my father or step-father). The system is so hideously wrong. But I have written to the Attorney General expressing my concerns and all I get back is justifications. The truth is the system is designed to put money in lawyers' pockets. It's all about money for the profession.We are constantly admonished to write a Will, that dying without, no-one knows what the deceased wanted. So you go see a lawyer and get a Will written up, spending hundreds of dollars. Then you die and the Will gets contested because someone thinks that it should be different.
So why spend the hundreds of dollars if your wishes mean nothing!
My husband wrote three Wills during our marriage, with a lawyer who knew my husband and his family well, each and every time stating the same. Two out of his nine children were mentioned as not getting anything - his reasoning - you want nothing to do with me while I'm alive, I want nothing to do with you when I'm dead. His Will was very clear and concise and detailed letters accompanied the Will as well as End of Life wishes and Power of Attorney.
My husband died and for 18 months it went back and forth through the lawyers. Our house which had been on the market for two years sold a week after his death and I decided to go through with the sale. The children contacted my lawyer - they must have contacted every lawyer in town to find which lawyer I used! - and put a halt on the sale! The house was in my name only and had been so for many years. But my lawyer let the sale go through but then kept the proceeds for whatever the outcome may be. (The injunction was to go through the day before the finalization of sale!)
What was especially sad was the way all the children - including the two that had been excluded, would say about their father. The lies were astonishing. And also how they degraded him as a man. While he was alive they couldn't praise his father skills and looked up to him. His death hit them really hard. But it didn't take long for them to change. My husband was up front about what was in his Will, and all of them agreed with him verbally - but once he was gone, it changed to the total opposite.
In the end the whole procedure cost me about $100,000. The children got nothing except for a few possessions. I'm still paying off the new house I purchased and will be for many years to come, but which should have been paid off with the old house. But after paying rent for almost two years and not being able to save being on a pension means I am struggling today and am seriously considering selling my current house and living in a caravan.
It is unbelievable that in a country like Australia where everyone thinks we live in a great country that contesting a Will which states a person's wishes can degrade the benefactor to the point where even four years after the death of a beloved spouse life is so very difficult.