California Will Contest Deadline

Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In California, you have 120 days to contest a will that has already been admitted to probate, running from the date the will is admitted to probate.

How long do you have to contest a will in California?

“Within 120 days after a will is admitted to probate, any interested person…may petition the court to revoke the probate of the will.”

Source: Cal. Prob. Code § 8270

What makes California different

California’s 120-day window is treated as strictly jurisdictional; courts have no discretion to hear a late contest from an ordinary adult, though a minor or incompetent person who had no guardian at the time of admission can contest at any time before the estate’s final distribution. The controlling authority is Cal. Prob. Code § 8270, and the window runs from the date the will is admitted to probate.

What happens once this deadline passes?

Once the window above closes, California’s probate of the will generally becomes final and binding on everyone who had the chance to object, subject only to the tolling or discovery exceptions described above; a separate objection California allowed at the original probate hearing does not reopen or extend it.

Sources

Every statute or rule quoted on this California page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/court/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; whether a specific contest is still timely can turn on facts (exactly when notice was given, how the will was probated, whether a disability applies) that only your own California probate court file can confirm.