Estate litigation should be avoided if at all possible.  However, there are many situations that can lead to court action after a person’s death. Your case may involve fraud, a lost will, an unsigned will, conflicting copies of a will, or even a simple typographical error on a will that could be interpreted multiple ways. An estate might be insolvent, which means it lacks the money to pay the decedent’s creditors.  You could have a disagreement over how the decedent’s property was managed before the decedent died.  You might want to compel an accounting or finalize your own account.  When an inheritance is on the line, emotions run high.  For those unfamiliar with the process of settling estates, mistakes are often made, and those mistakes can be quite costly.