My dad died two months ago and now his girl friend is getting all his property. His will didn't give me or my brothers anything. Is there anything we can do? We don't think our dad would have wanted this to happen. I am sure he didn't realize what he was doing. Please help.

When your dad's girl friend applies to have the will admitted (I assume that she will), you should get notice of the hearing. As his daughter, you are an "interested party," which means that you have an interest in his estate and are entitled to "notice" regarding everything that goes on with respect to the settlement of his estate.

At the time of the hearing, you can raise any objections to the will that you might have. Generally, there are only a few valid objections - lack of proper execution, undue influence, incompetence, and fraud. If you dad was competent at the time he made the will, and if the will was signed by him and witnessed by two independent witnesses, then your best hope would be that his girl friend unduly influenced him in making his will. Remember, though, that your dad can give his property to whomever he wants. If his girl friend talks him into giving it to her, that's perfectly alright. That's his legal right. We're not talking about normal, everyday influence here, we're talking about "undue" influence, which generally means that your dad didn't know what he was doing, or was acting under a false premise. In other words, you'd have to show that your dad wouldn't have given all his property to his girl friend if he was acting under his own free will.

Even if you fail to prove undue influence, some states try to make it a little harder to disinherit a child - and you may want to check your state's laws on this. Basically, some states provide that if a child is not mentioned in a parent's will (and, therefore, is getting nothing under the will), then it is presumed that the parent either didn't know about the child or thought the child was dead, or just forgot about the child. In other words, there is a presumption that the parent would have given the child an inheritance if the parent knew about the child. In that case, the child would be given a share of the estate, somewhat akin to what the child would have gotten if the parent had died intestate. By the way, a child in this situation is generally referred to as a "pretermitted heir."

To be honest with you, if you really believe that you should get something under your dad's will, then you really need to speak with a qualified attorney to find out if you have a case worth pursuing. It's not easy to get a will thrown out and it often takes a lot of money. But an attorney could give you a good read on this within a short period of time.

More importantly, you only have a short period of time to do something about this. Most states give you the right to object at a probate hearing to admit the will. Then, if the will is admitted, you have 30 days to file an appeal. So, check with an attorney before it's too late. Good Luck!