Disinheritance and contesting a will
Disinheriting is not a decision: it is a procedure with a closed list of grounds and a burden of proof. And a will is not set aside because it seems unfair, only where a specific defect exists.
The grounds are exhaustive
The Catalan Civil Code lists the grounds that allow an entitled heir to be deprived of their share, and that list cannot be extended. They include refusal of maintenance, serious mistreatment, conviction for serious offences, and manifest and continued absence of family relationship attributable solely to the disinherited person.
That last ground is the most invoked and the most litigated. If the estrangement was mutual, or the deceased contributed to it, the disinheritance fails. And the burden of proving it falls on the heir.
Contesting a will
A will can be challenged for lack of testamentary capacity, for defects of consent such as deception or undue influence, for formal defects, or for the omission of entitled heirs.
The most frequent scenario is a will made in the final years of life, with cognitive decline and under the influence of whoever was living with the deceased. These cases are won or lost on medical evidence.
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Can a child be disinherited for not being in contact?+
In Catalonia yes, it is a statutory ground, but it requires the absence of contact to be manifest, continued and attributable solely to the child. And the heir must prove it.