Will Disputes in the UK: What the Statistics Show

There is no official statistic that counts how many wills are disputed in the UK each year. No government body publishes a headline figure for contested wills, so the honest answer to "how common are will disputes" is built from several separate official datasets, each measuring something adjacent.

This piece pulls those datasets together: how many people die each year, how many estates go through probate, and how much work reaches the court list that decides inheritance disputes. Every figure below is drawn from a named official source, with the reference period and a link at the point of use. Figures are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change. It describes England and Wales, with Scotland and Northern Ireland flagged where the position differs.

How many will disputes are there in the UK?

No single official number exists. The Ministry of Justice reports court activity, and the Chancery Division of the High Court, whose Property, Trusts and Probate List handles contentious probate, recorded 16,772 proceedings in 2025 (MoJ, Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly, 2025 annual data, as at July 2026, subject to change). That total covers all Chancery business, so it is a ceiling, not a count of contested wills.

Most disagreements are resolved before a hearing. Many are paused at the probate stage through a caveat, and many settle privately. Because settlements and withdrawn claims are not published as a will-disputes series, any precise national figure you see quoted usually comes from a private survey rather than an official count.

Key figures at a glance

The table below gathers the verified official figures that bear on how common will disputes may be. Each row names its source, its reference period and a link. Read together they describe the scale of estates in England and Wales and the volume of work reaching the courts, rather than a direct tally of contested wills, which is not separately published.

All figures as at July 2026 and subject to change. "FCSQ" is the Family Court Statistics Quarterly; "CJSQ" is the Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly.

Where will disputes are decided

Contested wills in England and Wales are handled by the Property, Trusts and Probate List within the Chancery Division of the High Court. Chancery Division proceedings rose to 16,772 in 2025 from 14,561 in 2024, an increase of 15%, with 3,371 claims issued and other originating proceedings that year (MoJ, Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly, 2025 annual data, as at July 2026, subject to change). Contested wills are only one part of that workload.

Before a case reaches the Chancery Division, many disputes surface at the probate stage. A person who believes there is a problem with a will can enter a caveat, which pauses a grant. A caveat lasts 6 months and can be extended for a further 6 months (gov.uk, stopping a probate application, as at July 2026, subject to change). Entering one can lead to legal action and costs, so many people choose to seek an agreement first, and it can be worth discussing the position with a qualified professional. Our guide to contesting a will sets out the common grounds in more detail.

The court figures record activity, not causes. A rise in Chancery proceedings tells you the list is busier; it does not, on its own, tell you that more wills are being challenged.

What the numbers mean

Read carefully, the data supports a modest claim rather than a dramatic one. Against more than half a million deaths a year and roughly a quarter of a million probate grants, the volume of inheritance work reaching the High Court is small, and the published court totals mix contested wills in with company, insolvency and property matters. The honest reading is that will disputes are real but relatively uncommon, and that the true rate is not directly measurable from official statistics.

The year-on-year movements point in different directions, which is itself worth noting. Deaths fell 2.2% in 2024 and probate grants fell 10% in 2025, while Chancery Division proceedings rose 15% (ONS, 2024; MoJ, FCSQ, 2025; MoJ, CJSQ, 2025; all as at July 2026, subject to change). Because the Chancery rise was driven mainly by companies and insolvency work, it would be a mistake to read it as a surge in will challenges. In our experience, a clearly drafted will, kept up to date, tends to reduce the room for later argument, though it cannot guarantee that no dispute will arise. Many people find it useful to read our guide on How to Write a Will alongside the wider estate planning guide.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The figures above describe England and Wales, and the other UK nations differ. Scotland has its own succession law, including legal rights that can entitle a spouse and children to a fixed share of the moveable estate, which changes the shape of many disputes, and it uses confirmation rather than a grant of probate. Northern Ireland runs a separate but broadly similar system to England and Wales. The court and probate statistics cited here are collected for England and Wales, so they should not be read across to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

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