Can a court document mandate my being listed in the will?

A Will is a document that an individual (called the Testator) uses to determine what his/her final wishes are for the distribution of his/her assets upon death. If you are not named in the Will, but are a natural heir of the Testator (deceased person), there are a couple of possibilities. First, if you are SPOUSE of the Testator and are not mentioned in the Will, you can elect a share against the Will (or could if a new law abolishing that options has been passed in Lansing). Second, if you are a natural or adopted CHILD of the Testator, and there is not language in the Will specifically disinheriting you, you can contest the Will if you believe that duress or undue pressure was placed upon the Testator to change the natural course of inheritance. Third, if the Testator has included language that specifically disinherits you, then you are essentially out of luck unless, again, you can prove undue pressure on the Testator to disinherit you. IF you are not a Natural Heir of the Testator but have a written document (i.e. a contract) between you and the Testator where he/she promised to leave you something in his/her Will for whatever reason and that was not done, you can contest the Will under a theory that the Testator obtained benefits from your performance on the contract then defrauded you be not following through with his/her promise.