Pretermitted typically refers to a child or other heir as determined by the court, that the court believes to have been inadvertently left out of the will. If this person is determined to be pretermitted they are usually awarded an equal share of the deceased's estate as the other children. Typically, a pretermitted child occurs because of failure to update a will after the birth of a child or premature death of a parent before the will is updated. A pretermitted heir can also be determined by the courts to be an heir that the testator did not know existed, such as a child that was not known by the deceased but which can be proven to be the deceased's offspring. Many states have laws that allow a pretermiited child to demand their portion of an estate.