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Catron County, NM Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Catron County Probate Court | Seventh Judicial District Court |
|---|---|---|
| What it handles | Informal, uncontested probate only: informal probate of a will and informal appointment of a personal representative, with the letters testamentary or letters of administration that flow from it, plus informal appointment of a special administrator (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-1-302(C) and 45-3-301 to 45-3-309). An informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing | Everything formal or contested, exclusively: formal testacy and formal appointment proceedings, supervised administration, determination of heirs, will construction, will contests, disputes over who owns property as between the estate and someone claiming against it, disclaimers and tax apportionment (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)). It can also open an informal probate, because the two courts have concurrent jurisdiction over informal matters (Section 45-1-302.1) |
| Courthouse address | 100 Main Street, Reserve, NM 87830, the Catron County Courthouse, where the Catron County Clerk's Office is the filing counter. Note the number: 100, not 101 | The district's staffed clerk for Catron County is the Socorro County District Court, 200 Church St., Socorro, NM 87801. There is a Catron County District Court building at 101 Main St., Reserve, NM 87830, next door to the probate court, but the Seventh Judicial District states that all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office |
| Mailing address | PO Box 197, Reserve, NM 87830, published by both the probate judge's office and the County Clerk's Office | P.O. Drawer 1129, Socorro, NM 87801. The district publishes no mailing address for the Reserve building |
| Phone | (575) 533-6400, the county office line published for both the probate judge and the County Clerk's Office, with a toll free line of (844) 804-1690 published by the Clerk (verified July 2026) | 575-835-0050, ext. 12. The district publishes this one number for both the Catron County and Socorro County courthouses, because the Socorro clerk's office serves both (verified July 2026) |
| Fax | (575) 533-6453, published on the probate judge's page and the County Clerk's page | 575-838-5217, published for both courthouses |
| Hours | Catron County publishes no probate court office hours. The judge is seen by appointment: the county's own probate packet says to make an appointment with the judge to start and to bring a death certificate to that appointment. The counter hours that matter are the County Clerk's, because the county clerk is the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)): 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, with e-recordings ending at 3:30 p.m. and recordings ending at 4:00 p.m. Call (575) 533-6400 before driving in | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, published for both the Socorro clerk's office and the Reserve building |
| Filing fee | $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14). The Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule publishes it under its own PROBATE heading as Docketing $30.00, and the county's probate packet says to pay the $30.00 filing fee at the Clerk's Office. No payee and no payment methods are published, so ask when you call | $132.00 for a probate case, which the Seventh Judicial District publishes on its own fee page as covering civil cases including civil lawsuits and probate cases. The statutory build is $117 for docketing a civil cause (NMSA 1978, Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)). The clerks need the exact fee at the time of filing and accept cash, money orders and cashier's checks; personal checks are not accepted |
| Local forms | Yes, two of them, which is unusual for a county this size. Catron County publishes a Probate (Will) packet and a Probate (No Will) packet, free as PDFs on the county site and $5.00 over the counter (county fee schedule: Probate Packet (with/without a will) $5.00). Both reproduce the statewide Form 4B set and both carry a cover letter dated effective January 1, 2019 with errors worth knowing about | None of its own for probate. The statewide Form 4B set applies. The district's self-representation library has a Catron County folder, but its contents are Sierra County divorce and guardianship packets and it holds no probate forms |
| E-filing | None. New Mexico's electronic filing system is approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA) and no probate court appears in any e-filing authority. You file on paper at the counter in Reserve or by mail, and the original will has to reach the court physically | eFile & Serve, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve, is mandatory for attorneys (Rule 1-005.2 NMRA). Self-represented parties are prohibited from e-filing and file on paper; the clerk scans a paper filing into the system (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) and (I)(2) NMRA) |
| Case search | None. Catron County Probate Court cases are county records and are in no statewide system, and Catron publishes no probate index of its own. Ask the Catron County Clerk's Office for a case file or a certified copy. The Clerk's online Document Records Search is the index of recorded land documents, not of probate cases | Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district courts, so a Seventh Judicial District case appears there. It is an index only, with no document images, and it offers no probate court option |
| Remote appearance | Nothing published. An informal probate is decided on the papers and needs no hearing, and the judge is seen by appointment, so ask what the office will do by phone or mail when you call | Nothing published for probate. Ask the Socorro clerk's office at 575-835-0050, ext. 12 |
| No office mailbox is published. Every address the county publishes for the probate judge and the Clerk's Office belongs to a named individual, so use the phone line or the post office box | [email protected], which the district publishes under Email Us for both courthouses. It is the proposed text mailbox, for orders and other documents that need a judge's signature and are not e-filed. It is not a general help line and it is not a filing address | |
| Website | https://www.catroncounty.us/departments/probate_judge.php for the probate judge's office and its two packets, and https://www.catroncounty.us/government/county_clerk_s_office/index.php for the filing counter, its hours and the county fee schedule at https://www.catroncounty.us/Fee%20Schedule.pdf | https://seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov/location-hours-contacts/ for locations, hours and contacts, and https://seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov/fees-costs-filing/ for the district's own fee page |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Know what the estate holds before you make the appointment. Which route fits, and which of the two Catron County forums you use, depends on whether there is a will, who is entitled to be appointed, whether anyone is likely to object, and what kind of property is involved. Some estates here never need a court at all, because the property passes by survivorship, by a transfer on death deed, by a payable on death designation or by a beneficiary designation, and some qualify for one of New Mexico's affidavit routes that are handled at a bank or at the County Clerk's recording counter rather than in a courtroom. Those statewide routes and their dollar limits are covered on the New Mexico state page. Sorting it out first matters more in Catron County than in a city: there is no e-filing in either forum, no online docket to check, and the district court counter for this county is in another county, so a wrong or incomplete filing costs a long drive rather than a resubmission.
Then list every asset and every debt in detail. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and by verifying it you submit personally to the court's jurisdiction in any later proceeding for fraud or perjury, so a missed account is not a small thing. Within three months of appointment the personal representative must prepare an inventory of everything the person owned at death, with a value for each item as of the date of death (Section 45-3-706). Sunset's asset discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so the application you take to your appointment in Reserve describes the estate accurately the first time.
Which court handles jurisdiction
New Mexico probate is filed in the county where the person lived at the time of death (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-201(A)(1)). If the person was not a New Mexico resident, it is filed in any New Mexico county where they owned property at the time of death (Section 45-3-201(A)(2)). Within Catron County you have a choice of court: the Catron County Probate Court for an informal, uncontested probate, or the Seventh Judicial District Court for anything formal or contested (Sections 45-1-302 and 45-1-302.1). Where a proceeding could be brought in more than one place, the court where it is first commenced has the exclusive right to proceed (Section 45-1-303(A)).
The Catron County Probate Court sits at 100 Main Street in Reserve, the county seat, and serves the whole county: Reserve itself, Quemado, Datil, Pie Town, Glenwood, Luna, Aragon, Apache Creek, Alma, Pleasanton and the ranch and forest country between them. It is a county office within New Mexico's judicial branch, funded by the county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-4), and the position of probate judge is a part-time, elected one (Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Its clerk is the Catron County Clerk, because the county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county (Section 34-7-22(A)), which is why the county's own probate packet sends you to the Clerk's Office to buy the packet and to pay the fee. Its hours are whatever the clerk sets and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8), and Catron publishes none for the court itself, so the Clerk's counter hours are the practical ones and the judge is seen by appointment.
The Seventh Judicial District Court covers Catron, Sierra, Socorro and Torrance Counties. A multi-county district is an administrative fact rather than a venue rule, and in Catron County it has a very practical consequence. The district lists a Catron County District Court at 101 Main St. in Reserve, open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and then states plainly: all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office, at 200 Church St., Socorro, NM 87801, mailing to P.O. Drawer 1129, on the same 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. schedule. Both buildings answer on 575-835-0050, ext. 12. So a formal or contested Catron County estate is still a Catron County case, but the counter that takes the paper is in Socorro County. Nothing about that changes venue: you do not file in a district, you file in the county where venue lies, and the clerk who receives it happens to sit elsewhere.
Two other courts in Reserve are not the place for an estate. The Reserve Magistrate Court, at 698A NM-12, 575-533-6474, is a court of limited jurisdiction handling small civil claims, misdemeanors and traffic matters, and it has no probate jurisdiction. And the Catron County District Court building at 101 Main Street, next door to the probate court at 100 Main Street, is a courthouse that takes no filings. In a village this small the two Main Street addresses are one digit apart, so check the number on the envelope before you post it.
The jurisdiction process
- Wait the five days, and check the three-year window. A New Mexico court cannot issue a written statement of informal probate or an order of informal appointment until at least 120 hours have elapsed since the death (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)), and if the person was not a New Mexico resident the court must wait 30 days before ordering an informal appointment unless the domiciliary personal representative is the applicant or the will directs New Mexico law. At the other end, a probate or appointment proceeding cannot be commenced more than three years after the death (Section 45-3-108(A)), although a limited late proceeding remains available after that, chiefly to confirm title to real property in the heirs.
- Get the packet. Catron County publishes a Probate (Will) packet and a Probate (No Will) packet as free PDFs on the county's probate judge page, and sells the printed packet at the Clerk's Office for $5.00 (Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule). Both reproduce the statewide Form 4B set, which is also free from the New Mexico Courts probate forms library. Read the notes in the forms section below before relying on the packet's cover letter: it is dated effective January 1, 2019 and mislabels one form.
- Fill in the opening forms before your appointment. With a will, that is Form 4B-302 NMRA, the application for informal probate of will and for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-304 NMRA, the order. With no will, it is Form 4B-301 NMRA, the application for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-303 NMRA, the order. Both routes then use Form 4B-305 NMRA, the acceptance of appointment, and the letters form, which is Form 4B-307 NMRA for letters testamentary where there is a will and Form 4B-306 NMRA for letters of administration where there is not. New Mexico's statutory term for the person who settles the estate is personal representative; executor and administrator are correct informal usages for the same office. The application has to be verified as accurate and complete (Section 45-3-301), and the priority order for who may be appointed is set by Section 45-3-203(A).
- Make the appointment and bring the originals. The county's own packet opens with this step: make an appointment with the judge, and bring a death certificate to the judge's office on the day. Where there is a will, the original, duly executed and apparently unrevoked will must be in the court's possession (Section 45-3-303(A)(5)); a will with the required signatures and an attestation clause showing proper execution is probated without further proof (Section 45-3-303(C)). Call (575) 533-6400 to arrange the appointment, and if you are mailing an original will from out of state, call first and ask how the office wants to receive it.
- File on paper and pay $30.00 at the Clerk's Office. There is no electronic filing in a New Mexico probate court: the statewide system is approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA), the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule, and the original will has to be physically delivered in any event. The filing fee is $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), which the Catron County Clerk's Office publishes on its own fee schedule as Docketing $30.00 and which the county's packet tells you to pay at the Clerk's Office. Catron County publishes no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask when you call. If the estate cannot afford the fee, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA, the affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202 NMRA as the order; both are in the county's own packet.
- Take the appointment and collect the letters. If the judge makes the findings the statute requires, the court issues a written statement of informal probate and letters (Sections 45-3-302, 45-3-307 and 45-3-103), and administration of the estate is commenced by the issuance of letters. Before receiving them the personal representative qualifies by filing any required bond and a statement of acceptance (Section 45-3-601). Order enough certified copies for the banks, title company and transfer agents you will deal with: the Catron County Clerk's Office charges $1.00 per page for a certified copy, or $1.50 per page certified and mailed, and $.50 per page for a plain copy. Note that the court may decline an application for informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not stop a formal appointment later (Section 45-3-309).
- Give notice within 30 days, and file the proof. Not later than 30 days after appointment the personal representative must give notice of the appointment to the heirs and devisees, by delivery or ordinary mail, stating the personal representative's name and address, that the recipient has or may have an interest, whether a bond has been filed, and where the papers are on file, and must then file a statement with the court naming who was notified (Section 45-3-705). Form 4B-401 NMRA is the notice and Form 4B-402 NMRA is the proof. Note that in an informal case notice comes after the probate, not before: no other notice of informal probate is required (Section 45-3-306(A)).
- Prepare the inventory within three months. The personal representative prepares an inventory of the property owned at death, in reasonable detail, with an estimated value as of the date of death and any encumbrance noted, within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706). It must be sent to interested persons who ask for it, and filing it with the court is permitted but not required. Form 4B-601 NMRA is the inventory. Catron County's packet is stricter than the statute here and tells you to prepare it within 90 days and provide it to all interested persons; following the packet is safe, but the legal requirement is the one in Section 45-3-706.
- Decide whether to publish a notice to creditors. Publication is optional in New Mexico. A personal representative may publish notice once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the proceeding is pending, giving creditors four months from the first publication to present claims, and may also give written notice to a known creditor (Section 45-3-801). It is a tool for cutting claims off early rather than a required step, and the personal representative is not liable for giving or failing to give it. Independently of any notice, claims arising before the death are barred one year after the death (Section 45-3-803(A)). Form 4B-501 NMRA covers both kinds of notice.
- Know the fork to the district court, and that it costs nothing extra. If anyone contests the will, if the heirs are in dispute, if the estate needs a court order about who owns something, if a formal appointment or formal closing is asked for, or if a hearing is required, the case goes to the Seventh Judicial District Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over those matters (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A) and (B); Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA; Rule 1B-701 NMRA). Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and Section 34-7-10(B) provides that where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court. Starting in the Catron County Probate Court therefore costs you nothing if the case has to move up. Note also that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending, the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)).
- Administer, then close. Pay the valid debts and the taxes, deal with the property, and distribute what is left. An informally appointed personal representative has the same power over the title to estate property that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Section 45-3-711(A)), so real property in Catron County can be conveyed by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Catron County Clerk at $25.00 per document. What the probate court cannot do is decide a dispute about that title, which belongs to the district court in formal proceedings (Section 45-1-302(B)). Outside supervised administration there is no routine annual court accounting in New Mexico, though Form 4B-602 NMRA exists where one is needed. To close informally, file a verified closing statement no earlier than six months after the original appointment (Section 45-3-1003(A)), on Form 4B-701 NMRA, and if no proceeding is pending one year after it is filed the appointment terminates.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Catron County
Catron County publishes two probate packets of its own, which is unusual for a county this size, and it also sells them over the counter. The Probate (Will) packet and the Probate (No Will) packet are free PDFs on the county's probate judge page, and the Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule prices the printed version at $5.00 under its PROBATE heading. Both open with a one-page cover letter from the probate judge's office setting out three steps, and both then reproduce the statewide Supreme Court forms, in their current numbering: the sample pages carry the recompilation note from Supreme Court Order No. 18-8300-014, effective for all cases pending or filed on or after December 31, 2018.
The cover letter is genuinely useful and it is also six years old, so read it with the following four corrections in hand. Both packets are headed effective January 1, 2019. First, the link the letter gives for downloading the state's forms no longer resolves; the current New Mexico Courts probate forms library is at the address in the table below. Second, the letter lists Form 4B-307 as Letters of Administration (no will), which is the wrong way round: Form 4B-307 NMRA is letters testamentary, used where there is a will, and Form 4B-306 NMRA is letters of administration, used where there is not. Third, the No Will packet carries the same cover letter as the Will packet and therefore lists the will forms, Form 4B-302 and Form 4B-304; the no-will equivalents are Form 4B-301 and Form 4B-303. Fourth, the letter says the inventory must be prepared within 90 days and provided to all interested persons, where the statute sets three months and requires it to be sent to interested persons who request it, with filing at the court permitted rather than required (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-706). Following the packet is not dangerous on that last point, because it is stricter than the law, but the obligation is the statute's. The letter also prints a home telephone number for the judge alongside the office line; use the office line, (575) 533-6400.
Where the packet is right, it is right for a reason worth knowing. It describes publishing a notice to creditors as optional, which matches the statute exactly: a personal representative may publish, and is not liable for publishing or failing to publish (Section 45-3-801). It describes filing a closing statement as optional, which matches Section 45-3-1003. And it says the forms are prepared to help you file an uncontested case and recommends talking to an attorney if you have questions, which is the correct line: an informal probate court cannot give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA).
The Seventh Judicial District Court publishes no probate forms of its own. Its self-representation library does have a folder labelled Catron County, but the packets inside it are Sierra County divorce and guardianship materials and there is nothing probate in it, so use the statewide Form 4B set instead. One statewide gap to plan around: there is no Form 4B for the affidavit routes that avoid probate altogether, no renunciation or waiver form (consent is a signature block inside Forms 4B-301 and 4B-302), no proof of publication form (the newspaper supplies its own affidavit), and no notice of hearing form, because the 4B set is written for informal cases and a contested matter transfers out on Form 4B-1001 NMRA.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Catron County Probate Judge (catroncounty.us) | The county's own probate page, with the office's post office box, telephone and fax, and links to both county packets |
| Catron County Probate (Will) packet (catroncounty.us) | The county's packet for an estate with a will: the three-step cover letter and the statewide forms for that route, including Form 4B-302 and Form 4B-304 NMRA. A scanned PDF with no searchable text |
| Catron County Probate (No Will) packet (catroncounty.us) | The county's packet for an estate with no will, including Form 4B-201 and Form 4B-202 NMRA for free process. Note that its cover letter is a copy of the Will packet's and lists the will forms |
| Catron County Clerk's Office (catroncounty.us) | The filing counter and the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)): counter hours, the physical address of 100 Main Street, the post office box, and the printed packet at $5.00 |
| Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule (PDF) | The county's own published charges, including PROBATE Docketing $30.00, the $5.00 packet, certified copies at $1.00 per page and the $25.00 per document recording fee. Revision-dated April 30, 2013 and September 18, 2019 on its face |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms, the 4B set (nmcourts.gov) | The current statewide library: the Form 4B-101 flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, the applications, orders, acceptances and letters, the notice and proof of notice, the notice to creditors, the inventory and accounting, the closing statements, proof of authority, the special administration set and Form 4B-1001 for transfer to the district court, plus a plain-language guide and a Dine translation |
| Seventh Judicial District self-representation (seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's downloadable forms. Useful to know its limits: the Catron County folder holds Sierra County divorce and guardianship packets and no probate forms |
Fees
Catron County publishes an actual fee schedule with a PROBATE heading on it, which most small New Mexico counties do not, and it is worth reading before you drive to Reserve. The sheet is the Catron County Clerk's Office Fee Schedule, published as a PDF on the county's site and carrying its own revision dates of April 30, 2013 and September 18, 2019. Nothing on it displaces the statute: the probate filing fee it prints is the statewide figure in NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14. What it adds is the local pricing for the things a personal representative here actually buys, including the certified copies of letters that banks and title companies ask for, and the recording of a personal representative's deed.
| Item | Published fee and authority |
|---|---|
| Opening a probate case in the Catron County Probate Court | $30.00. The county's fee schedule prints it under PROBATE as Docketing $30.00, and the county's probate packet says to pay the $30.00 filing fee at the Clerk's Office. The statute is NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14: clerks of the probate courts shall receive a filing fee of thirty dollars ($30.00) for each probate case. No payee and no payment methods are published, so call (575) 533-6400 before you write a check |
| Printed probate packet | $5.00, listed on the county fee schedule as Probate Packet (with/without a will) $5.00 and repeated in the packet's own cover letter. Optional: both packets are free PDFs on the county's probate judge page |
| Certified copy from the Catron County Clerk's Office | $1.00 per page, or $1.50 per page certified and mailed (county fee schedule). That sits at the ceiling New Mexico sets for a county clerk acting as probate clerk, which caps document copies at $1.00 per page and allows a reasonable certification fee (NMSA 1978, Section 14-8-14(B)) |
| Plain copy from the Catron County Clerk's Office | $.50 per page, or $.75 per page for ledger, poster or colour, and $1.00 per page mailed. Blank forms are $2.00 each (county fee schedule) |
| Recording a personal representative's deed with the Catron County Clerk | $25.00 for each document filed or recorded, with an additional $25.00 for each further block of ten or fewer entries where a document has more than ten index entries. The county cites NMSA 1978, Section 14-8-15 on the face of the sheet, and the sheet sets out how it counts grantor, grantee and legal-description entries. This is the same office and the same counter, and it is also where a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit is recorded |
| Opening a probate case in the Seventh Judicial District Court | $132.00. The district's own fee page lists it as covering civil cases including civil lawsuits and probate cases. The statutory build is $117 for docketing a civil cause (NMSA 1978, Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)). The district adds that if a case has been closed and more than ninety days have passed, a new fee must be paid, and its local rule LR7-007 NMRA provides that jury and filing fees will not be refunded |
| Seventh Judicial District Court copies and certification | Photocopies, including filing packets, $.35 per page; certification $1.50 per pleading; notarization $1.50 per signature; hearings audio copy $4.00 per CD (district fee page, verified July 2026) |
| No second fee if the case moves up | Nothing. Where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred to the district court, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-10(B)) |
| If you cannot afford the fee | New Mexico calls it free process, not a fee waiver. In the Catron County Probate Court, ask on Form 4B-201 NMRA, the affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202 NMRA as the order; both are bound into the county's own packets. In the Seventh Judicial District Court it runs under Rule 23-114 NMRA on Forms 4-222, 4-223 and 4-224 NMRA, and Form 4-223 lets the court leave the $15 alternative dispute resolution fee in place and excludes certification, publication and copy charges unless they are granted too |
How the Seventh Judicial District takes payment is a real trap and it is published in the court's own words: the court clerks need fees paid at the time the matter is filed, they need the exact fee paid, and they accept cash, money orders and cashier's checks. Personal checks are not accepted. Catron County publishes nothing equivalent for the probate court, so ask the Clerk's Office what it takes rather than assuming.
Local nuance
Catron County-specific considerations
The probate court has no published hours, and that is the honest answer rather than missing information. New Mexico makes the position of probate judge a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)) and provides that the probate court shall be open at such times as determined by the clerk of the probate court and published on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Catron County publishes no such times. What it does publish is the County Clerk's Office at 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and the county's own probate packet, which begins by telling you to make an appointment with the judge and to bring a death certificate to the judge's office. Treat the Clerk's counter as the filing counter, because the county clerk is the clerk of the probate court (Section 34-7-22(A)), and treat the judge as an appointment. Call (575) 533-6400 before you drive in from Quemado, Glenwood or Pie Town.
The district courthouse in Reserve takes no filings, and the district says so itself. The Seventh Judicial District's contacts page lists a Catron County District Court at 101 Main St., Reserve, open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, on 575-835-0050, ext. 12, and then states that all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office at 200 Church St., Socorro, mailing to P.O. Drawer 1129. That is why the same telephone number appears against both courthouses, and it is why a formal or contested Catron County estate is filed at a counter in the next county east. The district's own local rule points the same way: original pleadings must be filed with the clerk and not with the judge (LR7-013 NMRA). If a matter needs a signed order, the district publishes [email protected] as the proposed text mailbox for documents needing a judge's signature, which are not filed through the electronic system at all.
Three courts sit in one village and only one of them takes an estate. The Catron County Probate Court and the County Clerk's filing counter are at 100 Main Street. The Catron County District Court building is at 101 Main Street, one digit away and next door, and it takes nothing. The Reserve Magistrate Court is at 698A NM-12 on 575-533-6474, and a magistrate court has no probate jurisdiction at all. Read the street number twice before you address an envelope, and do not let a search engine send you to the magistrate court because it is the easiest of the three to find.
Nothing about a Catron County probate case is online, and one county search will mislead you. County probate court cases are not in any statewide system: the free statewide Case Lookup tool offers District, Magistrate, Metropolitan and Municipal as its court types and has no probate court option, and no probate court appears in the New Mexico Courts locator either. Catron County publishes no probate index of its own. The Catron County Clerk's Office does publish a Document Records Search, but it is the Clerk's index of recorded land documents, the place a personal representative's deed or a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit ends up, and finding nothing there tells you nothing about whether a probate case exists. To find out what is on file in an estate, ask the Clerk's Office at (575) 533-6400.
Recent updates
| Item | What it means in Catron County |
|---|---|
| Every New Mexico probate judgeship is on the ballot on November 3, 2026, with the winner taking office January 1, 2027 | The probate judge is an elected county official and the position is part-time (NMSA 1978, Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). The current cohort's terms were extended to December 31, 2026 by Laws 2023, chapter 44, Section 15(B), so the Catron County seat, like all 33, turns over at the start of 2027. This page names the office rather than the officeholder for that reason. The court, its address, its counter and its $30.00 fee do not change with the election |
| All Seventh Judicial District filings for Catron County go through the Socorro clerk's office | The district publishes a Catron County District Court at 101 Main St., Reserve, and states that all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office, 200 Church St., Socorro, mailing to P.O. Drawer 1129, on 575-835-0050, ext. 12 (verified July 2026). Directories that give 101 Main Street as the filing address for a formal probate are pointing at a building that does not take the paper |
| The county's probate packets carry a cover letter dated effective January 1, 2019 | Both the Probate (Will) and Probate (No Will) packets are still the 2019 issue. The forms inside are the current post-2018 Form 4B set, but the cover letter's link to the state forms library no longer resolves and it mislabels Form 4B-307. Use the current library at nmcourts.gov for a form you want to be sure of (verified July 2026) |
| The Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule is revision-dated September 18, 2019 | The sheet carries 4/30/2013 and 09/18/2019 on its own face and still shows PROBATE Docketing $30.00 and the $5.00 packet, which match the statutory fee in NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14 and the packet price in the judge's own cover letter. Its certified copy price of $1.00 per page sits at the ceiling allowed by Section 14-8-14(B). Confirm the smaller items at the counter before you rely on them (verified July 2026) |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Catron County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the home in Reserve, Glenwood or elsewhere in the county was held with a right of survivorship or passes by a recorded transfer on death deed, it goes to the survivor with no court involved, and the accounts with payable on death or beneficiary designations do the same. Where the home was community property and passes to the survivor, New Mexico has a recorded affidavit route that avoids probate entirely and is handled at the Catron County Clerk's recording counter rather than in court; that route and its assessed-value limit are covered on the New Mexico state page. Where assets stood in the deceased person's sole name, the spouse makes an appointment with the Catron County Probate Court and applies informally on Form 4B-302 NMRA with a will or Form 4B-301 NMRA without one. A surviving spouse who is a devisee ranks second in the appointment priority, behind only a person named in a probated will (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-203(A)). | Asset discovery to establish how the home and the accounts are actually titled and how much really has to reach a court. Packet generation for the application, the acceptance and the notices, ready to take to the appointment in Reserve. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed, which would move the matter to the Seventh Judicial District Court. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | Start by checking whether a court is needed at all: New Mexico lets a claiming successor collect personal property from a bank or transfer agent on an affidavit thirty days after the death, with no court filing and no fee, where the whole estate is under the statewide limit and no real estate is involved. That route is covered on the New Mexico state page. Where a probate is needed, the informal route in the Catron County Probate Court costs $30.00 (Section 34-7-14) against $132.00 in the district court, and it is decided on the papers with no hearing. Doing it from out of state means post and telephone: there is no e-filing in either forum, and the original will has to reach the court physically, so call (575) 533-6400 before mailing anything to PO Box 197 and ask how the office wants to handle the appointment. | Asset discovery to value the estate from out of state and work out which route it qualifies for before anyone books a flight. Packet generation for the affidavit or the application, assembled so it can be posted to Reserve and accepted the first time. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | Selling real property does not by itself force the case into the district court. An informally appointed personal representative has the same power over the title to estate property that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Section 45-3-711(A)), so a parent appointed by the Catron County Probate Court can convey by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Catron County Clerk at $25.00 per document. With no will the parent applies on Form 4B-301 NMRA and receives letters of administration on Form 4B-306 NMRA, ranking behind any surviving spouse and any children in the priority order of Section 45-3-203(A), so obtain the renunciations or consents of anyone ahead. Notice follows within 30 days (Section 45-3-705) and the inventory within three months (Section 45-3-706). What does move the case to the Seventh Judicial District Court is a dispute about who owns the property, because determining title as between the estate and an adverse claimant is exclusively a district court matter in formal proceedings (Section 45-1-302(B)), and Section 34-7-10(B) means that transfer costs no second filing fee. | Asset discovery for the accounts, insurance, vehicles, Catron County real property and debts. Packet generation for the application, the notices and the inventory. Attorney referral where the sale, a mortgage payoff, a dispute among heirs or a title question makes counsel worthwhile. |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Catron County Probate Judge (catroncounty.us), (575) 533-6400, fax (575) 533-6453, PO Box 197, Reserve, NM 87830 | The informal probate forum for the county, at 100 Main Street. The office publishes no hours and the county's packet says to make an appointment with the judge to start. Court staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA) |
| Catron County Clerk's Office (catroncounty.us), (575) 533-6400, toll free (844) 804-1690 | The filing counter and the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)), at 100 Main Street, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with recordings ending at 4:00 p.m. This is where the $30.00 fee is paid, where the $5.00 printed packet is sold, where case files and certified copies are requested, and where a personal representative's deed is recorded |
| Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule (PDF) | The county's own charges for docketing a probate, the packet, copies, certified copies and recording, with the county's citations to NMSA 1978, Sections 14-8-15 and 55-9-525 on its face |
| Seventh Judicial District, location, hours and contacts (seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 575-835-0050, ext. 12 | The formal and contested forum for Catron, Sierra, Socorro and Torrance Counties. It publishes the Catron County District Court at 101 Main St., Reserve, and states that all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office, 200 Church St., Socorro, NM 87801, mailing to P.O. Drawer 1129, both open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday |
| Seventh Judicial District fees, costs and filing (seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own fee page: $132.00 for a probate case, the exact fee required at the time of filing, and cash, money orders and cashier's checks only, with personal checks not accepted |
| Seventh Judicial District local rules (seventhdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own rules, all adopted effective August 15, 1990, including LR7-001 NMRA on written notice of a hearing or trial, LR7-007 NMRA providing that jury and filing fees will not be refunded, and LR7-013 NMRA requiring original pleadings to be filed with the clerk rather than the judge |
| New Mexico Courts HelpLine (nmcourts.gov), 1-855-268-7804 | The judiciary's own information service, Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in English and Spanish with interpreters available. It can provide court-approved forms and explain what a form is asking for and point you to free or low-cost legal services, but it cannot tell you what to write on a form or apply any law to your situation. The single most useful statewide resource for a self-represented probate filer in a county with no self-help center |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide Form 4B library, the same forms bound into the county's packets, plus a plain-language guide and a Dine translation |
| New Mexico Courts self-representation (nmcourts.gov) | The judiciary's self-representation site, with a probate page carrying the same 4B forms. Note that the free Guide & File document tool elsewhere on the site covers free process, divorce and orders of protection only, and has no probate interview |
| New Mexico Courts Case Lookup (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide case index, covering the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, district, magistrate and municipal courts. It reaches a Seventh Judicial District case and it does not reach a Catron County Probate Court case, because it has no probate court option. It is an index only, with no documents |
| Legal Resources for the Elderly Program, State Bar of New Mexico (sbnm.org), 505-797-6005 or 1-800-876-6657 | A free statewide legal helpline for New Mexico residents aged 55 and older, with no income restrictions, in English and Spanish. Phone lines are open and accepting voicemails Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mountain Time. It names probate and transfer on death deeds among the areas it advises on, which makes it the strongest probate-specific free resource in the state |
| Modest Means Helpline, State Bar of New Mexico (sbnm.org), 505-797-6013 or 888-857-9935 | Advice by telephone for New Mexico residents of modest means, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time, with referrals to pro bono attorneys in limited cases. Callers aged 55 or older should use the elderly program instead |
| New Mexico Free Legal Answers (nm.freelegalanswers.org) | Free written answers to civil legal questions from volunteer New Mexico attorneys, for people who qualify. Useful for a single question about a Catron County estate rather than for representation |
| New Mexico Compilation Commission (nmonesource.com) | The official free text of NMSA 1978 and the rules and forms, published by the state's own compiler. The place to read Sections 34-7-14, 45-1-302 and 45-3-201 for yourself |
When to hire an attorney
Most Catron County estates are uncontested, and the county has built its process around families doing this themselves: the probate court's own packet describes forms prepared to help you file an uncontested case, and an informal probate is decided on the papers for $30.00 (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) without a hearing. The same packet also says, in the judge's own words, that talking to an attorney is recommended if you have questions, and court staff in both forums are barred from giving legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA). Consider counsel when a will is likely to be contested or the heirs disagree, when someone outside the family claims an interest in ranch ground, water rights, grazing permits or mineral interests, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, when a personal representative's deed or a sale has to be drafted (the courts' own guide warns that deeds can be tricky to draft and execute properly), when heirs cannot be located, when a guardianship or conservatorship has to run alongside the estate, or whenever the matter has to move to the Seventh Judicial District Court, which is the only forum that can decide any of it. Distance is its own argument here: a contested matter is heard through a clerk's office in another county, and the local bar is very small. Sunset can connect families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Catron County.
How Sunset helps
Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Catron County real property and unclaimed property, so estate settlement starts with knowing what the estate holds before you file. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and requires an inventory with date of death values within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706).
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether an informal application on Form 4B-302 or Form 4B-301 NMRA or one of New Mexico's affidavit routes, ready to take to an appointment at 100 Main Street in Reserve or to post to PO Box 197.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when title is disputed, or when it otherwise has to go to the Seventh Judicial District Court, Sunset connects families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Catron County.
Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).
Frequently asked questions
Do I file in the Catron County Probate Court or the Seventh Judicial District Court?
Both can open an informal probate, and only the district court can do anything else. The Catron County Probate Court handles informal, uncontested probate: admitting a will informally, appointing a personal representative informally, and issuing letters (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(C)). The Seventh Judicial District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over formal proceedings, determinations of testacy and of heirs, will construction, will contests, supervised administration, disputes about who owns property as between the estate and an adverse claimant, disclaimers and tax apportionment (Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)), and it also has concurrent jurisdiction over informal matters (Section 45-1-302.1). In practice almost everyone starts in the probate court, because it costs $30.00 rather than $132.00, because the counter is in Reserve rather than in Socorro, and because Section 34-7-10(B) means there is no second filing fee if the case has to be transferred up.
Where exactly do I file a probate in Catron County, and is it 100 or 101 Main Street?
It is 100 Main Street, Reserve, NM 87830, where the Catron County Clerk's Office is the filing counter for the Catron County Probate Court, and the mailing address is PO Box 197, Reserve, NM 87830. The county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)), which is why the county's own probate packet tells you to buy the packet and pay the fee at the Clerk's Office. 101 Main Street is the Catron County District Court building, next door, and it takes no filings: the Seventh Judicial District states that all court filings are to be through the Socorro District Court Clerk's Office. File in Catron County if the person who died lived here (Section 45-3-201(A)(1)), or if they lived out of state and owned property here (Section 45-3-201(A)(2)).
What are the Catron County Probate Court's hours?
The court publishes none, and that is genuinely the position rather than missing information. The position of probate judge in New Mexico is a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)), and the probate court is open at such times as the clerk of the probate court determines and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Catron County publishes no such times. What it publishes is the County Clerk's Office, which is the probate court's clerk and its filing counter, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with e-recordings ending at 3:30 p.m. and recordings ending at 4:00 p.m. The judge is seen by appointment: the county's own probate packet says the first step is to make an appointment with the judge and to bring a death certificate. Call (575) 533-6400 before you make the drive.
How much does it cost to file probate in Catron County?
$30.00 in the Catron County Probate Court and $132.00 in the Seventh Judicial District Court. The probate court fee is set by statute at thirty dollars for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), and Catron County publishes it on the Clerk's Office fee schedule under a PROBATE heading as Docketing $30.00, alongside the printed probate packet at $5.00. The district court figure is what the Seventh Judicial District publishes on its own fee page for civil cases including probate cases, and it is built from $117 for docketing a civil cause (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)). The district needs the exact fee at the time of filing and takes cash, money orders and cashier's checks only, with personal checks not accepted; Catron County publishes no payment methods for the probate court, so ask. If the estate cannot afford it, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA in the probate court or under Rule 23-114 NMRA in the district court.
Can I e-file a probate case in Catron County?
Not in the probate court, and not as a self-represented filer in the district court either. New Mexico's electronic filing system, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve branded by the courts as eFile & Serve, is defined by rule as the system approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA); no probate court appears in any e-filing authority, and the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule. And even at the district court, self-represented parties are prohibited from electronically filing documents and shall continue to file documents through traditional methods (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) NMRA), with the clerk converting a paper filing into electronic format (Rule 1-005.2(I)(2)). So you file on paper at the counter or by post in both forums. One practical consequence in a county this remote: the original will has to be physically delivered, so an out-of-state filer posts it or brings it.
What happens if someone contests the will in Catron County?
The case leaves the probate court. A probate court case must be transferred to the district court when a contest arises, when a formal appointment or formal closing is requested, when a determination of testacy or heirship is requested, when a hearing is required, or when any interested party or the judge asks for it (Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA, with the procedure in Rule 1B-701 NMRA), and the district court has exclusive original jurisdiction over all of it (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A)). Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and the transfer costs nothing: where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (Section 34-7-10(B)). Note also that a probate judge may decline an application for informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not prevent a formal appointment later (Section 45-3-309), and that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)). A contest is also the point at which counsel is worth having.
How do I look up a Catron County probate case?
By asking the Catron County Clerk's Office at (575) 533-6400 or at the counter at 100 Main Street. Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district, magistrate, metropolitan and municipal courts, and has no probate court option at all; the New Mexico Courts locator lists no probate courts either. Each county probate court keeps its own records, and other counties' probate court records are not available online. Catron County publishes no probate index of its own. Do not be misled by the Clerk's online Document Records Search: that is the index of recorded land documents, where a personal representative's deed or a homestead affidavit is found, and it says nothing about whether a probate case exists. A Seventh Judicial District Court case, by contrast, does appear in Case Lookup, as an index entry without documents.
Are there local Catron County probate forms?
Yes, two packets, and they are worth having with a short list of corrections. Catron County publishes a Probate (Will) packet and a Probate (No Will) packet, free as PDFs on the county's probate judge page and $5.00 printed at the Clerk's Office. Both reproduce the current statewide Form 4B set. Both cover letters are dated effective January 1, 2019, and they carry four errors: the link they give for the state's forms no longer resolves, they label Form 4B-307 as letters of administration when Form 4B-307 NMRA is letters testamentary and Form 4B-306 NMRA is letters of administration, the No Will packet repeats the Will packet's cover letter and so lists Forms 4B-302 and 4B-304 rather than Forms 4B-301 and 4B-303, and they describe the inventory as due within 90 days and to be provided to all interested persons where the statute sets three months and requires it to be sent to those who request it (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-706). The Seventh Judicial District publishes no probate forms of its own; its self-representation library has a Catron County folder, but it contains Sierra County divorce and guardianship packets and nothing probate.
Do I have to travel to Reserve to settle an estate in Catron County?
Usually at least once, because the original will and the death certificate have to reach the court physically and the county's packet asks you to bring the death certificate to an appointment with the judge. Beyond that, most of an uncontested estate here runs on post and telephone. The application and the later filings can be posted to PO Box 197, Reserve, NM 87830, and certified copies of the letters can be posted back at $1.50 per page certified and mailed (Catron County Clerk's Office fee schedule). What you cannot do is e-file, in either forum, so plan around the post and call (575) 533-6400 first. Neither the county nor the Seventh Judicial District publishes any rule about appearing by telephone or video in a probate matter, so if something needs the judge, ask rather than assume it can be done from home.
How long does an informal probate take in Catron County?
The statutory clock, rather than any local docket, sets the shape of it, and neither Catron County nor the Seventh Judicial District publishes a hearing schedule or a processing time for probate. Nothing can be granted until at least 120 hours have passed since the death (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)). An informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing, so once the judge has the complete papers, letters can issue quickly. After appointment, notice to the heirs and devisees goes out within 30 days and the proof is filed (Section 45-3-705), the inventory is prepared within three months (Section 45-3-706), and the estate cannot be closed informally earlier than six months after the original appointment (Section 45-3-1003(A)). Claims arising before the death are barred one year after the death whether or not anything was published (Section 45-3-803(A)). Six to twelve months is therefore the realistic span for a straightforward estate, driven by those periods rather than by any queue in Reserve.
Shaped by the families we've helped
Thank you to the thousands of families who have trusted Sunset to help settle their loved ones' estates. This page is shaped by the questions they actually asked and the obstacles they actually hit — and that hard-won experience is what keeps it accurate, current, and genuinely useful to the families who come next.