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De Baca County, NM Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | De Baca County Probate Court | Tenth 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 | The county courthouse at 248 E Avenue C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119. Read that with the caveat it deserves: De Baca County publishes no address of its own for the probate court or for the County Clerk's counter, because it publishes nothing at all. What is published is the New Mexico Courts' address for the De Baca District Court in that building, and the state's county clerk directory, which carries only the post office box. Telephone (575) 355-2601 before you drive in | De Baca District Court, 248 E. Ave. C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, the same courthouse. This district court keeps a staffed clerk's counter in this county and does not route De Baca filings to another county |
| Mailing address | P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, published by the New Mexico Secretary of State for the De Baca County Clerk, who is the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)). Check the box number: the district court and the magistrate court in this town use different ones | P.O. Box 910, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, published by the district |
| Phone | (575) 355-2601, published by the New Mexico Secretary of State as the De Baca County Clerk's line (verified July 2026). It is the clerk's office line: no separate telephone number for the probate judge is published anywhere official | 575-355-2896 (verified July 2026) |
| Fax | (575) 355-2441, published by the New Mexico Secretary of State for the County Clerk | 575-355-2899, published by the district |
| Hours | None are published, and that is the finding rather than a gap in this page. New Mexico makes the position of probate judge a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)) and says 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). De Baca County has no website, so no hours exist to read. Telephone (575) 355-2601 and ask when the counter is open and when the judge can see you | 8 a.m. to 12:00 and 1 to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed during the lunch hour, as published by the district. The midday closure is real: arriving at 12:30 means waiting |
| Filing fee | $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14: clerks of the probate courts shall receive a filing fee of thirty dollars for each probate case). De Baca County publishes no fee schedule, no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask when you telephone rather than arriving with a check made out to a guess | $132.00, which the Tenth Judicial District publishes on its own fee page as the cost of a civil case, and a probate matter in district court is a civil case. 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 publishes its payment rules in its own words: personal checks are not accepted, acceptable forms of payment are cash, money order or cashier's check, cash must be the exact amount because the clerk's office does not give change, money orders are made payable to the 10th Judicial District Court, and debit and credit cards are accepted |
| Local forms | None. De Baca County publishes no probate packet, no checklist and no local form, because it publishes no documents at all. The statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set is what this court uses, and it is free from the New Mexico Courts | None of its own for probate. The statewide Form 4B set applies. The district's clerks will provide the forms they hold at 35 cents per page, and free process is available if you cannot pay for them |
| 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 Fort Sumner 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, and there is no county website that could host one. De Baca County Probate Court records are county records in the charge of the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-7) and they are in no statewide system. Telephone (575) 355-2601 or write to P. O. Box 347 to ask for a case file or a certified copy | Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district courts, so a Tenth Judicial District case appears there. It is an index only, with no document images, and its court type filter offers no probate court option |
| Remote appearance | Nothing published. An informal probate is decided on the papers and needs no hearing, so the question rarely arises; if something does need the judge, ask on the telephone what the office will do by post or by phone | The district publishes a written Remote and Hybrid Hearings Plan, dated March 12, 2024. All remote proceedings run on Google Meet, each judge has a fixed link, and its list of presumptively remote civil matters includes scheduling conferences and motion hearings, while jury selection, jury trials, bench trials, termination of parental rights and PQ-designated guardianship hearings are held in person. The plan does not name probate. The rule to remember is the district's own: every notice provides a Google Meet link and a QR code if the hearing is remote, and a notice without them means an in person proceeding |
| No office mailbox is published. The only email address any government source carries for the county side is in the Secretary of State's clerk directory, and it belongs to the officeholder personally at a commercial internet provider's domain rather than to the office, so it is not printed here and it will not survive a change of clerk. Use the telephone line or the post office box | [email protected], published by the district as the clerk's email for all three of its district courts | |
| Website | There is none. De Baca County is the only one of New Mexico's 33 counties with no website: candidate county domains do not resolve, the county is absent from the federal .gov registry, it is the only entry in the Secretary of State's county clerk directory with no website line, and the New Mexico Association of Counties' county site button for De Baca points at an encyclopedia article. A commercial lookalike domain close to the county's name resolves to a page offering the domain for sale; it is not the county. Use https://www.sos.nm.gov/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal-nmvote-org/county-clerk-information/ for the clerk's published contact details | https://tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/location-hours-contacts/ for locations, hours and contacts, https://tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/fees-costs-filing/ for the district's own fee page, and https://tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/remote-hybrid-hearing-information/ for its remote hearings plan |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Work out what the estate holds before you telephone the courthouse. Which route fits, and which of the two De Baca 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 recorded 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. Getting this straight first matters more in De Baca County than almost anywhere else in the state, because there is no county website to check, no e-filing in either forum, no online probate docket, and no published counter hours on the county side, so every question you have not answered in advance becomes a telephone call or a drive.
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 post to Fort Sumner 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 De Baca County you have a choice of court: the De Baca County Probate Court for an informal, uncontested probate, or the Tenth 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 De Baca County Probate Court serves the whole county from the county seat at Fort Sumner, which is the county's only incorporated village, along with Lake Sumner and the ranching country along the Pecos in between. It is a county office within New Mexico's judicial branch, funded by the county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-4), the probate court is located at the county seat unless the county commission designates somewhere else (Section 34-7-4(A)), and the position of probate judge is a part-time, elected one (Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Its clerk is the De Baca County Clerk, because the county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county unless the county has created a separate probate clerk by ordinance (Section 34-7-22). De Baca County publishes nothing either way, so treat the County Clerk's office at (575) 355-2601 as the place to start and confirm with the office who takes the filing and who the fee is payable to.
The Tenth Judicial District Court covers De Baca, Quay and Harding Counties, and for De Baca County the answer to the question that matters in a rural multi-county district is a good one: this county has its own staffed district court counter. The district publishes a De Baca District Court at 248 E. Ave. C in Fort Sumner with its own post office box, telephone, fax and hours, and it publishes no statement routing De Baca filings to Tucumcari or anywhere else, unlike some New Mexico districts that send a small county's filings to a clerk in the next county. The district's self-representation page confirms the same thing from the other direction, saying that the clerks in each location will provide the forms the court holds at 35 cents per page. A multi-county district is an administrative fact and not a venue rule in any event: you do not file in a district, you file in the county where venue lies.
Two things in Fort Sumner are not the place for an estate. The De Baca County Magistrate Court, at 282 E. Ave. B on 575-355-7371, is a court of limited jurisdiction handling small civil claims, misdemeanors and traffic matters, and it has no probate jurisdiction at all. And a commercial domain close to the county's own name is not the county: De Baca County has no website, and the lookalike resolves to a page offering the domain for sale. Third-party courthouse directories fill that vacuum with bad data, and the ones checked in July 2026 carried a wrong post office box, a wrong telephone number and the name of somebody who is not the probate judge. The contact details on this page come from the New Mexico Secretary of State's county clerk directory and from the New Mexico Courts.
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.
- Telephone the County Clerk's office first, because there is nothing to read. De Baca County has no website, so no counter hours, no probate packet, no fee sheet and no directions exist online. Call (575) 355-2601, the number the New Mexico Secretary of State publishes for the De Baca County Clerk, and ask four things: when the counter is open, when the probate judge can see you, whether the papers can be left at the counter or posted to P. O. Box 347, and who the $30.00 fee is made payable to. The position of probate judge is part-time by statute (Section 34-7-1(B)), so the answer about the judge may well be an appointment.
- Download the statewide forms. There are no De Baca County forms, so use the Supreme Court's Form 4B set, free from the New Mexico Courts. 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. Form 4B-101 NMRA is the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, and its first step is choosing which of the two courts to file in. 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.
- Fill the application in and verify it. The application has to be directed to the court and verified by the applicant to be accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and it states the applicant's interest, the person's name, date of death, age and county and state of domicile, the names and addresses of the spouse, children, heirs and devisees, and that the three-year limit has not run. Who may be appointed is set by the priority order in Section 45-3-203(A), and an objection to an appointment can only be made in formal proceedings (Section 45-3-203(B)).
- Bring or send the original will and the death certificate. 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)). The New Mexico Courts' own probate guide says the filer must submit the original will and a certified copy of the death certificate to the probate court along with the forms. If you are posting an original will from out of state, telephone first and ask how the office wants to receive it.
- File on paper and pay $30.00. There is no electronic filing in a New Mexico probate court: the statewide system is defined by rule as the system 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). De Baca County publishes no payee and no accepted payment methods, so confirm both on the telephone before you write anything. 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.
- Collect the letters, and order certified copies. 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). Banks, title companies and transfer agents will each want a certified copy, so ask for several at once. De Baca County publishes no copy price; where a county clerk acts as the probate clerk, New Mexico caps document copies at $1.00 per page and allows a reasonable certification fee (Section 14-8-14(B)). 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. In an informal case the 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.
- 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 Tenth 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. In De Baca County the transfer is also geographically painless, because the district court counter is in the same courthouse. Note 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 De Baca County can be conveyed by personal representative's deed and recorded with the De Baca County Clerk. 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 De Baca County
De Baca County publishes no probate forms of its own, and in this county that statement can be made without qualification: there is no county website, no county document library and no county packet to miss. What you use instead is the statewide set, which is good, free and complete. The New Mexico Supreme Court approves the Form 4B series and the New Mexico Courts publish all of it, along with a plain-language guide and a Diné (Navajo) translation of the probate materials.
The set runs from Form 4B-101 NMRA, the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, whose first step is choosing whether to file in the probate court or the district court, through the applications and orders (Forms 4B-301 to 4B-304 NMRA), the acceptance of appointment (Form 4B-305 NMRA), the letters (Form 4B-306 NMRA for letters of administration where there is no will and Form 4B-307 NMRA for letters testamentary where there is), the notice of informal appointment and its proof (Forms 4B-401 and 4B-402 NMRA), the notice to creditors (Form 4B-501 NMRA), the inventory and accounting (Forms 4B-601 and 4B-602 NMRA), the closing statements (Forms 4B-701 and 4B-702 NMRA), proof of authority (Forms 4B-801 and 4B-802 NMRA), the special administration set (Forms 4B-901 to 4B-904 NMRA), the free process pair (Forms 4B-201 and 4B-202 NMRA) and Form 4B-1001 NMRA, the order transferring a case from the probate court to the district court. Cite them as Form 4B-302 NMRA and so on; the matching rules are the Probate Court Rules, Rules 1B-101 to 1B-701 NMRA. The whole set was renumbered by Supreme Court Order No. 18-8300-014, effective for cases pending or filed on or after December 31, 2018, so any older form number you find in a guide or an out-of-date packet is superseded.
Plan around what the statewide set does not contain. 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. The Tenth Judicial District publishes no probate forms of its own either, though its Forms and Files library holds the civil and general forms a district court case uses, and its clerks will provide the forms the court holds at 35 cents per page, with free process available if you cannot pay for them. If you have no printer, that counter and the self-help kiosk in the courthouse are the practical answer in this county.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| New Mexico Courts probate forms, the 4B set (nmcourts.gov) | The current statewide library and the forms this court uses: the Form 4B-101 flow chart, 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 Diné (Navajo) 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 Secretary of State, county clerk information (sos.nm.gov) | The only government directory that publishes contact details for the De Baca County Clerk, who is the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)): P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, (575) 355-2601, fax (575) 355-2441. It is also the source that shows the absence, since De Baca is the only county in it with no website line |
| Tenth Judicial District forms and files (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own library, organized by case type. It holds no probate packet, but it is where the civil, affidavit and appeals forms for a district court matter live |
| Tenth Judicial District self-representation (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's position in its own words: none of its court locations offer self help centers, the clerks will provide the forms the court has at 35 cents per page, free process is available if you cannot pay for them, and the clerks cannot give legal advice or tell you how to proceed |
Local nuance
De Baca County-specific considerations
De Baca County has no website, and that is a verified fact rather than a page that could not be found. Four independent checks say the same thing as of July 2026. The obvious county domains return no answer from the domain name system. The county does not appear in the federal registry of .gov domains, which carries more than a hundred New Mexico entries. The New Mexico Secretary of State's county clerk directory publishes a website line for every one of the other 32 counties and none for De Baca. And the New Mexico Association of Counties, whose county pages normally link through to the county's own site, links De Baca's to an encyclopedia article instead. There is one commercial domain close to the county's name that does resolve, and it is a page offering that domain for sale, not a county office. Everything county-side on this page therefore comes from a state government source, and everything else that a county would normally publish, its counter hours, its fee schedule, its payee, its forms, is reported here as absent because it is.
The probate court has no published hours and no published office of its own, and the honest route in is the County Clerk. 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), which in a county with no website means nothing is published. The county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court (Section 34-7-22(A)), and the Secretary of State publishes the De Baca County Clerk at P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, telephone (575) 355-2601, fax (575) 355-2441. That telephone number is the one thing on the county side that is both published and current, so use it: ask for the counter hours, the judge's availability, the payee for the $30.00 fee (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) and whether the papers can be posted. No email is printed on this page for the county because the only address the state publishes belongs to the officeholder personally at a commercial internet provider rather than to the office, and a personal mailbox stops working when the officeholder changes.
Both courts are in the same courthouse, and the district court here takes its own filings. The New Mexico Courts publish the De Baca District Court at 248 E. Ave. C in Fort Sumner, open 8 a.m. to 12:00 and 1 to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed over the lunch hour, on 575-355-2896 with a fax of 575-355-2899, mailing to P.O. Box 910, with [email protected] as the clerk's email. That is a real, staffed counter in this county: nothing in the district's own materials sends a De Baca filing to Tucumcari or to another county's clerk, which is not true of every rural New Mexico district. It also means that if an informal case has to be transferred up under Section 34-7-10(B), which carries no second filing fee, the paperwork does not have to leave the building. Two practical points: the district's fee page says personal checks are not accepted and that money orders are made payable to the 10th Judicial District Court, and cash must be the exact amount because the clerk's office does not give change, although debit and credit cards are accepted.
The district publishes more about how it actually runs hearings than most rural districts do, and none of it mentions probate. Its Remote and Hybrid Hearings Plan, dated March 12, 2024, puts all remote proceedings on Google Meet with a fixed link for each judge, lists civil scheduling conferences and motion hearings among the matters that will be held remotely, and keeps jury selection, jury trials, bench trials, termination of parental rights and PQ-designated guardianship hearings in person. Its clearest rule for a self-represented filer is about notices: every notice provides a Google Meet link and a QR code if the hearing is remote, and a notice without them is an in person proceeding. The plan also records that the district houses self-help kiosks at all of its court facilities except the Harding County District Courthouse, so there is one in the De Baca courthouse, which matters in a county where the reader may have no internet at home and certainly has no county website to use. What the district does not have is a self-help center, and it says so plainly: currently none of its court locations offer self help centers, the clerks will provide the forms the court holds at 35 cents per page, free process is available if you cannot pay for those copies, and the clerks cannot give legal advice or tell you how to proceed.
Nothing about a De Baca County probate case is online, anywhere. 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 the New Mexico Courts' court locator lists no probate courts either. Two New Mexico counties publish a probate index of their own; this is not one of them, and with no county website it could not be. The records are in the charge of the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-7), so a case file or a certified copy is requested by telephoning (575) 355-2601 or writing to P. O. Box 347. A Tenth Judicial District Court case, by contrast, does appear in Case Lookup, as an index entry with no documents.
Recent updates
| Item | What it means in De Baca County |
|---|---|
| De Baca County has no website of its own, verified July 2026 | This was checked four ways in July 2026 rather than assumed from a failed search. The candidate county domains return no answer from the domain name system; the county does not appear in the federal registry of .gov domains, which lists more than a hundred New Mexico entries; De Baca is the only one of the 33 counties in the New Mexico Secretary of State's county clerk directory with no website line; and the New Mexico Association of Counties' county site button for De Baca links to an encyclopedia article. One commercial domain close to the county's name does resolve, to a page offering that domain for sale. The consequence for a reader is concrete: no counter hours, no fee schedule, no payee, no forms and no case index are published on the county side, so the telephone line (575) 355-2601 and the post office box are the route in |
| 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 De Baca County seat, like all 33, turns over at the start of 2027. This page names the office rather than the officeholder for that reason, and it is the reason to distrust any directory that names a probate judge for this county without a date. The court, the $30.00 fee (Section 34-7-14) and the clerk's counter do not change with the election |
| The Tenth Judicial District keeps a staffed district court counter in De Baca County | Verified July 2026 from the district's own location, hours and contacts page, which publishes the De Baca District Court at 248 E. Ave. C, Fort Sumner, mailing to P.O. Box 910, on 575-355-2896 with a fax of 575-355-2899, open 8 a.m. to 12:00 and 1 to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed over the lunch hour. Nothing in the district's materials routes a De Baca filing to another county, which is worth knowing because some rural New Mexico districts do exactly that |
| The district's Remote and Hybrid Hearings Plan is dated March 12, 2024 | It puts all remote proceedings on Google Meet with a fixed link for each judge, lists civil scheduling conferences and motion hearings as presumptively remote, keeps jury selection, jury trials, bench trials, termination of parental rights and PQ-designated guardianship hearings in person, and records self-help kiosks at each of the district's courthouses except Harding's. It does not mention probate, so confirm with the clerk before assuming a probate hearing can be attended from home (verified July 2026) |
| The Tenth Judicial District has no self-help center at any location | Its self-representation page states it directly: currently none of its court locations offer self help centers. The clerks will provide the forms the court holds at 35 cents per page, free process is available if you cannot pay for them, and staff cannot give legal advice or tell you how to proceed. For a self-represented filer in this county the substitutes are the New Mexico Courts HelpLine on 1-855-268-7804 and the free statewide Form 4B library (verified July 2026) |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in De Baca County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the home in Fort Sumner or out on the ranch 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 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 De Baca 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 applies informally in the De Baca County Probate Court on Form 4B-302 NMRA with a will or Form 4B-301 NMRA without one, after telephoning (575) 355-2601 to find out when the counter is open, because the county publishes no hours. 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 courthouse in Fort Sumner or to post to P. O. Box 347. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed, which would move the matter to the Tenth 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 De Baca 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, and in this county it means telephone first: there is no county website to read, no e-filing in either forum, and the original will has to reach the court physically. Call (575) 355-2601 before posting anything to P. O. Box 347 and ask how the office wants to receive the original will and the death certificate. | 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 Fort Sumner 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 De Baca County Probate Court can convey by personal representative's deed, recorded with the De Baca County Clerk. 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 Tenth 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. In this county the district court counter is in the same courthouse, so the move is short. | Asset discovery for the accounts, insurance, vehicles, De Baca 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 |
|---|---|
| De Baca County Clerk, clerk of the probate court, P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, (575) 355-2601, fax (575) 355-2441 | The county side of a probate filing, and the only county contact any government source publishes, as listed in the New Mexico Secretary of State's county clerk directory. The county clerk is the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)). No hours, payee, fee schedule or office email are published, so ask on the telephone. Court staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA) |
| New Mexico Secretary of State, county clerk information (sos.nm.gov) | The state's own directory of all 33 county clerks, and the source for the De Baca entry above. Worth knowing that De Baca is the only entry in it with no county website line, which is the cleanest published proof that the county has no site |
| Tenth Judicial District, location, hours and contacts (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 575-355-2896 | The formal and contested forum for De Baca, Quay and Harding Counties. It publishes the De Baca District Court at 248 E. Ave. C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, mailing to P.O. Box 910, fax 575-355-2899, clerk's email [email protected], open 8 a.m. to 12:00 and 1 to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed over the lunch hour, with a standing Google Meet link for remote attendance |
| Tenth Judicial District fees, costs and filing (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own fee page: civil cases $132.00, photocopies 35 cents per page, certification and seal $1.50 per pleading, exemplified copies $4.50 per pleading, and its payment rules, which are that personal checks are not accepted, cash must be the exact amount, money orders are payable to the 10th Judicial District Court, and debit and credit cards are taken |
| Tenth Judicial District self-representation (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | Its position stated plainly: no self help centers at any of its locations, forms provided by the clerks at 35 cents per page, free process if you cannot pay for them, and no legal advice from staff. Its remote hearings plan records a self-help kiosk in each of its courthouses except Harding's |
| Tenth Judicial District remote and hybrid hearings (tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's written plan of March 12, 2024 and the New Mexico Judiciary's remote proceedings standards. Google Meet for all remote proceedings, a fixed link per judge, civil scheduling conferences and motion hearings presumptively remote, and the rule that a notice carrying a Google Meet link and QR code means a remote hearing while a notice without them means an in person one |
| 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. In a county with no website and no self-help center, this is the single most useful number on the page after the clerk's |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide Form 4B library, which is what this county's probate court uses because it publishes none of its own, plus a plain-language guide and a Diné (Navajo) translation |
| New Mexico Courts self-representation (nmcourts.gov) | The judiciary's self-representation site, with a probate page carrying the same 4B forms. Its free Guide & File tool 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 Tenth Judicial District case and it does not reach a De Baca 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 De Baca 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, 34-7-22, 45-1-302 and 45-3-201 for yourself |
When to hire an attorney
Most De Baca County estates are uncontested, and the informal route is built for families doing this themselves: an informal probate is decided on the papers for $30.00 (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) with no hearing, and the statewide Form 4B set is free. Court staff in both forums are barred from giving legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA), and the Tenth Judicial District says so in its own words, adding that its clerks cannot tell you how to proceed. 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 leases 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 Tenth Judicial District Court, which is the only forum that can decide any of it. The absence of a county website is its own argument for advice: there is no published procedure to follow, and the directories that fill the gap online have been wrong about this county's basic contact details. Sunset can connect families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving De Baca 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, De Baca County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds at the start of estate settlement 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 the courthouse in Fort Sumner or to post to P. O. Box 347.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when title is disputed, or when it otherwise has to go to the Tenth Judicial District Court, Sunset connects families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving De Baca 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 De Baca County Probate Court or the Tenth Judicial District Court?
Both can open an informal probate, and only the district court can do anything else. The De Baca 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 Tenth 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 and because Section 34-7-10(B) means there is no second filing fee if the case has to be transferred up. In De Baca County both counters are in the same courthouse in Fort Sumner, so starting in the cheaper one costs you nothing in travel either.
Does De Baca County have a website, and where do I actually go?
It does not, and that is a verified finding rather than a broken link. As of July 2026 the obvious county domains do not resolve, the county is absent from the federal registry of .gov domains, it is the only one of the 33 counties in the New Mexico Secretary of State's county clerk directory with no website line, and the New Mexico Association of Counties' county site button for De Baca points at an encyclopedia article. One commercial lookalike domain does resolve and it is an offer to sell that domain, not a county office. The published county contact is the De Baca County Clerk, who is the clerk of the probate court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)): P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119, telephone (575) 355-2601, fax (575) 355-2441. The courthouse is at 248 E Avenue C in Fort Sumner, which is the address the New Mexico Courts publish for the De Baca District Court in the same building. Telephone before you drive in, and treat any other contact details you find online with suspicion: the third-party directories that fill this gap have published a wrong post office box, a wrong telephone number and the wrong person as probate judge for this county.
What are the De Baca County Probate Court's hours?
None are published anywhere. 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). De Baca County has no website, so the hours that statute expects to be published do not exist in public. No separate office address, telephone number or email for the probate judge is published by any government source either. The practical answer is to telephone the County Clerk's office on (575) 355-2601 and ask when the counter is open and when the judge can see you. Expect to be given an appointment rather than a walk-in window, which is normal for a part-time court. For comparison, the district court in the same building is open 8 a.m. to 12:00 and 1 to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and closes over the lunch hour.
How much does it cost to file probate in De Baca County, and how can I pay?
$30.00 in the De Baca County Probate Court and $132.00 in the Tenth Judicial District Court. The probate court fee is set by statute at thirty dollars for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14). De Baca County publishes no fee schedule, no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask on the telephone before you write a check, because a wrongly made out payment in a county this size costs a second trip. The district court figure is what the Tenth Judicial District publishes on its own fee page for a civil case, and a probate matter there is a civil case; 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's payment rules are published and specific: personal checks are not accepted, cash, money orders and cashier's checks are, cash has to be the exact amount because the clerk's office does not give change, money orders are made payable to the 10th Judicial District Court, and debit and credit cards are accepted. If the estate cannot afford the fee, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA in the probate court or under Rule 23-114 NMRA on Forms 4-222 to 4-224 NMRA in the district court.
Can I e-file a probate case in De Baca 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. 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 De Baca 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)). In this county the receiving counter is in the same building. 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 De Baca County probate case?
By telephoning the County Clerk's office on (575) 355-2601 or writing to P. O. Box 347, Fort Sumner, NM 88119. There is no online route at all: the county has no website, so it publishes no index, and county probate court cases are not in any statewide system. Case Lookup, the free statewide index, offers district, magistrate, metropolitan and municipal as its court types and has no probate court option, and the New Mexico Courts' locator lists no probate courts either. Each county probate court keeps its own records, in the charge of the clerk of the probate court (Section 34-7-7), and other counties' probate records are not available online. A Tenth Judicial District Court case, by contrast, does appear in Case Lookup, as an index entry without documents.
Are there local De Baca County probate forms?
No, and unusually for this question the answer needs no hedging: the county publishes no website, no document library and no packet, so there is nothing local to find. Use the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set, free from the New Mexico Courts, which is what this probate court runs on. With a will that means Form 4B-302 NMRA and Form 4B-304 NMRA; without one, Form 4B-301 NMRA and Form 4B-303 NMRA; then Form 4B-305 NMRA to accept the appointment and Form 4B-307 NMRA for letters testamentary or Form 4B-306 NMRA for letters of administration. Form 4B-101 NMRA is the flow chart for the whole case. The Tenth Judicial District publishes no probate forms of its own either, although its clerks will provide the forms the court holds at 35 cents per page, and free process is available if you cannot pay for the copies.
Can I appear remotely, or do I have to travel to Fort Sumner?
For an informal probate the question rarely arises, because an informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing, and most of it can be done by post to P. O. Box 347 and by telephone. What cannot be done remotely is delivery of the original will and the death certificate, which have to reach the court physically, and there is no e-filing in either forum. For the district court, the Tenth Judicial District publishes a Remote and Hybrid Hearings Plan dated March 12, 2024: all remote proceedings run on Google Meet with a fixed link for each judge, civil scheduling conferences and motion hearings are on the presumptively remote list, and jury selection, jury trials, bench trials, termination of parental rights and PQ-designated guardianship hearings are in person. The plan does not mention probate specifically, so ask the clerk. The rule that answers most people's question is the district's own: every notice provides a Google Meet link and a QR code if the hearing is remote, and a notice without them means an in person proceeding. If you have no internet at home, the district's plan records a self-help kiosk in each of its courthouses except Harding's, so there is one in the De Baca courthouse.
How long does an informal probate take in De Baca County?
The statutory clock, rather than any local docket, sets the shape of it, and neither the county nor the Tenth Judicial District publishes a processing time or a hearing schedule 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, though in a county with a part-time court that depends on when the judge is next available, which is a question for the telephone. 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 Fort Sumner.
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.