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Lea County, NM Probate Information
Quick facts
| Detail | Lea County Probate Court | Fifth Judicial District Court |
|---|---|---|
| What it handles | Informal, uncontested probate only: informal probate of a will, informal appointment of a personal representative, the letters that follow, and informal appointment of a special administrator. No hearings and no contested matters (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(C)). | Every formal and contested probate matter, exclusively: formal testacy and formal appointment, supervised administration, determination of heirs, will construction and will contests, title disputes between the estate and an adverse claimant, trusts and disclaimers (Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)). It may also take an informal probate (Section 45-1-302.1). Probate is a civil case type in the clerk's office; there is no separate probate department. |
| Courthouse address | Lea County Probate Judge, 100 North Main, Lovington, NM 88260. The Lea County Clerk's Office, which is the clerk of the probate court, is in the same building at 100 North Main, Suite 1C. | Lea County District Court, 100 N. Love St., Lovington, NM 88260. This is the only Fifth Judicial District courthouse in Lea County. |
| Mailing address | Lea County Probate Judge, 100 North Main, Lovington, NM 88260. The County Clerk's Office mails separately to PO Box 1507, Lovington, NM 88260. | Lea County District Court, 100 N. Love St., Box 1A, Lovington, NM 88260. |
| Phone | (575) 396-8648 is the probate judge's published office line. The Lea County Clerk's Office, the clerk of the probate court, is (575) 396-8619, and the county's own probate page currently directs anyone needing immediate assistance to the Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8624. | (575) 396-8571 is the Lea County District Court clerk's line published by the district. |
| Fax | (575) 396-3293. The county publishes the same fax number for the probate judge and for the County Clerk's Office, so address a faxed page to the right office by name. Do not attempt to open a probate by fax; the original will has to arrive physically. | The district publishes no fax number for the Lea County District Court on its Location, Hours and Contacts page. Use the counter, mail or the court's published email. |
| The county publishes no office mailbox for the probate court, only the judge's individual address, which is not reproduced here. Call the office or the County Clerk instead. | The court publishes an email intake for records requests, self-represented filings and filings that are not e-filed on its Location, Hours and Contacts page at fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov; get the current address from that page. | |
| Hours | Probate hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., which is what the county publishes for the probate judge. The position is a part-time one by statute (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)) and the court's hours are set by the clerk of the probate court and published on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). The practical counter, the Lea County Clerk's Office, is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and closed on most federal holidays. | 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The court closes during the lunch hour, and it takes no financial transactions after 4:30 p.m., so arrive before then if you are paying a filing fee. |
| Filing fee | $30 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14). Lea County publishes no probate fee schedule and no payee of its own, and the fees a probate court receives go into the county clerk recording and filing fund where the county clerk is the probate clerk (Section 34-7-22(A)). Confirm the amount, the payee and the accepted payment types with the Clerk's Office before you write anything on a check. | $132 to open a civil case, which is what a formal probate is: $117 by statute (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus the $15 alternative dispute resolution fee (Section 34-6-45(A)). The district's own fee page publishes the total on a line that reads "Civil and Probate Cases (New and Reopened) $132.00". No second filing fee is charged if a case properly filed in the probate court is later transferred up (Section 34-7-10(B)). |
| Payment accepted | Not published. The county publishes no accepted payment types for the probate court, so ask at the Clerk's counter first. | In the court's own words, "Personal checks are not accepted. Acceptable forms of payment are: cash, cashier's check, money orders, and credit cards." The district and its magistrate courts began taking credit and debit cards at the counter and online through finesandfees.nmcourts.gov. |
| Local forms | None. The Lea County Probate Court publishes no forms, packets or checklists of its own and uses the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set. The County Clerk separately publishes recording forms, including an Affidavit of Fact as to Death, a transfer on death deed, a joint tenant deed, a quit claim deed and a warranty deed, which must be printed on legal paper. | None of its own for probate. Its forms library hosts the statewide 4B probate set, the New Mexico courts' plain-language probate guide and a Diné (Navajo) translation, plus the free process Forms 4-222, 4-223 and 4-224 and a fillable motion and order for telephonic appearance. |
| E-filing | None. Probate court filing is on paper, at the counter or by mail. The electronic filing system is defined for the district courts only (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA), and the Probate Court Rules, Rules 1B-101 to 1B-701 NMRA, contain no electronic filing rule. The original will has to arrive physically. | eFile & Serve, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve, at newmexico.tylertech.cloud/ofsweb. It is mandatory for attorneys (Rule 1-005.2 NMRA). Self-represented parties are prohibited from e-filing and file on paper or through the court's published filing email, after which the clerk converts the document into electronic form (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) and (I)(2) NMRA). |
| Case search | Yes, and it is unusual in New Mexico. The Lea County Clerk's online Clerk Lookup at liveweb.leacounty-nm.org carries a Probate search alongside its grantor, grantee, book and page, marriage and scanned indexes. You can search by name, by file number or by date of death, and results give the file number, the name, any alias, the date of death and the date of filing. The county publishes no statement of what years it covers, and its own note says that for official copies of documents you should visit the county office. | New Mexico Courts Case Lookup, caselookup.nmcourts.gov/caselookup, indexes district, magistrate, metropolitan and municipal court cases. There is no probate court option in its court-type filter, and it is an index only, with no document images. Note that the district's own description of its clerk's office says adoption, mental illness and some probate matters are sequestered records that are not open to the public. |
| Remote appearance | Not applicable. An informal probate is decided on the papers and there is no hearing to attend. | Hearings are set and conducted as the assigned judge directs; cases are randomly assigned to a district judge on filing. The court publishes a fillable motion and order for telephonic appearance in its forms library, and a Lea County District Court docket showing the current day plus six days ahead. |
| Website | leacounty.gov/195/Lea-County-Probate-Judge | fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Before you pick a form or a building in Lea County, work out what the estate actually holds and who is entitled to it. The verified application that opens an informal probate has to state the decedent's date of death, age, and county and state of domicile at death, and it has to name the surviving spouse, children, heirs and devisees with their addresses (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301). You are swearing to it: by verifying the application you submit personally to the court's jurisdiction in any later proceeding for fraud or perjury (Section 45-3-301(G)). Getting that picture wrong is what sends a Lea County filer back to the counter, and the counter here is open two afternoons a week for the judge, so a wasted trip costs more than it does elsewhere.
The same inventory decides whether you need a probate at all. Accounts with a payable on death beneficiary, property held in joint tenancy and real estate covered by a recorded transfer on death deed pass outside probate entirely, and the Lea County Clerk publishes a transfer on death deed form on its own recording page. So list every bank and credit union account, retirement and brokerage account, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral or royalty interest, business interest and parcel of Lea County real estate, along with every debt, before you file. Mineral and royalty interests deserve particular attention in an oil and gas county like this one, because they are easy to miss and they are real property that has to be dealt with. Sunset's asset-discovery work, which searches more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step.
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)). Both courts on this page serve the whole of Lea County, which the county describes as 4,393 square miles in the southeastern corner of the state with a 2020 census population of 74,455: Hobbs, Lovington, Eunice, Jal, Tatum, Monument, Maljamar, Knowles, Buckeye, Caprock, Humble City, McDonald and Oil Center.
Within Lea County you have a choice of court. The Lea County Probate Court takes an informal, uncontested probate, and the Fifth Judicial District Court takes anything formal or contested and may also take an informal probate (Sections 45-1-302 and 45-1-302.1). Almost everyone who handles a Lea County estate without a lawyer uses the probate court, because it costs $30 rather than $132 (Sections 34-7-14, 34-6-40 and 34-6-45), it takes paper filings at a county counter, and Section 34-7-10(B) means there is no second filing fee if the case has to move up. The Lea County Probate Court is a county office within New Mexico's judicial branch, funded by the county (Section 34-7-4), and the probate judge is an elected, part-time county official (Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). The Fifth Judicial District Court is a state court covering Eddy, Chaves and Lea Counties (Section 34-6-1(E)), and it holds court for this county in Lovington.
Both courthouses are in Lovington, and that is the trap. Hobbs is nearly four times the size of Lovington, and there is no probate court, no district court and no district court clerk in Hobbs. What Hobbs has is a Lea County Magistrate Court at 2110 N. Alto Drive, and a magistrate court has no probate jurisdiction at all; nothing about an estate is filed there. The same is true of the Lea County Magistrate Courts in Lovington and Eunice, and the district lists its Jal magistrate court as closed. The Fifth Judicial District's own list of its locations names exactly three district courts, in Roswell, Carlsbad and Lovington, so a Lea County formal probate goes to 100 N. Love St., Lovington, and an informal one goes to the probate court and County Clerk at 100 North Main, Lovington, a few blocks apart.
The jurisdiction process
- Confirm the case belongs in Lea County and check the timing. Venue is the county of domicile at death, or a county where a non-resident owned property (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-201(A)). Nothing can be granted for the first 120 hours after the death (Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)), and a probate is normally opened within three years of the death (Section 45-3-108).
- Choose your forum. If nobody is fighting, there is a will or a clear set of heirs, and you only need authority to act, file informally at the Lea County Probate Court at the courthouse, 100 North Main, Lovington. If you need a determination of heirs, a ruling on whether a will is valid, a court order about who owns something, supervised administration, or anything with a hearing, that is exclusively the Fifth Judicial District Court, filed at the Lea County District Court, 100 N. Love St., Lovington (Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)).
- Gather the documents the counter will ask for: the original will if there is one, which must be in the court's possession before it can be probated (Section 45-3-303(A)(5)); a certified copy of the death certificate; and the names, addresses and, for minors, ages of the surviving spouse, children, heirs and devisees (Section 45-3-301).
- Get the forms. Lea County publishes none of its own, so use the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set at nmcourts.gov/forms-files/probate: Form 4B-301 to apply where there is no will, Form 4B-302 where there is one, with the matching orders at Forms 4B-303 and 4B-304, the acceptance of appointment at Form 4B-305 and the proposed letters at Form 4B-306 or Form 4B-307. Form 4B-101 is the one-page flow chart of the whole probate court case. The Fifth Judicial District hosts the same set in its own probate forms library if you would rather download them from the court.
- Have the application and the acceptance notarized. The application is a verified document and must be sworn (Section 45-3-301), and a document recorded later with the County Clerk needs a complete notary with a seal under the clerk's own recording requirements.
- File on paper and pay the fee. Take the application, order, acceptance and proposed letters to 100 North Main, Lovington, or mail them there, and pay the $30 filing fee for the probate case (Section 34-7-14). There is no e-filing at any New Mexico probate court. The probate judge's own published hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., while the Lea County Clerk's Office, which is the clerk of the probate court and keeps the probate records (Section 34-7-22(A)), is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, so call (575) 396-8648 or the Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8619 to confirm where and when to hand the papers over. If you cannot afford the fee, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 with the order at Form 4B-202 (Section 34-6-27(B)).
- Let the court review and docket the case. An informal probate is decided on the papers and does not require a hearing; the judge signs the order and the court issues Letters Testamentary where there is a will (Form 4B-307) or Letters of Administration where there is not (Form 4B-306). Administration of the estate begins with the issuance of letters (Section 45-3-103). The court may also decline an informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not stop you filing formally (Section 45-3-309).
- Tell the family within 30 days. Not later than 30 days after appointment the personal representative must give written notice of the appointment to the heirs and devisees, by delivery or ordinary mail, and must file a statement with the court naming who was notified (Section 45-3-705). Use Form 4B-401 for the notice and Form 4B-402 for the proof.
- Prepare an inventory within three months of appointment, listing each item with its date-of-death value and any encumbrance (Section 45-3-706). You must send a copy to any interested person who asks for one. Filing it with the court is optional in New Mexico, not required. Form 4B-601. In Lea County this is where mineral, royalty and working interests belong if the estate holds any.
- Deal with creditors. Publishing a notice to creditors once a week for three successive weeks in a Lea County newspaper of general circulation is permitted, not required, and it starts a four-month claim window (Section 45-3-801, Form 4B-501). Whether or not you publish, claims that arose before the death are barred one year after the death (Section 45-3-803).
- Transfer any real estate at the County Clerk, not the 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), and Section 45-3-715(A)(23) for sales), so a Lovington, Hobbs or Eunice house or a Lea County mineral interest is conveyed by a personal representative's deed recorded with the Lea County Clerk at 100 North Main, Suite 1C. The clerk charges $25 for the first ten index entries and $25 for each further block of ten, and requires a one and a half inch margin on every page with type no smaller than 8 point. What the probate court cannot do is decide a dispute about that title; that is the district court's, in a formal proceeding (Section 45-1-302(B)).
- If it turns contested, the case moves up. If anyone contests the will, if the heirs are in dispute, if a formal appointment or formal closing is requested, if a determination of testacy or heirship is needed, or if any hearing is required, the matter goes to the Fifth Judicial District Court (Section 45-1-302; Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA), on Form 4B-1001, order transferring case from probate court to district court. A disqualified or interested probate judge transfers the proceeding the same way (Section 34-7-9). Section 34-7-10(B) is the reason this is safe: if the case was properly filed in the probate court and is later transferred, no filing fee is charged in the district court. A pending formal case also freezes the probate court, which may not act on an informal application while it is pending (Section 45-3-401(C)).
- Close the estate. After the property is distributed, file a verified closing statement with the appointing court no earlier than six months after the original appointment (Section 45-3-1003, Form 4B-701; Form 4B-702 is the summary administration version). If no proceedings involving the personal representative are pending in the district court one year after the closing statement is filed, the appointment terminates. Outside supervised administration, which is district court only, there is no routine annual accounting to the court in New Mexico.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Lea County
The Lea County Probate Court publishes no forms, packets or checklists of its own. Neither the county's probate judge page nor the County Clerk's pages carry a probate packet, a probate checklist or a probate fee sheet, and the county's own site search returns none, so a Lea County filer uses the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set. That is not a gap: the 4B set is complete, free and designed for people filing without a lawyer.
The statewide set lives at nmcourts.gov/forms-files/probate, is cited as Form 4B-302 NMRA, and is used with 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 older numbering you find elsewhere is superseded.
| Form | What it does in a Lea County case |
|---|---|
| 4B-101 | Opening and closing a probate court case, a one-page flow chart. Its first step is choosing whether to file in the probate court or the district court. |
| 4B-201 and 4B-202 | Affidavit of poverty and indigency, and the order allowing free process, if you cannot afford the $30 fee (NMSA 1978, Section 34-6-27(B)). |
| 4B-301 and 4B-302 | The application for informal appointment of a personal representative where there is no will, and the application for informal probate of a will and informal appointment where there is one. Consent from other people with equal or greater priority is a signature block inside these forms; there is no separate waiver form. |
| 4B-303 and 4B-304 | The orders the probate judge signs. The file names on the courts' site say "Order for informal" while the documents themselves are titled "Order of informal"; cite the document title. |
| 4B-305, 4B-306 and 4B-307 | Acceptance of appointment as personal representative, then letters of administration where there is no will or letters testamentary where there is. Administration begins when letters are issued (Section 45-3-103). |
| 4B-401 and 4B-402 | Notice of informal appointment to the heirs and devisees, due within 30 days, and the proof of notice you file with the court (Section 45-3-705). |
| 4B-501 | Notice to creditors, both the newspaper publication version and the written notice version. Publication is optional in New Mexico (Section 45-3-801). |
| 4B-601 and 4B-602 | Inventory, due to be prepared within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706), and an accounting if one is needed. |
| 4B-701 and 4B-702 | The verified closing statement, filed no earlier than six months after appointment (Section 45-3-1003), and the small estate version used to close a summary administration. |
| 4B-801 and 4B-802 | Proof of authority and the certificate acknowledging receipt of the related documents. |
| 4B-901 to 4B-904 | Application, order, acceptance and letters for a special administrator, where somebody has to act before a general personal representative can be appointed. |
| 4B-1001 | Order transferring case from probate court to district court, the form that moves a Lea County case up to the Fifth Judicial District Court when it stops being uncontested. |
The Fifth Judicial District Court publishes no probate forms of its own either, but it hosts the whole 4B set in a probate forms library headed for Chaves County, Eddy County and Lea County, together with the New Mexico courts' plain-language probate guide and its Diné (Navajo) translation. Two cards in that library, for Forms 4B-201 and 4B-303, carry empty links, and the same two cards are broken on the statewide nmcourts.gov forms page, although the documents themselves are live; if either link will not open, ask court staff or the New Mexico Courts HelpLine on 1-855-268-7804 for the form. For a formal probate the district also publishes the free process Forms 4-222, 4-223 and 4-224 under Rule 23-114 NMRA, a fillable motion and order for telephonic appearance, and Form 4-115 for a court interpreter.
There is no statewide 4B form for the small-estate affidavit for personal property or for the surviving spouse's homestead affidavit, no proof-of-publication form (the newspaper supplies its own affidavit) and no notice-of-hearing form, because the 4B set is informal-only and contested matters transfer out on Form 4B-1001. What Lea County does publish, separately from the probate court, is a set of recording forms at the County Clerk's office: an Affidavit of Fact as to Death, a transfer on death deed, a joint tenant deed, a quit claim deed, a warranty deed, a power of attorney and a claim of lien. The clerk warns that these must be printed on legal paper.
Fees
Lea County publishes no probate court fee schedule, so the only probate court figure with a source behind it is the statutory one. The Fifth Judicial District and the Lea County Clerk both publish their own charges, and those are set out below. All figures were read from the offices' own pages on July 27, 2026.
| Charge | Amount | Office and authority |
|---|---|---|
| Probate case, filing fee | $30 | Lea County Probate Court, by statute (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14). The county publishes no fee sheet, no payee and no accepted payment types, so confirm all three with the Lea County Clerk's Office before you file |
| Civil and probate case, new or reopened | $132 | Fifth Judicial District Court's own fee page, which lists "Civil and Probate Cases (New and Reopened) $132.00". It is $117 by statute (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus the $15 alternative dispute resolution fee (Section 34-6-45(A)) |
| Photocopies at the district court | 35 cents per page | Fifth Judicial District Court fee page (Rule 1-099 NMRA) |
| Certification at the district court | $1.50 per seal | Fifth Judicial District Court fee page (Rule 1-099 NMRA) |
| Recording duplication at the district court | $4.00 per tape or CD | Fifth Judicial District Court fee page |
| Recording a personal representative's deed or a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit | $25 for one to ten index entries, and $25 for each further block of ten | Lea County Clerk, recording fees page, citing NMSA 1978, Sections 14-8-15(B) and 14-8-15(C). The clerk counts each grantor, each grantee and each reference as one entry |
| Copies and certification at the County Clerk | 50 cents per page | Lea County Clerk, recording fees page. The statutory ceiling for a probate clerk's document copies is $1.00 per page (Section 14-8-14(B)) |
| Faxed or scanned and emailed copies at the County Clerk | 50 cents per page | Lea County Clerk, recording fees page |
Two things about paying at the district court. It publishes its payment rule in plain terms: "Personal checks are not accepted. Acceptable forms of payment are: cash, cashier's check, money orders, and credit cards." And it takes no financial transactions after 4:30 p.m., so a late afternoon trip to pay a filing fee is wasted. The district and its magistrate courts now accept credit and debit cards at the counter and online through finesandfees.nmcourts.gov.
If you cannot afford the fee, New Mexico's route is called free process, not a fee waiver motion. At the probate court it is Form 4B-201, affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202, order allowing free process. At the district court it runs under Rule 23-114 NMRA on Forms 4-222 to 4-224, all three of which the Fifth Judicial District publishes in its own forms library, with presumptive indigency for public-assistance recipients or income at or below 185 per cent of the federal poverty guidelines (Section 34-6-27(B)). And if the probate court transfers a properly filed case up to the district court, no filing fee is charged in the district court at all (Section 34-7-10(B)).
Local nuance
Lea County-specific considerations
| Local fact | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| The county's biggest town has no probate forum | Hobbs has 40,508 residents to Lovington's 11,668 on the county's own 2020 census figures, but the county seat is Lovington and both courts are there. Hobbs has a Lea County Magistrate Court at 2110 N. Alto Drive, and a magistrate court has no probate jurisdiction at all. The Fifth Judicial District's own list of locations names three district courts, in Roswell, Carlsbad and Lovington, and no Lea County Clerk counter is published anywhere but Lovington. If you live in Hobbs, Eunice, Jal or Tatum, plan the drive to Lovington or file by mail. |
| The County Clerk is the clerk of the probate court, and Lea County says so itself | In the county's own words, "the Clerk is also the Probate Clerk to the County Probate Judge and maintains all probate proceedings executed by the probate judge." That is NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A) confirmed by the county. Practically it means the Clerk's Office at 100 North Main, Suite 1C, on (575) 396-8619, is where the probate file lives, where copies come from and where questions about the counter are answered. |
| The probate judge keeps two part-days a week; the clerk keeps five full days | The county publishes probate hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. That is consistent with the statute, which makes the position of probate judge a part-time one (Section 34-7-1(B)) and lets the clerk of the probate court set and publish the court's hours (Section 34-7-8). The County Clerk's counter in the same building is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call before you travel; the county's probate page currently carries a notice that the probate judge is unavailable for in-person meetings and directs people needing immediate assistance to the Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8624. |
| Lea County runs its own online probate index | Only a handful of New Mexico counties do. The County Clerk's Clerk Lookup at liveweb.leacounty-nm.org has a Probate search alongside its grantor, grantee, book and page, marriage and scanned indexes, searchable by name, file number or date of death and returning the file number, name, alias, date of death and date of filing. The county publishes no coverage statement, and it notes that official copies come from the county office. A Lea County Probate Court case will not appear in the statewide New Mexico Courts Case Lookup, which has no probate court option. |
| Lea County has its own staffed district court clerk, which not every New Mexico county does | In several multi-county judicial districts the county courthouse takes no filings and everything is routed to the district's main clerk in another town. Not here. The Fifth Judicial District publishes a Lea County District Court with its own street address, its own mailing box, its own phone and its own filing email, and four of the district's twelve judges sit in Lovington, in Divisions III, IV, VII and XI. A formal Lea County probate is filed in Lovington and stays there. |
| The district court closes for lunch and stops taking money at 4:30 | Its published hours are 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed during the lunch hour, with no financial transactions after 4:30 p.m. If you are driving in from Hobbs or Jal to pay a $132 filing fee, that cutoff is the one to plan around, and note that personal checks are not accepted. |
| Some district court probate records are sequestered | The Fifth Judicial District's own description of its clerk's office says adoption, mental illness and some probate matters are sequestered records that are not open to the public. So a formal Lea County probate may show in Case Lookup as an index entry without the file being publicly viewable. Ask the clerk's office on (575) 396-8571 rather than assuming a record is missing. |
| Mineral and royalty interests are ordinary estate property here | Lea County is an oil and gas county by its own description, and small mineral, royalty and working interests are commonly held by ordinary households. They are real property interests: they belong in the inventory (Section 45-3-706), they are conveyed by a personal representative's deed recorded with the County Clerk, and a dispute about who owns one is a title question only the district court can decide, in a formal proceeding (Section 45-1-302(B)). |
Small-estate Alternatives
The New Mexico small-estate routes are statewide and are covered on the New Mexico state page. Two of them finish at a Lea County counter rather than at either court, which is worth knowing before you open a probate you may not need.
A surviving spouse's homestead affidavit for a community-property homestead is recorded with the county clerk in the county where the home is, six months after the death, and no probate or administration is needed (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-1205). In Lea County that means the Lea County Clerk's recording counter at 100 North Main, Suite 1C, Lovington, on (575) 396-8619, at $25 for the first ten index entries. The value cap in that statute is measured as assessed for property taxation purposes, not market value, so check the assessed figure rather than what the house would sell for. The clerk requires a one and a half inch margin on every page, type no smaller than 8 point, an original signature and a complete notary with a seal.
The small-estate affidavit for personal property under Section 45-3-1201 is not filed with any court and carries no court fee. You present it to the bank, transfer agent or other holder of the property. Neither court on this page takes it, there is no statewide 4B form for it, and the New Mexico courts' own guide calls it an affidavit of successor in interest. It cannot be used to perfect title to real estate (Section 45-3-1201(C)), which in Lea County includes mineral and royalty interests. Separately, the Lea County Clerk publishes its own Affidavit of Fact as to Death, a short recording form that proves a death in the land records by death certificate or probate number and is used for title insurability; it is a recording document, not a substitute for either of the statutory affidavits or for probate.
Recent updates
| Date | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | The Lea County Probate Judge's page carries a notice that the judge is unavailable for in-person meetings for the remainder of July and throughout August, and directs anyone needing immediate assistance to the Lea County Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8624. The published probate hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. are unchanged. Call before you travel to Lovington. | leacounty.gov/195/Lea-County-Probate-Judge |
| November 3, 2026 and January 1, 2027 | The Lea County probate judge is an elected county official and the position is part-time (NMSA 1978, Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Every New Mexico probate judgeship, Lea County's included, is on the ballot on November 3, 2026, and the winner takes office on January 1, 2027. The judge named on the county's own pages as of July 27, 2026 is LaDonna K. Hardin. Address correspondence to the office rather than the person, and expect the name to change. The court, its address, its counter and its $30 fee do not change with the election. | NMSA 1978, Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2; leacounty.gov/195/Lea-County-Probate-Judge |
| Current practice | Lea County's government website has moved to the leacounty.gov domain. The older leacounty.net address no longer presents a matching security certificate, so older links to the probate judge or County Clerk pages may fail in a browser. Use leacounty.gov. | leacounty.gov |
| Current practice | The Fifth Judicial District Court and the magistrate courts in the district now accept credit and debit cards at the counter and online through finesandfees.nmcourts.gov. Personal checks are still not accepted, and no financial transaction is taken after 4:30 p.m. | Fifth Judicial District, Now Accepting Credit/Debit Cards and Fees, Costs and Filings, fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Lea County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | A Hobbs or Lovington home held in joint tenancy passes to the survivor outside probate, and title is cleared at the Lea County Clerk's recording counter at 100 North Main, Suite 1C, rather than at either court. Where the home was community property and the other conditions are met, a surviving spouse can record a homestead affidavit six months after the death and skip probate altogether (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-1205). Accounts, vehicles and any mineral interest in the deceased spouse's sole name may still need a probate. Where they do, the surviving spouse applies informally at the Lea County Probate Court for $30 (Section 34-7-14); a surviving spouse who is a devisee has priority for appointment, and one who is not still ranks ahead of other heirs (Section 45-3-203(A)). There is no hearing. | Asset discovery to separate survivorship and beneficiary property from sole-name assets, including the mineral and royalty interests that are easy to overlook in this county, which is what decides whether a probate is needed at all. Packet generation for the Form 4B-302 or 4B-301 application, order, acceptance and letters, ready to notarize and take to 100 North Main. Guidance on the recording step at the County Clerk in the same building. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | If the parent was domiciled in Lea County, that is where the case belongs (Section 45-3-201(A)(1)), even though the child is not. If the whole estate is small enough and there is no real estate, the Section 45-3-1201 affidavit is presented directly to the bank or transfer agent 30 days after the death, with no court, no filing and no fee. Where a probate is needed, the informal application can be mailed to the Lea County Probate Court at 100 North Main, Lovington, NM 88260 with the $30 fee. There is no e-filing at any New Mexico probate court and no hearing to attend, so the trip is often avoidable, but the original will has to physically reach the court, so it is mailed or carried. Call ahead: the probate judge's own published hours are two part-days a week, and the County Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8619 is the reliable line. | Asset discovery to establish whether the estate clears the affidavit route or needs letters. Packet generation for a mail-in Lea County filing, including the Section 45-3-705 notice to heirs and devisees due within 30 days of appointment and the Form 4B-402 proof of notice. Help tracking the case afterwards through the County Clerk's own online probate index. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | A parent is an heir where the child left no spouse or descendants, and ranks after any devisees and the surviving spouse in the appointment order (Section 45-3-203(A)). If nobody objects, the parent applies informally at the Lea County Probate Court and, once letters issue, has the same power over the title to the house that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Sections 45-3-711(A) and 45-3-715(A)(23)), so the sale closes on a personal representative's deed recorded with the Lea County Clerk at $25 for the first ten index entries. If a sibling, a co-owner or a creditor disputes who owns the house, only the Fifth Judicial District Court can decide it, in a formal proceeding (Section 45-1-302(B)), and the probate court transfers the case up on Form 4B-1001 with no second filing fee (Section 34-7-10(B)). | Asset discovery to surface the mortgage, liens, unpaid property tax and any recorded interest against the Lea County parcel before the sale is agreed. Packet generation for the informal application and for the closing statement due no earlier than six months after appointment (Section 45-3-1003). A vetted Lea County probate attorney if the title question goes to the district court in Lovington. |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Lea County Probate Judge (leacounty.gov/195/Lea-County-Probate-Judge, 100 North Main, Lovington, (575) 396-8648, fax (575) 396-3293) | The informal probate forum for the county. The page publishes the court's address, phone, fax and its probate hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and carries any current notice about the judge's availability. Court staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA). |
| Lea County Clerk's Office (leacounty.gov/177/Lea-County-Clerk, 100 North Main, Suite 1C, PO Box 1507, Lovington, (575) 396-8619) | The clerk of the probate court in the county's own words, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed on most federal holidays. This is where probate proceedings are maintained, where a case file or a certified copy is requested at 50 cents per page, and where a personal representative's deed or a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit is recorded. Its recording fees page publishes the $25 per ten index entries charge and the county's recording requirements. |
| Lea County Clerk Lookup (liveweb.leacounty-nm.org) | The county's own online index, with a Probate search by name, file number or date of death alongside grantor, grantee, book and page, marriage and scanned indexes. Results give the file number, name, alias, date of death and date of filing. Official copies come from the county office. |
| Fifth Judicial District Court, Lea County District Court (fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov, 100 N. Love St., Lovington, (575) 396-8571) | The formal and contested forum for Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties. Its Location, Hours and Contacts page gives the address, mailing box, hours and the email it designates for records requests, self-represented filings and filings that are not e-filed. Its Fees, Costs and Filings page publishes the $132 civil and probate figure and the payment rule. |
| Fifth Judicial District probate forms library (fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The court's own probate forms page for Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties, hosting the statewide Form 4B set, the New Mexico courts' plain-language probate guide and its Diné (Navajo) translation. The district's wider forms library also carries the free process Forms 4-222 to 4-224 and a fillable motion and order for telephonic appearance. |
| New Mexico Courts HelpLine (1-855-268-7804) | The judiciary's own information service, Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in English and Spanish with interpreters available. It provides court-approved forms and explains what a form is asking for, and points to free or low-cost legal services. It cannot tell you what to write on a form (Rule 23-113 NMRA). The Fifth Judicial District's own Self Help Center page is an online guide, not a staffed walk-in center, so this is the staffed help a Lea County filer can actually reach. |
| New Mexico Courts statewide probate forms (nmcourts.gov/forms-files/probate) | The Supreme Court's complete Form 4B series, plus a plain-language probate guide and a Diné (Navajo) translation. This is the form set a Lea County probate uses, because the county publishes none of its own. |
| New Mexico Courts Case Lookup (caselookup.nmcourts.gov/caselookup) | The free public index for Fifth Judicial District Court cases, along with magistrate, metropolitan and municipal courts. It has no probate court option, so a Lea County Probate Court case will not appear there; use the County Clerk's own probate index for those. |
| Legal Resources for the Elderly Program, State Bar of New Mexico (505-797-6005 or 1-800-876-6657) | A free statewide helpline for New Mexico residents aged 55 and older with no income restrictions, whose published advice areas expressly include probate, powers of attorney, transfer on death deeds and general estate planning. Phone lines are open and accepting voicemails Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time. The strongest probate-specific free resource available in Lea County. |
| Modest Means Helpline, State Bar of New Mexico (505-797-6013 or 888-857-9935) | Advice by phone for New Mexico residents of modest means, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Callers aged 55 or older are directed to the elderly program instead. |
| New Mexico Legal Aid (1-833-545-4357) and its Volunteer Attorney Program (1-877-266-9861) | Statewide intake Monday through Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for households at or below 125 per cent of the federal poverty guidelines. Its ten offices serve all New Mexico counties and the closest to Lea County is in Roswell. Probate is not one of its staff practice areas; it reaches probate through the Volunteer Attorney Program's free one-time consultations at scheduled clinics, for households at or below 200 per cent of the guidelines. |
| New Mexico Free Legal Answers (nm.freelegalanswers.org) and the State Bar's Online Bar Directory (sbnm.org) | Free written answers to civil legal questions from volunteer New Mexico attorneys for people who qualify, and the Bar's own directory for finding a lawyer. The Bar's main line is 505-797-6000. |
| New Mexico Compilation Commission (nmonesource.com) | The official free text of NMSA 1978 and of 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 Lea County estates are uncontested, and the informal route through the probate court is built for families handling it themselves: one verified application, a $30 fee, no hearing and no lawyer required. Counsel makes particular sense here when a will's validity or the identity of the heirs is in doubt, because only the Fifth Judicial District Court can decide either (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A)); when someone claims an interest in estate property adverse to the estate, which is again district court only and only in a formal proceeding (Section 45-1-302(B)); when the estate holds mineral, royalty or working interests, an oilfield business, out-of-state property or a house whose sale terms are disputed; when a deed has to be drafted, which the New Mexico courts' own guide warns can be very tricky to draft and execute properly; when the estate looks insolvent or creditors are pressing; and whenever the probate judge declines an informal appointment, which the judge may do for any reason without deciding anything (Section 45-3-309). An attorney also brings e-filing with them, since attorneys must e-file at the district court while self-represented parties are prohibited from doing so (Rule 1-005.2 NMRA). Sunset can connect families to a vetted Lea County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.
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, Lea County real estate and mineral interests, business interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds for estate settlement before you file. In New Mexico that picture does real work: it decides whether a probate is needed at all, it fills the verified application the court requires you to swear to (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and it is the basis of the inventory due within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706).
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the Lea County filing: the Form 4B-301 or 4B-302 application, the order, the acceptance and the proposed letters, with the heirs and devisees named and addressed, ready to notarize and take or mail to 100 North Main, Lovington with the $30 fee (Section 34-7-14), plus the notice of appointment and proof of notice due within 30 days (Section 45-3-705) and the closing statement due no earlier than six months in (Section 45-3-1003).
Find a local probate attorney. When a will is contested, when the heirs are in dispute, when someone claims the house or a mineral interest against the estate, or when the case has to move to the Fifth Judicial District Court in Lovington on Form 4B-1001, Sunset connects families to a vetted Lea County probate attorney who can file, e-file and appear.
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
Where do I file probate in Lea County?
In Lovington, at one of two buildings. An informal, uncontested probate is filed on paper at the Lea County Probate Court, 100 North Main, Lovington 88260, or mailed to the same address; the Lea County Clerk's Office in Suite 1C of that building is the clerk of that court. Anything formal or contested is filed at the Lea County District Court, 100 N. Love St., Lovington 88260, with mail going to 100 N. Love St., Box 1A. You file in Lea County if the person who died lived here at the time of death, or lived outside New Mexico but owned property here (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-201(A)).
Do I file in the Lea County Probate Court or the Fifth Judicial District Court?
Both courts can open an informal probate (Section 45-1-302.1), so you have a genuine choice, but only the district court can do anything formal or contested (Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)). Use the probate court if nobody is objecting, there is a will or a clear set of heirs, and you just need the legal authority to act: it costs $30 rather than $132 and there is no hearing. Use the district court if you need a determination of heirs, a ruling on whether a will is valid, a court order about who owns something, supervised administration, or any hearing. If you start in the probate court and it turns contested, the case transfers up on Form 4B-1001 and no second filing fee is charged (Section 34-7-10(B)), which is why starting in the probate court is low-risk.
Can I file probate in Hobbs?
No. Hobbs is the biggest town in Lea County, with 40,508 people to Lovington's 11,668 on the county's own 2020 census figures, but it has no probate court and no district court. The court in Hobbs is the Lea County Magistrate Court at 2110 N. Alto Drive, and magistrate courts have no probate jurisdiction at all, so nothing about an estate is filed there. The same goes for the Lea County Magistrate Courts in Lovington and Eunice; the district lists its Jal magistrate court as closed. The Fifth Judicial District's own list of locations names three district courts, in Roswell, Carlsbad and Lovington. Everything probate in this county happens in Lovington, or by mail.
How much does it cost to file probate in Lea County?
$30 for a probate case at the Lea County Probate Court, set by statute (Section 34-7-14). The county publishes no probate fee sheet, no payee and no list of accepted payment types, so confirm all three with the Lea County Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8619 before you write a check. At the Fifth Judicial District Court a civil case, which is what a formal probate is, costs $132: $117 by statute (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus a $15 alternative dispute resolution fee (Section 34-6-45(A)), and the court's own fee page publishes it as "Civil and Probate Cases (New and Reopened) $132.00". The district court charges 35 cents a page for photocopies and $1.50 per certification seal, does not accept personal checks, and takes no financial transactions after 4:30 p.m. If you cannot afford the fee, ask for free process (Section 34-6-27(B)): Forms 4B-201 and 4B-202 at the probate court, Forms 4-222 to 4-224 at the district court.
What are the Lea County Probate Court's hours?
The county publishes probate hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The position of probate judge is a part-time one by statute (Section 34-7-1(B)), and the court's hours are set by the clerk of the probate court and published on the county's website (Section 34-7-8), which is why they are shorter than a courthouse's. The Lea County Clerk's Office in the same building is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and closed on most federal holidays, and as the clerk of the probate court it is the office to call on (575) 396-8619 if you cannot reach the judge. Call before you travel: the county's probate page has carried a notice that the judge is unavailable for in-person meetings, directing people who need immediate assistance to the Clerk's Office on (575) 396-8624.
Can I e-file a probate case in Lea County?
Not at the probate court, ever: New Mexico's electronic filing system is defined for the district courts only (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA) and the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule, so every Lea County Probate Court filing is paper, at the counter or by mail, and the original will has to arrive physically. At the Fifth Judicial District Court e-filing runs on eFile & Serve, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve, and it is mandatory for attorneys, but self-represented parties are prohibited from e-filing and must file on paper, after which the clerk scans the filing into the system (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) and (I)(2) NMRA). The Lea County District Court also publishes an email address for records requests, self-represented filings and filings that are not e-filed on the district's Location, Hours and Contacts page at fifthdistrict.nmcourts.gov.
How do I look up a Lea County probate case?
Lea County is one of the few New Mexico counties with an index of its own. The County Clerk's Clerk Lookup at liveweb.leacounty-nm.org has a Probate search that takes a name, a file number or a date of death and returns the file number, the name, any alias, the date of death and the date of filing. The county publishes no statement of the years it covers, and its own note says to visit the county office for official copies. Fifth Judicial District Court cases are in the statewide New Mexico Courts Case Lookup at caselookup.nmcourts.gov/caselookup, which has no probate court option and is an index only. Note that the district says adoption, mental illness and some probate matters are sequestered records that are not open to the public.
What happens if someone objects or contests the will in Lea County?
The probate court cannot decide it, and the case moves to the Fifth Judicial District Court, which has exclusive original jurisdiction over formal proceedings, will contests, will construction and determination of heirs (Section 45-1-302(A)). An objection to an appointment can only be made in a formal proceeding (Section 45-3-203(B)). The move is made on Form 4B-1001, order transferring case from probate court to district court, and the triggers are set out in Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA: a formal appointment or formal closing is requested, a contest arises, testacy or heirship has to be determined, a hearing is required, or any interested party or the judge asks for the transfer. No filing fee is charged in the district court on a transfer of a case properly filed in the probate court (Section 34-7-10(B)). While a formal case is pending, the probate court may not act on an informal application at all (Section 45-3-401(C)).
Is there a hearing, and do I have to travel to Lovington?
An informal probate at the Lea County Probate Court is decided on the papers and does not require a hearing, because informal proceedings in New Mexico are conducted without notice to interested persons (Section 45-1-201(25)). You can mail the application and the fee to 100 North Main, Lovington, NM 88260, so a family in Hobbs, Jal or out of state often never appears, although the original will must physically reach the court. If the case is in the Fifth Judicial District Court, it is randomly assigned to a district judge on filing and hearings are set as that judge directs; four of the district's twelve judges sit in Lovington, and the court publishes a fillable motion and order for telephonic appearance in its forms library.
Does the Lea County Probate Court have its own forms?
No. It publishes no forms, packets or checklists of its own, so a Lea County probate uses the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set at nmcourts.gov/forms-files/probate, and the Fifth Judicial District Court hosts the same set in its own probate forms library for Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties. The forms a Lea County filer meets are 4B-301 and 4B-302 (the applications), 4B-303 and 4B-304 (the orders), 4B-305 (acceptance), 4B-306 and 4B-307 (letters), 4B-401 and 4B-402 (notice and proof), 4B-501 (creditors), 4B-601 (inventory), 4B-701 (closing) and 4B-1001 (transfer to district court). Separately, the Lea County Clerk publishes recording forms, including an Affidavit of Fact as to Death and a transfer on death deed, which the clerk says must be printed on legal paper. Court and clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA).
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.