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Union County, NM Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Union County Probate Court | Eighth 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). The county puts it in its own words: the County Clerk is clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only. 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 Union County Administration Building, 200 Court Street, Clayton, NM 88415. The county publishes that the Office of the Informal Probate Court is located there and operates within the office of the Union County Clerk. Note the number: 200 Court Street, not 100 | The Union County Courthouse, 100 Court Street, Suite 5, Clayton, NM 88415, which the Eighth Judicial District publishes as one of its three district courthouses and which takes its own filings. The Clayton Magistrate Court, which has no probate jurisdiction, is published at the same address |
| Mailing address | PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415, and the county asks for the routing line ATTN: Probate Court on the envelope | Union County Courthouse, 100 Court Street, Suite 5, Clayton, NM 88415. The district publishes the street address as the mailing address |
| Phone | 575-374-9491, ext. 2, which is the County Clerk's line and the number the county publishes for the probate court (verified July 2026). The county publishes a second number beside the probate judge's name without labeling it; use the office line | 575-374-9577, the clerk's counter at the Clayton courthouse (verified July 2026) |
| Fax | None published for the probate court or the County Clerk's Office. Nothing on the county's pages suggests a probate application may be filed by fax | 575-374-2089, published by the district for the Union County Courthouse |
| Hours | 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, by appointment. That is the county's own published schedule for the probate court, and it is one afternoon a week, which is consistent with the position of probate judge being a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)) and with hours being set by the clerk of the probate court and published on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Union County publishes no separate counter hours for the Clerk's Office; it says probate files may be viewed in person during business hours. Call 575-374-9491, ext. 2 before driving in | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, open during the lunch hour, published for all three of the district's courthouses |
| Filing fee | $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), and Union County publishes the figure itself on the County Clerk's page as the filing fee, beside $5 for the forms packet with or without a will. No payee and no accepted payment methods are published, so ask when you telephone for the appointment | $132.00, which the Eighth Judicial District publishes on its own fee page for civil cases including probates, new and re-opened. 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)), and the Eighth states that it has implemented such a program. Acceptable payment is cash, money order, cashier's check or credit card, with a 2.25 percent service fee on card payments and no American Express; personal checks are not accepted |
| Local forms | Yes, two of them. Union County publishes a Probate Packet With Will and a Probate Packet No Will as free PDFs on the County Clerk's page and sells the printed packet for $5. Both open with the county's own welcome sheet setting out what the probate judge and clerks can and cannot do, and both then reproduce the Probate Court Rules and the current statewide Form 4B set | None of its own for probate. Its priced packets are for divorce, paternity, name change, driver's license restoration, emancipation and motions, and there is no probate packet among them. It hosts the statewide Form 4B set on its own probate forms page |
| 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 Clayton 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 converts a paper filing into electronic format (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) and (I)(2) NMRA) |
| Case search | Yes, and this is unusual in New Mexico. The County Clerk publishes an Official Record Search with a Probates department alongside real property, marriage and meeting minutes, indexed by case number, deceased name, death date, case status and closing date, and the county states that informal probate cases can be searched from the late 1800s to the present. Files may also be viewed in person at the Clerk's office | Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district courts, so an Eighth Judicial District case appears there. It is an index only, with no document images, and it offers no probate court option. The district also publishes a Union County District Court docket page for Clayton |
| Remote appearance | Nothing published. An informal probate is decided on the papers and needs no hearing, and the court is by appointment in any event, so ask what the office will do by telephone or mail when you call | Nothing published for probate. Ask the clerk's counter at 575-374-9577 |
| No office mailbox is published. Every address the county publishes for the Clerk's Office belongs to a named individual, so use the telephone line or the post office box | None published as a public help line. Proposed orders and other documents needing a judge's signature are not filed through eFile & Serve and go to the assigned judge's proposed text mailbox; ask the clerk's counter which one applies | |
| Website | https://www.unionnm.us/172/Clerks-Office, the County Clerk's page, which is where Union County publishes the probate court's address, hours, fees and packets. There is no separate probate judge page on the county site | https://eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/location-hours-contacts/ for locations, hours and contacts, and https://eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/about-this-district/fees-costs-filing/ for the district's own fee page |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Know what the estate holds before you telephone for the appointment. Which route fits, and which of the two Union County forums you use, depends on whether there is a will, who is entitled to be appointed, whether anyone is likely to object, and what kind of property is involved. Some estates here never need a court at all, because the property passes by survivorship, by a transfer on death deed, by a payable on death designation or by a beneficiary designation, and some qualify for one of New Mexico's affidavit routes that are handled at a bank or at the County Clerk's recording counter rather than in a courtroom. Those statewide routes and their dollar limits are covered on the New Mexico state page. Sorting it out first matters more in Union County than in a city: the probate court's published window is one afternoon a week and by appointment, there is no e-filing in either forum, and Clayton is a long way from anywhere else in the district, so an incomplete filing costs a week rather than an hour.
Then list every asset and every debt in detail. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and by verifying it you submit personally to the court's jurisdiction in any later proceeding for fraud or perjury, so a missed account is not a small thing. Within three months of appointment the personal representative must prepare an inventory of everything the person owned at death, with a value for each item as of the date of death (Section 45-3-706). Sunset's asset discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so the application you take to your appointment at 200 Court Street 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 Union County you have a choice of court: the Union County Probate Court for an informal, uncontested probate, or the Eighth 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 Union County Probate Court sits in the Union County Administration Building at 200 Court Street in Clayton, the county seat, and serves the whole county: Clayton itself, the villages of Des Moines, Folsom and Grenville, the communities of Capulin, Amistad, Sedan, Gladstone, Mount Dora and Seneca, and the ranch country and grassland between them. It is a county office within New Mexico's judicial branch, funded by the county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-4), and the position of probate judge is a part-time, elected one (Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Union County describes the arrangement plainly on its own County Clerk page: the Office of the Informal Probate Court is located in the Union County Administration Building and operates within the office of the Union County Clerk, and the Clerk's constitutional duties include serving as clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only. That is the statutory default stated out loud, because the county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county (Section 34-7-22(A)). Its hours are whatever the clerk sets and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8), and Union publishes one afternoon a week, by appointment.
The Eighth Judicial District Court covers Union, Colfax and Taos Counties, and unlike some rural New Mexico districts it staffs a clerk's counter in each of them. The district publishes three district courthouses, the Union County Courthouse at 100 Court Street, Suite 5 in Clayton, the Colfax County Courthouse in Raton and the Taos County Courthouse in Taos, each with its own counter telephone, its own fax and its own mailing address, all open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and open through the lunch hour. It publishes no statement routing Union County filings anywhere else, so a formal or contested Union County estate is filed at a counter in Clayton. A multi-county district is an administrative fact rather than a venue rule in any event: you do not file in a district, you file in the county where venue lies.
Two things in Clayton are not where an estate goes. The first is a street-number trap: the county's probate court and County Clerk are at 200 Court Street, and the district court is at 100 Court Street, Suite 5, so the two buildings share a street name and differ by a hundred. Read the number twice before you address an envelope to PO Box 430 or drive to a counter. The second is the Clayton Magistrate Court, which the district publishes at 100 Court Street, Suite 5, the same building and suite as the district court, on 575-374-9472. A magistrate court is a court of limited jurisdiction handling small civil claims, misdemeanors and traffic matters, and it has no probate jurisdiction at all.
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. The county's own packet says the same thing in its first step: if the person died more than three years ago, or the original will cannot be located, the case must be filed in district court.
- Get the packet. Union County publishes a Probate Packet With Will and a Probate Packet No Will as free PDFs on the County Clerk's page, and sells the printed packet for $5. Both reproduce Form 4B-101 NMRA, the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, the Probate Court Rules, and the current statewide Form 4B set. The same forms are free from the New Mexico Courts probate forms library and from the Eighth Judicial District's own probate forms page.
- Fill in the opening forms before your appointment. With a will, that is Form 4B-302 NMRA, the application for informal probate of will and for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-304 NMRA, the order. With no will, it is Form 4B-301 NMRA, the application for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-303 NMRA, the order. Both routes then use Form 4B-305 NMRA, the acceptance of appointment, and the letters form, which is Form 4B-307 NMRA for letters testamentary where there is a will and Form 4B-306 NMRA for letters of administration where there is not. New Mexico's statutory term for the person who settles the estate is personal representative; executor and administrator are correct informal usages for the same office. The application has to be verified as accurate and complete (Section 45-3-301), and the priority order for who may be appointed is set by Section 45-3-203(A).
- Make the appointment, and bring the originals. Union County publishes the probate court's hours as 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, by appointment, so telephone 575-374-9491, ext. 2 and arrange a time rather than turning up. 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)). Bring a certified copy of the death certificate. If you are mailing an original will from out of state, call first and ask how the office wants to receive it, and address the envelope to PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415, ATTN: Probate Court.
- File on paper and pay $30.00. There is no electronic filing in a New Mexico probate court: the statewide system is approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA), the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule, and the original will has to be physically delivered in any event. The filing fee is $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), which Union County publishes on the County Clerk's page as the filing fee alongside the $5 packet. The county publishes no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask when you telephone. 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.
- Take the appointment and collect the letters. If the judge makes the findings the statute requires, the court issues a written statement of informal probate and letters (Sections 45-3-302, 45-3-307 and 45-3-103), and administration of the estate is commenced by the issuance of letters. Before receiving them the personal representative qualifies by filing any required bond and a statement of acceptance (Section 45-3-601). Order enough certified copies for the banks, title company and transfer agents you will deal with, and ask the price at the counter: Union County's fee resolution charges $1.00 for a hard copy made by the Clerk's staff and $1.50 for certification in addition to the copy charge. 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 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 Eighth Judicial District Court at 100 Court Street, Suite 5, 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). That rule is printed in the county's own packet. Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and Section 34-7-10(B) provides that where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court. Starting in the Union County Probate Court therefore costs you nothing if the case has to move up. Note also that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending, the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)).
- Administer, then close. Pay the valid debts and the taxes, deal with the property, and distribute what is left. An informally appointed personal representative has the same power over the title to estate property that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Section 45-3-711(A)), so real property in Union County can be conveyed by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Union County Clerk at $25.00 per document under the county's own fee resolution, which cites Section 14-8-15 NMSA 1978. 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 Union County
Union County publishes two probate packets of its own, free as PDFs on the County Clerk's page and $5 printed, and they are more substantial than most small-county packets in New Mexico. The Probate Packet With Will and the Probate Packet No Will each open with a one-page sheet headed Welcome to the Union County Probate Court and Clerk's Office, which sets out in two columns what the probate judge and clerks CAN do and what they CANNOT do. On the can side: provide court-approved forms and instructions, explain what a form asks for without suggesting the words to use, give general information about court rules, procedures and legal terms, provide publicly available information on probate cases, and encourage you to seek advice from a licensed attorney. On the cannot side: give legal advice, perform legal research, fill in forms for you, create legal documents or provide forms for deeds, wills or contracts, interpret how a statute applies to your facts, or predict what a court will do. The sheet closes with the county's own line that the probate judge does not give legal advice, does not take sides, and expects honesty in all meetings and informal hearings. The Clerk's page says the same thing for the office generally: staff may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public, because New Mexico county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice.
Behind the welcome sheet, both packets reproduce the current statewide materials rather than anything the county drafted. They carry Form 4B-101 NMRA, the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, which sets out the testate and intestate routes in eleven steps; the Probate Court Rules, beginning with Rule 1B-101 NMRA, whose paragraph B(2) lists the six triggers that send a probate case to district court; and the Form 4B series through Form 4B-602 NMRA, the accounting. The forms carry their recompilation note from Supreme Court Order No. 18-8300-014, effective for all cases pending or filed on or after December 31, 2018, so these are the current numbers rather than the superseded pre-2018 set. Two practical points: both packets are scanned images with no searchable text, so you cannot copy and paste from them and a screen reader will not read them, and the free statewide library at the New Mexico Courts holds the same forms as fillable PDFs.
One statewide gap to plan around. There is no Form 4B for the affidavit routes that avoid probate altogether, no renunciation or waiver form (consent is a signature block inside Forms 4B-301 and 4B-302), no proof of publication form (the newspaper supplies its own affidavit), and no notice of hearing form, because the 4B set is written for informal cases and a contested matter transfers out on Form 4B-1001 NMRA. The Eighth Judicial District publishes no probate forms of its own either: its priced packets are for divorce, paternity, name change, driver's license restoration, emancipation and motions, and there is no probate packet among them. What it does do is host the full statewide 4B set on its own probate forms page, including the plain-language guide and the Dine translation.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Union County Clerk's Office (unionnm.us) | The county's own page for the probate court: the Administration Building address at 200 Court Street, the post office box, the telephone extension, the Wednesday afternoon hours by appointment, the $30 filing fee and the $5 packet, and links to both packets and the county fee schedule. There is no separate probate judge page on the county site |
| Union County Probate Packet With Will (PDF) | The county's packet for an estate with a will: the welcome sheet, Form 4B-101 NMRA, the Probate Court Rules and the statewide forms for that route, including Form 4B-302, Form 4B-304 and Form 4B-307 NMRA. A scanned PDF with no searchable text |
| Union County Probate Packet No Will (PDF) | The county's packet for an estate with no will, including Form 4B-301, Form 4B-303 and Form 4B-306 NMRA, and Form 4B-201 and Form 4B-202 NMRA for free process. Also a scanned PDF |
| Union County fee schedule, Resolution #105-41 (PDF) | The county's own charges, adopted May 9, 2017 and recorded as Union County document #201700455. Its Clerk's Office section prices copies, certification, emailed and faxed images, and the $25.00 per document recording fee it attributes to Section 14-8-15 NMSA 1978. It carries no probate heading, so read it with the Clerk's page |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms, the 4B set (nmcourts.gov) | The current statewide library: 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 Dine translation |
| Eighth Judicial District probate forms (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own copy of the same statewide 4B set, including the Dine translation. The district publishes no probate packet and no probate form of its own |
Fees
Union County publishes its charges in two places, and a reader needs both. The probate filing fee and the packet price are on the County Clerk's web page. Everything else the Clerk's counter charges is in the county's own fee resolution, Resolution #105-41, the Union County Fee Schedule adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on May 9, 2017 and recorded the same day as Union County document #201700455. Nothing in either displaces the statute: the probate filing fee is the statewide figure in NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14. What they add is the local pricing for the things a personal representative here actually buys, including the copies that banks and title companies ask for and the recording of a personal representative's deed. Note that the resolution carries no probate heading of its own, so read it together with the Clerk's page rather than instead of it.
| Item | Published fee and authority |
|---|---|
| Opening a probate case in the Union County Probate Court | $30.00. Union County publishes it on the County Clerk's page simply as the filing fee. The statute is NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14: clerks of the probate courts shall receive a filing fee of thirty dollars ($30.00) for each probate case. No payee and no payment methods are published, so ask when you telephone 575-374-9491, ext. 2 for your appointment |
| Printed probate packet | $5, published on the County Clerk's page as the forms packet with or without a will. Optional: both packets are free PDFs on the same page |
| Copies from the Union County Clerk's Office | $.50 for a hard copy of a document made by the customer and $1.00 for a hard copy made by the Clerk's staff, with images emailed or faxed at $1.00 per image and images burned to CD at $15.00 plus $.10 per image (Resolution #105-41, Clerk's Office section) |
| Certification by the Union County Clerk's Office | $1.50 for certification of recorded documents, charged in addition to the copy charge (Resolution #105-41). New Mexico caps what a county clerk acting as probate clerk may charge for document copies at $1.00 per page and allows a reasonable certification fee (NMSA 1978, Section 14-8-14(B)), and the county's prices sit inside that. Confirm the price for a certified copy of letters at the counter, because the resolution prices certification of recorded documents rather than probate court documents specifically |
| Recording a personal representative's deed with the Union County Clerk | $25.00 for each document filed or recorded, with an additional $25.00 for each further block of ten or fewer entries where a document carries more than ten entries to the county recording index. The county recites NMSA 1978, Section 14-8-15 on the face of the resolution. This is the same office and the same counter as the probate court, and it is also where a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit is recorded |
| Opening a probate case in the Eighth Judicial District Court | $132.00. The district's own fee page lists it under civil cases including probates, new and re-opened. 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)), and the Eighth states on its own services page that it has implemented such a program |
| Eighth Judicial District Court copies and certification | Photocopies $.35 per page, certification and seal $1.50 each, and tape or CD duplication $4.00 (district fee page, verified July 2026). The district also reproduces Rule 1-099 NMRA, under which no docket fee is charged for filing any paper within ninety days after the final disposition of a case |
| No second fee if the case moves up | Nothing. Where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred to the district court, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-10(B)) |
| If you cannot afford the fee | New Mexico calls it free process, not a fee waiver. In the Union County Probate Court, ask on Form 4B-201 NMRA, the affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202 NMRA as the order. In the Eighth Judicial District Court it runs under Rule 23-114 NMRA on Forms 4-222, 4-223 and 4-224 NMRA, and Form 4-223 lets the court leave the $15 alternative dispute resolution fee in place and excludes certification, publication and copy charges unless they are granted too |
How the district court takes payment is worth knowing before you drive to 100 Court Street, and it is published in the court's own words: acceptable forms of payment are cash, money order, cashier's check and credit card, and personal checks are not accepted. Card payments, at the counter or online, carry a 2.25 percent service fee per payment under the district's own notice of new credit card fee rates posted January 23, 2025, and American Express is not accepted. Union County publishes nothing equivalent for the probate court, so ask the Clerk's Office what it takes rather than assuming.
Local nuance
Union County-specific considerations
The probate court is open one afternoon a week, and the county says so. Union County publishes the Office of the Informal Probate Court's hours as Wednesday, 1 pm to 4 pm, by appointment. That is not missing information or a pandemic leftover; it is what the statute contemplates, because the position of probate judge in New Mexico is a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)) and the probate court is open at such times as the clerk of the probate court determines and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Plan around it. Telephone 575-374-9491, ext. 2 well before the Wednesday you want, and have the original will, a certified copy of the death certificate and the completed application with you when you come.
Two courthouses on Court Street, a hundred numbers apart. The probate court and the County Clerk are in the Union County Administration Building at 200 Court Street. The district court is in the Union County Courthouse at 100 Court Street, Suite 5, and the Clayton Magistrate Court, which has no probate jurisdiction, is published at the same address and suite. Directories that give a single Court Street address for both county offices and both courts are collapsing two buildings into one. Mail for the probate court goes to PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415, with the county's own routing line ATTN: Probate Court.
Union County puts its probate cases online, which almost no New Mexico county does. County probate court cases are county records and are not in any statewide system: the free statewide Case Lookup tool offers District, Magistrate, Metropolitan and Municipal as its court types and has no probate court option, and no probate court appears in the New Mexico Courts locator either. Union County fills the gap itself. The County Clerk's Official Record Search carries a Probates department alongside real property, marriage and meeting minutes, indexed by case number, deceased name, death date, case status and closing date, and the county states that informal probate cases can be searched there from the late 1800s to the present. Files may also be viewed in person at the Clerk's office. Two cautions: the same search also indexes recorded land documents, which is where a personal representative's deed or a homestead affidavit lands and which is a different thing from a probate case, and a formal or contested Union County estate is a district court case and belongs in Case Lookup instead.
The district's walk-in help desk is at the other end of the district. The Eighth Judicial District staffs a Help Desk in the main lobby of the Taos County Courthouse, on 575-751-8634, 11:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Fridays, with public computers available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its published services are domestic violence forms, samples of district court forms, review of domestic violence and dissolution of marriage filings, district court procedures, general legal information and brief attorney consultations when an attorney is available, and its own notice says the staff cannot give legal advice. Probate is not on that list, and the desk sits two counties away from Clayton, so for a Union County estate the New Mexico Courts HelpLine on 1-855-268-7804 is the more useful free resource. One district service does reach probate: the Eighth states that it has implemented an alternative dispute resolution program and that certain consumer debt and probate matters may be assigned to court-connected mediation with mediators under contract with the court.
Recent updates
| Item | What it means in Union County |
|---|---|
| Every New Mexico probate judgeship is on the ballot on November 3, 2026, with the winner taking office January 1, 2027 | The probate judge is an elected county official and the position is part-time (NMSA 1978, Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). The current cohort's terms were extended to December 31, 2026 by Laws 2023, chapter 44, Section 15(B), so the Union County seat, like all 33, turns over at the start of 2027. This page names the office rather than the officeholder for that reason. The court, its address at 200 Court Street, its counter and its $30.00 fee do not change with the election |
| The Eighth Judicial District staffs a clerk's counter in Clayton and publishes no routing of Union County filings elsewhere | The district lists the Union County Courthouse at 100 Court Street, Suite 5 as one of three district courthouses, with its own counter telephone of 575-374-9577, its own fax of 575-374-2089 and hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, open through the lunch hour (verified July 2026). Unlike some rural New Mexico districts it does not send this county's filings to another courthouse, so a formal or contested estate is filed in Clayton. Call before driving in |
| Union County publishes its own online probate index, which almost no New Mexico county does | The County Clerk's Official Record Search carries a Probates department, and the county states that informal probate cases can be searched from the late 1800s to the present, with files also viewable in person at the Clerk's office (verified July 2026). Statewide guidance that county probate court records are never online does not hold here, although the free statewide Case Lookup still has no probate court option |
| The county's fee resolution dates from 2017 and carries no probate line | Resolution #105-41, the Union County Fee Schedule, was adopted on May 9, 2017 and recorded the same day as county document #201700455. Its Clerk's Office section prices copies, certification and recording but says nothing about probate, so the $30 filing fee and the $5 packet come from the County Clerk's web page instead (verified July 2026). Confirm the smaller items at the counter before relying on them |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Union County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the home in Clayton, Des Moines or elsewhere in the county was held with a right of survivorship or passes by a recorded transfer on death deed, it goes to the survivor with no court involved, and 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 Union County Clerk's recording counter at 200 Court Street 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 telephones 575-374-9491, ext. 2 for a Wednesday appointment and applies informally on Form 4B-302 NMRA with a will or Form 4B-301 NMRA without one. A surviving spouse who is a devisee ranks second in the appointment priority, behind only a person named in a probated will (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-203(A)). | Asset discovery to establish how the home and the accounts are actually titled and how much really has to reach a court. Packet generation for the application, the acceptance and the notices, ready for the appointment at 200 Court Street. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed, which would move the matter to the Eighth 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 Union 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 a distance means post and telephone: there is no e-filing in either forum, the court's published window is Wednesday afternoons by appointment, and the original will has to reach the court physically, so call 575-374-9491, ext. 2 before mailing anything to PO Box 430 and mark the envelope ATTN: Probate Court. One thing that is easier here than in most New Mexico counties: the County Clerk's online record search lets you check the county's own probate index by the deceased person's name from out of state. | 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 Clayton 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 Union County Probate Court can convey by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Union County Clerk at $25.00 per document. With no will the parent applies on Form 4B-301 NMRA and receives letters of administration on Form 4B-306 NMRA, ranking behind any surviving spouse and any children in the priority order of Section 45-3-203(A), so obtain the renunciations or consents of anyone ahead. Notice follows within 30 days (Section 45-3-705) and the inventory within three months (Section 45-3-706). What does move the case to the Eighth Judicial District Court at 100 Court Street is a dispute about who owns the property, because determining title as between the estate and an adverse claimant is exclusively a district court matter in formal proceedings (Section 45-1-302(B)), and Section 34-7-10(B) means that transfer costs no second filing fee. | Asset discovery for the accounts, insurance, vehicles, Union County real property, grazing and mineral interests 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 |
|---|---|
| Union County Clerk's Office and Probate Court (unionnm.us), 575-374-9491, ext. 2, 200 Court Street, PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415 | The informal probate forum for the county and its filing counter. The county publishes that the Office of the Informal Probate Court is in the Union County Administration Building and operates within the office of the County Clerk, who is clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)). Published hours are 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, by appointment. Staff cannot fill in forms or give legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA) |
| Union County Clerk Official Record Search (union.nm.publicsearch.us) | The county's own online index, and a genuine rarity in New Mexico. It carries a Probates department alongside real property, marriage and meeting minutes, searchable by case number, deceased name, death date, case status and closing date, and the county says informal probate cases run from the late 1800s to the present. The same search indexes recorded land documents, which is where a personal representative's deed or a homestead affidavit is found and which is not the same thing as a probate case |
| Union County fee schedule, Resolution #105-41 (PDF) | The county's own charges for copies, certification, emailed images and recording, adopted May 9, 2017, with the county's citation to Section 14-8-15 NMSA 1978 on the face of it |
| Eighth Judicial District, location, hours and contacts (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 575-374-9577, fax 575-374-2089 | The formal and contested forum for Union, Colfax and Taos Counties. It publishes the Union County Courthouse at 100 Court Street, Suite 5, Clayton, as one of three staffed district courthouses, open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and through the lunch hour, with no statement routing Union County filings anywhere else |
| Eighth Judicial District fees, costs and filing (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own fee page: $132.00 for a civil case including a probate, photocopies at $.35 per page, certification and seal at $1.50, and its payment rule, cash, money order, cashier's check or credit card, with personal checks not accepted |
| Eighth Judicial District alternative dispute resolution (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own statement that it has implemented an alternative dispute resolution program, which is the condition Section 34-6-45(A) attaches the $15 to, and its note that certain consumer debt and probate matters may be assigned to court-connected mediation |
| Eighth Judicial District Help Desk (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 575-751-8634 | A walk-in desk in the main lobby of the Taos County Courthouse, 11:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Fridays. Useful to know its limits before making the journey: probate is not among its published services, and its own notice says staff cannot give legal advice |
| New Mexico Courts HelpLine (nmcourts.gov), 1-855-268-7804 | The judiciary's own information service, Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in English and Spanish with interpreters available. It can provide court-approved forms and explain what a form is asking for and point you to free or low-cost legal services, but it cannot tell you what to write on a form or apply any law to your situation. The most useful statewide resource for a self-represented filer in a county whose district help desk is two counties away |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide Form 4B library, the same forms bound into the county's packets, plus a plain-language guide and a Dine translation |
| New Mexico Courts self-representation (nmcourts.gov) | The judiciary's self-representation site, with a probate page carrying the same 4B forms. Note that the free Guide & File document tool elsewhere on the site covers free process, divorce and orders of protection only, and has no probate interview |
| New Mexico Courts Case Lookup (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide case index, covering the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, district, magistrate and municipal courts. It reaches an Eighth Judicial District case and it has no probate court option, so for a Union County Probate Court case use the County Clerk's own record search instead. It is an index only, with no documents |
| Union County District Court docket, Clayton (eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's published hearing schedule for the Clayton courthouse. Useful for finding when a formal matter is set; the district publishes no filing-to-hearing window for probate |
| 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 Union County estate rather than for representation |
| New Mexico Compilation Commission (nmonesource.com) | The official free text of NMSA 1978 and the rules and forms, published by the state's own compiler. The place to read Sections 34-7-14, 45-1-302 and 45-3-201 for yourself |
When to hire an attorney
Most Union County estates are uncontested, and the county has built its process around families doing this themselves: it publishes two probate packets, sells a printed one for $5, and an informal probate is decided on the papers for $30.00 (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) without a hearing. The county is equally clear about the limits of that help. Its own welcome sheet says the probate judge and clerks can provide court-approved forms and explain what a form asks for but cannot give legal advice, perform legal research, fill in a form for you or draft a deed or a will, and the Clerk's page repeats that New Mexico county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice (Rule 23-113 NMRA). Consider counsel when a will is likely to be contested or the heirs disagree, when someone outside the family claims an interest in ranch ground, grazing leases, water rights, wind 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 Eighth Judicial District Court, which is the only forum that can decide any of it. Distance is its own argument in this corner of the state: the district's other courthouses and its walk-in help desk are in Raton and Taos, in other counties. Sunset can connect families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Union 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, Union County real property and unclaimed property for estate settlement, so you know what the estate holds before you file. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and requires an inventory with date of death values within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706).
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether an informal application on Form 4B-302 or Form 4B-301 NMRA or one of New Mexico's affidavit routes, ready to take to a Wednesday appointment at 200 Court Street in Clayton or to post to PO Box 430.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when title is disputed, or when it otherwise has to go to the Eighth Judicial District Court, Sunset connects families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Union 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 Union County Probate Court or the Eighth Judicial District Court?
Both can open an informal probate, and only the district court can do anything else. The Union 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 county puts it in its own words, describing the County Clerk as clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only. The Eighth 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.
Where exactly do I file a probate in Union County, and is it 100 or 200 Court Street?
It is 200 Court Street, Clayton, NM 88415, the Union County Administration Building, where the county publishes the Office of the Informal Probate Court operating within the office of the Union County Clerk. Mail goes to PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415, and the county asks for ATTN: Probate Court on the envelope. 100 Court Street, Suite 5 is the Union County Courthouse, which holds the Eighth Judicial District Court and, in the same suite, the Clayton Magistrate Court, which has no probate jurisdiction. File in Union County if the person who died lived here (Section 45-3-201(A)(1)), or if they lived out of state and owned property here (Section 45-3-201(A)(2)).
What are the Union County Probate Court's hours?
The county publishes them as Wednesday, 1 pm to 4 pm, by appointment, so in practice this is a court you telephone first on 575-374-9491, ext. 2. That is a normal arrangement rather than a sign of a problem: the position of probate judge in New Mexico is a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)), and the probate court is open at such times as the clerk of the probate court determines and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Union County publishes no separate counter hours for the Clerk's Office and says only that probate files may be viewed in person during business hours, so ask when you call. The Eighth Judicial District Court at 100 Court Street keeps ordinary hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and open through the lunch hour.
How much does it cost to file probate in Union County?
$30.00 in the Union County Probate Court and $132.00 in the Eighth Judicial District Court. The probate court fee is set by statute at thirty dollars for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), and Union County publishes it on the County Clerk's page alongside $5 for the forms packet with or without a will. The district court figure is what the Eighth publishes on its own fee page for civil cases including probates, and it is built from $117 for docketing a civil cause (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)), which the Eighth states it has. The district takes cash, money orders, cashier's checks and credit cards, with a 2.25 percent service fee on card payments and no American Express, and does not accept personal checks; Union County publishes no payee or payment method for the probate fee, so ask. If the estate cannot afford it, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA in the probate court or under Rule 23-114 NMRA in the district court.
Can I e-file a probate case in Union County?
Not in the probate court, and not as a self-represented filer in the district court either. New Mexico's electronic filing system, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve branded by the courts as eFile & Serve, is defined by rule as the system approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA); no probate court appears in any e-filing authority, and the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule. And even at the district court, self-represented parties are prohibited from electronically filing documents and shall continue to file documents through traditional methods (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) NMRA), with the clerk converting a paper filing into electronic format (Rule 1-005.2(I)(2)). So you file on paper at the counter or by post in both forums. One practical consequence in a county this remote: the original will has to be physically delivered, so an out-of-state filer posts it or brings it.
What happens if someone contests the will in Union County?
The case leaves the probate court and goes to 100 Court Street. 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 that rule is printed inside the county's own probate packet. The district court has exclusive original jurisdiction over all of it (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A)). Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and the transfer costs nothing: where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (Section 34-7-10(B)). Note also that a probate judge may decline an application for informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not prevent a formal appointment later (Section 45-3-309), and that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)). A contest is also the point at which counsel is worth having.
How do I look up a Union County probate case?
Union County is one of the few New Mexico counties where you can do it online. The County Clerk publishes an Official Record Search with a Probates department alongside real property, marriage and meeting minutes, searchable by case number, deceased name, death date, case status and closing date, and the county states that informal probate cases can be searched there from the late 1800s to the present. You may also view informal probate files in person at the Clerk's office at 200 Court Street, or telephone 575-374-9491, ext. 2. Two cautions. The same search indexes recorded land documents, so a hit on a personal representative's deed or a homestead affidavit is not a probate case. And a formal or contested Union County estate is a district court case: those are in the free statewide Case Lookup, which covers New Mexico's district, magistrate, metropolitan and municipal courts and has no probate court option at all.
Are there local Union County probate forms?
Yes, two packets, and they are free. Union County publishes a Probate Packet With Will and a Probate Packet No Will as PDFs on the County Clerk's page and sells the printed version for $5. Each opens with the county's own welcome sheet setting out what the probate judge and clerks can and cannot do, and each then reproduces Form 4B-101 NMRA, the Probate Court Rules and the current statewide Form 4B set, carrying the recompilation note from Supreme Court Order No. 18-8300-014 effective December 31, 2018. They are scanned images with no searchable text, so for a fillable version use the free statewide library at the New Mexico Courts or the Eighth Judicial District's own probate forms page. The district itself publishes no probate packet: its priced packets cover divorce, paternity, name change, driver's license restoration, emancipation and motions.
Do I have to travel to Clayton to settle an estate in Union County?
Usually at least once, because the original will and the death certificate have to reach the court physically and the probate court works by appointment. Beyond that, most of an uncontested estate here runs on post and telephone. The application and the later filings can be posted to PO Box 430, Clayton, NM 88415, marked ATTN: Probate Court, and the county's online record search lets you check the probate index from anywhere. What you cannot do is e-file, in either forum, so plan around the post and call 575-374-9491, ext. 2 first. Neither the county nor the Eighth Judicial District publishes any rule about appearing by telephone or video in a probate matter, so if something needs the judge, ask rather than assume it can be done from home.
How long does an informal probate take in Union County?
The statutory clock, rather than any local docket, sets the shape of it, and neither Union County nor the Eighth Judicial District publishes a processing time for probate. Nothing can be granted until at least 120 hours have passed since the death (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)). An informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing, so once the judge has the complete papers, letters can issue quickly, though the court's one published afternoon a week means the appointment itself needs booking ahead. 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 Clayton.
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.