Gilliam County, OR Probate Information

Before you take anything to the County Court Offices in Condon, know exactly what is in the estate. Which Oregon route fits depends on whether there is a will, on who is entitled to be appointed, and on the value and type of the assets, because a full probate that ends in letters testamentary or letters of administration and a simple estate affidavit under ORS 114.505 to 114.560 are different filings with different fees, different waiting periods and different consequences. Those routes and their dollar caps are statewide and are explained on the Oregon state page. Getting it right before the first trip matters more here than in a metro county: there is no e-filing for a Gilliam County probate and no online docket to check, the probate counter posts no Friday hours, and a wrong or incomplete filing means another drive to Condon or another round of mail.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of real property, along with every debt, before you file. Two Oregon rules make this a filing requirement rather than good practice: the petition must state the extent and nature of the estate's assets so the court can set the bond (ORS 113.035), and the caption must state the value of the estate because the filing fee is tiered by that value (ORS 21.105(1); ORS 21.170(1)). If an amended pleading raises the value, the court collects the difference (ORS 21.105(2)). Sunset's asset discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so the petition you hand across the counter at 221 S. Oregon Street states the estate accurately the first time.

The County Court Offices, in the Gilliam County Courthouse at 221 S. Oregon Street in Condon, are the probate filing point for the whole county. There is no branch office and no second location for an estate. The county covers Condon, the county seat, Arlington on the Columbia River, and the wheat and ranch country and river canyons between and beyond them. This is a large county with a very small population and long drives, so most of an uncontested estate is handled by mail and phone: the county's own instruction is that probate filings are accepted by mail or hand delivery.

The court is the Gilliam County Court, not a circuit court. Under ORS 111.075 jurisdiction of all probate matters, causes and proceedings is vested in the county courts of Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman and Wheeler Counties and in the circuit court for each other county. An Oregon county court is the county's governing body sitting judicially, and Gilliam County describes its own as a full-time County Judge and two part-time County Commissioners, with the County Judge serving as chair and as the county's day-to-day administrator, and states that the County Judge has jurisdiction over probate matters. That is not a lesser court. A probate court has the general legal and equitable powers of a circuit court, and its determinations, orders and judgments have the same validity, finality and presumption of regularity (ORS 111.095). An appeal from a county court exercising probate jurisdiction goes to the circuit court and the Court of Appeals in the manner provided by ORS 5.120 (ORS 111.105(3)), and an individual estate proceeding can be transferred from the county court to the circuit court by order of the county court, which must happen where the county judge is a party or directly interested (ORS 111.115). The County Court's published first and third Wednesday meetings, at 10:00 a.m. in Condon and in Arlington, are its governing body meetings for county business and are not a probate docket.

The Gilliam County Circuit Court is a different court, in the same building, and it does not handle probate. It is a state court of the Oregon Judicial Department in the Seventh Judicial District, which also covers Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Wheeler Counties, and it sits at the Gilliam County Courthouse, 221 S. Oregon St., mails to PO Box 622, Condon, OR 97823, answers at 541-256-1008, and posts courthouse hours of 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The county's own Service Directory assigns it name changes, divorce and jury business, and lists it at a second number, 541-351-9550, as a state office located in the courthouse. Readers arrive holding the Oregon Judicial Department page for this county, which is headed as a circuit court and never mentions probate, so the distinction is worth checking before you address an envelope. One further caution: the Seventh Judicial District's supplementary local rules, effective February 1, 2026, are the circuit court's rules and contain no statement that probate jurisdiction lies in the county court, unlike the districts covering Grant, Harney and Malheur Counties, whose rules say so outright. The statute is what settles it here.

Venue is broad. Oregon law allows a probate to be filed in the county where the decedent was domiciled or had a place of abode at the time of death, in any county where the decedent's property was located at death or is located when the proceeding starts, in the county where the decedent died, or in the county where a personal injury or wrongful death claim could be brought (ORS 113.015(1)); filing in another county is not a jurisdictional defect (ORS 113.015(2)). In practice you file in the county where the decedent lived, because that is where the notice to interested persons is published (ORS 113.155(1)). So if the person who died lived in Gilliam County, file with the Gilliam County Court. If proceedings are started in more than one county, all but the first are stayed until venue is settled, and the court may transfer the matter for the best interest of the estate (ORS 113.025).

Gilliam is the exception inside the exception. Six Oregon counties keep probate in the county court (ORS 111.075), and five of the six send the filing to the county clerk. Gilliam sends it to the County Court Offices: the county's County Court page states that the County Judge has jurisdiction over probate matters and that probate filings are accepted by mail or hand delivery to those offices, at 221 S. Oregon Street in Condon, 541-351-9499. The County Clerk's own page, by contrast, never mentions probate at all. If you have read about another one of the six counties, or been told to look for the clerk, that is why the trail goes cold here.

The county's own sources do not fully agree, so call before you deliver or mail. Two county-published statements point at the County Clerk rather than the County Court Offices: the Gilliam County Service Directory lists probate filing among the Clerk's services at 541-351-9490, and the county's probate fee sheet is published as the County Clerk's fee schedule, telling filers to make checks payable to the Gilliam County Clerk and to mail to P.O. Box 427. The Clerk's page also makes the Clerk custodian of the records and files of the County Court, which is consistent with the Clerk handling the paperwork after the County Judge has it. None of that is a conflict you have to resolve: ask at 541-351-9499 who takes the petition, who takes the check, and where a certified copy comes from, and follow what the office says.

One courthouse, four offices, four sets of hours, and only one of them takes a probate. Everything is at 221 S. Oregon Street in Condon. The County Court Offices, 541-351-9499, post Monday through Thursday 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and list no Friday hours. The County Clerk is in Room 200, 541-351-9490, Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., closed for lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m. The Gilliam County Circuit Court, 541-256-1008, posts courthouse hours of 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, mails to PO Box 622, and handles the county's other cases, which the county's Service Directory describes as name changes, divorce and jury business; that directory also lists it at a second number, 541-351-9550. The Gilliam County Justice Court, 541-454-2923, sits in Arlington through the week and in Condon on Tuesdays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and its jurisdiction is traffic and game cases, other violations and misdemeanor crimes, landlord-tenant and small claims, so it has nothing to do with an estate. Call ahead before driving to Condon.

The district's local rules are the circuit court's, and they are silent on the county court. The Seventh Judicial District's supplementary local rules, effective February 1, 2026, cover Hood River, Wasco, Gilliam, Sherman and Wheeler Counties, and unlike the rules for Grant and Harney Counties and for Malheur County they contain no statement that probate jurisdiction lies in the county court. Their probate chapter belongs to the circuit court: SLR 9.055 on conservatorships of a minor, SLR 9.076 requiring a non-professional fiduciary, including a personal representative appointed under ORS chapter 113, to register for a court-approved education class within 15 days and complete it within 60 days of appointment, and SLR 9.081 on oral objections in protective proceedings. Nothing published says the Gilliam County Court applies those rules, and the county court is not a circuit court, so treat them as the circuit court's and ask at 541-351-9499 what the County Judge requires. The same caution applies to forms: the circuit court's forms page for Gilliam County publishes protective-proceeding forms, including an oral objection form and a motion to terminate a guardianship, even though probate jurisdiction here belongs to the county court, so ask which office takes a guardianship or conservatorship filing before you send it.

Paper in, paper out. Because OJD eFile serves the circuit courts and the Oregon Tax Court, and the free OJD Records and Calendar Search covers the circuit courts, the Tax Court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, a Gilliam County probate is neither e-filed nor searchable online. The county publishes no probate index of its own, so the only way to find out what is on file in an estate here is to ask. Note one service that does exist and is easy to mistake for e-filing: the County Clerk offers e-recording through six commercial vendors for documents presented for recording in the county's deed records. That is the deed side of an estate, not the probate filing.

Many Gilliam County estates are uncontested, and a family that knows what the estate holds can often open one and see it through with limited legal help. Three local facts push the other way, though. Oregon prescribes no petition form (ORS 111.205(2)), so a self-represented filer here is drafting the petition, the order, the notices, the inventory and the accountings from scratch, with no statewide template, no county form and no online docket to check the file against. The court is the Gilliam County Court under ORS 111.075, so a lawyer who has appeared before the County Judge and knows what the County Court Offices expect is worth more here than in a county with a published probate department. And the county's own sources disagree about which counter takes the filing and the payment, which is easier to navigate with someone who files there. Consider counsel when a will is contested or a dispute among heirs is likely, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing a claim inside the four-month window (ORS 115.005), when wheat ground, rangeland, water rights, wind-lease income, a business or out-of-state property has to be valued, sold or divided, when a conservatorship or guardianship has to run alongside the estate, or where a matter may have to be transferred to the circuit court under ORS 111.115. County staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Oregon probate attorney serving Gilliam County.

Find the accounts and assets. During estate settlement, Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Gilliam County real property and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value before you file. That matters here twice over: the petition must state the extent and nature of the assets (ORS 113.035) and the caption must state the value of the estate, because the filing fee is tiered by it (ORS 21.105(1)).

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether a petition for appointment of a personal representative or a simple estate affidavit, ready to file on paper at the County Court Offices at 221 S. Oregon Street or by mail to Condon.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Oregon probate attorney serving Gilliam 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).