Lincoln County, OR Probate Information

A Lincoln County personal representative carries the statewide Oregon duties, which are covered on the Oregon state page: the information to devisees, heirs and state agencies with proof filed within 30 days of appointment (ORS 113.145), publication of the notice to interested persons once in a newspaper published in the county (ORS 113.155), the inventory within 90 days valued as of the date of death (ORS 113.165), the diligent search for creditors and the notice to known claimants with proof of compliance (ORS 115.003), the claim rules (ORS 115.005), annual and final accountings (ORS 116.083), and the general judgment of final distribution (ORS 116.113). The 17th Judicial District adds four local obligations on top of those.

Take the fiduciary class, and take it on a 60-day clock. Lincoln applies its non-professional fiduciary education program to any personal representative appointed under ORS chapter 113, along with guardians and conservators appointed under ORS chapter 125 and trustees appointed under ORS chapter 130 (SLR 9.186(1)). Register within 15 days of appointment, successfully complete a class with a curriculum prescribed by the Presiding Judge of Lincoln County within 60 days of appointment, and file a certificate of completion with the Probate Department stating the date and time the class was taken as well as the provider (SLR 9.186(2) and (6)). The court sends notice and instructions at the time of appointment. A professional fiduciary as defined in ORS 125.240(5) is exempt. The only published way out is a good-cause request, made by motion supported by affidavit and filed within 15 days of receiving the court's notice (SLR 9.186(7)). The class fee is a cost of administration and may be waived or deferred, the court may require a fiduciary to retake the class, and failure to comply may result in removal.

Give the court notice before you appear on your own. A personal representative or conservator who intends to appear without an attorney in any probate matter must provide the court notice of that intent and proof of competency in such matters, and if the proof is not enough to assure the court that the estate or interest will be protected the court will take appropriate action (SLR 9.085(1)). This is a front-of-case obligation, not something to raise at the first hearing.

File the accountings in the shape this district requires. Accountings must be substantially in the form specified in Form 9.160 in the Oregon Judicial Department Forms Center, and the rule makes that format mandatory here (SLR 9.161). Vouchers do not have to accompany the accounting, but in their place each depository account needs a list showing the date, amount, check number, recipient and purpose of every disbursement, and the accounting must include the opening and closing depository statements for each account for the period (SLR 9.185). Each annual or final accounting also carries its own filing fee, tiered on the same value bands as the opening fee at $35, $298, $591 or $1,176 (ORS 21.170(2); Oregon Judicial Department Circuit Court Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026), which is worth budgeting for in an estate that stays open across an anniversary date. If you ask the court to approve attorney fees, the supporting affidavit must state time in decimals rather than fractions and describe the services in enough detail to show what the work was for (SLR 9.061).

Plan the paperwork third parties will demand, and know which counter issues it. The court issues certified copies of letters testamentary and letters of administration through the Room 202 records counter, using its Court File or Audio Copy Request form, with 72 hours' notice asked for. Recording is a different office: a deed from a personal representative is recorded with the Lincoln County Clerk in Room 201 of the same courthouse, on the county's own recording hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a recording line of 541-265-4121.

Oregon publishes no statewide petition to open a probate, and that surprises people who expect a fill-in packet. It follows from the statute: "No particular pleadings or forms of pleadings are required in the exercise of jurisdiction of probate courts" (ORS 111.205(2)). The Oregon Judicial Department Forms Center's Estate page publishes the Simple Estate Affidavit packet with its instructions, in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, and a single Claim Against Estate form covering presentation of a claim to a personal representative under ORS 115.005, to a simple estate affiant under ORS 114.540, to a conservator, or to a trustee. A separate statewide page publishes the probate accounting packet. There is no statewide petition, no statewide inventory and no statewide letters form. The Forms Center states its own rule, that any statewide form will be accepted in all circuit courts but statewide forms are not available for all circumstances, and that additional forms may be available through local courts. Note that the Oregon Judicial Department's Guide and File interactive forms service does not cover probate or simple estates.

Lincoln County publishes no local form for a decedent's estate, and it is worth stating that plainly, because this court publishes a lot of local forms. Its self-help Forms page opens with "This page contains many forms that are specific for Lincoln County Circuit Court" and warns that "If there are two versions of any form, select the Lincoln version." Forty-three Lincoln-scoped forms sit in the Oregon Judicial Department forms library, and every one of them is a landlord and tenant, civil mediation, court records, criminal, parenting plan or specialty court form. None is a probate form. The Probate heading on the court's own Forms page carries no form behind it, and the district's Appendix of Forms holds only three items, none of them probate: a public access certificate, a standardised parenting plan and a trial by declaration.

What the court publishes for probate is written instruction rather than paperwork. Its probate page carries an instruction sheet for the simple estate affidavit and links the statewide packet. For guardianships it says outright that "The Court does not have forms for creating a guardianship" and that you will need to buy them, find them online or contact an attorney, then lists the six documents a guardianship needs: the petition for appointment of guardian or conservator, the notice of hearing on the petition for appointment of fiduciary, the affidavit of mailing or delivery of that notice, the waiver of notice of hearing and consent to appointment, the limited judgment appointing a guardian, conservator or other fiduciary, and the acceptance of appointment as fiduciary. Its general position is the useful one for estates too: "Any form may be used as long as they conform to the requirements of the Oregon Revised Statutes and Uniform Trial Court Rules."

So for an estate, the petition, the proposed order, the proposed letters, the inventory and the accountings are drafted rather than filled in. Two local pointers shape how they should look. Caption the matter for the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Lincoln County, and state the value of the estate in the caption, because the fee depends on it (ORS 21.105). Put the accountings in the Form 9.160 format, which this district makes mandatory (SLR 9.161) and which the Oregon Judicial Department publishes as a statewide packet, and build into each one the disbursement list and the opening and closing depository statements this district takes in place of vouchers (SLR 9.185). The district's own rule names the court's Forms page as the place its rule-required forms live (SLR 1.171).

1. Same-day filing closes at two different times. The Room 202 counter is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and closed from noon to 1:00 p.m., but the drop box outside Room 202 runs to 5:00 p.m., and the district's rule makes the distinction meaningful: "Documents deposited prior to 5 p.m. will be filed the same day. Documents deposited after 5 p.m. will be filed the next business day" (SLR 1.161). Electronic filings have their own statewide deadline of 11:59:59 p.m. in the court's time zone (UTCR 21.080(2)).
2. Register for the court's fiduciary education class within 15 days of appointment, and complete it within 60 days. That is a tighter window than the 90 days districts such as Douglas and Deschutes allow, and the class curriculum is prescribed by the Presiding Judge of Lincoln County (SLR 9.186(2)). The court sends notice and instructions at the time of appointment.
3. A request to be excused from the class must be made by motion, supported by affidavit, and filed within 15 days of receiving the court's notice of the requirement (SLR 9.186(7)). This district publishes no attorney-certification route out of the class, so having a lawyer does not by itself excuse the fiduciary.
4. Ex parte probate matters that need a hearing are scheduled by contacting the judicial assistant for the assigned judge, or the Presiding Judge's judicial assistant where no judge has been assigned (SLR 5.061(1)). The district's fixed afternoon ex parte times, Monday at 1:00 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday at 2:00 p.m. with an 11:00 a.m. filing cutoff, apply to abuse prevention, stalking, sexual abuse protection, extreme risk and immediate danger matters, not to probate (SLR 5.061(2)). The court publishes no probate docket time and no turnaround figure for signing an order, so do not build a closing date around an assumed one.
5. To appear by video, get the request in early: the court's technology page requires the filing as soon as possible and no later than five days before the hearing date, and the district's rule expects the request at the time the hearing is set, with the presiding judge deciding the mode (SLR 3.201). Exhibits for a remote hearing must be filed at least 24 hours before the hearing.
6. Allow time for records. The court asks for 72 hours on a paper, electronic or certified copy request, seven days on an audio recording, and three business days to digitise a case file older than the roughly 2008 cutoff on its public kiosks, after which it will contact you to come and view the file (Lincoln County Circuit Court Court Records page, verified July 2026).

Lincoln is one of only two Oregon counties whose court website carries a probate page inside its self-help section, and most of that page is given over to simple estates. Under the heading "Instructions for Filing Simple Estate Affidavits" the court sets out who may file, what attaches to the affidavit, where the copies go and what it costs, and it links the statewide Simple Estate Affidavit packet. The page is used beyond the county: Wheeler County's own probate page sends its readers to Lincoln's page for simple estate instructions. The current statutory name is the simple estate affidavit (ORS 114.505 to 114.560); the older names, small estate affidavit and affidavit of claiming successor, are the ones the court's page still uses.

What the court adds locally is procedural detail a filer will not find in the statute text. It tells an intestate filer to attach a certified copy of the death certificate, and a testate filer to attach both the original last will and testament and a certified copy of the death certificate. It gives the two service addresses the affidavit's mailing requirement depends on: the Estate Administration Unit, Department of Human Services, PO Box 14021, Salem, OR 97319-5024, and the Oregon Health Authority, 500 Summer Street NE, E-20, Salem, OR 97301-1097. And it publishes its own price line: the filing fee for a simple estate is $124, copies are 25 cents per page and certifications are $5.00 (Lincoln County Circuit Court probate page, verified July 2026), which matches the statewide schedule for the affidavit (ORS 21.145(4); ORS 114.515(5); Oregon Judicial Department Circuit Court Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026).

Read two things on that page against the current statute before you rely on them. First, the caps: the court's page says an affidavit can be filed if the fair market value of the estate is $275,000 or less, of which no more than $200,000 may be attributable to real property and no more than $75,000 to personal property. The statute splits it slightly differently, capping personal property other than manufactured homes at $75,000 and the combined value of real property and manufactured homes at $200,000, measured gross and without reduction for liens or debts (ORS 114.510(1)(a) and (2)); the $275,000 total is the sum of the two statutory caps rather than a figure in the statute. If a manufactured home is in the estate, count it against the real property side. Second, the creditor footnote: the court's page reproduces ORS 114.520(3) in a version that names the Department of State Lands, and the current statute names the State Treasurer. A creditor who is a claiming successor of a decedent who died intestate and without heirs must note that on the top of the affidavit, and the clerk may not accept it for filing without written authorization from the State Treasurer attached (ORS 114.520(3), as amended by 2023 c.17 s.11).

The rest is statewide and is covered on the Oregon state page: the 30-day waiting period before filing and the 60-day period for a creditor, the four-month claim window, the two-year summary review period, and the fact that the affidavit reaches real property but appoints no personal representative and produces no letters (ORS 114.515; ORS 114.555). Locally, the affidavit is filed with the clerk of the probate court in a county with venue (ORS 114.515(1)), which here means the Room 202 counter at 225 West Olive Street in Newport, or the drop box outside it, or the mail to PO Box 100.

Page last reviewed: July 2026.