Multnomah County, OR Probate Information

A Multnomah 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 Fourth Judicial District adds local obligations on top of those, and they are the ones that most often send a Multnomah fiduciary back to Room 04500.

Take the fiduciary class, and take it on the clock. Multnomah's non-professional fiduciary education program reaches personal representatives, not just guardians and conservators: any personal representative appointed under ORS chapter 113 on or after February 2, 2015 who is not a professional fiduciary as defined in ORS 125.240(5) must register for the court-prescribed class within 15 days of appointment, successfully complete it within 60 days, and file a certificate of completion with the Probate Department stating the date, time and provider (SLR 9.076). The fee is a cost of administration and may be waived or deferred in the court's discretion, a waiver of the requirement itself takes a motion and affidavit filed within 15 days of the court's notice, the court may require a fiduciary to retake the class, and failure to comply may result in removal. The court names Guardian Partners as the provider on its own probate pages.

File the accountings in the format this district requires, and file them on time. Accountings in estates and conservatorships must be submitted in the format specified in UTCR 9.160 (SLR 9.161), which is the statewide accounting format published in the Oregon Judicial Department Forms Center; UTCR 9.160 makes that format acceptable in every judicial district and lets a district make it mandatory, and Multnomah has. Keep the supporting records the court will ask for: fiduciaries must maintain accounts from which the court can be provided copies of statements containing images of the front face of checks written on the account, and disbursements made by debit card, electronic check or automatic withdrawal require all twelve months of bank statements with those expenditures highlighted (SLR 9.073).

Do not distribute early. The court's FAQ states that estate assets cannot be distributed without court approval and that the court will not approve distributions until four months from the first publishing date have passed, the required notice to heirs, devisees and state agencies has been given, an affidavit of compliance on the search for creditors has been filed, and notice and time to object to the distribution has been given to heirs and devisees. That is the local expression of the statutory scheme, and it is why a partial distribution request filed in month three goes nowhere.

Watch the bond and restriction mechanics. A bond or bond increase ordered by the court is due within 30 days of the signing of the order or judgment (SLR 9.065), and letters do not issue until it is filed (ORS 113.125). If assets are restricted in lieu of bond, the judgment or order must separately restrict real property and personal property with an adequate description, real-property restrictions carry language barring sale, lease or encumbrance beyond a year without a prior court order, and where personal property is restricted the Acknowledgment of Restriction of Assets must be filed with the court within 30 days of appointment (SLR 9.031(6)). A successor personal representative files an itemization of assets within 90 days of appointment, valued as of the date of the successor's appointment, signed with the ORCP 1 E declaration (SLR 9.071).

Two more local points. Attorney fee expenses in a probate must be approved by the court, and the request needs a statement in the UTCR 5.080 form showing hours, hourly rate and title for each person performing work, plus a description of normal attorney tasks with hours expended and, for extraordinary work, a concise account of the issues and the time spent on each (SLR 9.095; ORS 116.183). And if a required filing is late, the court sends the attorney and the fiduciary an Order to Show Cause for removal or contempt, and both must appear unless the matter has been corrected at least three judicial days before the hearing (SLR 9.035).

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, a generic probate motion and order, and an acknowledgment of restriction of assets. 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.

Multnomah County publishes a short local probate set and says so in its own words. Its Probate FAQ lists the forms the court offers, the Small Estate Affidavit, Minor Guardianship, Guardian's Report and Acknowledgment of Restricted Assets, then adds: "The court does not offer or provide any other probate forms." Those forms are available at the Multnomah County Central Courthouse in the Probate Department on the fourth floor, in the Legal Resource Center on the second floor, and on the court's website. In the Oregon Judicial Department forms library the Multnomah-specific probate files are the Acknowledgment of Restriction of Assets, the Objection to Petition and Request for Hearing used in protective proceedings, the Annual Report of Guardian, the Guardianship of a Minor packet, and a motion and order packet for alternative service in a minor guardianship. The Guardianship Report form is the one this district prescribes by rule (SLR 9.075(5)), and the court's local rules point to the court's own forms page as the place where forms required by SLR are published (SLR 1.051).

Two practical points about Multnomah forms. First, the court's forms page carries a tie breaker worth following: "If there are two versions of any form, select the Multnomah version." The Acknowledgment of Restriction of Assets exists in both a statewide and a Multnomah version, and this district has its own requirements for restriction orders, including that real property and personal property be restricted separately and that the acknowledgment be filed within 30 days of appointment (SLR 9.031(6)). Second, the local Objection to Petition and Request for Hearing prints its own fee line, and the fee it names, $281 for an appearance in a probate proceeding, is the statutory figure (ORS 21.135(1) and (2)(g); ORS 21.170(4); Oregon Judicial Department Circuit Court Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026). For anything else, the petition and the proposed orders are drafted by the filer or the attorney, and the court's own probate resource sheet sends readers to the Oregon State Bar.

1. Preschedule everything. The court's Probate FAQ states that all probate matters, even those you expect to be short, must be prescheduled, and that you may not take a proposed order or judgment to the judge yourself, because all matters are reviewed by court staff before they go to the judge. Hearings are scheduled by request to the Probate Department, and you should confer with the other parties first and tell the staff how much time the matter needs (Multnomah County SLR 9.025(3)).
2. The Probate Short Matters Docket runs Monday through Friday at 8:15 a.m. for items that will take no more than 10 minutes, and appearances must be prearranged with the Probate Department (SLR 9.025(4)). To move one of those appearances, submit a motion, declaration and order requesting a set over three business days before the hearing; otherwise the appearance is required.
3. A matter expected to take six hours or longer does not go on a regular calendar. Contact the Probate Department and ask for a Probate Short Matters Docket appearance to request a specially assigned judge; no motion, declaration or proposed order is required (SLR 9.025(6)). If a judge is assigned at that docket and you intend to move for a different judge, you must announce the intention at the time of assignment and submit the motion on paper by the close of business the following judicial day (SLR 9.025(5)).
4. Expect an order or judgment to be signed within about a week. The court's FAQ says the answer depends on the court's workload, that most orders or judgments are reviewed and signed within a week, and that some matters may be signed more quickly in an emergency. This is the only turnaround the court publishes; no counter wait times are published.
5. A court-ordered bond, or an increase in bond, is due within 30 days of the signing of the order or judgment requiring it (SLR 9.065), and letters do not issue until the required bond is filed with the clerk of the court (ORS 113.125).
6. A non-professional personal representative must register for the court-required fiduciary education class within 15 days of appointment and complete it within 60 days, then file a certificate of completion with the Probate Department (SLR 9.076). A waiver request must be made by motion supported by affidavit within 15 days of receiving the court's notice.
7. A successor personal representative or conservator files an itemization of the estate's assets, valued as of the date of the successor's appointment, within 90 days of appointment (SLR 9.071).
8. If the matter becomes contested, mediation timing starts running. The parties initiate mediation on the filing of an objection or other responsive pleading that sets a matter at issue, a status report with the dispute resolution plan is due to the court within 30 days of that filing, and a motion to waive mediation must be made within 14 days of the court's notice or the pleading setting the matter at issue (SLR 12.045).
9. Distribution has its own gate, and it is the four-month clock plus three compliance steps. The court's FAQ states that estate assets cannot be distributed without court approval and that the court will not approve distributions until four months from the first publishing date, the required notice to heirs, devisees and state agencies has been given, an affidavit of compliance on the search for creditors has been filed, and notice and time to object to the distribution has been given to heirs and devisees.
10. Miss a filing and the court comes to you. On a delinquency or deficiency in any document required by statute or court order, the attorney and the fiduciary are sent an Order to Show Cause for removal of the fiduciary or a finding of contempt, and the personal representative and counsel must appear unless the matter has been corrected at least three judicial days before the hearing (SLR 9.035).

One Multnomah-specific wrinkle is worth knowing before you choose the simple estate affidavit route under ORS 114.505 to 114.560. Multnomah is one of the few Oregon courts that publishes its own copy of the affidavit and hands it out over the counter: the court's Probate FAQ lists the Small Estate Affidavit among the four probate forms it offers, and the forms are available in the Probate Department on the fourth floor of the Central Courthouse, in the Legal Resource Center on the second floor, and on the court's website. The current statutory name is the simple estate affidavit, and Multnomah's pages still use the older names, small estate affidavit and affidavit of claiming successor, alongside it.

The trap the court flags twice is that the affidavit produces no appointment. Its FAQ says of the affidavit "You will not receive letters testamentary," and elsewhere that "The court will not issue letters with a Small Estate Affidavit because there is no appointment made in that instance." If a bank, brokerage or title company has told you to bring letters, the affidavit will not produce them, and the court's staff cannot advise you on which route applies. Multnomah also notes in its probate FAQ that the affidavit route requires the original will and a certified death certificate. The value caps, the waiting period, the four-month claim window and the two-year summary review period are statewide and are covered on the Oregon state page (ORS 114.510; ORS 114.515).

Page last reviewed: July 2026.