Sherman County, OR Probate Information

Before you take anything to the Sherman County Clerk, 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: Sherman publishes no probate forms and no probate page, there is no e-filing for a county court probate and no online docket to check, so a wrong or incomplete filing means another drive up the hill in Moro 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 Clerk's counter states the estate accurately the first time.

The Sherman County Clerk, in the Sherman County Courthouse at 500 Court Street in Moro, is the single probate filing counter for the whole county. There is no branch office and no second location. The Clerk serves every part of Sherman County, including Moro, the county seat, and Wasco, Rufus, Grass Valley, Kent and Biggs Junction, along with the wheat country and the John Day and Deschutes river canyons between them. One name here causes real confusion: the city of Wasco is in Sherman County, while Wasco County is the separate county to the west whose seat is The Dalles, so check the county rather than the town before you address an envelope. This is a small county with long drives, so most of an uncontested estate is handled by mail and phone, and the trip to Moro matters mainly for delivering originals and for any appearance before the County Judge.

The court is the Sherman 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, and the county publishes the same thing in its own words: Sherman County is one of six counties in the state where jurisdiction of all probate matters, causes, and proceedings is vested in the County Court, and the County Clerk serves as Clerk of the County Court for matters involving probate, small estate, and juvenile cases. An Oregon county court is the county's governing body sitting judicially, made up of the elected County Judge and two County Commissioners, and it is the County Judge who exercises the probate jurisdiction: the county states that the Chair of the Sherman County Court is the County Judge and that the County Judge also handles juvenile and probate court 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 Sherman 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, which styles it Sherman Circuit Court, sits in the Sherman County Courthouse at 500 Court Street, mails to PO Box 402, Moro, OR 97039, answers at 541-565-3650, and keeps a counter open only from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It belongs to the 7th Judicial District, and the county's own answers page explains the arrangement: four judges in the Seventh Circuit Court District share responsibility for the circuit courts in Gilliam, Hood River, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler Counties, any of whom may be on the bench when a circuit court case is heard in Sherman County. The county describes that court's work as criminal felony and misdemeanor cases including driving under the influence diversions, and notes that a civil claim over $10,000 must be filed there rather than in the Justice Court. Its own OJD page never mentions probate. Readers arrive holding that page, which is headed as a circuit court, so the distinction is worth checking before you address an envelope: PO Box 402 is the wrong box for an estate.

Two other courts sit in the same courthouse and neither touches an estate. The Sherman County Justice Court, at 541-565-3572 and PO Box 282, handles traffic, boating, fish and game and other violations, small claims of $10,000 or less where at least one party lives in Sherman County, and eviction actions. The Juvenile Court and the county Juvenile Department, at 541-565-3461 and PO Box 263, handle referrals of youth for law violations and other juvenile matters. The County Judge presides over juvenile matters as well as probate, which is why the county names both in the same sentence, but a decedent's estate is filed with the Clerk and nowhere else.

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 Sherman County, file with the Sherman County Clerk. 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).

One 1899 courthouse, four courts, five post office boxes, and only one office that takes a probate. Everything is at 500 Court Street in Moro, which the county describes as a Queen Anne style brick building holding four distinct courts. The Sherman County Clerk, at 541-565-3606 and PO Box 243, is the probate counter, because the county states that the Clerk serves as Clerk of the County Court for matters involving probate, small estate and juvenile cases. The County Court office, at 541-565-3416 and PO Box 365, is the office of the court and the governing body rather than its filing counter. The Sherman County Circuit Court, at 541-565-3650 and PO Box 402, handles the county's other cases. The Justice Court, at 541-565-3572 and PO Box 282, handles violations, small claims of $10,000 or less and evictions. The Juvenile Department, at 541-565-3461 and PO Box 263, handles youth and dependency matters. Each publishes different hours, and the Clerk's own page publishes none at all. Address probate mail to PO Box 243.

The 7th Judicial District's local rules do not write the carve-out down, which is a trap worth naming. The circuit courts of Gilliam, Hood River, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler Counties share one set of supplementary local rules, effective February 1, 2026, and Chapter 9 of those rules is headed for probate and adoption proceedings: SLR 9.055 governs a conservatorship of a minor, SLR 9.076 requires a non-professional fiduciary education class within 60 days of appointment with registration within 15 days, and SLR 9.081 lets an interested person present oral objections in a protective proceeding to the clerk of the court for that jurisdiction. Nothing in those rules says that probate jurisdiction here belongs to the county court, unlike the districts covering Grant, Harney and Malheur, whose SLR 9.081(1) states the carve-out outright. Read SLR 9.076 with care in particular: by its terms it reaches any personal representative appointed under ORS chapter 113, but it is a rule of the circuit court, and in Sherman County a personal representative is appointed by the county court. Ask the Clerk at 541-565-3606 what the County Judge requires rather than assuming a circuit court rule applies to your estate.

Paper in, paper out, with one online index that is not what it looks like. 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 Sherman County probate is neither e-filed nor searchable through the state's tools. The county does publish a Digital Research Room, and it is genuinely useful, but the Clerk describes it as access to the county's index of recorded documents and its own disclaimer calls it an index whose images have not been certified as recorded with the county. That is the deed side of an estate, not the probate file. To learn what is on file in an estate, ask the Clerk.

No probate forms exist for this county, from any source, and that is worth knowing before you go looking. The county's County Court Forms page lists employment, grant, volunteer, criminal-history and committee documents and no probate form; the Clerk's own fee schedule and recording information sheet says the office cannot provide blank forms, help fill out forms or suggest what type of forms to use; and the Oregon Judicial Department's forms library, which lists 48 documents for Sherman County, offers only 7th Judicial District circuit court forms, of which the two in its probate category are a guardianship termination motion and an oral objections form for protective proceedings. Oregon publishes no statewide petition to open a probate either, because no particular pleadings or forms of pleadings are required in the exercise of the jurisdiction of probate courts (ORS 111.205(2)). The petition, the order, the notices, the inventory and the accountings are drafted documents. What is free and statewide is the Simple Estate Affidavit packet, the Claim Against Estate form and the accounting packet, and accountings filed substantially in the form the Oregon Judicial Department provides must be accepted in every judicial district (UTCR 9.160).

Plan around the counter hours, because they are unusually short and unusually varied in this building. The county publishes courthouse hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the Clerk's own fee sheet publishes the same office hours with a recording cutoff at 4:30 p.m., but the County Court office closes Fridays and typically closes for lunch, the Justice Court posts its own shorter window hours, and the circuit court counter is open only from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Clerk's web page itself posts no hours, so if you are driving to Moro to deliver an original will, call 541-565-3606 first.

Many Sherman 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)) and Sherman County publishes none of its own, so a self-represented filer here is drafting the petition, the order, the notices, the inventory and the accountings from scratch, with no template and no online docket to check the file against. The court is the Sherman County Court under ORS 111.075, so a lawyer who has appeared before the County Judge and knows what the Clerk's counter expects is worth more here than in a county with a published probate department. And the nearest larger legal communities are in The Dalles, Hood River and Portland, so counsel for a Sherman County estate will often come from outside the county. 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, a farm lease, water rights, wind or solar 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. The Sherman County Clerk can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Oregon probate attorney serving Sherman County.

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, Sherman 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 estate settlement route, whether a petition for appointment of a personal representative or a simple estate affidavit, ready to file on paper with the Sherman County Clerk at the counter in Moro or by mail to PO Box 243.

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 Sherman 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).