Andrews County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Andrews, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether an administration is needed at all, turns on whether there is a will, who the distributees are, what the assets are worth, and whether there are unpaid debts. Those routes are set by state statute and are identical in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before the first filing matters more than usual here because Andrews County publishes no probate instruction sheet, no probate forms and no docket schedule, so there is no local checklist to correct a wrong turn, and because the county's own monthly reports show the County Judge appointing attorneys ad litem in estate matters, which is a real cost the estate carries when heirs have to be established.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Andrews County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. How each asset is titled decides whether it passes through the estate at all: survivorship accounts, accounts with a named beneficiary and land covered by a recorded transfer on death deed pass outside the estate and never reach the county court. Mineral and royalty interests deserve particular attention in a Permian Basin county, because they are easy to overlook and often need the authority document before an operator will change a division order. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Andrews County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

Andrews County has one probate filing counter and it is not in the courthouse. Applications, wills, inventories and everything else in an estate go to the Andrews County Clerk at 215 NW 1st Street, Suite 121-A, in the county seat of Andrews, while the County Judge who hears the case sits in the Andrews County Courthouse at 201 N Main, Room 104, with the county court coordinator. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates anywhere else in the county, and the court serves every part of Andrews County, from the city of Andrews out to the ranching and oil-field areas around it. The clerk has been the county's records office since the county organized: it describes its vault as holding documents dating back to 1881.

Venue is straightforward for a West Texas resident: you file in the county where the decedent lived, if the decedent had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (Estates Code § 33.001(a)(1)). If the person lived in Andrews County, the case belongs in the Andrews County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Odessa, Midland or Lubbock. For a decedent with no Texas domicile or fixed residence, venue depends on where the death happened and where the estate or the nearest of kin are (§ 33.001(a)(2)).

Which court hears the case is the fact most often gotten wrong on a small Texas county page. Andrews County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Andrews County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory probate court and every county court at law in Texas, contains no Andrews County entry, and the county's own departments index lists only the County Court under the County Judge, the 109th District Court, the Justices of the Peace and the Commissioners' Court. The County Clerk confirms the filing side from its own page, listing probate among the county court matters for which it serves as clerk.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the case does not stay with the County Judge by default. Under Estates Code § 32.003(a), in a county with no statutory probate court and no county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, when a matter in a probate proceeding is contested the judge of the county court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on the motion of any party to the proceeding, either request the assignment of a statutory probate court judge to hear the contested matter (Government Code § 25.0022) or transfer the contested matter to the district court, which may then hear it as if originally filed there. The district court here is the 109th District Court, which under Government Code § 24.211 is composed of Andrews, Crane and Winkler counties and whose terms in Andrews County begin on the second Monday in January and the first Monday in July. Three details matter in practice. A party's motion for assignment of a statutory probate court judge beats a transfer: if it is filed before the county judge transfers the matter, the county judge shall grant it and may not transfer the case unless the motion is withdrawn (§ 32.003(b)). A party may file that motion before anything becomes contested, and it takes effect if the matter later does (§ 32.003(c)). And the county court keeps the rest of the case: if only the contested matter is assigned out or transferred, the county court continues to exercise jurisdiction over the management of the estate until the contested matter is finally disposed of (§ 32.003(g)), and the matter returns to the county court when it is resolved.

The counter and the courtroom are in different buildings, and that catches people out. The Andrews County Clerk, which takes every probate filing, is at 215 NW 1st Street, Suite 121-A, in a county office building that also houses the Elections Department and the Justices of the Peace. The County Judge, who is the judge of the county court and hears the estate, is in the Andrews County Courthouse at 201 N Main, Room 104, along with the county court coordinator. The District Clerk (Room 102) and the 109th District Court (Room 201) are in the courthouse too, and neither opens an estate. If you are hand-delivering an original will, it goes to 215 NW 1st Street.

The clerk states its own probate role, which settles the question of where to file. Its page reads: "The Clerk also serves as the clerk of various courts which include county court for: Civil, Commissioners' Court, Guardianship, Juvenile, Mental Health, Misdemeanor Criminal Cases, Probate." The same page lists Wills for Safekeeping among the records the office holds, and the clerk's fee schedule prices that at $5.00, which is the statutory deposit fee (Estates Code § 252.001; Local Government Code § 118.062). A will already on deposit with the Andrews County Clerk is in the right building when the time comes.

The county publishes its money, not its procedure. Andrews County's probate fee schedule is unusually good: it prints the total, the two consolidated fees that make it up, and the thirteen funds the local fee is divided among. Its county clerk fee schedule carries a printed effective date of January 1, 2024, which is more than most Texas counties publish. What the county does not publish is any probate procedure at all: no instruction sheet, no forms, no docket day, no filing-to-hearing window, no rule on whether proposed orders are lodged in advance or carried to the hearing, and nothing about remote appearances. The county's own County Court page carries no content. So phone ahead: the clerk at 432-524-1426 for filing mechanics, the County Judge's office at 432-524-1401 for the hearing.

Andrews publishes who the court appoints and what it pays them, and it is worth reading before you file. Every Texas court clerk must prepare and post a monthly report of each attorney ad litem, guardian ad litem, guardian, mediator and competency evaluator the court appoints, with the approved fees and their source (Government Code § 36.004). The Andrews County Clerk posts them month by month, and the 2026 reports show attorneys appointed as ad litem in decedents' estate cases in the Andrews County Court, with the estate recorded as the source of the fee and one approved fee of $1,837.50 in April 2026. The most common statutory reason for such an appointment in an estate is that the court must appoint an attorney ad litem in a proceeding to declare heirship to represent heirs whose names or locations are unknown (Estates Code § 202.009(a)). If the family tree is incomplete, budget for it.

Read the county's e-filing material for what it is. Andrews County publishes no probate e-filing notice and no county mandate date. The one e-file tips sheet on the county site sits on the District Clerk's page and addresses district court filings: service copies, citations, divorce reports, discovery and Attorney General cases. Its lead-document instructions are the District Clerk's, not the County Clerk's, so do not assume they govern a probate envelope. Separately, the county's eRecording service, run through the vendors CSC and Simplifile, is for recording real property documents and has nothing to do with filing a court case. Ask the County Clerk how it wants a probate application and the copy of the will submitted.

The counter closes at 4:00 p.m., and the clerk documents its own closures. The published hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., half an hour earlier than many Texas county clerks, with no lunch closure published. The clerk maintains a Holiday Schedules page that carries the annual holiday schedule approved in Commissioners Court and, unusually, a running list of additional closures for staff training, weather and system work. If you are driving in from Odessa, Midland or Lubbock to file or to deliver an original will, check that page first.

One court, one clerk, and the district court only appears on a contest. Andrews County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Andrews County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The 109th District Court sits in the same county but does not open estates; it reaches an Andrews probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Plenty of uncontested Andrews County estates are handled without a lawyer, and nothing in the county's published material suggests otherwise. Counsel earns its keep here when a will or an appointment is likely to be challenged, when there is no will and the heirs have to be determined, when real property or a mineral interest has to be sold or divided, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, when a business or out-of-state property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Three local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Andrews County publishes no probate forms, no instruction sheet and no local rules, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no county checklist to check it against. Second, the county's own monthly reports show attorneys appointed as ad litem in Andrews County estates, which usually signals an heirship question, and an heirship proceeding is not a do-it-yourself matter (Estates Code § 202.009(a)). Third, the contested-matter route has a timing trap: if a matter becomes contested, the County Judge may on the judge's own motion, and shall on the motion of any party, request the assignment of a statutory probate court judge or transfer the contested matter to the district court (Estates Code § 32.003(a)), and a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), which is easy to miss without counsel. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Andrews County and the surrounding Permian Basin.

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, Andrews County real property, mineral and royalty interests and unclaimed property during estate settlement, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed in Andrews.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned for the Andrews County Court and ready to file with the Andrews County Clerk, which matters in a county that publishes no forms and no instruction sheet of its own.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when the heirs have to be determined, or when the estate otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Andrews 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).