Archer County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Archer City, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court filing 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 work the same way in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before your first filing matters here for a practical reason: Archer County's fee schedule prices each route differently, from $360.00 for a foreign will to $362.00 for a small estate affidavit to $412.00 for letters and $420.00 where a determination of heirship is added, so choosing the wrong one costs both the fee and the time.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Archer 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. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Archer County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Archer County Clerk at 112 E. Walnut Street in Archer City is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates. The court serves every part of the county, including Archer City, Holliday, Windthorst, Scotland, Megargel and Lakeside City and the rural areas between them. One local detail is worth fixing in your mind before you make the trip: the filing counter and the courthouse are two different buildings. The County Clerk is on Walnut Street; the Archer County Courthouse, where the County Judge's office sits and where the District Clerk is on the 2nd floor, is at 100 S Center St.

Venue is straightforward for an Archer County 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 Archer County, the case belongs in the Archer County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Wichita Falls or somewhere else out of county. 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. Archer County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Archer 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 creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in the state and contains no Archer County entry, and the county's own list of courts is consistent with that: the County Judge, the Commissioners Court, four Justices of the Peace, and the district court. The district court seated here is the 97th District Court, which Archer County shares with Clay and Montague Counties, and it does not open estates.

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. 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 filing counter is not in the courthouse, and that is the single most practical Archer County fact. The Archer County Clerk, where estates are filed and where the original will has to be delivered, is at 112 E. Walnut Street. The Archer County Courthouse, where the County Judge's office sits and where the District Clerk works on the 2nd floor, is at 100 S Center St. Both addresses are published by the county, and the clerk's own 2024 fee schedule repeats the Walnut Street address in its header. Go to Walnut Street to file and to hand over the original will; confirm with the clerk where a hearing will actually be held, because the county publishes no probate courtroom location.

The county prices probate by route, in public, which is rare at this size. Most small Texas counties will quote a probate fee only over the phone. Archer publishes a schedule that separates $412.00 for letters or muniment of title from $420.00 for administration with a determination of heirship, $362.00 for a small estate affidavit and $360.00 for a foreign will, and shows the statute behind every component. Use it to budget, and note its January 1, 2022 date when you confirm the total.

The County Judge collects statutory probate fees of his own, which is a constitutional-county-court feature people do not expect. Archer's schedule shows a $2.00 line it labels the judge's signature and cites to Local Government Code § 118.101, and that section is exactly what it says it is: a fee schedule the county judge, not the clerk, collects in probate matters, at $2.00 for probating a will, $2.00 for granting letters, and $2.00 for an order for which no other fee is prescribed. It is a small amount, but it is why Archer's totals end in an odd $2.00 and it tells you who is doing the judging here.

There is no online probate lookup at all from the County Clerk. The clerk publishes no case index, no records portal and no image search; the only electronic link on its page is the county's eRecording vendor, which is for submitting land documents. The Archer County District Clerk links a Tyler Odyssey Portal that describes itself as the "Texas UCMS Public Access Portal" containing "all publicly accessible cases for Counties in the UCMS Program", but that clerk serves the district courts, and the county does not say whether county-court probate cases reach it. If you need to know whether a case exists or what has been filed in it, call the County Clerk at (940) 574-4302.

Counter hours have two real limits. The clerk publishes Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the office closes from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and it makes no copies after 4:30 p.m. If you are driving in for certified copies of an order or for letters, arrive well before that cutoff.

One court and one counter, and the district court enters only on a contest. Archer County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Archer County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The district court seated here is the 97th District Court, shared with Clay and Montague Counties, and it reaches an Archer probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), in which case the district clerk may perform the county clerk's functions for that matter (§ 32.003(i)) while the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)). Appeals from the Archer County Court go to the Second Court of Appeals, which the county names on its own clerk page.

Plenty of uncontested Archer County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's published fee schedule and its links for pro se litigants are written as though a filer might be doing it alone. 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 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. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Archer County publishes no probate forms and no local procedure sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no county checklist to measure it against. Second, the contested-matter route matters: 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 a timing point that 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 Archer County and the Wichita Falls area.

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, Archer County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Archer City.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, styled for the Archer County Court and ready to e-file through eFileTexas.gov and to lodge with the Archer County Clerk on Walnut Street, including the original will delivery that Texas requires within three business days.

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