Bee County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Beeville, 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 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 specific local reason: the Bee County Clerk's written small-estate policy states that "Refunds will not be issued once the Small Estate Affidavit has been filed with the Bee County Clerk's Office" and that "It is the responsibility of the filer to ensure that the affidavit meets the filing requirements before filing it in the County Clerk's Office". Filing the wrong thing costs the fee.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Bee 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 either Bee 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 Bee County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

Room 108 of the Bee County Courthouse at 105 W Corpus Christi Street in Beeville is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or annex counter for estates. The courts serve every part of the county, including Beeville, Skidmore, Pettus, Tuleta, Tynan, Normanna and Pawnee and the ranch country between them.

Venue is straightforward for a Bee 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 Bee County, the case belongs in Bee County even if they died in a hospital in Corpus Christi, Victoria or San Antonio. 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 a generic page gets wrong here, because Bee County has two courts with probate jurisdiction and neither of them is a statutory probate court. The Bee County Court is the constitutional county court, presided over by the elected County Judge. The 2nd Multicounty Court at Law is a statutory county court composed of Bee, Live Oak and McMullen Counties, created effective September 1, 2023: Government Code § 25.2703 reads, "Bee, Live Oak, and McMullen Counties have a multicounty statutory county court composed of those counties, the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law", and § 25.2704(b) adds that "Bee County is the administrative county for the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law". Because there is no statutory probate court in the county but there is a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, the two courts have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), and the county court at law's probate jurisdiction comes from general law rather than a special act: a statutory county court "has, concurrent with the county court, the probate jurisdiction provided by general law for county courts" (Government Code § 25.0003(d)). Government Code § 25.0151 also remains in force and reads, "Bee County has one statutory county court, the County Court at Law of Bee County", so on the statute books Bee County has two statutory county courts alongside the constitutional county court. The county's own government directory publishes only the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law and its judge, and neither the county nor the state's local-rules repository publishes any allocation of estates between the courts, so ask the County Clerk which court your case is set in rather than assuming.

Sharing a judge with Live Oak and McMullen Counties does not change where you file, and that is the point most often gotten wrong about these six Texas counties. The clerk of the county court at law in a probate matter is the county clerk, not the district clerk: "The district clerk serves as clerk of the county court at law in matters of concurrent jurisdiction with the district court, and the county clerk serves as clerk of the county court at law in all other cases" (Government Code § 25.2704(e), and the same split in § 25.0152(d)). A probate application is not a matter of concurrent district-court jurisdiction at the filing stage, so it goes to the county clerk. For a Bee County estate that is the Bee County Clerk in Beeville. If the decedent lived in Live Oak County or McMullen County, the case is filed with the Live Oak County Clerk in George West or the McMullen County Clerk in Tilden, even though the same judge may hear it and even though Bee County is the administrative county. Do not send a filing to Beeville because Bee is the administrative county.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, Bee County uses the county-court-at-law route, not the assignment or district-court route that applies in counties with only a constitutional county court. Under Estates Code § 32.004(a), in a county with no statutory probate court but with a 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, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the county judge may also transfer the entire proceeding there. The county court at law may then hear what is transferred as if it had been filed in that court originally, and if only the contested matter was transferred, the matter returns to the county court once it is resolved, for further proceedings consistent with the county court at law's orders (§ 32.004(b)). In Bee County the destination of that transfer is the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law, whose judge must be a licensed attorney.

Two courts, one counter, and no published allocation between them. This is the Bee County fact worth understanding before you file. The Bee County Court, the constitutional county court under the elected County Judge, and the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law, the statutory county court shared with Live Oak and McMullen Counties, have concurrent original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b); Government Code § 25.0003(d)). Government Code § 25.0151 also still provides that "Bee County has one statutory county court, the County Court at Law of Bee County", though the county's own government directory publishes only the multicounty court and its judge. Neither the county nor the Office of Court Administration's local-rules repository publishes a rule assigning estates to one court or the other. The filing office is the same whichever court hears it, so file with the Bee County Clerk and ask at the counter which court your case is set in.

The shared court does not sit in the administrative county. Bee County is the administrative county for the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law (Government Code § 25.2704(b)), but the court's judge, administrator and reporter publish an address at the Live Oak Justice Center, 200 Larry R Busby Drive, George West, which is in Live Oak County. Confirm the hearing location before driving anywhere. Conversely, if you are settling a Live Oak County or McMullen County estate, do not file in Beeville: the county clerk of the county where the decedent lived is the clerk for the case (Government Code § 25.2704(e)).

The Friday early close catches people out. The Bee County Clerk's counter is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but closes at 4 p.m. on Friday. If you are delivering an original will inside the three-business-day window that follows an electronic application (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), count the hours, not just the days. The clerk also posts dated closures: the office is closed Tuesday, August 11, 2026 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for a records system demonstration.

Fees are due at the counter, and there are no refunds on a filed small estate affidavit. The clerk's written policy states that filing fees "are due at the time of filing and are payable in cash, check or debit/credit card" and that "Refunds will not be issued once the Small Estate Affidavit has been filed with the Bee County Clerk's Office." The clerk's page notes the office now accepts credit cards. Bee also publishes a $10.00 probate search fee, which is what a records lookup costs here because there is no online probate docket.

Nothing is published about electronic filing or remote appearances, and one county document is out of date. Bee County publishes no e-filing notice, no county effective date, no envelope or lead-document rule, and no statement about paper filing by a self-represented party, so the only rules in play are the statewide ones: attorneys must e-file in probate cases, and an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)). On hearings, the only logistics document the county publishes for these courts is a minimum standard health protocols notice for in-person hearings dated March 23, 2021, covering the justice, county, county court at law and district courts serving Aransas, Bee, Live Oak, McMullen and San Patricio Counties. It is a pandemic-era document and its screening and face-covering provisions should not be treated as current. Call the clerk or the court administrator instead of relying on it.

Bee County publishes its monthly Office of Court Administration appointment and fees reports on the clerk's site, which is where a family can see what the courts have been paying attorneys ad litem and other appointees.

Plenty of uncontested Bee County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's own Probate Department page says as much about the small estate route, which it describes as something that "can be done pro-se". 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-county property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Three local factors weigh in favor of getting advice earlier than you might elsewhere. First, Bee County publishes no application, order, oath or inventory form, so every document outside the small estate route is drafted from scratch. Second, the county publishes nothing about electronic filing or remote appearances, so a filer without counsel is working from the statewide rules alone. Third, the contested-matter route runs to a court that sits in another county: on the judge's own motion or on any party's motion the County Judge transfers a contested matter, and may transfer the entire proceeding, to the county court at law (Estates Code § 32.004), which here is the 2nd Multicounty Court at Law shared with Live Oak and McMullen Counties. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Bee County and the surrounding Coastal Bend.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, ready to file with the Bee County Clerk in Room 108, which matters here because the county publishes no application or order forms and gives no refund once a small estate affidavit has been filed.

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 Bee 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).