Blanco County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Johnson City, 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 the same in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before the first filing matters here because the county's costs are driven by citations: Blanco County charges $78.00 for each citation issued and posted, so an application that has to be amended or re-served costs real money, and the hearing cannot be held until the citation has been posted for its full statutory period.

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

The Blanco County Clerk's counter is the single probate filing location for the whole county, and during the courthouse renovation that counter is in the Blanco County Annex at 101 E. Cypress in Johnson City. There is no branch or satellite filing office for estates. The court serves every part of the county: the county's own description says Blanco County "encompasses Blanco, Round Mountain, Hye and Johnson City", along with the ranch country between them. A resident of the city of Blanco files in Johnson City, not at the older Blanco courthouse, which the county says now runs a Visitors Center rather than a court.

Venue is straightforward for a Hill Country 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 Blanco County, the case belongs in the Blanco County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Austin, Fredericksburg or Marble Falls. 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. Blanco County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Blanco County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The county says the same thing in its own words: the county judge "serves as the only 'intermediate court' between Justice of the Peace courts and general jurisdiction district courts", with jurisdiction that "includes all probate" matters and guardianships. One local wrinkle is worth knowing: a constitutional county judge need not be a lawyer, but Blanco County's is, and the county says so on its own page.

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 district courts that a contested Blanco County matter can reach are the 33rd and the 424th. The 33rd Judicial District "is composed of Blanco, Burnet, Llano, and San Saba counties" (Government Code § 24.135(a)), the 424th is composed of the same four counties and its jurisdiction "is concurrent with the jurisdiction of the 33rd District Court" (§ 24.568), and both sit for Blanco County business in Johnson City while keeping chambers at 1701 E. Polk Street, Suite 74, in Burnet. The county's own page places the district courtroom in the annex at 101 E. Cypress. Neither district court opens an estate: they reach a Blanco probate matter only through § 32.003.

The courthouse is closed and the filing counter has moved. The county's homepage states plainly that "The Courthouse is closed for renovation" and lists the temporary locations: the County Clerk, District Clerk, Elections, Treasurer, Auditor and Motor Vehicle Registration at 101 E. Cypress, the County Attorney at 105 N. Avenue G, and the Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace on the first floor and the County Judge's office on the second floor of 108 E. Pecan. The notice carries no date and no expected reopening, and the county's own footer still lists the courthouse address as 101 E. Pecan, so verify before you drive. Anything mailed still goes to P.O. Box 65, Johnson City, Texas 78636, which does not change with the building.

The hearing date is set by the posting period, not by a docket call. Blanco County runs no probate self-scheduling portal and publishes no probate docket. Instead the mechanism is the citation: it must be posted for at least 10 days before the return day (Estates Code § 51.053(b)) and is returned on the first Monday after service is perfected (§ 51.104), and the county's own posted citations set the hearing at "10:00 o'clock a.m. on the first Monday next after the expiration of ten days from the date of posting this citation". That is why the $70.00 posting fee is not optional and why a re-issued citation costs you both money and two more weeks.

The clerk publishes its pending probate citations, and that is the practical way to check a Blanco County estate. The County Clerk's page carries a Probate Citations list, each entry naming the decedent and carrying the docket number the clerk assigned. Blanco docket numbers in probate run with a P prefix, which is what the citations show, and having that number matters because of the next point.

The County Clerk has a written no-search policy. Its notice, signed by the County Clerk, states: "The Blanco County Clerk has a NO search policy" and "The Blanco County Clerk and Staff WILL NOT conduct searches that are not authorized by Statute." It states that the one record search authorized by statute is a federal tax lien search, citing the Texas Property Code, and quotes a 1959 Attorney General opinion for the proposition that the clerk has no duty to search the records. Practically: come with the docket number or the exact name, use the public terminal in the clerk's office, and do not expect staff to research a file for you. The clerk can still explain procedure and tell you what the counter needs.

The county court's record is an electronic recording, and the clerk makes it. Under rules signed by County Judge Brett Bray on June 27, 2023 and attested by the County Clerk, no stenographic record is required in electronically recorded civil or criminal proceedings, and the court "designates the County Clerk or the Clerk's designee as the official court recorder", responsible for the recording, a detailed log indexed by date and location, filing the log and exhibits after the proceeding, and refusing access to the original recording without a written order of the presiding judge. If you ever need the record of a Blanco County probate hearing, that is the route, and it starts with the clerk.

There is a courtroom dress code and cell phone order, and it is published. The county's order prohibits bare feet, shorts, sleeveless shirts, tank tops and undershirts, clothing that reveals undergarments or a bare midsection, gum, toothpicks and tobacco products inside the courthouse, and it requires pagers and cell phones to be turned off while court is in session. It also asks gentlemen to take off their hats and allows no food or drink other than bottled water in the courtroom. The order notes that stricter existing rules continue to apply to attorneys.

One court, one counter, and the district courts only enter on a contest. Blanco County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Blanco County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The 33rd and 424th District Courts serve Blanco along with Burnet, Llano and San Saba Counties (Government Code §§ 24.135, 24.568) and keep chambers in Burnet; a district court reaches a Blanco 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 Blanco County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's fee schedule is 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. Three local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. Blanco County publishes no probate forms at all, so every document is drafted from scratch. The county's costs are citation-driven at $78.00 for each citation issued and posted, so a defective application is expensive as well as slow. And 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, and the clerk's written policy is that staff will not search the records for you. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Blanco County and the surrounding Hill Country.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to Blanco County's own requirements, including the case style the county's citations use and the documents the County Clerk needs to issue and post the citation, ready to file with the Blanco County Clerk.

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 Blanco 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).