Borden County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Gail, 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 your first filing matters more than usual in a county this small, because Borden County publishes no probate forms, no checklist, no docket day and no hearing time, so there is no local document to correct a wrong start. What the county does publish is a phone number, 806-756-4312, and a clerk who handles both the county and the district side of the courthouse. Call before you file rather than after.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, mineral or royalty interest, vehicle and parcel of Borden 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 on a West Texas estate, because they are easy to miss and they are real property for title purposes. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Borden County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Borden County Courthouse at 117 East Wasson in Gail is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter, and no second window: the County Clerk takes filings in the courthouse and the County Judge sits in the same building. The court serves every part of the county, from the caprock to the low land, which the county's own description calls two counties in one because the geography and the lifestyles differ. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of an uncontested estate can be handled without a trip to Gail, but Borden County publishes no docket day, no hearing time and no remote-appearance rule, so ask the clerk what the County Judge expects rather than assuming.

Venue is the ordinary Texas rule: 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 Borden County, the case belongs in the Borden County Court even if they died in a hospital in Lubbock, Big Spring, Snyder or Midland, which is the ordinary pattern for a rural county whose residents are treated 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. Borden County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Borden 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 probate court and every statutory county court in Texas and contains no Borden County provision, and the county's own Government index lists a County Judge, Commissioners Court, County Clerk, County Treasurer, Tax Assessor Collector, County Attorney, Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, District Court Judge, District Attorney and District Clerk, with nothing resembling a county court at law. Do not caption a Borden County filing for a probate court or a county court at law; the county has neither.

The filing office is the County Clerk, and in Borden County that officer wears both clerk hats. Government Code § 51.501(a) provides that a county with a population of less than 8,000 "shall elect a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk", unless a majority of the county's qualified voters vote to keep the offices separate at an election held for that purpose (§ 51.501(b)). Borden County publishes separate County Clerk and District Clerk pages, but both give the same officer at the same office with the same phone, fax, email and hours, and the county's Elections page titles her "County / District Clerk" (Jana Underwood, verified July 2026). Section 51.502 is the provision that makes the double role work: a joint clerk uses the county court seal to authenticate county court acts and the district court seal for district court acts. None of that changes where an estate starts. A probate application is a county court matter and it is filed on the county clerk side.

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. In Borden County the district court is the 132nd District Court: Government Code § 24.234(a) provides that the 132nd Judicial District is composed of Borden and Scurry counties, and the county publishes its judge, Dana Cooley, at 1806 25th Street, Suite 404, Snyder, Texas 79549, 325-573-5371 (verified July 2026). 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.

One officer holds both clerk roles, and Texas law expects that at this population. Government Code § 51.501(a) provides that a county with a population of less than 8,000 "shall elect a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk", unless the county's voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). Borden County's own History page states that the 2014 population estimate was 652 and that the county ranks 251 of 254 Texas counties, so the threshold is not close. The county publishes a County Clerk page and a District Clerk page with the same officer, office, phone, fax, email and hours, and its Elections page titles her "County / District Clerk" (Jana Underwood, verified July 2026); § 51.502 has a joint clerk use the county court seal for county court acts and the district court seal for district court acts. For an estate this is a convenience rather than a complication: you open the case with the County Clerk, and if a contested matter is later transferred to the district court under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2), the file does not move to a different office or a different building.

The street address is for couriers and the post office box is for mail, and the difference has a deadline attached. The clerk publishes "117 E Wasson Street (used for ground services only (UPS, FEDEX, ETC.)" above "PO Box 124, Gail, TX 79738". The rule that turns this into a real risk is the original will rule: after an application to probate a document as an original will is e-filed, the original will must be filed with the clerk within three business days (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), and the clerk must keep it in a numbered file folder (Rule 21(f)(13)). A wet-ink will sent to the wrong one of two addresses in a town this size is a delay you cannot easily undo, so call 806-756-4312 before you send it and, if the clock is short, use a tracked courier to the street address or hand it over in Gail.

There is no online anything, and the clerk says so. Borden County publishes no probate case search, no docket, no records index and no e-recording portal, and the County Clerk's page states in capitals "THIS OFFICE DOES NOT CONDUCT REAL PROPERTY SEARCHES". Records are requested from the clerk by phone at 806-756-4312 or at the counter. If you are checking title before an estate sale, that means a records search in the deed books rather than a database query, and it is one of the few situations in which a local title company or attorney genuinely saves time. Documents e-filed in the case may be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, but registration is required, documents are charged for, the portal supplies an unofficial copy with the clerk as the official custodian of the records, and per-county coverage is not published for Borden.

The creditor notice may be posted rather than published, and only the clerk can tell you which. An estate's personal representative must give notice to creditors within one month of receiving letters by publishing in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the letters issued (Estates Code § 308.051(a)), but the same section provides that if there is no newspaper of general circulation in the county "the notice must be posted and the return made and filed as otherwise required by this title" (§ 308.051(c)). Borden County names no newspaper anywhere on its site. Ask the County Clerk which route the county uses before you commit to a publisher, because getting it wrong costs both money and weeks.

Plan around the counter, not around a docket. The clerk publishes hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a closure from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. for lunch, does not publish the days of the week, and posts a 2026 holiday calendar on the county's public notices page. Borden County publishes no probate docket day, no docket start time, no filing-to-hearing interval and no remote-appearance rule, so none of those should be assumed from another county's practice. One phone call to 806-756-4312 replaces all of it.

Mandatory attorney e-filing arrived here on the last day of the statewide phase-in, and the county publishes the date itself. Both clerk pages carry the line "Mandatory E-File July 1, 2016", which is the final step in the schedule ordered by the Supreme Court of Texas (Misc. Docket No. 13-9164, December 9, 2013). Filing runs through eFileTexas.gov. Under the statewide rule an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)), and Borden County publishes no carve-out or paper-filing instruction of its own, so a self-represented filer should ask the clerk what the office will accept rather than assume either way.

A contested matter leaves the county, and its destination is fixed by statute. Borden County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Borden County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and a contest goes to an assigned statutory probate court judge or to the district court (§ 32.003(a)). The district court is the 132nd, which Government Code § 24.234(a) composes of Borden and Scurry counties, and whose judge the county publishes as Dana Cooley in Snyder, 325-573-5371. The statute also sets that court's terms in Borden County: they begin "on the first Mondays in January, March, May, July, September, and November" (§ 24.234(b)(1)), while its Scurry County terms begin on the first Mondays of the even months. Even after a transfer the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Uncontested estates do get handled without a lawyer in counties this size, and the Borden County Clerk links the Texas Judicial Branch's self-help page for exactly those filers. 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 or royalty 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. Borden County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no procedure sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no local template to check it against. There is no online case search or records index, so title and file work is done by phone, by post and at the counter. 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)), a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), and the district court here is the 132nd, whose judge sits in Snyder, in Scurry County. Those are timing points that are 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 Borden County and the surrounding West Texas counties.

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, Borden County real property, mineral and royalty interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before estate settlement filings begin in Gail.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned for the Borden County Court rather than a probate court the county does not have, and ready to file with the Borden County Clerk through eFileTexas.gov, which matters in a county that publishes no forms and no checklist of its own.

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 Borden 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).