Cochran County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Morton, 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 size, because Cochran publishes no probate instructions, no local forms and no hearing calendar, so there is no county document to correct a wrong start. A wrong route means paying the filing fee twice.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Cochran County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. Mineral and royalty interests deserve a specific look here, because South Plains estates often hold them long after the family has moved away, and they are easy to miss. 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 Cochran County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Cochran County Courthouse at 100 North Main Street in Morton is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk takes filings in Room 102 and the county court sits in the same building. The court serves every part of the county, including Morton and the Whiteface school district area and the farming and ranching country between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Morton; what does require a trip is the hearing and the delivery of the original will.

Venue is straightforward for a Cochran 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 Cochran County, the case belongs in the Cochran County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Lubbock, Levelland or Brownfield, and even if the family has long since moved away. 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. Cochran County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Cochran 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 the state, contains no Cochran County entry at all. The other trial court seated in the county is the 286th District Court, which by statute "is composed of Cochran and Hockley counties" (Government Code § 24.463) and which does not open estates.

One local wrinkle follows the reader through the whole case: Cochran County has a single clerk. The county publishes the same officer, in the same room and at the same phone number, as both County Clerk and District Clerk. 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 voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). That does not change where an estate is opened: a probate application is a county clerk filing, and you should say so when you call or walk in. It does mean that if a contested matter later moves to the district court, the same office keeps the file.

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 in Cochran County is the 286th District Court, and 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 counter week is four and a half days, with a midday closure. The Cochran County Clerk publishes hours of Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is the most practically important local fact on the page, because the statewide rule gives you three business days to get an original will to the clerk after the application is e-filed (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), and an application filed late in the week can leave you with a Friday counter that shuts at 2:00 p.m. If you are driving from Lubbock, Levelland or further, call ahead on 806-266-5450 and confirm someone will be there to receipt the will.

One officer, two clerkships. Cochran County publishes the same person as County Clerk and as District Clerk, working from Room 102 at the same phone number. Government Code § 51.501(a) requires a county with a population of less than 8,000 to elect a single clerk to perform the duties of both offices unless the voters vote to keep them separate (§ 51.501(b)). For a probate filer this is convenient rather than confusing, but be explicit when you call or file: an estate is a county clerk matter, filed for the county court, and it is not a district court case unless and until a contested matter is transferred there.

The county publishes no probate calendar at all. The County Judge's page carries a heading for County Court Dockets with no docket under it, and there is no published probate day, no docket start time, no filing-to-hearing window and no telephone or video appearance rule. Nothing on this page tells you when a Cochran hearing will be set, because the county does not publish it. Ask the County Clerk when you file, and treat any interval you have read elsewhere for another Texas county as inapplicable here.

The fee sheet is dated, itemized and worth reading, and there is a stale one next to it. The County Clerk's schedule effective January 1, 2024 breaks the $223 local consolidated fee into its thirteen statutory components, prints the $137 state comptroller share alongside, and totals $360.00 for the original filing of a probate of a will, a guardianship, a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257), a foreign will or a small estate. The same clerk page also links an older sheet headed "COCHRAN COUNTY PROBATE COURT COSTS, September 1, 2017" whose $299.00 total rests on court-cost provisions repealed in the January 1, 2022 consolidation. Both are one click apart on the same page, so check the date at the top before you write the check.

A contest moves the matter to the 286th District Court, which is shared with Hockley County. Government Code § 24.463 provides that the 286th Judicial District is composed of Cochran and Hockley counties, and the county publishes the court in Suite 205 of the Cochran County Courthouse in Morton and at a second location in Levelland. That court reaches a Cochran probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)). The alternative route in the same section, assignment of a statutory probate court judge to hear the contested matter (Government Code § 25.0022), brings a specialist probate judge to Morton instead, and a party's motion for that assignment beats a transfer if it is filed first (§ 32.003(b)).

Recorded estate documents and probate case records live in different places. If the estate has to record something against Cochran County land, an affidavit, a deed from the personal representative or a certified copy of an order, that goes into the clerk's official public records and is searchable through the portal the county labels "Cochran County Land Records". The probate case file itself is not in that portal and is not published anywhere online by the county. Do not read a hit or a miss in the land records as telling you anything about whether an estate was opened.

Plenty of uncontested Cochran County estates are handled without a lawyer, and nothing the county publishes requires one for an ordinary application. 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 mineral interests have 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. Cochran County publishes no probate forms, no instruction sheet and no local rules, so every document is drafted from scratch with no county template to work from. The county publishes no hearing calendar, so scheduling runs through a phone call rather than a posted docket. 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 286th 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 Cochran County and the South Plains.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for the Cochran County Court and ready to file with the Cochran County Clerk, which matters in a county that publishes no probate forms and no instruction sheet 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 Cochran 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).