Coke County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Robert Lee, 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 in a county this size, because Coke County publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no docket calendar to correct you along the way. The clerk can tell you what the counter needs, but the shape of the case is yours to get right, and a wrong route means starting over and paying the $360.00 base fee again (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1); § 133.151(a)(1)).

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

The Coke County Courthouse at 13 E. 7th Street in Robert Lee 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 Robert Lee and Bronte and the rural areas between them. The county's Justice of the Peace office in Bronte handles traffic and small claims matters and takes no probate filings, so a Bronte resident settling an estate still files in Robert Lee.

Venue is straightforward for a Coke 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 Coke County, the case belongs in the Coke County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo or Abilene. 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. Coke County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Coke 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 Texas and contains no Coke County entry. The county's own court calendar corroborates it: the only two courts it lists for Coke County are the County Court and the 51st District Court. Do not caption a Coke County estate for a probate court or a county court at law; the county has neither.

The filing office is worth a second look here, because Coke County does something most Texas counties do not. It elects one officer to both clerkships. The county publishes a single County and District Clerk, and a chief deputy with the same combined title, which is the arrangement Government Code § 51.501(a) provides: a county with a population of less than 8,000 elects a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk, unless a majority of the county's voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). The general Texas warning that a probate application goes to the county clerk and not to the district court's clerk still describes the correct legal capacity here, but in Coke County it does not send you to a different desk or a different person. One counter takes both, and probate is county-clerk business.

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 court on the receiving end of that transfer is the 51st District Court, which serves Coke, Irion, Schleicher, Sterling and Tom Green Counties and is presided over by Judge Carmen Symes Dusek (verified July 2026). Its bench and staff sit at the Tom Green County Courthouse, 112 W Beauregard Ave, San Angelo, TX 76903, and that court publishes that its coordinators are available by email only. So a contested Coke County estate can become a case administered from San Angelo even though it was opened in Robert Lee. One thing does not change: because the same elected officer is both clerks in Coke County, a transfer under § 32.003(a)(2) does not move your file to a different office in Robert Lee.

One elected officer holds both clerkships. Coke County publishes a single County and District Clerk, with a chief deputy carrying the same combined title, and that is not a website shorthand: Government Code § 51.501(a) provides that a county with a population of less than 8,000 elects a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk, unless a majority of the county's voters vote at an election to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). The practical effect is a simplification. In most Texas counties you have to be careful to take a probate application to the county clerk rather than to the district court's clerk. In Coke County that is one office and one counter, so the distinction is about the legal capacity in which the clerk acts, not about which door to walk through, and it stays true even if a contested matter is later transferred to the district court (Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2)).

The County Court has answered the do-I-need-a-lawyer question in writing, and the answer is strict. The clerk's page carries a link labelled "County Court Policy Regarding Pro Se": a two-page policy on the County Judge's own letterhead, approved and signed by County Judge Hal Spain on April 10, 2025 and filed for record with the County and District Clerk the same day. It states that under Texas law only a licensed attorney may represent the interests of third parties, including probate estates, so individuals applying for letters testamentary, letters of administration, determinations of heirship and guardianships of the person or estate must be represented by a licensed attorney. Its reasoning is that an executor or administrator acts for the estate's beneficiaries and creditors, not only for themselves, so you may serve in the role without being a lawyer but must be represented by counsel. The carve-out is probating a will as a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257), where the applicant truly represents only himself or herself: the policy's example is an applicant who is the sole beneficiary under the will where there are no debts against the estate other than those secured by liens against real estate, it requires that in a pro se muniment application all beneficiaries under the will be the applicants and testify at the hearing, and it warns that the will offered should be the signed original. The policy points self-represented filers to texaslawhelp.org and texascourthelp.gov for reference material and notes that court staff cannot advise you what to do in your case. Read it before you decide how to proceed; questions go to the County Clerk at (325) 453-2631.

The counter keeps a short week, and cash is awkward. The clerk publishes Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with a Thursday lunch closure from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The county homepage and the County Judge's page publish a courthouse-wide lunch closure from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. The clerk also warns that hours may vary during elections, and the county posts specific election-training closures on its homepage from time to time, so check the homepage before a trip in an election year. On payment, the office publishes that it takes check, credit card, money order, cashier's check and exact cash, and adds that "we do not keep a cash drawer". Bring a check or a card, or exact money.

The fee schedule is the local rulebook, and it is unusually candid. Most small Texas counties publish either nothing or an undated scan. Coke County publishes a dated schedule that itemizes all thirteen statutory components of the $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code § 135.102) and then prices the things that actually catch people out later in an estate: a late inventory at $27.00, an annual account at $27.00 with the county's own note that it must sit ten days, a final account at $52.00, an application to sell real or personal property at $52.00, a claim against the estate at $10.00 and citation by publication at $93.00 before the newspaper's own charge. If you are budgeting a Coke County estate, budget from that document rather than from the opening fee alone.

What Coke County does not publish is as important as what it does. Beyond the pro se policy described above, there is no county probate page, no probate instruction sheet, no checklist, no local probate rules, no published docket day or docket time, no filing-to-hearing interval, no self-scheduling portal and no telephone or video appearance rule. The clerk's page links a court calendar for Coke County at the county's court software vendor, and its court filter offers only the County Court and the 51st District Court, but it published no settings when it was checked in July 2026. Treat the phone call to the clerk as the scheduling process, and do not assume a hearing pattern that the county has never published.

Case lookup is not free here, and the two vendor links are easy to confuse. The public court calendar shows nothing for Coke at present; the "Judicial Case Search" beside it is a subscriber product and asks for a user ID and password; and the clerk's separate online record search is a property-records portal that indexes deeds, not estates. That leaves the statewide re:SearchTX portal, which requires free registration but charges for documents and states that it supplies an unofficial copy and that the clerk of the court is the official custodian, and per-county coverage is not published for Coke. For a reliable answer about a Coke County estate file, call the County Clerk at (325) 453-2631.

Whether you can settle a Coke County estate without a lawyer is a question this county has answered in writing, and the answer is that for most routes you cannot. The Coke County Court publishes a policy regarding pro se applicants, approved and signed by County Judge Hal Spain on April 10, 2025 and filed for record with the County and District Clerk the same day. It states that under Texas law only a licensed attorney may represent the interests of third parties, including probate estates, so individuals applying for letters testamentary, letters of administration, determinations of heirship and guardianships of the person or estate must be represented by a licensed attorney: you do not have to be a lawyer to serve as executor or administrator, but you must be represented by one, because the role acts for the estate's beneficiaries and creditors and not only for yourself. The policy's self-representation carve-out is probating a will as a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257) where the applicant truly represents no one else, its example being a sole beneficiary where the estate has no debts other than those secured by liens against real estate; it adds that in a pro se muniment application all beneficiaries under the will must be the applicants and must testify at the hearing. If any of that is unclear for your situation, call the County Clerk at (325) 453-2631, keeping in mind the policy's own note that court staff cannot advise you what to do in your case. Beyond that threshold rule, 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 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. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Coke County publishes no probate forms and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from the statute. 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. Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Coke County and the surrounding Concho Valley.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the estate settlement paperwork for your route, drafted from the statute rather than from a form set, because Coke County publishes no probate forms, and captioned for the Coke County Court rather than a court this county does not have, ready to file with the Coke County Clerk.

Find a local probate attorney. For most Coke County estates counsel is not optional: the County Court's written policy requires a licensed attorney for applications for letters testamentary, letters of administration, determinations of heirship and guardianships. Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Coke 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).