Concho County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Paint Rock, 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 identical 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 Concho publishes no probate instructions, no forms, no checklist and no docket calendar. There is nothing local to correct a wrong route for you, and the clerk cannot give legal advice.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Concho 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. Ranch and mineral interests are worth special attention here, because they are held across county lines in this part of Texas and because the same Concho County office that takes your probate filing is the office that holds the deed records. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Concho County and District Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Concho County Courthouse at 152 N. Roberts in Paint Rock is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County and District Clerk, the County Judge, the County Attorney and the Justice of the Peace all publish the same street address. The court serves every part of the county, including Paint Rock, Eden, Eola and Millersview and the ranch country between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of an uncontested estate can be handled without a trip to Paint Rock; the trips that matter are delivering the original will and attending the hearing.

Venue is straightforward for a Concho 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 Concho County, the case belongs in the Concho County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo, Brady 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. Concho County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Concho 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 county court and statutory probate court in the state, contains no Concho County entry, and the county's own list of offices names no such court. The only other trial court seated in the county is the 119th District Court, which does not open estates.

Where you file is also unusual here, and it is worth being precise about it. In most Texas counties the county clerk and the district clerk are two different elected officers, and the standing warning is that estates go to the county clerk. In Concho County they are the same officer: 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, and Concho publishes exactly that, a County and District Clerk whose County Clerk and District Clerk links both lead to the same office. So you cannot go to the wrong counter. What you still need to get right is the court named in your papers: the case belongs in the Concho County Court, not in the district court and not in a probate court, because Concho has none.

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 that would receive such a transfer is the 119th District Court. Government Code § 24.221(a) provides that the 119th Judicial District is composed of Concho, Runnels and Tom Green counties, and § 24.221(b)(1) that its terms begin in Concho County on the first Mondays in February and July. Its judge is Gonzalo Rios and its chambers are at the Tom Green County Courthouse, 112 W. Beauregard, San Angelo 76903, 325-659-6570 (verified July 2026). Under Government Code § 24.153(c) the judges of the 51st, 119th, 340th and 391st District Courts may exchange benches and sit for each other in any county in those districts.

One officer holds both clerkships, so the usual Texas warning reads differently here. In most counties the advice is that estates go to the county clerk and never to the district clerk. Concho elects a single County and District Clerk, which is what Government Code § 51.501(a) prescribes for a county with a population of less than 8,000, and the county's own site proves it: its County Clerk menu entry and its District Clerk menu entry both open the same page, and the clerk's letterhead reads "Concho County & District Clerk". Practically, you cannot walk up to the wrong counter. What still matters is naming the right court in your papers, because the same office serves both the Concho County Court and the 119th District Court, and only the county court has original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(a)).

The courthouse closes to the public at 4:30 p.m., not 5:00 p.m. The county's homepage publishes hours of operation of 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed for lunch from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and then adds in its own words "(Closed to the Public at 4:30)". So the counter window is shorter than the published day at both ends of the afternoon. If you are driving in from San Angelo or Brady to hand over an original will inside the three-business-day deadline (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), aim for the morning. Note also that the clerk's own page publishes no separate counter hours at all, so the homepage block is the only county source and it is worth a phone call before a long drive.

The county's fee schedule is a recording schedule, and mistaking it for a probate one is the most likely error here. The clerk's published document is headed "RECORDING FEES" and reads, verbatim, "Due to legislative changes, beginning January 1, 2024, our recording fees will decrease by $1.00", then itemizes a $10.00 records management and preservation fee, a $10.00 records archive fee and $5.00 for the first page, for a $25.00 total, with $4.00 for each additional page. Those are deed-record prices. Concho publishes nothing at all about what it costs to open an estate, so the $360.00 statutory base (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1); § 133.151(a)(1)) plus a call to the clerk is the only honest way to budget.

That same recording schedule carries a formatting rule worth reading before you record anything out of an estate. It reprints Local Government Code § 191.007, which sets the specifications for a legal paper presented to a county clerk: no wider than 8 1/2 inches and no longer than 14 inches, paper heavy enough that the writing will not bleed through, type no smaller than eight point, an identifying heading at the top of the first page, names legibly printed under each signature, black on white reproductions, and no more than one rider or attachment to a page. A page that fails those requirements is charged twice the regular recording fee, with two exceptions written into the statute: failing the eight-point type minimum does not double the fee, and neither does a missing identifying heading on a paper that carries the notice Property Code § 11.008(c) requires (§ 191.007(h)). Either way, the clerk may not refuse to record a page on the ground that it fails the specifications (§ 191.007(k)). Concho adds a request of its own, which is not in the statute: a 1 1/4 inch margin at the top right and a 1 inch margin on the long sides, so the office can affix volume and page labels. The letter also states that the office will not accept charges or partial payments.

The clerk's online records portal is not a probate case search, and the county does not say what is in it. The clerk announces that all records held in digital format are now online and are updated at midnight every night, and links an Online Records Search run by LGS Online Solutions. The portal itself opens on a login form, and the county's own customer-website FAQ explains that a guest login "only allows you to view the index information on records" and that when you search you select an office and a record type because "each elected official can use their discretion as to what record types they choose to put online". Nothing published says probate case files are among them. Treat it as a records portal of unknown probate coverage and confirm any estate lookup with the clerk.

The district court in the picture is the 119th, it sits in San Angelo, and its Concho County terms are fixed by statute. Government Code § 24.221(a) composes the 119th Judicial District of Concho, Runnels and Tom Green counties, and § 24.221(b)(1) starts its Concho County terms on the first Mondays in February and July. The judge is Gonzalo Rios and the chambers are at the Tom Green County Courthouse, 112 W. Beauregard, San Angelo 76903 (verified July 2026). It does not open estates: it reaches a Concho 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)). Concho County publishes a YouTube live stream channel for the 119th District Court sitting in the county, which is useful if a contested matter ends up there, but nothing comparable is published for the County Court's own probate settings.

Uncontested Concho County estates are handled without a lawyer every year, but this is a county where counsel is worth more than the county size suggests, because there is no local scaffolding to lean on: no probate instruction sheet, no forms, no checklist, no published docket and no fee schedule for court costs. Every document is drafted from scratch, and the only way to learn what the office expects at filing is to ask. Counsel earns its keep 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-county property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. The contested-matter route is the other reason: 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 a lawyer. Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Concho County and the San Angelo area.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, styled for the Concho County Court and ready to file with the Concho County and District Clerk, which matters in a county that publishes no forms, no checklist and no local instructions 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 Concho 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).