Crockett County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Ozona, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court 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 Crockett County, because the county publishes no probate instructions, no fee schedule, no forms and no docket information, so there is no local sheet to correct a wrong assumption. What the county does have is a small clerk's office that answers the phone: call 325-392-2022 and ask what the counter needs before you file, not after it bounces.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Crockett 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 are worth a specific look in this part of Texas, because they are easy to miss and they are the assets most likely to keep an estate open. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Crockett County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The county offices at 909 Avenue D in Ozona are the single probate filing location for the whole of Crockett County. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates anywhere else in the county, and there is no second clerk's office to choose between: one elected officer holds both the county clerkship and the district clerkship, and estates are filed on the county-clerk side of that office. The court serves the entire county, which the county's own Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Update 2026 describes as a single-jurisdiction planning area with Crockett County as the only participant, its county seat Ozona being an unincorporated census-designated place rather than an incorporated city.

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 Crockett County, the case belongs in the Crockett County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo, Odessa or San Antonio, because the place of death does not move venue for a Texas resident. 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. Crockett County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Crockett 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 is where every statutory county court and every statutory probate court in Texas is created, contains no Crockett County entry, so there is no second court in the county with concurrent original probate jurisdiction and no choice of forum to make. Do not caption a Crockett County application to a probate court or to a county court at law; the county has neither.

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 take a transferred contest is shared five ways, and that is a genuine Crockett County consideration rather than a detail. Government Code § 24.214 provides that the 112th Judicial District is composed of Crockett, Pecos, Reagan, Sutton and Upton counties, and that the terms of the 112th District Court begin in Crockett County on the first Monday in April and the third Monday in September. The county names Pedro Gomez, Jr. as the 112th District Judge (verified July 2026), with an office at P.O. Drawer C, Ozona, and a phone number of (325) 392-5225. Because a single district judge divides the year across five counties, a party who wants a contested matter heard promptly should understand the § 32.003(a)(1) route, assignment of a statutory probate court judge, before defaulting to the transfer route in § 32.003(a)(2).

One clerk, two clerkships, one counter. Crockett County publishes the same officer, the same four deputies, the same P.O. Drawer C, the same phone and the same fax on its County Clerk page and its District Clerk page, and its elections page prints the combined title, "County and District Clerk/Elections". That is what Government Code § 51.501(a) produces: 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 the voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). The county's own Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Update 2026 puts the 2020 census population at 3,098. The practical effect is reassuring rather than complicated: you cannot walk into the wrong clerk's office in Ozona, because there is only one. But say plainly that you are opening an estate, so the filing is docketed on the county-court side.

The county publishes almost nothing about probate, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you start. No probate page, no fee schedule, no forms, no checklist, no e-filing notice, no docket day, no docket time, no remote-appearance policy and no office hours appear anywhere on the county's own site, and the County Court page is empty. Nothing on this page invents any of them. Treat the clerk's phone number as the county's procedure sheet: call 325-392-2022, ask what the office needs, and confirm the counter is open before you make the drive.

Two Avenue D addresses, and the county's own labels do not agree. The clerk's address as the county publishes it on the elections page is 909 Ave D, Ozona, Texas 76943, and 909 Ave D is the address in the footer of every county department page. But the Contact page calls that building the Crockett County Courthouse Annex, and the county's Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Update 2026 lists the National Register property "Crockett County Courthouse", completed in 1902 in limestone on the historic town square, at 907 Avenue D. The same plan records three of its own public meetings as held "at the Crockett County Annex in Ozona". File at 909 Avenue D, and if you are hand-delivering an original will against the three-business-day deadline, call ahead and have the door confirmed.

The district court that would take a contested matter is shared across five counties and sits in terms. Government Code § 24.214 composes the 112th Judicial District of Crockett, Pecos, Reagan, Sutton and Upton counties, and fixes the beginning of its Crockett County terms on the first Monday in April and the third Monday in September. A single district judge therefore divides the year among five county seats spread across a very large area of West Texas. That is a practical argument for understanding the other route out of a contest before you need it: under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(1) a party may move for the assignment of a statutory probate court judge, that motion beats a transfer to the district court if it is filed first (§ 32.003(b)), and it may be filed before anything is contested at all (§ 32.003(c)).

The records link on the clerk's page is a property index, not a case search. Crockett County's only published records destination is iDocket.com, under the county's own heading "Property Records" and the county's own sentence "Property Index and Images can be found at". It is a third-party subscription service, a registered account is needed, and the county makes no statement that probate case records are included. Do not treat it as a probate case search, and do not assume the absence of an online index means the file does not exist: ask the County Clerk for the case number and the file.

Plan the trip around the distance, not around the counter. Ozona is an unincorporated census-designated place and, by the county's own description, roughly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Order extra sets of letters at $2.00 each while you are there (Local Government Code § 118.061), ask about certified copies in the same visit, and confirm by phone before any second trip. If publication of the creditor notice comes up, ask the clerk whether there is a newspaper of general circulation in the county, because if there is not, the Estates Code requires the notice to be posted instead (§ 308.051(c)).

Plenty of uncontested Texas estates are handled without a lawyer, and nothing Crockett County publishes requires counsel. 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. First, Crockett County publishes no probate forms, no instruction sheet and no fee schedule, so every document is drafted from scratch and every cost has to be confirmed by phone. Second, the contested-matter route matters and has a timing trap in it: 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)). Third, the district court that would otherwise take the contest is the 112th, shared with Pecos, Reagan, Sutton and Upton counties and sitting in Crockett County in terms that begin only in April and September (Government Code § 24.214), so the choice of route can change how long a dispute takes. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Crockett 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, Crockett County real property, mineral and royalty interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Ozona.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned to the Crockett County Court, the constitutional county court, and ready to file with the Crockett County Clerk through eFileTexas.gov. Because the county publishes no forms and no instruction sheet, having the documents drafted correctly the first time is worth more here than in a county with a checklist.

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 Crockett 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).