Dickens County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Dickens, 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 Dickens publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no docket information, so there is no local packet to correct a wrong start. The one local document that does exist, the county's probate fee schedule, prices the filing but does not tell you which filing to make.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Dickens 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 their own look in this part of Texas, because they are easy to miss and they are exactly the kind of asset that later forces a second filing. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so that the application filed with the Dickens County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Dickens County Clerk's Office at 508 Crow Street in Dickens is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch counter and no annex counter for estates beyond that one office, which is itself in the county Annex rather than in the courthouse. The court serves every part of the county, including the town of Dickens, Spur and the ranching country between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Dickens; what does require a physical connection is the original will, which has to reach the clerk, and the hearing itself.

Venue is straightforward for a Dickens 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 Dickens County, the case belongs in the Dickens County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Lubbock, Plainview 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. Dickens County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Dickens County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. Two independent checks confirm it: Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in the state, contains no Dickens County entry at all, and the Office of Court Administration's 2025 county clerk directory shows Dickens with a county court case-type block marked "Probate: Yes" and no county court at law. The district court seated in the county is the 110th District Court, which under Government Code § 24.212(a) covers Briscoe, Dickens, Floyd and Motley counties; the county publishes its judge's office at the Floyd County courthouse in Floydada. It does not open estates.

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 Dickens County that district court is the 110th. 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. An appeal from a final probate order in Dickens County goes to the Seventh Court of Appeals, which names Dickens among its counties and sits on the second floor of the Potter County Courts Building in Amarillo (Government Code § 22.201(h)).

One officer, two clerkships, one counter. This is the defining local fact in Dickens County and it removes a warning that applies almost everywhere else in Texas. The county's own menu titles the office "District & County Clerk", the County Clerk page and the District Clerk page publish the same officer, Danay Carnes, at the same address, phone and fax, the county home page lists the seat as "County/District Clerk", the county's Elections page lists the office up for re-election in 2026 as "County & District Clerk", and the Office of Court Administration's 2025 directory records the office as a combo clerk. Government Code § 51.501(a) is the provision behind it: 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 qualified voters choose at an election to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). In practice that means you cannot go to the wrong window in Dickens. It does not change which court has your case: an estate is filed in the Dickens County Court and is taken by the same officer acting as clerk of that court (Texas Constitution article V, § 20).

Two buildings, and the clerk is not in the courthouse. The county's Contact page splits them: "Courthouse Physical Address: 201 US-82" and "Annex Physical Address: 508 Crow Street". The filing counter, the one that takes an application and an original will, is the Annex at 508 Crow Street, which is also where the county puts early voting and half its election-day precincts. The County Judge, who presides over the county court, keeps an office at the courthouse at 201 US-82 with a separate mailbox (P.O. Box 179) and a separate phone ((806) 623-5532). The county does not publish where a probate hearing is held, so ask when the clerk sets the date rather than assuming either building.

Watch the two fee sheets. Because one officer holds both clerkships, the county's website carries both a probate fee schedule, on the County Clerk page, and a district court civil and family fee schedule, on the District Clerk page, and they do not price the same thing. The probate schedule, effective September 1, 2024, is the one that governs an estate: $360.00 to open. The civil and family sheet, effective August 1, 2024, shows a $350.00 total for a new civil, family or child-relationship case in the district court. A reader who budgets from the wrong sheet will be short at the counter. There is a third sheet as well, the recording fee schedule, which covers deeds and other real property records; it is the relevant one only when a probate step reaches the deed records, for example recording a small estate affidavit for a homestead or recording a secured creditor's election.

The recording fee sheet carries another county's text, so read it with care. Dickens County's recording schedule is on the Dickens County Clerk letterhead with the same September 1, 2024 effective date, but two of its lines still point readers to Archer County: it says foreclosure and trustee sale notices may be viewed at Archer County's website, and that the cattle brand application is available on Archer County's website. Those are template leftovers, not statements about Dickens County. The probate schedule is a separate document, captioned "Dickens County, Texas Probate Fees", and carries no such crossover.

One court, one counter, and the district court only enters the picture on a contest. Dickens County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Dickens County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk at 508 Crow Street takes the filing. The district court that serves the county is the 110th, which under Government Code § 24.212(a) covers Briscoe, Dickens, Floyd and Motley counties and whose judge the county publishes at the Floyd County courthouse in Floydada. It does not open estates; it reaches a Dickens probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)). An appeal from a final probate order goes to the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo (Government Code § 22.201(h)).

Plan around the short Friday and the single phone line. The county publishes hours of operation of Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The clerk's own page publishes no hours at all and says nothing about a lunch closure, and the office has one published number, (806) 623-5531, for both clerkships and every other function it performs, from recording deeds to running elections. Call ahead, especially on a Friday afternoon or around an election, and check the county's holiday calendar before driving in.

Plenty of uncontested Dickens County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county clerk's counter is used to walking people through what it needs. 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. Dickens County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no local practice note, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no county template to check it against. The county publishes no hearing day, docket time or remote appearance rule, so scheduling runs through phone calls to a single-line office. 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)), which in Dickens County means the 110th District Court, whose judge the county publishes in Floydada, and a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)). County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Dickens County and the surrounding South Plains and Rolling Plains 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, Dickens 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 with the county clerk.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for a county that publishes no forms of its own and captioned for the Dickens County Court rather than a probate court or county court at law that Dickens does not have, ready to file with the Dickens County Clerk.

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 Dickens 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).