Dimmit County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Carrizo Springs, work out what is in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court filing 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 the first filing matters more than usual in Dimmit County, because the county publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no forms, and no docket information, so there is no local document to correct a wrong start. The people who can tell you what the counter needs are the County Clerk's staff at (830) 876-2323, option 5 then 1, and they are not permitted to advise you on which route to take.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Dimmit County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. Mineral and royalty interests deserve particular attention in this part of South Texas, because they are easy to miss and they are exactly the kind of asset that forces an estate back into court years later. 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 Dimmit County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Dimmit County Clerk's office at 103 N. 5th Street in Carrizo Springs is the single probate filing counter for the whole county. It serves every community in Dimmit County, including Carrizo Springs, Asherton, Big Wells and Catarina and the ranch country between them. There is no branch counter and no satellite office that takes estate filings, although the county does run offices in more than one place: the Justices of the Peace for Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7 sit in Big Wells and Asherton, and the County Judge, the District Clerk and the Justices of the Peace for Precincts 1, 2 and 6 are at 212 N. 4th Street in Carrizo Springs. None of those offices opens an estate. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate can be handled without a trip to Carrizo Springs; the two things that pull you back to the county are the original will, which has to reach the clerk physically, and the hearing.

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 Dimmit County, the case belongs in the Dimmit County Court even if they died in a hospital in Uvalde, Laredo, Eagle Pass or San Antonio. 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. Dimmit County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Dimmit County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. This was checked directly against Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory county court and every statutory probate court in Texas and which contains no Dimmit County entry, and it matches what the county publishes: the County Clerk's page describes the office as "the clerk for the county courts, including probate courts, and the commissioners court", and the county lists no county court at law among its departments. The other trial courts of record for the county are the 293rd and 365th District Courts, which do not open estates.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the case does not necessarily stay with the County Judge. 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)), after which the matter comes back.

The district courts on the other end of that route are worth knowing by name here, because they are shared. The county's own District Clerk page states: "Dimmit County is part of a tri-county district including Dimmit, Maverick and Zavala Counties. The 293rd and 365th Judicial District Courts preside over this district." The 293rd District Judge is Maribel Flores and the 365th District Judge is Amado Abascal (verified August 2026), and both judges' offices are in Eagle Pass, in Maverick County. The Dimmit County District Clerk, at 212 N. 4th Street Suite 202, (830) 876-4243, serves those courts, and where a contested matter is transferred to a district court the clerk of that court may perform the functions a county clerk would otherwise perform for that matter (Estates Code § 32.003(i)). None of that changes where you open the estate, which is always the Dimmit County Clerk.

Two buildings, and the county uses the word courthouse for both. This is the single most practical thing to get right in Dimmit County. The County Clerk, who takes estate filings, is at 103 N. 5th Street, which is the address the Texas Historical Commission carries for the Dimmit County Courthouse. The County Judge, who presides over the county court, the District Clerk in Suite 202 and the Justices of the Peace for Precincts 1, 2 and 6 in Suite 204 are at 212 N. 4th Street, which the county's District Clerk page calls the Dimmit County Courthouse Annex, which the footer of every county web page prints as the county's address, and which a Commissioners Court notice on the county's Public Notices page calls the Dimmit County Courthouse. File at 103 N. 5th Street, and ask when your setting is made which building the hearing will be in, because the county does not publish that.

There is a published phone route to the probate desk, and it is not the number in most directories. The clerk's own page reads: "(830) 876-2323 opt. 5 then for **Criminal / Probate: select 1 **Recording/Birth/Death/Marriage Certificates: select 2." A published route to a probate desk is unusual in a county this size and is worth using. The number that appears in the site footer and in outside directories, (830) 876-9904, is the county's general administration line and reaches the County Judge's office at extension 3, not the filing counter.

The county publishes no hours, and it does close without much notice. No page on the county website gives office hours for the County Clerk. The only county office that publishes hours is the District Clerk, which is a different office in the other building, so its times should not be read across. The county also posted an unscheduled closure of its administrative offices in Carrizo Springs on July 20 and 21, 2026 following a declaration of loss of water, cancelling that week's Commissioners Court meeting. Call ahead, and look at the county's Public Notices page before you travel, especially if you are delivering an original will against the three-business-day deadline in Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12).

The clerk publishes what it will not record, and letters testamentary are on the list. The county's official public records page names letters testamentary, birth certificates and death certificates as documents that should not be filed in the official public records because certified copies may not be made of them, and names an unprobated will as another, unless it is attached to an affidavit. The same page carries the clerk's own notice that "A County or District Clerk is not authorized to provide legal advice, perform services requiring legal expertise, or assist in the preparation of legal documents, including but not limited to wills, contracts, or other legal instruments", citing Texas Government Code § 81.101. Read that as the boundary of what the counter can do for you: it can tell you what it needs, not what you should file.

County court fees can be paid online, but not the way a filer usually expects. The county's Pay For page carries a County Court Fees payment link listing the County Judge and the County Clerk, with the county's own instruction: "Please allow 3 days for payment to process. To confirm the court has received your payment please call 830-876-2323 opt. 5." That is a payment channel for court fees generally, and an electronically filed probate application pays its filing fee through eFileTexas.gov at submission instead, so ask the clerk which applies before sending money any other way.

One court, one counter, and the district courts appear only on a contest, from out of county. Dimmit County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no choice of court: the Dimmit County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The 293rd and 365th District Courts serve Dimmit together with Maverick and Zavala Counties and both judges sit in Eagle Pass, so a transfer of a contested matter under § 32.003(a)(2) moves the fight to a court whose judge is based in another county, while the Dimmit County Court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)). That geography is a practical argument for filing a motion for the assignment of a statutory probate court judge instead, which the county judge must grant if it is filed before a transfer (§ 32.003(b)).

Plenty of uncontested Dimmit County estates are settled without a lawyer, and nothing in the county's published material 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 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. Three local factors weigh in favor of getting help more than they would in a metro county. Dimmit County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch with no local template to work against. The county publishes no docket information or hearing practice, so the timing has to be learned by asking. 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)), a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), and the district courts serving Dimmit County are the 293rd and 365th, whose judges sit in Eagle Pass. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but not the law, and the county says so in its own notice citing Texas Government Code § 81.101. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Dimmit County and the surrounding Winter Garden and South 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, Dimmit 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 Carrizo Springs.

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