Ellis County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Waxahachie, 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 here because the County Court at Law No. 1 reviews the whole file before it will give you a hearing date, and because the wrong route can cost you the filing fee: the county's own small estate affidavit checklist warns that "many SEAs are denied for problems that cannot be corrected, and the denied applicants lose their filing fees."

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Ellis 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 court. The court also wants detail rather than round numbers, and says so in its checklist: describe each asset precisely, give vehicle identification numbers and the last four digits of account numbers, and expect no approval where an asset is listed at an unknown value. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Ellis County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

Ellis County has one probate filing counter. Applications, wills and later filings go to the Ellis County Clerk's Probate Division in the Ellis County Courts Building at 109 South Jackson Street in Waxahachie, and the court that hears them sits on the third floor of the same building. Mail goes to P.O. Box 250, Waxahachie, TX 75168. There is no branch or annex probate counter: the Historic Courthouse at 101 West Main Street is a separate county building and is not where estates are filed. The same clerk and the same court serve the whole county, including Waxahachie, Ennis, Midlothian, Red Oak, Ferris, Italy, Palmer, Ovilla, Maypearl, Milford, Venus, Oak Leaf, Pecan Hill, Garrett, Alma, Bardwell and the unincorporated communities of Avalon, Forreston and Telico.

Venue is straightforward for an Ellis 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 Ellis County, the case belongs in Ellis County even if they died in a hospital in Dallas or Fort Worth. 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)). The county's own small estate affidavit checklist puts the practical point bluntly: "it is unusual for the Court to approve an SEA for a Decedent who did not have a fixed place of residence in Ellis County."

Four Ellis County courts can hear a probate case, and naming them correctly is the fact most often gotten wrong. Government Code § 25.0721 provides that "Ellis County has the following statutory county courts: (1) the County Court at Law No. 1 of Ellis County; (2) the County Court at Law No. 2 of Ellis County; and (3) the County Court at Law No. 3 of Ellis County", the third having been added effective January 1, 2021, and Chapter 25 creates no statutory probate court in Ellis County. So under Estates Code § 32.002(b) those courts and the Ellis County Court, the constitutional county court presided over by the elected County Judge, have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings, the county courts at law's grant coming from Government Code § 25.0003(d). Neither court displaces the other. Ellis County's own county court at law provisions in Government Code § 25.0722 add family law jurisdiction and civil jurisdiction concurrent with the district court regardless of the amount in controversy, and split the clerkship, without touching probate.

In practice the county sends every estate to one bench. The County Court at Law No. 1's own page states that it "also handles all of the Probate/Guardianship and CPS cases for Ellis County", the County Clerk's Probate Division page states that the clerk "serves as Clerk of the Court for County Court at Law 1" and that this court "hears issues associated with the estates of deceased persons", and the county tells readers to contact County Court at Law No. 1 to schedule a case on the docket. That is a statement about local practice, not about jurisdiction, and the concurrent grant in § 32.002(b) still stands.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the mechanism is a transfer, and it keeps the case inside Ellis County. Under Estates Code § 32.004(a), in a county with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction and no statutory probate court, 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, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the same subsection lets the judge of the county court transfer the entire proceeding. The county court at law may then hear the proceeding as if originally filed in that court, and where only the contested matter was transferred, on the resolution of the matter it is returned to the county court for further proceedings not inconsistent with the county court at law's orders (§ 32.004(b)). No out-of-county judge is assigned and nothing goes to a district court on this route. The county's four district courts, the 40th, 378th, 443rd and 504th, do not open estates.

One court takes all the estates, and the county says so in two places. Government Code § 25.0721 gives Ellis County three county courts at law, and Estates Code § 32.002(b) gives them and the Ellis County Court concurrent original probate jurisdiction, but the County Court at Law No. 1's own page states that it "also handles all of the Probate/Guardianship and CPS cases for Ellis County", and the County Clerk's Probate Division page states that the clerk "serves as Clerk of the Court for County Court at Law 1", the court that "hears issues associated with the estates of deceased persons". Address your pleadings to that court and file them with the County Clerk.

You cannot get a hearing date by phone. The court requires its Probate/Heirship Uncontested Hearing Request Form and Checklist, signed by the applicant's attorney, plus every document listed for your category of case, emailed to the court manager at [email protected] at the same time the request is made. The court reviews the file before it sets anything, and no date is real until the court confirms it by email. The checklist ends with a certification that the attorney completed and verified every checked item.

Bring a Certified Abstract of Death with every probate application. That is a specific Ellis County requirement, stated in the court's small estate affidavit checklist and repeated on the face of its required affidavit form, and the abstract comes from the County Clerk of the county in which the decedent died, which may not be Ellis County. The court's guide adds that the Death Verification should be brought to the hearing rather than filed as an attachment to the application.

Hearings are in person, and the exceptions are written down. The court's Probate Guide states: "The Court has returned to in person hearings for all matters. All counsel, parties and witnesses must attend hearings in person." Webex is available for a non-party witness who resides, or was served with a subpoena, more than 150 miles from Ellis County; for a person who produces a letter from a medical doctor stating that a medical issue necessitates a remote appearance; and for all mental health proceedings. Ask the court coordinator for a link at least 72 hours before the hearing.

Two 2025 administrative orders change what notice a late or lost will needs. Administrative Order 2025-1, ordered April 25, 2025 and filed with the County Clerk on April 28, 2025, applies to an application to probate a copy of a lost will or a lost will without a copy: the clerk must attach the court's notice to each citation issued under Estates Code § 258.002, every devisee named in the lost will and every person who would inherit if the will is not admitted must be personally served or must execute a waiver affidavit, and the waiver affidavit must itself spell out every point in the notice, because "It is not sufficient for the affidavit to refer to an attached notice." Administrative Order 2025-2, of the same date, does the same for an application to probate a will more than four years after the testator's death (Estates Code § 256.003), citing §§ 258.051 and 258.053. Both add an attorney ad litem and a $600 deposit under the court's Probate Guide updated July 2026.

The court publishes what it will approve in attorney fees, which is rare at this county size. Its Guidelines for Court Approval of Attorney Fee Applications, updated July 2026, set a maximum approved hourly rate for a fiduciary's attorney of $600 and say plainly that the figure "is higher than any Ellis County based probate/guardianship attorney currently charges", with only the most experienced specialists on complex cases expected to command it. The guidelines rest on the reasonable and necessary standard in Estates Code § 352.051.

Three buildings, and only one of them is yours. The County Clerk's Probate Division and the Ellis County Law Library are on the second floor of the Ellis County Courts Building at 109 South Jackson Street, and the County Court at Law No. 1 is on the third floor of the same building. The Historic Courthouse at 101 West Main Street, which the county still publishes as an address, is not the probate counter. Note also that the clerk closes at 4:30 p.m. while the court's office stays open to 5:00 p.m.

Four courts, one counter, and the district courts only appear on a transfer. The county courts at law and the constitutional county court hold concurrent original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), and the filing goes to the Ellis County Clerk either way because Government Code § 25.0722(g) makes the county clerk the clerk of a county court at law in everything but family law. If a matter becomes contested, it is transferred to a county court at law under Estates Code § 32.004, and it comes back to the county court once resolved if only the contested matter went across (§ 32.004(b)). The 40th, 378th, 443rd and 504th Judicial District Courts do not open estates.

Ellis County publishes no policy requiring a lawyer, and Texas allows an applicant to appear without one. Even so, this is a county where counsel carries more practical weight than most. The County Court at Law No. 1's probate materials are written to attorneys: the Probate Guide opens "Counselors", and the mandatory hearing request form must be signed by the applicant's attorney and closes with a "Certification of Applicant's Attorney" that every checked item was completed and verified. The county publishes no self-represented version, so an unrepresented applicant should call the court at (972) 825-5255 and ask how to request a setting before assuming the process will work the same way. The court's small estate affidavit checklist makes the same point in its own words: the complexity of the Estates Code "poses many pitfalls for non-lawyers, and even some lawyers", and an attorney's help in drafting may prevent a denial that costs the applicant the filing fee. Counsel earns its keep where a will or an appointment is likely to be challenged, where there is no will and the heirs have to be determined, where the will is lost or is offered more than four years after death (Estates Code § 256.003) so an attorney ad litem and a $600 deposit are required, where real property has to be sold, where the estate is insolvent, or where a guardianship runs alongside the estate. The court publishes fee guidelines, updated July 2026, capping the approved hourly rate for a fiduciary's attorney at $600 and noting that the ceiling exceeds what Ellis County probate attorneys currently charge. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Ellis County and the surrounding North 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, Ellis County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Waxahachie.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for an Ellis County filing and for the County Court at Law No. 1's own requirements, including the documents its hearing checklist demands before a date will be set, ready to file with the Ellis County Clerk.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is disputed or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Ellis 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).