Gillespie County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Fredericksburg, 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 in Gillespie County because the clerk's schedule prices every decedent's estate application at the same $360.00 base (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) and § 133.151(a)(1)), so a change of route after filing means paying the base again, and because what the citation costs on top depends entirely on the route you choose: $85.00 for a posted citation, $180.00 where citation has to be published.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Gillespie 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. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Gillespie County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

Gillespie County has one probate filing counter. Applications, wills and later filings go to the Gillespie County Clerk in Room 109 of the Gillespie County Courthouse at 101 West Main Street in Fredericksburg, and both courts that can hear the case sit in the same building. There is no branch or annex counter for estates. The same clerk and the same courts serve the whole county, including Fredericksburg, Harper, Stonewall, Willow City and Doss and the ranch country between them.

Venue is straightforward for a Hill Country 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 Gillespie County, the case belongs in Gillespie County even if they died in a hospital in Kerrville, San Antonio or Austin. 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)).

Two Gillespie County courts can hear a probate case, and naming the right one is the fact most often gotten wrong. Government Code § 25.0881 provides that "Gillespie County has one statutory county court, the County Court at Law of Gillespie County", added by the Legislature in 2019 and effective October 1, 2019, and Chapter 25 creates no statutory probate court in Gillespie County. So under Estates Code § 32.002(b) the County Court at Law of Gillespie County and the Gillespie County Court, the constitutional county court presided over by the elected County Judge, have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings, the county court at law's grant coming from Government Code § 25.0003(d). Neither court displaces the other. Gillespie's own county court at law provisions in Government Code § 25.0882 add family law and juvenile law jurisdiction and split the clerkship without touching probate.

The county's own materials show both courts in the work, and neither is advertised as the county's probate court. The County Clerk describes itself as the records keeper of the County Court and the County Court at Law and says that "Gillespie County is a Constitutional Court as well as a Statutory Court". The clerk's probate fee schedule includes a County Judge order fee, which is the constitutional county court signing orders. The same clerk publishes the County Court at Law's rules for requesting settings, orders and judgments. And the ad litem appointment and fee reports the county posts under its probate heading are titled for the County Court and the County Court at Law together. Ask the County Clerk at 830-997-6515 which court your case has been assigned to before you request a hearing date.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the mechanism is a transfer, and it keeps the case inside Gillespie 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 216th Judicial District Court, which Government Code § 24.275 composes of Gillespie and Kerr counties and which is served by the District Clerk in Room 204, does not open estates.

There is a hard 2:00 p.m. cutoff on new probate filings, and a Thursday rule behind it. The County Clerk published a letter on July 3, 2024 stating: "Starting July 11, 2024, the cutoff time for filing new Probates in the County Clerk's Office will be 2:00pm. Due to some internal changes at the courthouse, this change gives us the appropriate amount of time to accept e-filed Probates and prepare the Citations for posting." It then adds: "After August 1, 2024, any new probate filed after 2pm on Thursday will not be accepted until the next week." The letter is still posted on the clerk's Probates and Guardianships page. A late Thursday filing therefore costs a week, not an afternoon, so treat Thursday at 2:00 p.m. as the real weekly deadline and confirm the policy with the clerk before you file.

The counter closes at 4 pm and wants fee payments by 3:30 p.m. The County Clerk publishes office hours of 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, closed holidays, which is an earlier close than most Texas clerks keep, and the County Court at Law's rules sheet prints the counter's own instruction: "If you require a filing fee, please come to the office before 3:30 p.m." The County Court at Law's own office runs 8 am to 5 pm with a noon to 1 pm lunch closure, so the two offices in the same building are not open on the same schedule. Photo identification is required for all transactions at the clerk's counter.

Getting your hearing date is your job, and so is the order that sets it. The County Court at Law's published rules are unusually direct: "YOU must request the hearing or trial date", by contacting the court coordinator; "YOU are responsible for providing the Order setting the hearing/trial to the Court. If you do not know how to create an Order, please contact the Court Coordinator. Until the presented Order is received by the Court Coordinator, it will not be placed on the Court's docket. Delay may result in losing the hearing date"; and "FOR ATTORNEYS AND ALL PRO SE PARTIES, you must confer with opposing counsel/party(s) for an agreed date prior to presenting an Order to set a hearing/trial." Requests go to the coordinator by email, by fax at 830-307-3783 or by mail, and the coordinator's line is 830-307-3766.

Letters come out on a county form, and only to the representative. Gillespie County does not simply hand letters testamentary across the counter on request. The clerk publishes a Request for Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration marked "For Executors, Executrixes, and Administrators only", which is sworn before a notary, asks for the cause number and the quantity at $2 per letter, requires valid photo identification and a check or money order payable to Gillespie County, and carries a notice that the requester must be qualified to obtain the record under Estates Code §§ 306.004 and 306.006. Attorneys and law firms are told to request letters through the electronic filing system instead.

The court publishes rules for proceedings held by electronic means, and it live streams. The County Court at Law's two-sided rule sheet, filed with the County Clerk in May 2020, sets nineteen rules for a proceeding conducted by telephone conference, video or other electronic means: no one may leave without the court's permission, a participant who is disconnected must immediately try to reconnect and then call the court coordinator at 830-307-3766, all rules of conduct and decorum that apply in the courtroom apply fully, participants must be secluded and appropriately dressed, the judge records the session, and "The proceeding will be live streamed on the Court's YouTube channel". Both the County Court at Law and the Gillespie County Court link a YouTube channel from their own county pages. The rules do not say which matters may be heard electronically, so ask the coordinator before assuming a probate hearing can be.

The clerk will not run your probate search, and there is a fee if it does. The County Clerk's page carries a standing policy: "Effective September 1, 2015, the Gillespie County Clerk's Office will not perform Probate or Criminal Searches for the general public. You may search these records either in person at the County Clerk's Office or on the Gillespie County website." The county's Courts and Justice Public Records Search is the online route, and the clerk's Probates page states that probates can be searched there by case or party name and that "As of July 9, 2026 we charge a $5 search fee per name or case number." Copies of a probate file are $1 per page, and certified copies are $1 per page plus $5 per certification.

Two courts, one counter, and the district court only appears on a transfer. The County Court at Law of Gillespie County and the constitutional Gillespie County Court hold concurrent original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), and the filing goes to the Gillespie County Clerk either way because Government Code § 25.0882(b) makes the county clerk the clerk of the county court at law in everything but family law. If a matter becomes contested, it is transferred to the 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 216th Judicial District Court, composed of Gillespie and Kerr counties by Government Code § 24.275 and served by the District Clerk in Room 204, does not open estates.

Gillespie County publishes no policy requiring a lawyer, and its County Court at Law writes its rules to address self-represented parties directly, which tells you unrepresented filers do appear here. 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 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 an attorney more than they would elsewhere. First, Gillespie County publishes no application, order or oath, so every substantive document is drafted from scratch, and the court will not put your case on its docket until you have supplied the order setting the hearing. Second, the filing window is narrow: new probates are not accepted after 2:00 p.m., and a Thursday miss costs a week. Third, an heirship determination usually needs citation by publication, which is the county's most expensive citation line at $180.00 on its January 1, 2024 schedule, and often an attorney ad litem for unknown heirs. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Gillespie County and the surrounding Hill Country 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, Gillespie County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed in Fredericksburg.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your estate settlement route, drafted for a Gillespie County filing and for the County Clerk's own requirements, including the proposed order the court expects before it will set a hearing, ready to file with the Gillespie 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 Gillespie 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).