Glasscock County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Garden City, 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 identical in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Doing that work first matters more than usual in Glasscock County, because the county publishes no probate instructions, no forms and no fee schedule to correct a wrong assumption for you, and the person at the counter can explain procedure but cannot tell you which route to take.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral or royalty interest and parcel of Glasscock 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. That question is worth settling early in a county like this one, where farm, ranch and oil and gas interests often outweigh the bank balances and where the paperwork trail runs through the deed records. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Glasscock County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Glasscock County Clerk's office in Garden City is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or satellite counter for estates, and no second window: the County Clerk who takes the filing is the same officer who keeps the records of the 118th District Court. The court serves every part of Glasscock County, including Garden City and the farming, ranching and oilfield country around it. Two addresses appear on the county's own site and it is worth knowing both. The clerk publishes 209 South Myrl Street, Garden City, TX 79739 as the physical address on the County Clerk page, the District Clerk page and the Elections page. A courthouse block that repeats on every page of the site gives the Glasscock County Courthouse at 117 E. Currie, Garden City, TX 79739, which is also the County Judge's published address. The county also uses an Annex building, which it names in its election materials without giving it a street address. Take a filing to 209 South Myrl Street and call (432) 354-2371 if you need to be certain where a hearing will be held.

Venue is straightforward for a Glasscock 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 Glasscock County, the case belongs in the Glasscock County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Big Spring, Midland, San Angelo or Lubbock. 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. Glasscock County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law: Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in the state, contains no Glasscock County entry. So the Glasscock County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The Office of Court Administration's 2025 county clerk directory records the same thing from the clerk's side, listing probate among the case types filed with the Glasscock County Clerk for the county court and listing no county court at law at all. The other trial court seated in the county is the 118th District Court, which under Government Code § 24.220(a) is composed of Glasscock, Howard and Martin counties; the county names R. Shane Seaton as its judge and publishes the court's office at 312 Scurry, P.O. Box 528, Big Spring, Texas 79721-0528, 432-264-2225 (verified August 2026).

Glasscock County has a district-court provision of its own that most Texas counties do not, and it is worth reading before a dispute starts. Government Code § 24.220(b) provides that "In addition to other jurisdiction provided by law, each district court in Glasscock County has the civil jurisdiction of a county court", and § 24.220(c)(1) provides that the terms of the 118th District Court begin in Glasscock County on the first Mondays in February and September, with different term dates in Howard County and Martin County. None of that changes where an estate starts: original probate jurisdiction is in the county court under Estates Code § 32.002(a), and the application goes to the Glasscock County Clerk. It does tell you that the district judge divides time among three counties, which is worth knowing if a matter has to move.

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 the 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.

One step further out, an appeal from a Glasscock County probate order does not go to the district court either. A final order issued by a probate court is appealable to the court of appeals (Estates Code § 32.001(c)), and Glasscock County lies in the Eleventh Court of Appeals District (Government Code § 22.201(l)). That court sits in Eastland, names Glasscock in its own list of the twenty-eight counties it serves, and is linked from both the Glasscock County Clerk page and the District Clerk page as the court serving the county.

One officer, two clerkships, one counter. This is the defining local fact in Glasscock County and it removes a warning that applies almost everywhere else in Texas. The County Clerk page titles the officer "County and District Clerk", the District Clerk page publishes the same person at the same address, the same phone and the same fax, and the Office of Court Administration's 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 Garden City. It does not change which court has your case: an estate is filed in the Glasscock County Court and is taken by the same officer acting as clerk of that court (Texas Constitution article V, § 20).

The county publishes two addresses and does not reconcile them. The County Clerk page, the District Clerk page and the Elections page all give the clerk's physical address as 209 South Myrl Street, Garden City, TX 79739, with mail to P.O. Box 190. A courthouse block that repeats at the foot of every page of the county site gives the Glasscock County Courthouse at 117 E. Currie, Garden City, TX 79739, and 117 E. Currie is also the County Judge's published physical address. The county refers separately to an Annex building: its Elections page puts early voting in the "Annex building election room", and a county ballot notice from 2022 gives the location as the "Glasscock County Annex". No street address is published for the Annex and no room number is published for the clerk. File at 209 South Myrl Street, mail to P.O. Box 190, and ask the clerk which building a hearing will be in rather than assuming it is the same one as the counter.

The county is online for deeds, not for estates. The County Clerk page posts a records-online notice pointing to idocmarket.com and lists Deed Records, Deed of Trust and Official Public Records from sovereignty to present. That is a land-records index, and it is genuinely useful in a county where mineral and royalty interests are common and where a small estate affidavit transferring a homestead has to be recorded in the deed records (Estates Code § 205.006(a)). It is not a probate case search, and there is no probate case search. The county's own link to the vendor now lands on the vendor's list of counties rather than a Glasscock search form, so expect a detour. For anything about a probate case number, file stamp or setting, the answer comes from the County Clerk.

Nothing about probate is published, and that is itself the local condition to plan around. Glasscock County has no probate page, no probate fee schedule, no probate forms or checklists, no probate e-filing notice, no published local rules, no docket information and no counter hours specific to the clerk. The county is not doing anything wrong: nothing requires a county of this size to publish any of it. But it means the statewide rules do the work here. Attorneys must e-file (Misc. Docket No. 13-9164), an unrepresented party may but need not (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)), the original will goes to the clerk within three business days (Rule 21(f)(12)), the base fee is $360.00 by statute (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) and § 133.151(a)(1)), and everything genuinely local has to be confirmed on (432) 354-2371.

The county's own hours statement is a county statement, not a counter statement. The Glasscock County home page says "Our regular hours are 8:30 am to 4:00 pm Monday thru Friday", which is 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The County Clerk page repeats no hours, publishes no lunch closure and publishes no filing cutoff. In a joint clerk's office that also administers the county's elections, election weeks are the times to call ahead. That matters for one deadline in particular: the original will must reach the clerk within three business days of the application (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)).

Glasscock shares its district court with Howard and Martin counties, and the statute is written for those three by name. Government Code § 24.220(a) provides that the 118th Judicial District is composed of Glasscock, Howard and Martin counties. Section 24.220(b) adds that "In addition to other jurisdiction provided by law, each district court in Glasscock County has the civil jurisdiction of a county court", and § 24.220(c)(1) that the terms of the 118th District Court begin in Glasscock County on the first Mondays in February and September, with different dates in the other two counties. Original probate jurisdiction still sits in the county court (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the application still goes to the Glasscock County Clerk; the district court reaches an estate through the contested-matter route in § 32.003. The practical point is that the district judge divides time among three counties and sits in Big Spring, so a matter that moves there is moving to another county's courthouse.

An appeal goes to Eastland, not to the district court. A final order issued by a probate court is appealable to the court of appeals (Estates Code § 32.001(c)), and Glasscock County is one of the twenty-eight counties in the Eleventh Court of Appeals District (Government Code § 22.201(l)). The Eleventh Court of Appeals names Glasscock in its own counties-served list, sits at the County Courthouse, 100 West Main Street, Suite 300, Eastland, Texas 76448, mails to P.O. Box 271, Eastland, Texas 76448-0271, and answers on (254) 629-2638. Both the Glasscock County Clerk page and the District Clerk page link that court as serving Glasscock County, which is a useful piece of orientation on a site that otherwise says nothing about courts.

One court, one counter, and the district court enters on a contest. Because Government Code Chapter 25 contains no Glasscock County entry, there is no question of choosing a court: the Glasscock County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The 118th District Court reaches a Glasscock probate matter only if the County Judge requests the assignment of a statutory probate court judge or transfers a contested matter under § 32.003(a), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Uncontested estates are settled without a lawyer in counties like this one every year, but Glasscock County gives a self-represented filer less to work from than most. 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 or a mineral or royalty 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 an attorney more than they would in a metro county. The county publishes no probate forms, no instructions, no counter hours and no fee schedule, so every document is drafted from scratch and every local cost and deadline has to be established by telephone. Mineral and royalty interests are common here and they complicate both the inventory and any sale. 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)), and a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), which is a timing point that is easy to miss and which would move the dispute to the 118th District Court in Big Spring. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Glasscock County and the surrounding Permian Basin 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, Glasscock County real property and 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 Garden City.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned for the Glasscock County Court, the constitutional county court that actually has the case, and ready to file with the Glasscock County Clerk at 209 South Myrl Street. That matters more in a county that publishes no forms and no instructions 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 Glasscock 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).