Hansford County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Spearman, 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 work the same way in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before your first filing matters more than usual in Hansford County, because the county publishes no forms, no checklist and no procedure sheet to correct a wrong turn, and the County Clerk's staff can explain what the counter needs but cannot tell you which route to take.

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

The Hansford County Clerk's office at 15 Northwest Court in Spearman is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates, and no separate probate department. The court serves every part of the county, including Spearman and Gruver and the rural areas between them; the county's own tax-rate notices name the City of Spearman, the City of Gruver, Gruver ISD and Pringle-Morse CISD among the taxing units inside Hansford County. The county also names the Seventh Court of Appeals, which sits in Amarillo, as the appellate court serving Hansford County.

Venue is straightforward for a Hansford 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 Spearman or Gruver, the case belongs in the Hansford County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Amarillo, Borger or Perryton. 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, and Hansford's own website makes it easy to get wrong. The county's list of offices includes a menu item labeled County Court at Law, and following it opens a page with no content on it. There is no county court at law in Hansford County: Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory county court in Texas, contains no Hansford provision, and the county has no statutory probate court either. So the Hansford County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the elected County Judge presides. Style your papers for the county court, not for a court at law.

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 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 comes back when it is resolved.

The district court in that route is the 84th District Court. Government Code § 24.186 provides that "The 84th Judicial District is composed of Hansford, Hutchinson, and Ochiltree counties", and that its terms begin in Hansford County on the third Monday in March and the second Monday in September. The county publishes the 84th District Court at 15 NW Court St. in Spearman, with a mailing address in Stinnett, a local number of 806-659-4160 and a Stinnett number of 806-878-4022. That court does not open estates; it reaches a Hansford probate matter only on a § 32.003 transfer.

The County Court at Law menu item is a dead end, and believing it is the costliest mistake available here. The Hansford County website lists County Court at Law among its county offices, and the link opens a page with no content at all. Government Code Chapter 25, which creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in Texas, contains no Hansford provision, so the county has neither. Probate is heard by the Hansford County Court, the constitutional county court, under Estates Code § 32.002(a). Caption your application accordingly.

Check the street number, not just the street. Hansford County publishes at least five different addresses on Northwest Court in Spearman: the County Clerk and the 84th District Court at 15, the County Judge, the Commissioners Court and the Hansford County Courthouse at 16, the County Auditor at 17, the County Treasurer at 18 and the Justice of the Peace at 12. Filings go to the County Clerk at 15 Northwest Court. The county's general courthouse line is 806-659-4100, but the clerk's own line, 806-659-4110, is the one to use for an estate.

One officer holds both clerkships, and it does not change where you file. The county publishes the same person as County Clerk and as District Clerk, at the same address, phone, fax and mailbox. Government Code § 51.501(a) requires a county with a population of less than 8,000 to elect a single clerk to perform the duties of both offices unless the voters vote to keep them separate (§ 51.501(b)). An estate is still a county court matter, filed on the county-clerk side; the district court role only comes into play if the County Judge sends a contested matter to the 84th District Court under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2).

Nothing local is published, so assume nothing. Hansford County publishes no counter hours, no lunch closure, no filing cutoff, no probate fee schedule, no probate forms, no local rules, no docket day, no docket time and no remote appearance policy. The two court-related documents on its OCA appointments and fees page are scanned images dated September 2016. This is normal for a county this size and it is not a reason to guess: every one of those questions has an answer, and the way to get it is to call the County Clerk at 806-659-4110 before you file.

The holiday schedule carries a real filing instruction. Hansford County publishes an annual holiday schedule, and the 2026 version closes the offices on January 1 and 2, April 3, May 25, July 3, September 7, November 11, November 26 and 27, and December 24 and 25. It then adds, in its own words: "FOR EMERGENCIES & DEADLINE FILINGS CALL THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE, 806-659-4140. THEY WILL CONTACT THE PERSONNEL YOU NEED." If a statutory deadline falls on one of those days, that number is the county's published route to a person.

Plenty of uncontested estates in small Panhandle counties are handled without a lawyer, and nothing in Hansford County's rules requires one for an ordinary application. 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. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Hansford County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no procedure sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no local template to check your work against. Second, 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 84th 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 without counsel. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Hansford County and the surrounding Panhandle.

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, Hansford County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Spearman.

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