Howard County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Big Spring, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court appointment 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 your first filing matters more than usual in Howard County, because the county publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no forms to steer you, and the County Clerk's staff 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, mineral interest, vehicle and parcel of Howard 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. Mineral and royalty interests are easy to miss in this part of West Texas and are exactly the kind of asset that turns a simple filing into a second one. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so that the application filed with the Howard County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Howard County Courthouse at 300 S Main Street in Big Spring is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk takes filings in Room 104 and the County Judge sits in Suite 207 of the same building. The court serves every part of the county, including Big Spring, Coahoma, Forsan and Sand Springs and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate does not require a trip to the counter; what does require attention is the original will, which has to reach the clerk physically, and the hearing, for which Howard County publishes no remote alternative.

Venue is straightforward for a Howard 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 Howard County, the case belongs in the Howard County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Midland, Odessa 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. Howard County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Howard County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. Government Code Chapter 25 creates every statutory county court and every statutory probate court in Texas and contains no Howard County entry, which is the direct proof. The other trial courts seated in the county are the 118th District Court and the Justice of the Peace courts, and neither opens estates.

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. In Howard County that district court is the 118th: the 118th Judicial District is composed of Glasscock, Howard and Martin counties (Government Code § 24.220(a)), and its terms in Howard County begin on the fourth Mondays in January, June, August and October (§ 24.220(c)(2)). The 118th District Court and the District Clerk are in a separate building at 312 Scurry, not the courthouse.

Three details of that route 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 returns to the county court when it is resolved.

The counter closes earlier on Friday, and the website's headline hours are the building's. The Howard County Clerk publishes office hours of Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The footer on every page of the county website advertises courthouse hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those are different things, and the clerk's page governs the counter. If you are driving in with an original will on a Friday afternoon, you have an hour less than you think, and two hours less than the footer suggests.

There is a designated Probate Clerk, but no direct probate line. The county's staff directory lists a Probate Clerk position inside the County Clerk's office, which is unusual and useful at this county size, but the county publishes only the main clerk number, 432-264-2213. Ask for the Probate Clerk by position rather than expecting a separate extension.

Two clerks, two buildings, and only one of them opens estates. The Howard County Clerk is at 300 S Main Street, Room 104, in the courthouse. The Howard County District Clerk is at the 118th District Court Building, 312 Scurry, several blocks away. Estates, wills and guardianships go to the County Clerk. The district court and its clerk enter a probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

The county publishes no probate fee schedule, so the number to work from is the statute. The base to open a probate case is $360 everywhere in Texas ($223 under Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) plus $137 under § 133.151(a)(1)), and what varies between counties is the add-ons: citation issuance, sheriff or constable service and posting, newspaper publication and any ad litem deposit the court orders. Two fee sheets on the county site invite a mistake, and both belong to other courts: the Justice of the Peace civil and administrative fee sheet and the County Judge's appointed-counsel attorney fee schedule. Neither prices a probate filing.

Record searching is a counter service with a published price. The County Clerk's page lists, under Record Searches, Probate and Civil Searches at $5 per name. That matches the statutory clerk fee for searching files or records to locate a cause when the docket number is not provided (Local Government Code § 118.052(3)(G)), and it is the practical route to an older Howard County estate file when you do not have the cause number. The clerk's separate Self-Service Website, which the county links under Recording Services, is presented for property records rather than for estate cases.

The county's electronic filing profile has two small quirks worth knowing before you pay. The Office of Court Administration's active courts chart lists civil filing in Howard County as mandatory in its district court, county court and probate categories, and marks the county's courts as not accepting American Express and as not collecting the $2 county electronic filing charge that some Texas counties add. The same chart marks case search availability for those categories as limited rather than full, and publishes no definition of either word, so treat it as a signal to verify with the clerk rather than as a measurement.

Nothing about hearings is published, so do not assume. Howard County publishes no probate docket day, no docket start time, no filing-to-hearing interval and no telephone or video appearance policy. It also publishes no local probate rules and no standing orders. The honest answer is that the County Clerk's office at 432-264-2213 is the only source for the date and the format, and that a first-time filer should ask about both before booking travel. What the county does publish, and what is genuinely useful, is the Howard County Court's monthly appointments and fees reports, archived from April 2020 forward, which show the attorneys the County Judge appoints as attorney ad litem or guardian ad litem and the fees approved (the reports required of every court clerk by Government Code § 36.004).

Plenty of uncontested Howard County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the County Clerk's office is used to answering procedural questions at the counter. 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 an attorney more than they would in a metro county. Howard County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch. The county publishes no probate docket, hearing time or remote appearance policy, so a filer working from out of town cannot plan around a published calendar. And the contested-matter route has a timing trap: 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 118th District Court (Estates Code § 32.003(a)), and a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), which is easy to miss without counsel. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Eligible low-income residents may also reach Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas through its Big Spring clinic, whose published intake covers wills and estates. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Howard County and the surrounding Permian Basin.

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, Howard County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed in Big Spring.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the estate settlement paperwork for your route, captioned for the Howard County Court and ready to file with the Howard County Clerk in Room 104 or to submit through eFileTexas.gov, which matters in a county that publishes no forms 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 Howard 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).