Irion County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Mertzon, 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 more in a county this size, because Irion County publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no docket calendar to correct you along the way. The clerk can tell you what the counter needs, but the shape of the case is yours to get right, and a wrong route means starting over and paying the $360.00 base fee again (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1); § 133.151(a)(1)).

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral or royalty interest and parcel of Irion County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. Mineral and royalty interests deserve their own line on the list in this part of West Texas, because they are easy to overlook and they are estate property. 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 Irion County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Irion County Courthouse at 209 N Park View Street in Mertzon is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates. The court serves every part of the county, including Mertzon, Sherwood and Barnhart and the ranch country between them. The county's Justice of the Peace sits at the same courthouse address but handles traffic, small claims and related matters and takes no probate filings.

Venue is straightforward for an Irion 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 Irion County, the case belongs in the Irion County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo. 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. Irion County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Irion 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 statutory probate court in Texas and contains no Irion County entry, and the county's own site lists only the County Court, the District Court and a Justice of the Peace. Do not caption an Irion County estate for a probate court or a county court at law; the county has neither.

Irion County also has its own section of the Government Code, and it is worth reading with a companion provision so it is not misunderstood. Government Code § 26.218(b) sets the terms of the Irion County Court to begin on the first Mondays in January, May, August and November, each continuing for six weeks or until the court has disposed of its business, and lets the commissioners court change them. That is a term calendar for the court's general business, not a probate filing window: § 26.002(b) provides that "the court must be open at all times for the transaction of probate business". So an estate can be opened with the clerk on any business day, and you do not wait for a term to begin. Section 26.218(a) separately gives the Irion County Court concurrent civil and criminal jurisdiction with the justice courts, which is why the same judge in the same building hears a wide mix of matters.

The filing office is worth a second look here, because Irion County does something most Texas counties do not. It has one officer for both clerkships. The county's records-request form is printed on a single letterhead reading District and County Clerk, the County Clerk and District Clerk pages publish the same person and the same contact details, and a closure notice posted on the District Clerk page calls the office the Irion County Clerk's Office. That is the arrangement Government Code § 51.501(a) provides: 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 county's voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). The general Texas warning that a probate application goes to the county clerk and not to the district court's clerk still describes the correct legal capacity here, but in Irion County it does not send you to a different desk or a different person. One counter takes both, and probate is county-clerk business.

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 returns to the county court when it is resolved.

The district court on the receiving end of that transfer is the 51st District Court. Government Code § 24.153 composes the 51st Judicial District of Coke, Irion, Schleicher, Sterling and Tom Green Counties, and provides that its terms begin in Irion County on the first Mondays in March and September. The county names Judge Carmen Symes Dusek as the district judge and publishes that the court's coordinators are available by email only (verified July 2026). One thing does not change on a transfer: because the same elected officer is both clerks in Irion County, a transfer under § 32.003(a)(2) does not move your file to a different office in Mertzon. An appeal from a final probate order goes to the Third Court of Appeals, whose district includes Irion County (Government Code § 22.201(d)), a point the county's own clerk pages also make.

One officer, one counter, both clerkships. Irion County publishes a County Clerk page and a District Clerk page, which looks like two offices until you read the contact blocks: the same person, the same post office box, the same phone and the same fax appear on both, the county's records-request form is on a single District and County Clerk letterhead, and a closure notice posted on the District Clerk page calls the office the Irion County Clerk's Office. Government Code § 51.501(a) provides that 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 the voters keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). For a probate filer the practical consequence is reassuring: you cannot end up at the wrong clerk's window in Mertzon. The legal capacity still matters, because probate is county-clerk business and an estate is a county court matter, but there is only one desk.

The county court has statutory terms, and they do not gate a probate filing. Government Code § 26.218(b), the section written for Irion County specifically, sets the terms of the county court to begin on the first Mondays in January, May, August and November, each running six weeks or until the court has disposed of its business, subject to change by the commissioners court. Read alone that looks like it might limit when an estate can be heard. It does not: § 26.002(b) provides that the court "must be open at all times for the transaction of probate business". File when you are ready and ask the clerk for a setting.

The counter stays open through lunch, and closes early on Friday. The office states, in its own words, "We will be open during lunch to better serve the Citizens of Irion County", which is the opposite of the noon-to-one closure most Texas county clerks publish and is worth knowing if Mertzon is a drive for you. Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The county's Justice of the Peace, a separate office at the same courthouse that takes no probate filings, does close from 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The county has a written policy on court records, and it is more generous in person than online. Irion County's records-request form states that county court records are records of the Judiciary and are not subject to the Public Information Act, that they are not available for delivery in bulk or in electronic format, and that a specific case document can be retrieved only if you supply both the cause number and the name on the case, at $5.00 plus $1.00 per page. In the same breath it says that all court records not having restricted access are available for inspection by the public in the office during regular business hours, and that customers may search and view all of the county clerk's public records at no cost by coming to the courthouse and using the record books or the public terminals, with hand scanners and no-flash photography allowed. If you need to look at an old estate file, the free route is the counter.

There is an online probate index, but it belongs to the county's software vendor and it is not free. The same records-request form states that "Irion County criminal and probate indexes for the time period of 2008 to the present will be available online at Idocket.com starting Feb. 1, 2019", and the vendor's own county table lists the Irion County Clerk with 564 probate cases, a probate date of 01/01/2000, images available and a last filing date of 06/30/2026. Searching it needs an account and the vendor sells subscriptions, and the vendor states that it operates independently and is not an agent of any court, county or clerk. Separately, do not be misled by the "Court and Jail Search" link on the county's own site: it redirects to Tom Green County's public access portal, which covers Tom Green County courts and offers no Irion County option at all.

The county's fee schedule carries leftovers from another county's template, and it is worth knowing exactly where so you weigh the figures correctly. The summary probate page inside the eleven-page schedule ends with a line telling readers to contact the Guadalupe County Clerk with questions, and the notes on the probate detail page twice repeat that same Guadalupe County phone number, so the probate pages were plainly adapted from another county's document. The schedule is still Irion County's own: the clerk posts it as the Irion County Fee Schedule, the cover page is headed for the Irion County Clerk and dated effective January 1, 2024 with checks directed to the Irion County Clerk, the detail section is headed Irion County Clerk Fee Schedule Details, and the probate detail page prints the $137.00 state and $223.00 local components that add to the $360.00 statutory base, exactly as Local Government Code § 133.151 and § 135.102 set them. Rely on the amounts fixed by statute, treat the county-set service items, such as the sheriff's $20.00 posting fee, as figures to confirm, ignore the printed contact line, and call the Irion County Clerk at 325-835-2421, extension 4, with any question.

Nothing about probate procedure is published locally, so plan on the phone. Irion County has no probate page, no docket calendar for the county court, no e-filing notice, no local rules and no published hearing day, time or filing-to-hearing interval. That is normal for a county this size and it is not a sign that something is missing: it means the clerk's office is the source for scheduling and counter practice, and that nothing on this page about local timing should be assumed where the county has published none.

Plenty of uncontested Irion County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county imposes no rule of its own requiring counsel. 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. First, Irion County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from the statute. Second, the county publishes no docket day, docket time or filing-to-hearing interval, so an experienced local practitioner knows things the county's website cannot tell you. Third, 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 without counsel. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Irion County and the San Angelo area.

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, Irion County real property and mineral interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Mertzon.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned for the Irion County Court and drafted from the statute, because Irion County publishes no probate forms of its own, ready to file with the Irion 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 Irion 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).