Jim Hogg County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Hebbronville, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court filing 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 here, because Jim Hogg County publishes no probate instructions, no checklist and no forms of its own, and the clerk's counter is open only from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no self-help desk to correct a wrong route for you, and a wrong route means starting over.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral interest and parcel of Jim Hogg 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 deserve a second look in a South Texas county, because they are easy to miss and the payor will not release them without authority. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Jim Hogg County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Jim Hogg County Courthouse at 102 E. Tilley in Hebbronville is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates, and the county publishes no other court location: the County and District Clerk takes filings in the courthouse, the County Judge's office is in the same building, and every term of the county court is held at the county seat because the statute requires it (Government Code § 26.002(c)). The court serves every part of the county, from Hebbronville out to the ranch country in all directions. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of an uncontested estate can be handled without a trip to Hebbronville; the steps that pull you to the courthouse are delivering the original will and appearing before the County Judge.

Venue is straightforward for a South Texas 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 Jim Hogg County, the case belongs in the Jim Hogg County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Laredo, Corpus Christi or San Antonio. 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, and Jim Hogg County answers it on its own site. The county has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Jim Hogg County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The county's Constitutional Court page states it directly: the County Judge "presides over the County (constitutional) Court of Jim Hogg County" and "The court has original jurisdiction in probate matters, including mental illness and guardianships." The only other trial courts here are the 229th District Court and a Justice of the Peace court, neither of which opens estates. One local wrinkle to keep straight: because Jim Hogg County is small enough for Government Code § 51.501(a) to apply, a single elected officer serves as both County Clerk and District Clerk, so the same office you walk into serves both courts. Probate is on the county-clerk side of it, and the county's published staff list routes county cases to its Chief County Deputy Clerk.

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 Jim Hogg County that district court is the 229th: "The 229th Judicial District is composed of Duval, Jim Hogg, and Starr counties" (Government Code § 24.276(a)), and the county names the 229th Judicial District Judge, Baldemar Garza, on its Judicial Court page (verified July 2026). 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.

One office wears two hats, and probate sits under the county-court hat. Jim Hogg County is small enough for Government Code § 51.501(a) to apply, which provides that a county with a population of less than 8,000 shall elect a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk, unless the voters have voted to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). The county publishes the office exactly that way: its County Clerk page and its District Clerk page carry the same contact block for the same officer under the title County and District Clerk, and its online index-book portal is signed by the County and District Clerk. For a family settling an estate this is convenient rather than confusing, because there is only one counter to find, but it makes the routing worth stating: an estate is county-court business, and the county's own staff list assigns county cases to its Chief County Deputy Clerk while district criminal and civil cases go to a different deputy. Ask for the county side when you call (361) 527-4031.

A nine o'clock open and a closed lunch hour. The county publishes the same counter hours on three pages: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., except holidays. That is seven hours a day, and it starts an hour later than most Texas county clerks. If you are driving in from Laredo, Corpus Christi or the Rio Grande Valley to hand over an original will or pick up letters, plan the trip around that window and call first.

Both courts are in the one 1913 courthouse, and the district court's staff are not. The county publishes the 229th District Court as sitting on the 2nd floor of the Jim Hogg County Courthouse at 102 E. Tilley, which matters because that is the court a contested probate matter can be transferred to under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2). But the 229th is a three-county court: "The 229th Judicial District is composed of Duval, Jim Hogg, and Starr counties" (Government Code § 24.276(a)), its mailing address is in Rio Grande City, and the county publishes its civil and criminal court coordinators with Starr County and Duval County phone numbers. Its terms in this county begin on the first Mondays in June and December (§ 24.276(b)(2)), and the county posts its district court dockets by date. None of that constrains an uncontested estate, because the county court "must be open at all times for the transaction of probate business" (Government Code § 26.002(b)), but it does mean a contest can put your case on a calendar administered from another county.

The county publishes almost nothing about probate procedure, and this page does not fill the gap with guesses. There is no probate page in the county website's office menu, no probate instruction sheet, no checklist, no local rules, no forms, no docket calendar, no filing-to-hearing interval and no e-filing notice. That is not unusual for a county this size, and it is not a problem as long as you know it going in: the statewide rules govern, and the specifics of how the County Judge wants a hearing set and what to bring to it come from a phone call to the County Clerk at (361) 527-4031 rather than from a document you can read in advance.

The online searches are land records, not estates. The clerk links two portals, an Official Records search whose department selector is Property Records and a Kofile QuickLink site whose own description is limited to "Land Record Index Books ... from 1913 to 1997". Neither indexes probate cases. If you need to know whether an estate has been opened in Jim Hogg County, ask the clerk; re:SearchTX may hold e-filed documents, but coverage is set county by county, the portal charges for documents, and it says itself that it supplies an unofficial copy and that the clerk of the court is the official custodian.

Mail to the right box. The clerk publishes P.O. Box 878 and the County Judge's office publishes P.O. Box 729. Filings, original wills and fee payments go to the clerk's box or to the counter at 102 E. Tilley; the judge's box is not a filing address. And a South Texas practicality worth raising with the clerk early: the creditor notice under Estates Code § 308.051 is published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, but § 308.051(c) provides that where there is no such newspaper the notice must be posted instead, so confirm which route applies before you pay a publisher.

Plenty of uncontested estates in a county this size are handled without a lawyer, and nothing in Jim Hogg County's rules requires one. 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, Jim Hogg County publishes no probate forms, no instruction sheet and no checklist, so every document is drafted from scratch and there is no packet to work from. Second, the counter is open seven hours a day and the county publishes no docket calendar, so scheduling and corrections run through phone calls rather than a portal. 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 229th 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 Jim Hogg County and the surrounding South Texas 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, Jim Hogg County real property, 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 Hebbronville.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted from scratch because Jim Hogg County publishes no probate forms, and ready to file with the Jim Hogg County Clerk or to e-file through eFileTexas.gov.

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 Jim Hogg 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).