Knox County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Benjamin, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether a court 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 than usual in a county this size, because Knox County sets its County Court and probate matters on a monthly calendar rather than hearing them on demand, and a wrong route can mean waiting for the next setting instead of correcting course the same week.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Knox 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 Knox County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Knox County Courthouse at 100 W Cedar Street in Benjamin is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County & District Clerk takes filings on the first floor, and the County Judge's office is on the same floor. The court serves every part of Knox County, the rural areas and the smaller communities alike, and Benjamin is the only place in the county where an estate can be opened. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of the paperwork in an uncontested estate does not require a trip to Benjamin; the two things that do are the original will, which has to be delivered on paper, and the court setting itself.

Venue is straightforward for a Knox 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 Knox County, the case belongs in the Knox County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Wichita Falls, Abilene 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. Knox County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Knox County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. Knox County shares a district court with three neighbors, and the statute that creates it is worth reading carefully because it is easy to misread. Government Code § 24.152 provides that "The 50th Judicial District is composed of Baylor, Cottle, King, and Knox counties", that "In addition to other jurisdiction provided by law, the district court in Baylor, Cottle, King, and Knox Counties has the civil and criminal jurisdiction of a county court", and that the terms of the 50th District Court in each county begin on the first Mondays in January and September. That grant of county court jurisdiction does not move an estate: original probate jurisdiction is allocated by the Estates Code to the county court, and what § 24.152(d) adds is that "In matters of concurrent jurisdiction, the judge of the county court in Baylor, Cottle, King, or Knox County may transfer a case to the judge of the 50th District Court with the approval of the district judge." So a Knox County estate is opened with the County Clerk and heard by the County Judge unless it is moved.

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 that would take a transferred Knox County matter is the 50th District Court, whose judge the county names as the Honorable Jennifer Habert, at PO Box 1127, Seymour, TX 76380, (940) 889-6912.

One elected officer, two offices, one window. The county's own page is headed "County & District Clerk", and the Office of Court Administration's 2025 county clerk directory notes the office as "Combo Clerk". Government Code § 51.501(a) provides for exactly this: 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)). The practical point for a filer is that the usual Texas warning against taking an estate to the district clerk is not a warning about a different building here: it is a warning about the capacity in which the same officer takes the filing. An estate is a county court matter, and the clerk dockets it as clerk of the Knox County Court.

The county sets County Court and probate matters on a monthly calendar, and the calendar it publishes has expired. The Commissioners page links a document labeled "2024-2025 Commissioners Court and County Court" whose own heading reads "KNOX COUNTY COURT CALENDAR DATES FOR OCTOBER 2023 to OCTOBER 2024". It lists a monthly "COUNTY COURT/PROBATE" setting at 10 a.m. with a 1:30 p.m. probate setting, plus extra probate-only dates, and every one of those dates falls on a Wednesday. Two things make it unusable as a current schedule: the period it covers has passed, and it is issued under the letterhead of a County Judge who is no longer in office. Treat it as reliable evidence that Knox County works to set dates monthly rather than hearing estates on demand, and get the actual setting from the County Judge's office and the County Court Coordinator on (940) 459-2191. No current hearing day, docket time or filing-to-hearing interval is published, and none should be assumed.

The courthouse opens at 9 a.m., which is later than most Texas counties. The county publishes "Court House hours are 9:00-5:00" Monday through Friday on its home page. That is the building, not a counter-specific statement: the clerk publishes no separate office hours, no lunch closure and no filing cutoff. In a courthouse this small an office can be closed for a lunch hour without saying so on the website, so call (940) 459-2441 before driving to Benjamin, particularly if you are delivering an original will against the three business day deadline (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)) and the county has a holiday closure in the middle of it.

Knox County shares its district court with three neighbors, and the statute says something surprising. Government Code § 24.152 puts Baylor, Cottle, King and Knox counties in the 50th Judicial District and provides that the district court in those counties "has the civil and criminal jurisdiction of a county court", with terms in each county beginning on the first Mondays in January and September. That does not make the 50th District Court the probate court: original probate jurisdiction in a county with no statutory probate court and no county court at law sits in the county court (Estates Code § 32.002(a)). What the shared district court adds is two ways out of the county court, and both need someone else's agreement. Under § 24.152(d), "In matters of concurrent jurisdiction, the judge of the county court in Baylor, Cottle, King, or Knox County may transfer a case to the judge of the 50th District Court with the approval of the district judge." And under Estates Code § 32.003(a), a contested matter can be assigned to a statutory probate court judge or transferred to the district court. The 50th District Judge, whom the county names as the Honorable Jennifer Habert, sits in Seymour, in Baylor County, not in Benjamin.

Nothing about this county's probate practice is online, and one of the two Knox County websites is a decoy. The clerk's page carries no case search, no land-records portal, no e-filing notice and no probate forms, so the phone is the tool: (940) 459-2441 for the clerk and (940) 459-2191 for the County Judge's office. And a reader searching for Knox County, Texas can land on an abandoned legacy county site on the knoxcountytexas.com domain, which is still online, is still the address listed in the Office of Court Administration's 2025 directory, and names a County Judge who left office years ago. The live domain is knoxcountytexas.org.

Do not confuse this county with the other Knox Counties. Search results for "Knox County probate" are dominated by Knox County, Tennessee, and Knox County, Ohio, both of which are far larger and neither of which shares any of Texas's court structure, filing rules or fees. Anything you rely on for a Knox County, Texas estate should come from knoxcountytexas.org, the Texas Estates Code, or the clerk on (940) 459-2441.

Plenty of uncontested Texas estates are handled without a lawyer, but Knox County is a harder place than most to do it alone, and the reason is not the law: it is the absence of published local guidance. The county publishes no probate forms, no probate instruction sheet, no e-filing notice, no current court calendar and no case search, so a self-represented filer is drafting every document from the Estates Code and confirming every procedural point by telephone. 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 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. The contested-matter route is a second reason: 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 a lawyer. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Knox County and the surrounding North 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, Knox County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Benjamin.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for a county that publishes no probate forms of its own and captioned in the Knox County Court, ready to file with the Knox 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 Knox 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).