Lee County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Giddings, 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 are identical in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before your first filing matters in Lee County because the county publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no forms, so there is nothing local to catch a wrong start, and because the county's own fee schedule prices the routes differently: $395.00 for a case seeking letters, $403.00 for heirship proceedings, $362.00 for a small estate. County Clerk staff can tell you what the counter needs, but they 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 Lee 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 Lee County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

One county, one court, one counter, but three addresses. Every Lee County estate is filed with the Lee County Clerk at 843 East Industry in Giddings and heard by the Lee County Court, and the court serves the whole county, including Giddings, Lexington, Lincoln, Dime Box, Serbin and Tanglewood and the rural areas between them. The addresses are worth learning before you make a trip, because they are not the same building: the County Clerk's counter is at 843 East Industry; the Lee County Courthouse, where the County Judge's office is based when the county is not renovating it, is at 200 South Main; and the District Clerk and the 21st and 335th District Courts are at 289 South Main. Nothing about a probate filing starts at 289 South Main.

Venue is straightforward for a Lee 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 Lee County, the case belongs in the Lee County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Austin, Bryan, Brenham or Temple. 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. Lee County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Lee 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, the chapter that would create either kind of statutory court, has no Lee County provision, and the county's own Government menu lists only the County Judge, the two district courts, four Justices of the Peace and the Commissioners Court. Do not caption a Lee County estate for a probate court or a county court at law that the county does not have.

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 courts that a transferred matter would go to are the 21st and the 335th, both of which Lee County shares with three neighbours. Government Code § 24.122 provides that "The 21st Judicial District is composed of Bastrop, Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties" and sets its Lee County terms to begin "on the sixth Tuesdays after the first Tuesdays in March and September"; § 24.481 provides that the 335th Judicial District is composed of the same four counties. Both sit in Lee County at the district court building at 289 South Main in Giddings, and the county names the Honorable Carson Campbell as 21st District Judge and the Honorable John Winkelmann as 335th District Judge, with a shared court coordinator at (979) 289-1025 (verified July 2026).

Three buildings, and the estate paperwork only belongs in one of them. This is the practical Lee County fact that costs people a wasted trip. The Lee County Clerk, where applications, wills and inventories are filed, is at 843 East Industry, which is not the courthouse. The Lee County Courthouse is at 200 South Main. The District Clerk and the 21st and 335th District Courts are at 289 South Main, and nothing about opening an estate starts there. If you are mailing rather than driving, the County Clerk's box is P.O. Box 419, Giddings, Texas 78942.

The courthouse is being renovated and the county's own notices about it contradict each other. The county home page carries, in the same block, an undated notice that courthouse offices have been relocated to the Lee County Annex, Bldg. B, behind the Tax Office, at 898 E. Richmond St., Room 107, and an undated "COUNTY OFFICES BACK AT COURTHOUSE" list that names the County Judge, the County Attorney, Justice of the Peace 2, Emergency Management and Development Services. The County Judge's own page still publishes the Annex as the physical address with mail to 200 South Main, Room 107, and the County Attorney's page still labels the Annex a temporary address while the courthouse is renovated. Neither notice is dated and the county has not reconciled them, so call the County Judge's office at 979-542-3178 before appearing anywhere in person. The County Clerk's counter at 843 East Industry is unaffected either way.

The county publishes a probate price list, which is unusual at this size, and it is worth using. The Lee County Clerk's Services and Fees schedule dated 01-01-24 itemizes letters testamentary, letters of administration, muniment of title, heirship proceedings, small estate, foreign judgment, personal citation, letters, judge's orders and the inventory line. Most small Texas counties publish nothing about probate at all. Read it as the county's own totals rather than as a statement of law: the $360 statutory base (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) and § 133.151(a)(1)) is inside each figure, and the sheet is a scanned image with a printed date at the top, so check that date on any copy you are handed.

Nothing about the hearing is published, so ask rather than assume. Lee County posts the district courts' civil and criminal dockets and a public calendar of Commissioners Court meetings, workshops, committees and holidays. It posts no probate docket, no probate hearing day, no docket start time, no filing-to-hearing window, no rule about whether proposed orders should be lodged in advance, and nothing about appearing by telephone or video. The County Clerk at 979-542-3684 and the County Judge's office at 979-542-3178 are the only reliable sources for those answers in this county.

The county's records search is not a probate case search, and the clerk's own Q&A explains why you cannot tell from outside. The Lee County Clerk runs an Online Records Search through a vendor portal, plus a separate plats application. The clerk's published Q&A states that a guest login shows index information only, that registration is required to purchase images, that every purchase carries a $0.30 transaction fee with a subscription required after five images, and that each elected official chooses which record types to put online. Because that choice is not published, whether Lee County probate records are searchable there is a question for the clerk, not something to infer.

One court, one clerk, and the district courts enter only on a contest. Lee County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no choice of forum: the Lee County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The 21st and 335th District Courts, which Lee shares with Bastrop, Burleson and Washington Counties (Government Code §§ 24.122 and 24.481), do not open estates. A district court reaches a Lee County probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Plenty of uncontested Lee County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's own fee schedule is written for a filer who walks up to 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 has to be sold or divided, when mineral interests are involved, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, 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. Lee County publishes no probate forms, no checklist and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from scratch and captioned correctly for a county court that is neither a probate court nor a county court at law. The county publishes nothing about how or when a probate hearing is set, so someone has to work the phones. And 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 Lee County and the surrounding Central 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, Lee County real property, mineral interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Giddings.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for the Lee County Court and ready to file with the Lee County Clerk at 843 East Industry or through eFileTexas.gov, 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 Lee 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).