Martin County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Stanton, 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 here because the route sets the cost and the paperwork: Martin County's own fee schedule prints $378.00 to open a probate, muniment of title or guardianship case and $360.00 for a small estate proceeding, and a wrong route means starting over.

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

The courthouse at 301 N St. Peter Street in Stanton is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or satellite counter for estates: the combined County and District Clerk's office takes filings for the entire county from the same courthouse.

Venue is straightforward for a Martin 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)). 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. Martin County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Martin County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. Martin County's own description of the office confirms it: the County Judge "presides over the Commissioners Court, as well as Civil, Probate, Juvenile, and County Criminal Courts."

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. 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)), and the motion may be filed before anything becomes contested (§ 32.003(c)). 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 officer, one office, for both county and district matters, and the county says so in its own words. Government Code § 51.501(a) requires a county with a population under 8,000 to elect a single clerk to perform the duties of both the county clerk and the district clerk, unless voters have kept the offices separate under § 51.501(b). Martin County's own site puts the rule almost verbatim: "In Texas counties with a population of less than 8,000, unless there has been a special election, the county clerk also serves as the district clerk, assuming all constitutional and statutory duties of the district clerk, along with those of county clerk." Martin County's corroborated population, roughly 5,200 to 5,240, is well under that threshold, and the combination is real here: Lali Ybarra holds both titles.

The county has two web addresses, and one of them did not answer when checked. martincountytx.com is the site used throughout this page and loads normally; co.martin.tx.us, the domain in the state's baseline data, returned a TLS connection failure to every method tried, so what it currently serves could not be checked. Use martincountytx.com.

The county's detailed fee document is a scanned image, but it is legible, and its numbers reconcile exactly with the statute. The "County Court and District Fees" schedule linked from the Clerk's page has no machine-readable text and no printed effective date; read page by page (verified August 2026), it prints $378.00 to open a probate, muniment of title or guardianship case, which is the $360 statutory base plus the county's own $8.00 citation and $10.00 sheriff posting items, and $360.00 for a small estate proceeding. Ask the Clerk for the current schedule before budgeting to the dollar.

No question of which court to choose. Martin County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Martin County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the combined County and District Clerk takes the filing. A district court reaches a Martin 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 Martin County estates are handled without a lawyer. Counsel earns its keep 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, or when a business or out-of-state property is involved. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Martin County publishes no probate forms and only a scanned, undated fee schedule, so a filer is working from the bare statute, this page's figures and a phone call to the Clerk. Second, 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. Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Martin County and the 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, mineral and royalty interests, Martin County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Stanton.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, since Martin County publishes no fill-in probate forms of its own, ready to file with the Martin 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 Martin 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).