Midland County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything at the Midland County Courthouse, 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 Midland County splits the paperwork across floors of the same courthouse: the County Clerk's Probate Department takes the filing on the 4th floor, while the hearing itself is held by the County Judge on the 11th floor, and a contested matter can be reassigned to a County Court at Law judge. A wrong route means starting over in the wrong place.

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

The Midland County Courthouse at 500 N Loraine Street in Midland is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk's Probate Department takes filings on the 4th floor, and the Probate Court hearing itself is held on the 11th floor. The court serves every part of Midland County, including the city of Midland and the surrounding Permian Basin communities. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip downtown; the trip that matters is the hearing, which the county holds in person before the County Judge.

Venue is straightforward for a Midland 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 Midland County, the case belongs at the Midland County Courthouse, even if they died at a hospital in Odessa, Big Spring 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 genuinely shared in Midland County. Government Code § 25.1671 creates two statutory county courts at law, the County Court at Law of Midland County and the County Court at Law No. 2 of Midland County, and neither the enacting section nor § 25.1672's jurisdiction provisions strips either court of probate jurisdiction, so both hold it concurrently with the Midland County Court under Estates Code § 32.002(b) and Government Code § 25.0003(d). In practice, the county's own County Judge page lists among the elected County Judge's duties that he "Presides over Probate Court where decisions regarding Estates, Guardianship and Mental Illness are heard," and the county's Probate Court page describes the County Judge personally holding those hearings. The Midland County District Clerk is a different office entirely: Government Code § 25.1672(g) sends the county courts at law's family law and larger civil cases to the District Clerk, and sends every other case, including probate, to the County Clerk.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, it does not necessarily stay with the County Judge. The county's own Probate Court page says so plainly: "In some cases, the probate process may be contested and will be reassigned to a County Court-At-Law Judge." That is the Estates Code § 32.004 mechanism available in a county with a county court at law exercising probate jurisdiction: the judge of the county court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on the motion of any party to the proceeding, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and may also transfer the entire proceeding. Midland County's two courts at law, presided over by Judge Mark Dettman and Judge Marvin L. Moore, are the courts a contested Midland probate matter is reassigned to.

The county's own Probate Court page draws a sharp line most readers need drawn for them: "Probate should not be confused with Probation." Probate Court in Midland County is not a separate statutory court; it is the elected County Judge, Terry Johnson, sitting in the Midland County Court's probate capacity. The same page notes that Judge Johnson "also presides over the Midland County Commissioners' Court and has no correlation to Probate Court," so the two roles are administratively separate even though one person holds both.

The hearing is on the 11th floor, and there is a real dress code. Judge Johnson holds Probate Court at the Midland County Courthouse, 11th Floor, 500 N Loraine Street, and the county publishes a specific courtroom dress code for attorneys and clients: no hats on men (cowboy or baseball style), no shorts, no thongs or flip-flops, no cell phones (off or left outside), no chewing gum or tobacco, and no food or drink unless the court provides it.

A contested matter goes to one of two different judges. Midland County's own page states plainly that "the probate process may be contested and will be reassigned to a County Court-At-Law Judge" (Estates Code § 32.004). Midland has two: the County Court at Law of Midland County, presided over by Judge Mark Dettman, and the County Court at Law No. 2 of Midland County, presided over by Judge Marvin L. Moore. Neither is a statutory probate court, and Government Code § 25.1672 grants neither an express probate carve-out, so both hold the jurisdiction concurrently with the County Court under the general rule (Government Code § 25.0003(d)).

Midland runs its own case-search portal rather than relying only on the statewide system. The County Clerk's own Search Public Court Records page states, "New Portal: https://portal.mcounty.com/portal ... We have criminal misdemeanor records, probate and guardianship records and civil records," and registration is required. That is a genuinely local resource beyond the statewide re:SearchTX portal.

The fee schedule is unusually specific about what is late-only. Midland County's own Probate Case Information page prices the inventory fee at $25.00 with the express condition "if filed after the 90th day after the date qualified," and separately states that the affidavit in lieu of inventory carries "No Fee." A filer who gets the inventory or the affidavit in on time pays nothing extra for it.

Plenty of uncontested Midland County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the County Clerk's own fee schedule is written plainly enough that a self-represented filer can budget for it. 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. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in some counties. First, Midland County publishes no probate application, order, oath or inventory form, so every document is drafted from scratch. Second, a contested matter here does not stay with the same judge: it can be reassigned to the County Court at Law of Midland County or the County Court at Law No. 2 of Midland County (Estates Code § 32.004), and knowing when that reassignment helps or hurts a family's position is a timing judgment worth having counsel make. County Clerk and Court Coordinator staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Midland 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, Midland County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed at the courthouse.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the estate settlement paperwork for your route, drafted to fit Midland County's own process, including the separate County Clerk filing counter and County Judge hearing floor, ready to file with the Midland 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 Midland 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).