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Nueces County, TX Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Current rules |
|---|---|
| Court | Nueces County has five statutory county courts at law, County Court at Law No. 1 through No. 5 (Government Code Section 25.1801(a)), which share original probate jurisdiction concurrently with the Nueces County Court, the constitutional county court presided over by the elected County Judge (Estates Code Section 32.002(b); Government Code Section 25.0003(d)). Nueces has no statutory probate court. The county's own published descriptions of Courts 1 through 4 are identical and each states, verbatim, that the courts have jurisdiction over probate matters; Court 5's own description names a specialized docket for juvenile delinquency, Child and Adult Protective Services matters, guardianship and Justice Court appeals and does not mention probate (Government Code Sections 25.1801(c), 25.1802(r)). How a case is assigned among Courts 1 through 4 is not published (verified 2026-08-04) |
| Filing office | The Nueces County District Clerk's Probate Section. Nueces is a documented exception to the usual Texas rule that the county clerk keeps the probate docket: Government Code Section 25.1802(n) makes the district clerk the clerk of a county court at law in the cases listed in Section 25.1802(a), which include the collection and management of estates of deceased persons, and the county's own probate fee schedule, published by the District Clerk (revised February 2024), directs estate filings and mailed original wills to the District Clerk's Probate Section and Probate Division |
| Courthouse | Nueces County Courthouse, 901 Leopard Street, Corpus Christi, TX 78401. Probate Section: Room 203. District Clerk main office: 3rd Floor, Room 313 |
| Mailing address | P.O. Box 2987, Corpus Christi, TX 78403, printed on the District Clerk's probate fee schedule. The schedule asks that a mailed original will be addressed to the District Clerk's Office, Probate Division, 901 Leopard St., Corpus Christi, TX 78401, marked for the Probate Division |
| Phone | (361) 888-0496, the Probate Section line published on the District Clerk's 2024 probate fee schedule; the District Clerk's main line is (361) 888-0450 |
| Fax / email | Fax (361) 888-0571; Probate Section email [email protected], both published on the District Clerk's 2024 probate fee schedule |
| Hours | District Clerk: Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed to the public on Friday, per the county's published directory. The County Clerk's separate office (recording and vital records, Room 201) is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
| Filing fee | The base court filing fee to open a probate case is set by Texas statute and is the same in every county: $360, made up of a $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(1)) and a $137 state consolidated fee (Local Government Code Section 133.151(a)(1)), both amounts enacted by S.B. 41 effective January 1, 2022. On top of that, the clerk collects statutory per-service fees set by the state, including $8.00 to issue a citation and $2.00 for each Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (Local Government Code Section 118.052), and the sheriff or constable charges a posting or service fee set by the commissioners court (Local Government Code Section 118.131). Nueces County publishes its own all-in totals on the District Clerk's probate fee schedule (revised February 2024), which folds the posting fee in and collects it at filing: $512.00 to open a probate of a will with letters testamentary, an independent or dependent administration, or a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257); $360.00 for a small estate affidavit; and $672.00 for an administration combined with a determination of heirship. A later contested or adverse probate action is $120 (Section 135.102(a)(2); Section 133.151(a)(2)). Confirm the current total with the District Clerk's Probate Section at (361) 888-0496 before filing. A filer who cannot afford the fee may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145). |
| Local forms | Almost none. The District Clerk publishes a Process Request Form, required with the sheriff's posting fee when a new probate case is filed per the county's probate fee schedule, and links the statewide Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, but no probate application, order, oath, or small estate affidavit template is published for any of the five courts. Texas has no comprehensive set of probate forms adopted statewide either (Government Code Section 22.020(b)) |
| E-filing | Mandatory for attorneys statewide in probate cases since July 1, 2016 at the latest, under the population-based phase-in in Supreme Court Misc. Docket No. 13-9164; permitted but not required for self-represented filers (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)). File through eFileTexas.gov; the District Clerk publishes eFiling guidelines and local eFiling rules on its documents page. The original will must still reach the clerk within three business days after the application is e-filed (TRCP 21(f)(12)); the county's schedule says to deliver it over the counter or mail it marked for the District Clerk's Probate Division |
| Case search | The District Clerk, which clerks the county courts at law here, runs its own portal (the Nueces County Records Inquiry at portal-txnueces.tylertech.cloud/Portal) and participates in re:SearchTX; the county describes those tools as covering Civil, Family and Criminal cases and does not name probate expressly, so treat probate coverage as unconfirmed. re:SearchTX is an unofficial copy of case records, requires free registration, and charges per document. Certified copies come from the Probate Section, which publishes a $5.00 name-search fee, $1.00 per page, and $5.00 per certification. The County Clerk's separate online search covers recorded real property documents, not probate cases |
| Remote appearance | Not published by the County Clerk, the District Clerk, or any of the five county courts at law. Ask the assigned court when a hearing is set |
| Website | <a href="https://www.nuecesco.com/courts/district-clerk">Nueces County District Clerk</a>; <a href="https://www.nuecesco.com/home/showpublisheddocument/31117/638436078728270000">2024 probate fee schedule (PDF)</a> |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Before you file anything in Corpus Christi, 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, including independent administration (Estates Code chapter 401), muniment of title (chapter 257), and the small estate affidavit (chapter 205), 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 Nueces County publishes no local probate forms and no docket-day guidance, and its filing counter is an unusual one for Texas, the District Clerk's Probate Section, so a filer arrives with less county-published guidance than in some other Texas counties, and a wrong route means starting over.
Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, and parcel of Nueces 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 property with a recorded Texas transfer on death deed pass outside the estate regardless of which court hears the case. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to help surface what a family might otherwise miss, which is useful anywhere in Texas but particularly in a county like Nueces where the county itself publishes no probate checklist to work from.
Which court handles jurisdiction
The Nueces County Courthouse at 901 Leopard Street in Corpus Christi is the probate filing location for the whole county: estate applications go to the District Clerk's Probate Section in Room 203. The County Clerk keeps a satellite office in Robstown (710 E. Main St., open Tuesday and Thursday), but that branch handles the County Clerk's recording and vital-records services and the county publishes no probate services for it. Government Code Section 25.1801(b) confirms that County Courts at Law No. 1 and No. 2 sit in Corpus Christi; nothing in Chapter 25 places any of the five courts elsewhere. The court serves every part of the county, including Corpus Christi, the county seat, and Robstown, and the unincorporated areas between them.
Venue is straightforward for a Nueces 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 Section 33.001(a)(1)). Someone who lived in Corpus Christi or Robstown belongs in Nueces County even if they died in a hospital elsewhere. 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 (Section 33.001(a)(2)).
Which court hears the case is where a generic page gets Nueces wrong. Nueces has no statutory probate court, so nothing in the county is a Probate Court as an institution name. It has five county courts at law, listed by Government Code Section 25.1801(a) as County Court at Law No. 1 through No. 5, and under Estates Code Section 32.002(b) each shares original probate jurisdiction with the constitutional Nueces County Court. The county's own published court pages show Courts 1 through 4 carrying identical language naming probate jurisdiction; Court 5's own page instead describes a specialized docket for juvenile delinquency, Child and Adult Protective Services matters, guardianship, and Justice Court appeals, and does not mention probate, which lines up with the family-law and child-welfare preference Government Code Sections 25.1801(c) and 25.1802(r) give that court. The district clerk keeps a separate docket for each county court at law (Government Code Section 25.1802(n)), and no published rule explains how a new probate case is assigned among Courts 1 through 4. If a matter in a probate proceeding pending in the constitutional county court becomes contested, the judge of the Nueces County Court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on a party's motion, transfer the contested matter to a county court at law (Estates Code Section 32.004).
The jurisdiction process
- Confirm the route and gather the documents. Collect the original signed will if there is one, a certified copy of the death certificate, the names and addresses of the people who inherit, and a list of assets and debts with values. A person named in a will to settle the estate is an executor; a person appointed by the court where there is no will, or where no named executor qualifies, is an administrator; the Texas Estates Code's umbrella term for either is personal representative. Most Texas estates with a will run as an independent administration, under which the court's involvement after the appointment order and the inventory is deliberately minimal (Estates Code chapter 401).
- Draft the papers yourself or with an attorney. Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms, and Nueces County publishes none of its own, so the application, the proof of death and other facts, the proposed order, the oath, and the inventory are drafted documents, not fill-in forms.
- File the application at the District Clerk's Probate Section, Nueces County Courthouse, 901 Leopard Street, Room 203, Corpus Christi, TX 78401. The statewide base filing fee is $360 (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(1); Section 133.151(a)(1)); Nueces County's published all-in totals, which fold in the sheriff's posting fee collected at filing, are $512.00 for a probate of a will with letters testamentary, an independent or dependent administration, or a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257), and $672.00 for an administration combined with a determination of heirship (District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024). A filer who cannot afford the cost may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145). The case is docketed in one of County Courts at Law No. 1 through No. 4.
- Attorneys must e-file the application through eFileTexas.gov; self-represented filers may e-file but are not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)). Whichever way the application goes in, the original signed will must still reach the clerk within three business days after the application is filed (TRCP 21(f)(12)); there is no electronic substitute for delivering the wet-ink original. Nueces County's own instruction is to deliver it over the counter or mail it to the District Clerk's Office, Probate Division, 901 Leopard St., Corpus Christi, TX 78401, marked for the Probate Division.
- The clerk issues citation, and the sheriff or constable posts it. In Nueces County the posting fee is collected up front when the case is filed, together with a Process Request Form from the District Clerk's forms page. Nothing is heard until the posting period has run and the return is on file, so build that into your timing.
- Attend the hearing before the assigned county court at law, in person unless that court's own rules allow otherwise. Nueces County publishes no probate-specific hearing days or remote-appearance policy, so confirm the format when the clerk sets the date.
- Collect the letters. On an admitted will the court grants Letters Testamentary to a qualifying executor (Estates Code Section 306.001); where there is no will, or no named executor qualifies, it grants Letters of Administration (Section 306.002). Each costs $2.00 (Local Government Code Section 118.061), and the county's schedule notes that only the attorney of record or the court-appointed executor or administrator may request them, so order enough for every bank, transfer agent, and title company the estate has to deal with.
- Administer the estate and file what the statute requires. Notice to beneficiaries is due within 60 days of the order admitting a will (Estates Code Section 308.002); published notice to creditors is due within one month of receiving letters (Section 308.051); notice to a known secured creditor is due within two months (Section 308.053); and the inventory must be filed with the court clerk before the 91st day after the personal representative qualifies, unless the court grants a longer period, or an affidavit in lieu of inventory may be filed instead if the independent executor qualifies (Sections 309.051(a), 309.056). These steps are set by state statute and apply the same way in every Texas county; in Nueces County these filings go to the District Clerk's Probate Section as clerk of the court.
- Close the estate when the work is done, if you choose to. Closing an independent administration is optional under Texas law (Estates Code Section 405.012); where a personal representative does close, the routes are a judicial discharge, a closing report, or a notice of closing estate (Sections 405.003, 405.005, 405.006), each filed with the same clerk as the rest of the case.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Nueces County
Nueces County publishes almost no local probate forms. The District Clerk, whose Probate Section handles estate filings here, publishes a Process Request Form, required with the sheriff's posting fee when a new probate case is filed, and links the statewide Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs on its forms page, but there is no county application to probate a will, no county order, no county oath, and no county small estate affidavit template published for any of the five county courts at law. The County Clerk's pages cover only real property recording, vital statistics, assumed names, and UCC filings.
Texas as a whole has no comprehensive set of probate procedure forms either: the Texas Judicial Branch forms page carries only will forms, a transfer on death deed kit, and general civil forms in this area, and the Supreme Court of Texas has not promulgated a small estate affidavit form or a muniment of title form under Government Code Section 22.020(b)(1), even though the Legislature directed it to do so in 2015 (Estates Code chapters 205 and 257). In practice this means the application, the proof of death and other facts, the proposed order, the oath, and the inventory in a Nueces County estate are drafted documents, typically by an attorney.
Fees
Nueces County is one of the minority of Texas counties that publishes its own all-in probate fee totals. The current schedule is the District Clerk's 2024 Probate Fees sheet, revised February 2024 and posted on the District Clerk's documents page; the figures below are that schedule's, and the case-opening totals already include the sheriff's posting fee the county collects when the case is filed. Confirm current amounts with the Probate Section at (361) 888-0496.
| Item | Amount | Authority or source |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide base fee to open a probate case | $360.00 | A $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(1)) plus a $137 state consolidated fee (Section 133.151(a)(1)), identical in every Texas county; both amounts enacted by S.B. 41 effective January 1, 2022 |
| Probate of a will with letters testamentary | $512.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024; includes the posting fee |
| Independent or dependent administration | $512.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
| Probate of a will as a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257) | $512.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
| Small estate affidavit (Estates Code chapter 205) | $360.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
| Administration combined with a determination of heirship | $672.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
| Determination of heirship alone | $512.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
| Will deposited for safekeeping | $5.00 | District Clerk probate fee schedule, matching the statutory deposit fee (Estates Code Section 252.001) |
| Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration | $2.00 each | Local Government Code Sections 118.052(3) and 118.061; the county's schedule adds that only the attorney of record or the court-appointed executor or administrator may request letters |
| Copies of probate records | $5.00 name search; $1.00 per page; $5.00 per certification | District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024 |
A later contested or adverse probate action is $120 (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(2); Section 133.151(a)(2)). A filer who cannot afford court costs may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145), which the District Clerk links on its own forms page.
Local nuance
Nueces County-specific considerations
Probate runs through four courts, not one, and the fifth is different. Nueces County has no statutory probate court. Its five county courts at law, County Court at Law No. 1 through No. 5 (Government Code Section 25.1801(a)), all share original probate jurisdiction with the constitutional Nueces County Court under Estates Code Section 32.002(b), but the county's own published descriptions single out Courts 1 through 4 as the ones actually hearing probate: each carries the identical line that the courts have jurisdiction over criminal misdemeanors, probate matters and civil lawsuits. Court 5's own description instead names a specialized docket for juvenile delinquency, Child and Adult Protective Services cases, guardianship, and Justice Court appeals, which matches the family-law and child-welfare preference Government Code Sections 25.1801(c) and 25.1802(r) give it, and it does not mention probate. No published rule explains how a case lands with one of Courts 1 through 4 rather than another.
The district clerk, not the county clerk, is the probate clerk here, and that is the single most unusual thing about Nueces County probate. In almost every Texas county the county clerk keeps the probate docket, and generic Texas guidance will tell you so. Nueces is different: Government Code Section 25.1802(a) gives its county courts at law district-court style jurisdiction, including over the collection and management of estates of deceased persons and over disputes ancillary to probate, and Section 25.1802(n) makes the district clerk the clerk of a county court at law in those cases, with a separate docket for each court. This is not a jurisdiction carve-out like Harris, Parker, or Hood County have; nothing withholds original probate jurisdiction from a Nueces county court at law, and the contested-matter provision remains Estates Code Section 32.004. It is a clerk arrangement, and the county runs it exactly that way: the District Clerk's office, whose own letterhead reads District Courts/County Courts at Law, operates a dedicated Probate Section in Room 203, publishes the county's only probate fee schedule, and instructs filers to deliver original wills to its Probate Division. The County Clerk's pages, by contrast, cover real property recording, vital statistics, assumed names, elections, and UCC filings, and never mention probate, wills, or estates.
Two practical consequences follow. First, take or mail estate papers to the right counter: the District Clerk's Probate Section, Room 203, phone (361) 888-0496, with mailed original wills marked for the Probate Division. Second, watch the hours: the District Clerk publishes Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and is closed to the public on Friday, while the County Clerk's recording office keeps a different Monday through Friday schedule, so do not plan a Friday filing trip. The sheriff's posting fee is collected up front with a Process Request Form when a new case is filed, per the county's fee schedule.
Recent updates
The District Clerk's current probate fee schedule is the 2024 Probate Fees sheet revised February 2024; an older itemized probate fee page still on the county site lists pre-2022 line items that the Legislature consolidated into the $223 plus $137 base (Local Government Code Sections 135.102 and 133.151, amounts enacted by S.B. 41 effective January 1, 2022), so use the 2024 totals. No other county-specific probate rule change or courthouse move was confirmed for Nueces County this review cycle; the Government Code Chapter 25 provisions governing the five county courts at law remain current as verified 2026-08-04.
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Nueces County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the Corpus Christi area home was held with a right of survivorship or passed under a recorded Texas transfer on death deed, it goes to the surviving spouse outside the estate and no court filing on the house is needed. Where other assets stood in the decedent's sole name, the spouse applies at the District Clerk's Probate Section, 901 Leopard Street, Room 203, and the case is docketed in one of County Courts at Law No. 1 through No. 4. Budget the county's published $512.00 all-in total (District Clerk probate fee schedule, February 2024), which includes the $360 statewide base fee (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(1); Section 133.151(a)(1)) and the sheriff's posting fee. | Asset discovery across more than 2,300 institutions to confirm how the home and accounts are titled and what actually has to reach the court, plus a generated probate packet for the Nueces County filing. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | An adult child living outside Texas who is a distributee of a parent who died intestate in Nueces County, with a small estate and no unpaid debts beyond homestead and exempt property, may be able to use the small estate affidavit, filed with the clerk of the court with jurisdiction and venue of the estate, for estate assets of no more than $75,000 (Estates Code Section 205.001). The affidavit still requires the judge's approval and is not automatic. If the estate exceeds that threshold or the decedent left a will, a regular or independent administration or muniment of title (chapter 257) may be the route instead. | Remote-friendly asset discovery and document preparation so an out-of-state distributee is not making repeat trips to Corpus Christi to gather paperwork, plus a vetted local attorney referral if the estate needs one. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | A parent acting as administrator of an adult child's estate, where a Nueces County home must be sold to pay debts or to distribute proceeds among heirs, generally needs a court-supervised or independent administration rather than an affidavit, because a sale of real property calls for the authority a personal representative gets from letters of administration (Estates Code Section 306.002). The case is filed at the District Clerk's Probate Section and heard by one of County Courts at Law No. 1 through No. 4. | Asset and debt discovery to confirm what the estate actually owes before a sale, a generated packet for the filing, and a vetted local probate attorney for the sale and closing steps. |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| <a href="https://www.nuecesco.com/courts/district-clerk">Nueces County District Clerk (nuecesco.com)</a>, Probate Section (361) 888-0496, Room 203 | The filing office for estates in Nueces County. The District Clerk publishes the county's probate fee schedule (revised February 2024), a Process Request Form, and eFiling guidelines, and is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed to the public on Friday. Staff can explain procedure and what the counter needs, but cannot give legal advice |
| <a href="https://www.nuecesco.com/county-services/county-clerk">Nueces County Clerk (nuecesco.com)</a>, (361) 888-0580 | Recording and vital records, including certified death certificates, at 901 Leopard Street, Room 201, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with a Robstown satellite office. Probate filings are not handled here; they go to the District Clerk's Probate Section |
| <a href="https://www.nuecesco.com/courts/district-clerk/case-search">Nueces County District Clerk, case search</a> | The District Clerk's own case search, the Nueces County Records Inquiry (<a href="https://portal-txnueces.tylertech.cloud/Portal/">portal-txnueces.tylertech.cloud</a>), plus the county's re:SearchTX partnership, described by the county as covering Civil, Family and Criminal cases; probate coverage is not expressly named, so confirm with the Probate Section |
| <a href="https://research.txcourts.gov/CourtRecordsSearch/">re:SearchTX (research.txcourts.gov)</a> | The statewide court records portal used by Texas counties, including Nueces. Registration is free; documents cost roughly $1 for the first 10 pages and 10 cents a page after. It is an unofficial copy of case records; the clerk of the court is the official custodian |
| Honorable Noah O. Kennedy, Jr. Law Library, 901 Leopard Street, Room 601, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, (361) 888-0343 | The county's own law library, in the same courthouse as the County Clerk, listed in the Texas State Law Library's directory of law libraries in Texas |
| <a href="https://www.trla.org/offices">Texas RioGrande Legal Aid</a>, intake (956) 996-8752, Corpus Christi office at 901 Leopard St., Room 105 (inside the Nueces County Courthouse) and Tower II, 555 N. Carancahua St., Suite 400 | TRLA names Nueces County in its own 68-county service area for free civil legal help to income-qualifying Texans; confirm current probate or estate case types when you call |
| <a href="https://guides.sll.texas.gov/probate">Texas State Law Library, probate research guide</a> | A state-agency legal research guide covering wills, formal and informal probate administration, and small estate procedures. The library states plainly that it cannot tell you what the law means for your situation |
| <a href="https://texaslawhelp.org/wills-estate-planning-and-probate">TexasLawHelp.org, wills, estate planning and probate</a> | A legal-aid self-help hub from the nonprofit Texas Legal Services Center, with a small estate affidavit toolkit and general probate articles |
| <a href="https://www.texasbar.com/lris/">State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information Service</a>, (800) 252-9690 | A certified statewide lawyer referral service; an initial consultation is capped at $20 for 30 minutes |
| <a href="https://efiletexas.gov/">eFileTexas.gov</a> | The statewide e-filing system used for Nueces County probate cases; attorneys must e-file, self-represented filers may |
When to hire an attorney
Plenty of uncontested Nueces County estates are handled without a lawyer, particularly a small estate affidavit or an independent administration where the will is clear and the heirs agree. 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 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 Nueces-specific factors weigh toward using an attorney more than they might in a county that publishes its own forms. First, Nueces publishes no probate application, order, or oath templates, so every filing is drafted from scratch. Second, the county's Government Code chapter gives its county courts at law district-court style civil jurisdiction over disputes ancillary to probate and over separate actions by or against a personal representative (Government Code Section 25.1802(a)), the same provision behind the District Clerk's unusual role as the probate clerk here; recognizing when a family's situation has crossed from a routine estate filing into that ancillary-litigation territory is exactly the kind of judgment call an attorney is suited for. Sunset connects families to a vetted local probate attorney when a case calls for one.
How Sunset helps
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, Nueces County real property, and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Corpus Christi.
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, since Nueces County itself publishes no application templates to start from, ready for filing at the District Clerk's Probate Section.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, involves the ancillary civil jurisdiction described above, or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Nueces 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).
Frequently asked questions
Where do I file for probate in Nueces County?
At the District Clerk's Probate Section, Nueces County Courthouse, 901 Leopard Street, Room 203, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, phone (361) 888-0496. Unusually for Texas, the District Clerk rather than the County Clerk serves as clerk of the county courts at law here (Government Code Section 25.1802(n)), and the county's own probate fee schedule directs estate filings and mailed original wills to the District Clerk's Probate Division. The case is heard by one of County Court at Law No. 1 through No. 4, which share original probate jurisdiction with the Nueces County Court, the constitutional county court (Estates Code Section 32.002(b)). File in Nueces County if the decedent lived here and had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (Section 33.001(a)(1)).
Which court hears my probate case in Nueces County?
One of County Courts at Law No. 1 through No. 4. Their own published descriptions are identical and each names probate jurisdiction; County Court at Law No. 5 instead runs a specialized docket for juvenile, Child and Adult Protective Services, guardianship, and Justice Court appeals, and its own description does not mention probate. The county does not publish how a case is assigned among Courts 1 through 4.
Is e-filing required for probate in Nueces County?
For attorneys, yes, under the statewide mandate that reached every Texas county by July 1, 2016 at the latest (Supreme Court Misc. Docket No. 13-9164). A self-represented filer may e-file through eFileTexas.gov but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)). Either way, the original signed will must reach the clerk within three business days after the application is filed (TRCP 21(f)(12)); Nueces County says to deliver it in person or mail it to the District Clerk's Office, Probate Division, 901 Leopard St., marked for the Probate Division.
What does it cost to open a probate case in Nueces County?
The statewide base filing fee is $360: a $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code Section 135.102(a)(1)) plus a $137 state consolidated fee (Section 133.151(a)(1)). Nueces County's published all-in totals, which include the sheriff's posting fee collected at filing, are $512.00 for a probate of a will with letters testamentary, an independent or dependent administration, or a muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257), $360.00 for a small estate affidavit, and $672.00 for an administration combined with a determination of heirship (District Clerk probate fee schedule, revised February 2024). Confirm the current total with the Probate Section at (361) 888-0496.
Does Nueces County publish its own probate forms?
Almost none. The District Clerk publishes a Process Request Form and the county's probate fee schedule, and links the statewide Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, but there is no county probate application, order, oath, or small estate affidavit template. Texas has no comprehensive probate forms set adopted statewide either, so the application, order, oath, and inventory are drafted documents.
Can I look up a Nueces County probate case online?
The Nueces County District Clerk runs its own case search portal and participates in re:SearchTX, but the county describes those tools as covering Civil, Family and Criminal cases without naming probate specifically. Confirm coverage with the Probate Section, which also provides copies for a published $5.00 name-search fee, $1.00 per page, and $5.00 per certification; re:SearchTX itself warns that it provides only an unofficial copy of case records.
What happens if someone contests a will in Nueces County?
For a matter pending in the constitutional county court, the judge of the Nueces County Court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on a party's motion, transfer the contested matter to a county court at law, and may transfer the entire proceeding (Estates Code Section 32.004(a)). If only the contested matter is transferred, it returns to the county court once resolved (Section 32.004(b)). A case already docketed in a county court at law, as Nueces probate cases ordinarily are, stays there whether contested or not.
Do I have to appear in person for a Nueces County probate hearing?
Neither the County Clerk nor any of the five county courts at law publish a remote-appearance policy for probate matters. Ask the assigned court when your hearing is scheduled.
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