Randall County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Canyon, 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 in Randall County for a very practical reason: the county prices its probate filings by cause of action, so the route you choose is the number you pay. The county's own schedule charges $472.00 for letters testamentary or an administration, $470.00 for a muniment of title and $362.00 for a small estate affidavit, so knowing the route before you file is knowing the cost.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of 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 a Randall 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 Randall County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time. If the decedent lived in Amarillo, add one check to the list: confirm which county the address is in before you file, because Amarillo straddles the Potter and Randall county line.

Randall County has one probate filing counter. Applications, wills and later filings go to the Randall County Clerk at the Randall County Justice Center, 2309 Russell Long Boulevard, Suite 101, in Canyon, and the clerk runs a probate desk on a separate line, 806-468-5548. Both county courts at law sit in the same building, County Court at Law Number 1 in Suite 132 and County Court at Law Number 2 in Suite 130; the County Judge, who presides over the Randall County Court, is a few blocks away at the 1909 Randall County Courthouse, 501 16th Street, Suite 303. Randall County's Amarillo annex at 4320 S Western Street houses the Tax Office annex and Justice of the Peace Precincts 4 and 4A and takes no probate filings, so an Amarillo family still files in Canyon. The court serves the whole county, including Canyon, the part of Amarillo that lies in Randall County, Umbarger, Lake Tanglewood, Timbercreek Canyon, the Randall County part of Happy and the rural areas between them.

Venue is where most Amarillo mistakes happen, so take it in two steps. The rule first: 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)). Then the local fact: the city of Amarillo lies in two counties, its northern portion in Potter County and its southern portion in Randall County, so an Amarillo mailing address does not tell you where to file. Check the address against the Potter Randall Appraisal District, which the county's own Tax Office page names at (806) 358-1601, or ask the clerk's probate desk before you pay a filing fee in the wrong courthouse. A Canyon or Umbarger resident files in Randall County without further thought; a Happy address needs the same check, because Happy also straddles a county line.

Which court hears the case is the fact a generic page gets wrong. Government Code § 25.1931(a) provides that "Randall County has two statutory county courts:(1) the County Court at Law No. 1 of Randall County; and(2) the County Court at Law No. 2 of Randall County", and § 25.1931(b) adds that a Randall county court at law "sits in the county seat or at another location in the county as assigned by the local administrative statutory county court judge". Chapter 25 creates no statutory probate court in Randall County, and it takes no probate jurisdiction away either: § 25.1932(a) opens "In addition to the jurisdiction provided by Section 25.0003 and other law", which preserves the general-law probate grant in Government Code § 25.0003(d). So under Estates Code § 32.002(b) the two county courts at law and the Randall County Court, the constitutional county court presided over by the elected County Judge, have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings, and none of the three displaces the others. The county's own paperwork reflects all three: its attorney ad litem list is captioned "for Randall County Court and County Courts at Law #1 and #2", while its contested-transfer order form is styled "IN RE ESTATE OF ... COUNTY COURT IN AND FOR RANDALL COUNTY, TEXAS". Ask the clerk's probate desk which court your cause number sits in before you chase a setting.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the mechanism is a transfer to a county court at law, and it keeps the case inside Randall County. Under Estates Code § 32.004(a), in a county with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction and no statutory probate court, 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, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the judge may transfer the entire proceeding instead. Randall County has reduced this to a form, which is unusual and worth reading before a dispute starts. Its "Order Transferring Contested Probate Matter or Matters" orders "that the contested matter or matters in this cause are transferred as provided for in Texas Estates Code § 32.004 to County Court at Law # ___ pursuant to Local Administrative Orders 2006-2 and 2015-1", directs that "the County Clerk shall promptly notify all attorneys of record, interested parties, or necessary parties of the transfer" and that a copy be hand delivered to the designated county court at law judge, and provides, tracking § 32.004(b), that on resolution the matter "shall be returned to the County Court for further proceedings". The order is explicit that the rest of the estate stays put: "all matters pertaining to the probate cause which do not specifically pertain to the contested matter or matters transferred to the County Court at Law shall remain in the County Court; and all requirements pertaining to same such as administrative matters, accountings, bond settings, and other matters not restricted by nor directly connected to the contested matter or matters shall continue in the County Court." A Randall County contest does not go to a district court and does not need an out-of-county judge.

The contested-matter route is written down here, and it is worth reading before there is a fight. Most Texas counties leave Estates Code § 32.004 to the statute books. Randall County has a standing order form for it, the "Order Transferring Contested Probate Matter or Matters", which transfers a contested matter "to County Court at Law # ___ pursuant to Local Administrative Orders 2006-2 and 2015-1", requires the County Clerk to notify all attorneys of record and interested parties and to hand deliver a copy to the designated county court at law judge, and returns the matter to the County Court once it is resolved. For a family weighing a will contest that means three concrete things: the dispute stays in Randall County, it goes to a lawyer judge in a county court at law rather than to a district court, and the administration of the estate does not stop while it is pending, because the order provides that administrative matters, accountings and bond settings "shall continue in the County Court".

Three courts, and the county does not publish which one gets your case. County Court at Law Number 1, County Court at Law Number 2 and the Randall County Court all have original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), and the county's own attorney ad litem list is captioned for all three. What the county does not publish is an assignment rule, a docket day or a self-scheduling system. Call the County Clerk's probate desk at 806-468-5548 after your filing is accepted, get the cause number and the court, and ask that court about a setting. Do not assume the practice of a neighboring county applies.

The counter closes for filing before the office closes. The Randall County Clerk's posted notice, effective July 1, 2022, reads "WE DO NOT ISSUE MARRIAGE LICENSE AFTER 4:30pm. WE DO NOT FILE AFTER 4:45pm." The office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but a filing carried in at 4:50 p.m. will not be accepted that day. Electronic filings run on the statewide rule instead, timely if transmitted before midnight in the court's time zone on the filing deadline (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(5)).

Amarillo is the county line problem, and it is a real one. The county describes itself as "the seat of significant cities, Amarillo and Canyon", and the southern part of Amarillo lies in Randall County while the northern part lies in Potter County. Venue follows where the decedent lived (Estates Code § 33.001(a)(1)), not the mailing city, so an Amarillo address has to be checked before you file. The county's own Tax Office page points residents at the Potter Randall Appraisal District, (806) 358-1601, which is the practical way to confirm which county a property sits in.

The clerk's counter is at the Justice Center, not at the courthouse, and not at the Amarillo annex. Randall County runs three public buildings that a filer might reasonably guess at. The County Clerk, and both county courts at law, are at the Randall County Justice Center, 2309 Russell Long Boulevard in Canyon. The County Judge is at the 1909 Randall County Courthouse, 501 16th Street in Canyon, which is also the address printed in the footer of every page of the county website and therefore the address people copy by mistake. The Amarillo annex at 4320 S Western Street is the Tax Office annex and the Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 and 4A courts. Probate goes to the Justice Center.

Filing on time costs nothing extra, and the county's schedule proves it. Randall prices its inventory and appraisement fee only for an instrument "filed late", with the schedule's own footnote tying it to filing after the 90th day the personal representative qualifies or after an extended deadline the court set. The statute agrees (Local Government Code § 118.056(d)). The same is true of the county's $27.00 account and sale-application fees, which the schedule applies only to documents filed after the original application has been on file for 120 days or after the order approving the inventory, whichever comes first. Nobody should quote you those numbers as part of the cost of opening an estate.

Plenty of uncontested Randall County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the County Clerk's probate desk will tell you what the counter needs. 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, when a business or out-of-state property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Three local factors sharpen the point here. First, Randall County publishes no probate application, order, oath or inventory template, so every substantive document is drafted from scratch. Second, three courts have concurrent original probate jurisdiction and the county publishes no assignment rule or docket day, so knowing how to get a matter set is local knowledge rather than published knowledge. Third, the contested route is real and fast: on any party's motion the county judge shall transfer a contested matter to a county court at law (Estates Code § 32.004(a)), and Randall County has a standing order form for doing it. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Randall County, Canyon and the Amarillo area.

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, Randall County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Canyon.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted for a Randall County filing and including the civil case information sheet the County Clerk posts for new probate cases, ready to file with the Randall County Clerk at the Justice Center.

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 Randall County and the Amarillo area.

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).