Reagan County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Big Lake, 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 more in a county this size, because Reagan County publishes no probate instruction sheet, no local forms and no docket calendar, so there is nothing local to correct a wrong start. A wrong route means starting over.

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

The Reagan County Courthouse at 300 N. Plaza Avenue in Big Lake is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County and District Clerk takes filings in the courthouse and the County Judge sits in the same building. The court serves every part of the county, including Big Lake and the unincorporated areas around it. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Big Lake; what does require one is delivering the original will and appearing at the hearing.

Venue is straightforward for a Reagan 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 Reagan County, the case belongs in the Reagan County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo, Midland or Odessa. 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)).

There is no separate probate court here, and no court in the county carries that name. Reagan County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Reagan 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, which creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in the state, has no Reagan County entry at all. The only other trial courts the county's own site lists are the 112th District Court, which does not open estates, and the Justice of the Peace court, which has no probate jurisdiction.

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 court on the other end of that transfer is the 112th District Court, and it is a traveling court. The 112th Judicial District is composed of Crockett, Pecos, Reagan, Sutton and Upton counties (Government Code § 24.214(a)), its terms in Reagan County begin on the first Mondays in March and October (§ 24.214(b)(3)), and the county names Pedro (Pete) Gomez, Jr. as the 112th District Judge, with chambers at 907 Avenue D in Ozona (verified August 2026). That is worth knowing before anyone files a motion to transfer: the district court's calendar in Reagan County is not a weekly one.

One officer holds both clerkships, and the title is the thing most likely to send a filer to the wrong place. Reagan County publishes Tammy Hodge as County Clerk and 112th District Clerk and brands the office the County and District Clerk. Government Code § 51.501(a) is the general law behind that: a county with a population of less than 8,000 elects a single clerk to perform the duties of the district clerk and the county clerk, unless a majority of the county's voters vote to keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). It does not change where an estate goes. Probate is a county court matter, the county clerk is the clerk of the county court under Texas Constitution article V, § 20, and the district clerk role only touches a probate matter after a contested matter has been transferred to the district court under Estates Code § 32.003(a)(2). Say "probate" and "county court" when you call (325) 884-2442, and the joint title takes care of itself.

Reagan County publishes citations by posting online, and that is genuinely unusual at this size. Its website carries a "Probate and Guardianship Posting" page in the County Offices menu, where the county puts the text of citations issued in probate and guardianship matters. Under the Estates Code the county clerk delivers the citation to the sheriff or a constable, who posts it at the courthouse door or where public notices are customarily posted, for at least 10 days before the return day, excluding the date of posting (§ 51.053(a) and (b)), and the officer returns the original with the date and location of the posting stated on it (§ 51.053(c)). The website page is in addition to that courthouse posting, not a substitute for it, but it means an interested person who cannot get to Big Lake can read the citation.

Read the citation on that page carefully if one concerns your estate. The probate citation Reagan County has published there was issued over the County Clerk's hand and seal, commands any sheriff or constable to post a copy for not less than ten days exclusive of the day of posting, and sets the hearing for 10 o'clock a.m. on the first Monday next after the expiration of ten days from the date of posting, at the county courthouse. That is the statutory return-day formula, not a published docket schedule: Reagan County publishes no standing probate docket day, no docket time and no filing-to-hearing interval, so confirm your own setting with the clerk rather than assuming the same date pattern.

The counter week is not the usual one. The clerk's page publishes hours of Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday closes an hour early, which matters if you are driving in to deliver an original will inside the three business days that Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12) allows. The county also publishes an annual holiday schedule; in 2026 the courthouse is closed for Thanksgiving on November 25 to 27 and for Christmas on December 23 to 25, along with the usual state holidays.

A contested matter goes to a traveling district court. Reagan County is one of five counties in the 112th Judicial District, together with Crockett, Pecos, Sutton and Upton (Government Code § 24.214(a)), and the 112th District Court's terms in Reagan County begin on the first Mondays in March and October (§ 24.214(b)(3)). The county names Pedro (Pete) Gomez, Jr. as the 112th District Judge, with chambers at 907 Avenue D in Ozona. So the alternative route under § 32.003(a)(1), asking for the assignment of a statutory probate court judge to hear the contested matter (Government Code § 25.0022), is worth weighing on timing as well as on expertise, and a motion for that assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)).

Filing and recording happen at the same counter, which is convenient and occasionally confusing. The office that takes your probate application also keeps the county's official public records, publishes the county's recording fee schedule (effective January 1, 2024) and links iDoc Market for online property records. Recording is where a probate document reaches land title, for example the affidavit used to transfer a homestead under Estates Code § 205.006(a), which must be recorded in the deed records of a county where the homestead is located. It is not a probate case search, and the online property records link does not index estates.

Plenty of uncontested Reagan County estates are handled without a lawyer, and nothing about the county's practice assumes counsel. 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 or a mineral interest 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 weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. Reagan County publishes no probate forms, no instruction sheet and no docket calendar, so every document is drafted from scratch and every setting has to be asked for. The County Judge who hears the case need not be a lawyer, which is what the Legislature contemplated when it wrote the contested-matter route. And that 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)), a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), and the district court here is the 112th, which sits in five counties and holds its Reagan County terms beginning on the first Mondays in March and October (Government Code § 24.214). Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Reagan County and the surrounding west 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, Reagan County real property and mineral interests, and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed in Big Lake.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the estate settlement paperwork for your route, which matters in a county that publishes no probate forms and no instruction sheet of its own, ready to file with the Reagan 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 Reagan 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).