Schleicher County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Eldorado, 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 Schleicher County publishes no probate instruction sheet, no checklist and no docket calendar to correct you along the way. The clerk can tell you what the counter needs, but the shape of the case is yours to get right, and a wrong route means starting over and paying the $360.00 base fee again (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1); § 133.151(a)(1)).

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, mineral or royalty interest and parcel of Schleicher County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. Ranch land, livestock and mineral or royalty interests deserve their own lines on the list in this part of West Texas, because they are easy to overlook and they are estate property. 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 Schleicher County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Schleicher County Courthouse at 2 S. Divide in Eldorado is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates, and the county seat is where the court sits: Government Code § 26.002(c) provides that all terms of court must be held at the county seat. The court serves every part of the county, the city of Eldorado and the ranch country around it. The county's Justice of the Peace is a separate office and takes no probate filings.

Venue is straightforward for a Schleicher 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 Schleicher County, the case belongs in the Schleicher County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Angelo. 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 easy to get wrong in a county this size. Schleicher County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Schleicher 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 creates every statutory county court and statutory probate court in Texas and contains no Schleicher County entry, and the judicial offices on the county's own government menu are the County Judge, a Justice of the Peace and the District Judge, with no county court at law and no probate court among them. Do not caption a Schleicher County estate for a probate court or a county court at law; the county has neither. Schleicher does have its own section of the Government Code, § 26.307, which gives the County Court original concurrent jurisdiction with the justice courts in all civil and criminal matters, which is why the same judge in the same building hears a wide mix of business. It sets no term calendar, and in any event § 26.002(b) provides that the court "must be open at all times for the transaction of probate business", so an estate can be opened with the clerk on any business day.

The filing office is worth a second look here, because Schleicher County does something most Texas counties do not. One elected officer holds both clerkships, and the county publishes the combined title on both of its clerk pages: Marsha L. Maskill, County and District Clerk, at one drawer, one phone and one fax. That is the arrangement Government Code § 51.501(a) provides: 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)). The general Texas rule that a probate application is county-clerk business, not district-court business, still describes the correct legal capacity here, but in Eldorado it does not send you to a different desk or a different person. One counter takes both.

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 receiving end of that transfer is the 51st District Court. Government Code § 24.153 composes the 51st Judicial District of Coke, Irion, Schleicher, Sterling and Tom Green Counties, and provides that its terms begin in Schleicher County on the first Mondays in April and October. The county names Judge Carmen Symes Dusek as the district judge and publishes that the court's coordinators are available by email only (verified August 2026). One thing does not change on a transfer: because the same elected officer is both clerks in Schleicher County, a transfer under § 32.003(a)(2) does not move your file to a different office in Eldorado. An appeal from a final probate order goes to the Third Court of Appeals, whose district includes Schleicher County (Government Code § 22.201(d)).

One officer, one counter, both clerkships, and the county prints it in the title. Schleicher County publishes a County Clerk page and a District Clerk page, and both carry the identical block: Marsha L. Maskill, County and District Clerk, P.O. Drawer 580, Eldorado, TX 76936, office 325-853-2833, fax 325-853-2768, with the same two deputy clerks listed underneath. Government Code § 51.501(a) provides 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 the voters keep the offices separate (§ 51.501(b)). For a probate filer the practical consequence is reassuring: you cannot end up at the wrong clerk's window in Eldorado. The legal capacity still matters, because probate is county-clerk business and an estate is a county court matter, but there is only one desk.

The counter opens at 9:00 a.m. and closes for an hour at noon. The clerk's own page publishes 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. closure, and the county's separate Courthouse Hours page publishes the same split day. That page also warns, in the county's own words, that individual office hours may vary and tells readers to call the office they need. If Eldorado is a drive for you, call 325-853-2833 the morning you plan to come.

Nothing about probate procedure is published locally, and that is worth stating plainly rather than leaving you to search. Schleicher County has no probate page, no probate fee schedule, no probate forms, no checklist, no e-filing notice, no local rules, no docket calendar and no published hearing day, time or filing-to-hearing interval. The county's sitemap contains no occurrence of the word probate. That is normal for a county this size and it is not a sign that something is missing: it means the clerk's office is the source for scheduling and counter practice, and that nothing about local timing should be assumed where the county has published none.

The clerk's published fee schedule covers everything except probate. The accordion on the clerk's page is headed for real property and vital records and prices recording at $25.00 for a first page and $4.00 for each additional page, plats, tax liens, assumed name certificates, marks and brands, birth certificates at $23.00, death certificates at $21.00 and marriage licenses at $81.00. No probate application, citation, letters, inventory or accounting item appears on it. The one probate-adjacent line is $16.00 for wills deposited for safekeeping, which is above the $5.00 statutory fee for the deposit and safekeeping of a will (Local Government Code § 118.052(3)(E) and § 118.062; Estates Code § 252.001(b)). That is a lifetime deposit service, not a cost of opening an estate, and the county's figure is worth a question to the clerk rather than an assumption either way.

There is no online records search here at all, for probate or for anything else. Many small Texas counties at least run a land-records portal that people mistake for a case search; Schleicher runs neither. The county's site links no Odyssey portal, no vendor case index and no deed-records search. Records are requested from the clerk at 325-853-2833 or looked at in the office. Documents e-filed in a Schleicher probate case may be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, but coverage is set county by county, the portal charges for documents, and it states that it provides an unofficial copy and that the clerk of the court is the official custodian, so the clerk remains the definitive answer.

Two courts sit in the same building, and only one of them opens estates. The Schleicher County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the county's own § 26.307 gives that court concurrent civil and criminal jurisdiction with the justice courts as well. The 51st District Court, composed of Coke, Irion, Schleicher, Sterling and Tom Green Counties, holds its Schleicher County terms beginning on the first Mondays in April and October (Government Code § 24.153), and it reaches a probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), with the county court keeping the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Plenty of uncontested Schleicher County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county imposes no rule of its own requiring 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 ranch land, a mineral interest or other 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 weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Schleicher County publishes no probate forms, no fee schedule for probate, no checklist and no instruction sheet, so every document is drafted from the statute and every cost has to be confirmed by phone. Second, the county publishes no docket day, docket time or filing-to-hearing interval, so an experienced local practitioner knows things the county's website cannot tell you. Third, 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. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Schleicher County and the San Angelo 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, Schleicher County real property and mineral interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Eldorado.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, captioned for the Schleicher County Court and drafted from the statute, because Schleicher County publishes no probate forms of its own, ready to file with the Schleicher 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 Schleicher 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).