Scurry County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Snyder, 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. The answer matters before your first filing here because Scurry County prices the two openings identically, at $360.00 for an application and $360.00 for a small estate affidavit, and because the county publishes a form for one of them and none at all for the other. Picking the wrong route means paying twice and starting over.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, mineral interest, vehicle and parcel of Scurry 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. Mineral and royalty interests are worth a deliberate search in this part of Texas, because they are easy to miss and hard to add later. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Scurry County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Scurry County Courthouse at 1806 25th Street in Snyder is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk takes filings in Suite 300 and the county court sits in the same building. The court serves every part of the county, including Snyder and Hermleigh and the ranch and oilfield country between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, much of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Snyder, but Scurry publishes no remote-appearance rule, so plan on appearing in person unless the clerk tells you otherwise.

Venue is straightforward for a Scurry 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 Scurry County, the case belongs in the Scurry County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Lubbock, Abilene or Midland. 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 the fact most often gotten wrong on a small Texas county, and Scurry is easy to get wrong because of its neighbors. Government Code Chapter 25 contains no Scurry County entry, so the county has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, and the Scurry County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), with the elected County Judge presiding. Scurry borders Fisher, Mitchell and Nolan Counties, which share the 1st Multicounty Court at Law under Government Code § 25.2701, but Scurry is not one of those three counties and that court has nothing to do with a Scurry County estate. The one district court seated in the county, the 132nd District Court, composed of Borden and Scurry Counties and holding terms in Scurry County (Government Code § 24.234), does not open estates.

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. In Scurry County the district court that receives such a transfer is the 132nd District Court, in the same courthouse. 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 caption is on the county's own forms, so copy it. Both of the documents Scurry County publishes for its county court name the same court: the small estate affidavit and its order are captioned for the County Court, Scurry County, Texas, and the guardianship inventory for the County Court of Scurry County, Texas. Not a probate court and not a county court at law: Scurry has neither, and a caption naming a court the county does not have is an avoidable reason for a rejection.

There is a county small estate affidavit, and it comes with the order. This is unusual at this county size and it is the single most useful local document for a family here. The county's nine-page form recites the chapter 205 conditions in numbered paragraphs, adds a Medicaid estate recovery paragraph directing the applicant to obtain a certification from the Health and Human Services Commission where the decedent received benefits on or after March 1, 2005, and closes with a prepared Order Approving Small Estate Affidavit. The order recites that the approved affidavit "shall forthwith be recorded in the records of the County Clerk". Remember that approval is discretionary in Texas: the judge examines the affidavit and may approve it if it conforms to the chapter (Estates Code § 205.003).

There is no county form for a will probate, and that surprises people who find the small estate affidavit first. If there is a will, nothing on the county's page fits: the application, the proof of death and other facts, the order admitting the will, the oath and the inventory are all drafted documents, because Texas publishes no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms and Scurry publishes none of its own for that route.

One courthouse line answers for every office, and the clerk's page publishes no email. Scurry County's directory says plainly, "To contact anyone in the courthouse please call 325-573-9316", and the same number is on the County Clerk, County Judge, District Clerk and District Judge pages. There is no separate probate desk, no published probate email and no published counter hours. The one timing rule the clerk does publish is a cut-off for marriage-license applications, 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. on Friday, which the clerk attributes to the length of that process rather than to its counter hours. Call before you drive to Snyder with a filing.

Probate lookups here happen at the counter, and they are priced. Scurry County runs no online probate case search. The only search the clerk links is the Tyler self-service portal it labels Land Records Search, which indexes recorded documents and warns in its own disclaimer that the index "is similar to a library card catalogue". For a probate record, the clerk's fee list updated January 8, 2024 charges $10.00 per name for a search that expressly includes probate, plus $1.00 per page for copies and $5.00 for a certification.

The county's fee sheet already flags the late-inventory trap. Its line reads "Inventory, Appraisement, List of Claims (90th day and after) $25.00", which is the county saying out loud what the statute says: the charge applies only to an instrument filed after the 90th day after the personal representative qualified, or after any extended deadline the court sets (Local Government Code § 118.056(d)). File the inventory on time and the clerk charges nothing for it.

One court, one counter, and the district court only enters the picture on a contest. Government Code Chapter 25 contains no Scurry County entry, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Scurry County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk in Suite 300 takes the filing. The 132nd District Court sits in the same building but does not open estates; it reaches a Scurry probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)). Do not be misled by the neighboring counties either: Fisher, Mitchell and Nolan share the 1st Multicounty Court at Law, and Scurry does not belong to it.

Plenty of uncontested Scurry County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's published small estate affidavit is written for a family to complete. 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. First, Scurry County publishes no form at all for a will probate or an administration, so every document on that route is drafted from scratch. Second, the county publishes no e-filing instructions and no pro se policy, so a self-represented filer is working without written local guidance. 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 Scurry 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, Scurry County real property, mineral and royalty interests and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Snyder.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to Scurry County's own requirements, including the caption the county's forms use and the county's small estate affidavit where that route applies, ready to file with the Scurry 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 Scurry 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).