Tarrant County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Tarrant County, know what is in the estate, how each asset is titled, and what is owed. Which Texas route fits depends on whether there is a will, whether the estate owes unpaid debts other than debts secured by liens on real estate, whether all the heirs agree, and what the assets are actually worth. Those routes are created by state statute and are identical in all 254 counties, so they are covered on the Texas state page. Getting the route right before the first filing matters more in Tarrant County than in most Texas counties, because both probate courts publish written policies requiring a licensed attorney for anyone who wants to be appointed personal representative, and the two routes a person can bring alone, probate of a will as a muniment of title (Estates Code § 257.001) and the small estate affidavit, are the two that depend most on getting the debt and asset picture right first. Probate Court No. 2's own guidance goes a step further and tells a muniment applicant to contact each entity holding assets before filing and confirm it will release them on a certified copy of the will and the order, because some holders of stocks and bonds will not.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, business interest and parcel of Tarrant County real estate, along with every debt, before you file. Titling decides whether an asset reaches the court at all: property held with a right of survivorship, accounts with a named beneficiary, and Fort Worth area land covered by a transfer on death deed recorded before death pass directly to the survivor or beneficiary and never reach a probate court. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so the application you or your attorney e-file describes the estate accurately the first time, and so the inventory that follows is right. Tarrant's inventory is unusually detailed: Probate Court No. 2 requires cash and investment account descriptions with the name and address of the bank or brokerage and at least the last four digits of each account number, and fair market value at the date of death for every item.

Tarrant County's probate work runs through two statutory probate courts and one filing counter. Probate Court No. 1 of Tarrant County and Probate Court No. 2 of Tarrant County are created by Government Code § 25.2221(c), and in a county that has a statutory probate court, that court has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(c)). Every application, whatever the route, is filed with the Tarrant County Clerk's Civil Division Probate Clerks, Room 233, Tarrant County Old Courthouse, 100 West Weatherford Street, Fort Worth, TX 76196, 817-884-1770, because the county clerk serves as clerk of each statutory probate court (Government Code § 25.0030(b)). Do not take an estate to the district clerk, and do not take it to a branch office: the county clerk's Arlington, Hurst, Lake Worth, Mansfield, Southlake and Charles F. Griffin locations are vital records offices. The two courts serve the whole county, which the county describes as 41 incorporated areas, including Fort Worth, the county seat, and Arlington, Azle, Bedford, Benbrook, Blue Mound, Burleson, Colleyville, Crowley, Dalworthington Gardens, Edgecliff Village, Euless, Everman, Flower Mound, Forest Hill, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Haltom City, Haslet, Hurst, Keller, Kennedale, Lakeside, Lake Worth, Mansfield, Newark, North Richland Hills, Pantego, Pelican Bay, Reno, Richland Hills, River Oaks, Saginaw, Sansom Park, Southlake, Trophy Club, Watauga, Westlake, Westover Hills, Westworth Village and White Settlement, together with the county's unincorporated areas.

Venue is the county where the decedent lived. You file in the county in which the decedent resided, 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)). This matters more in Tarrant County than in most of Texas, because the Dallas Fort Worth area is stitched together across county lines and several Tarrant County cities spill over the boundary. Homes in Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Flower Mound, Trophy Club, Westlake, Newark, Reno, Burleson and Mansfield can sit in Dallas, Denton, Wise, Parker, Johnson or Ellis County, each of which has its own court and its own filing counter. Two of those neighbors, Dallas and Denton, have statutory probate courts of their own, Parker County routes original probate to its constitutional county court, and the others sit in the middle tier. The clerk's own small estate affidavit instructions put the point bluntly for that route: the decedent must have had a permanent place of residence in this county at the time of death. Confirm which county the decedent's home actually sat in before you file.

Which of the two courts hears your case is decided by the clerk, not by you, and Tarrant publishes both the rule and the shortcut. Under the Local Rules of the Statutory Probate Courts of Tarrant County, Texas, signed by the probate judges in August and September 1993, all matters filed in the probate courts of Tarrant County are assigned a number and a court so as to equalize the cases between the two courts, except that a new case involving the facts or parties of a prior case may be assigned to the court that had the earlier one unless that judge objects. Once a case number has been assigned and docketed to a particular probate court, all matters relating to it, including subsequent proceedings on a testamentary trust or a bill of review, stay in that court under the same cause number. The clerk publishes the practical shortcut in its own probate answers: if you are unsure which court supervises your case, the last digit of your case number matches the assigned court. Ancillary matters, which the local rules define as lawsuits brought by or against a personal representative or on behalf of an estate that do not concern routine administration, carry the original cause number followed by the letter A, then B, C and so on, while contested matters keep the bare cause number. A transfer between the two Tarrant courts requires counsel to obtain the agreement of both judges, and all counsel must be notified and given the chance to object.

A contested matter does not leave the probate court here, and that is the biggest structural difference between Tarrant County and most of Texas. In a county with a statutory probate court, that court has exclusive jurisdiction of all probate proceedings, regardless of whether contested or uncontested, and a cause of action related to the probate proceeding must be brought in a statutory probate court unless its jurisdiction is concurrent with a district court under Estates Code § 32.007 or with another court (§ 32.005(a)). So there is no transfer of a will contest to a district court and no request for an assigned judge, both of which are the norm in the 156 Texas counties that have only a constitutional county court: the same Tarrant County probate judge keeps the case. The traffic runs the other way. A judge of a statutory probate court may pull a related cause of action into the probate court from a district, county or statutory court and consolidate it with the estate (Estates Code § 34.001), and the local rules tell counsel to prepare the motion and order to do it. The county's own description of its courts reflects the result: it is common for a Tarrant probate court to hear any type of civil litigation, including personal injury, property damage, breach of fiduciary duty and family law, when the matter is incident to an estate. One more Tarrant-specific power sits in the statute: if the judge of Probate Court No. 1 or the county judge is absent, disqualified or incapacitated, the judges may sit and act for each other in any probate matter and may enter orders in either court (Government Code § 25.2224(e)).

Both courts require a lawyer to be appointed, and both say so in writing. Most Texas counties leave this question unanswered. Tarrant answers it twice. Under Probate Court No. 2's published Pro Se Policy, stated as of January 1, 2018, the court does not allow a personal representative, which it defines to include an independent executor, dependent executor, independent administrator, temporary administrator or dependent administrator, to be appointed unless represented by an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, because pro se representation in that role is the practice of law without a license where the position carries a fiduciary duty to heirs, beneficiaries and legitimate creditors. Pro se applicants may represent only themselves and may not represent other beneficiaries named in the will. Probate Court No. 1's published Policy of Pro Se Representation reaches the same result for the other court and names the three filings it covers: applying to probate a will and be appointed executor, applying to become administrator of an estate, and applying for a guardianship. Both policies rest on the same authority, Steele v. McDonald, 202 S.W.3d 926 (Tex. App. Waco 2006, no pet.). Probate Court No. 1 adds that the requirement will not be circumvented by relabelling the representation as next friend or friend of the court, and that contesting someone else's appointment may be done pro se so long as the contestant is not also seeking to be appointed. You can still serve as executor or administrator without being a lawyer; you need a lawyer to apply. The clerk's own answer to the question is one word: no.

Two carve-outs, and Probate Court No. 2 lists its conditions. The first is a muniment of title, where no personal representative is appointed and no letters issue (Estates Code § 257.001). Probate Court No. 2 allows a pro se applicant to bring it if all six of its conditions are met: four years have not elapsed since the death (§ 256.003), the original will is filed with the court, the will was signed by the decedent and at least two witnesses, the will has a valid self-proving affidavit, the applicant is the sole beneficiary under the will, and there are no unpaid debts owed by the decedent other than debts secured by liens on real estate. It then gives the most practical warning in any Texas county's pro se materials: before proceeding, contact each entity holding assets and verify that it will release them on presentation of a certified copy of the will and the order admitting the will as a muniment of title, because some entities, especially those holding stocks and bonds, will not release assets without letters testamentary or letters of administration, and if so you should consult an attorney. Probate Court No. 1 allows the same route on the sole-beneficiary condition and adds that whether a muniment of title is the correct procedure for a particular situation is a legal decision best made by an attorney. The second carve-out is the small estate affidavit, which the clerk states plainly does not require an attorney.

The last digit of your case number tells you which court has your case. Under the Local Rules of the Statutory Probate Courts of Tarrant County, Texas, signed by the probate judges in August and September 1993, all matters filed in the probate courts of Tarrant County are assigned a number and a court so as to equalize the cases between the two courts, with a new case involving the facts or parties of a prior case going back to the court that had the earlier one unless that judge objects, and once assigned the case stays in that court under that cause number for every later matter. The clerk publishes the shortcut for readers: if you are unsure which court supervises your case, the last digit of your case number matches the assigned court. Ancillary matters, meaning lawsuits brought by or against a personal representative or on behalf of an estate that do not concern routine administration, carry the original cause number plus the letter A, then B and C, while contested matters use the bare cause number. The style is prescribed too: the local rules' Appendix A shows the caption as "In re: Estate of [name], Deceased, in the Probate Court Number [N] of Tarrant County, Texas".

The two courts practice differently, so read the assigned court's own page. This is the practical consequence of a two-court bench and it catches people who read only the clerk's site. Probate Court No. 1 prefers email for scheduling, hears most uncontested prove-ups primarily on Mondays and Thursdays, wants all proposed documents e-filed five business days ahead, generally holds hearings in person, and accommodates Zoom requests only when absolutely necessary. Probate Court No. 2 schedules through named coordinators for the judge and the associate judge, wants unsigned proofs, unsigned oaths and proposed orders three business days ahead, will not let you set a will hearing until the original will is on file, and hears uncontested muniment, administration and some heirship matters on Zoom under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21d with a standing link for each judge and a requirement that a notary be present to notarize the oath and proofs. Probate Court No. 2 also publishes a Who Should I Contact table that routes 15 different questions to a named role and phone number, including approval of an independent probate inventory, approval of a dependent probate inventory or accounting, attorney fee orders and public probate administration matters.

Contested matters stay here, and related lawsuits can be pulled in. In a county with a statutory probate court, that court has exclusive jurisdiction of all probate proceedings, regardless of whether contested or uncontested (Estates Code § 32.005(a)). There is no transfer of a contested matter to a district court and no request for an assigned judge, both of which are the norm in the 156 Texas counties that have only a constitutional county court. The reverse power is the one Tarrant counsel actually use: a statutory probate judge may transfer into the probate court, from a district, county or statutory court, a cause of action related to a probate proceeding pending there or one in which the personal representative is a party, and consolidate it with the estate (Estates Code § 34.001). the Local Rules of the Statutory Probate Courts of Tarrant County, Texas, signed by the probate judges in August and September 1993 tells counsel to prepare the motion and order, and describes the power in its original numbering as section 5B of the Texas Probate Code, which is exactly where § 34.001 came from when the Estates Code took effect on January 1, 2014. The county's own description of its courts shows the consequence: a Tarrant probate court commonly hears personal injury, property damage, breach of fiduciary duty and even family law matters that are incident to an estate.

The local rules are from 1993 and predate the Estates Code. The published Local Rules of the Statutory Probate Courts of Tarrant County, Texas were signed by Judge Robert M. Burnett of Probate Court Number One on August 9, 1993, by Judge Patrick W. Ferchill of Probate Court Number Two on August 10, 1993, and by the presiding judge of the statutory probate courts on September 9, 1993, and they are adopted under the Court Administration Act (Government Code § 74.093) and the Supreme Court's Rules of Judicial Administration. They are standing orders of all probate courts of the county, now existing or created later, and knowing or intentional violation may be punished by contempt or another sanction. They also still cite the Texas Probate Code, which the Estates Code replaced on January 1, 2014, and the PDF the county publishes is a scan without a text layer. Treat them as the courts' published statement of local practice, translate the old code references, and confirm any rule that matters with the court that has your case. Rule 1.02 is worth reading if you are unrepresented on a route you can bring alone: a person proceeding without an attorney is expected to read and follow the local rules and the rules of procedure and evidence, failure to comply may be sanctioned, and the pro se party must keep a current address and telephone number on file with the clerk, because that address is where every pleading and notice will be served.

Published dates and figures on the county's own site do not all agree. Four are worth knowing before they mislead you. First, the probate office publishes hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. while the clerk's Locations page gives the 1895 courthouse 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Probate Court No. 2's independent executor guide says Room 233 is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Second, Probate Court No. 2's pro se policy still prints a $256 filing fee, where the current schedule prints $392.00 for a muniment of title (the Tarrant County Clerk's probate fee schedule, effective January 1, 2026). Third, the clerk's Probate Service and Other Fees table is dated January 1, 2022 and shows lower constable figures than the January 1, 2026 schedule, which raised them. Fourth, the county's e-filing pages still link the Supreme Court of Texas's December 11, 2012 e-filing mandate, which the Court superseded and vacated on December 9, 2013; the controlling order is Misc. Docket No. 13-9164. None of these changes what you must do, but each will send you to the wrong number if you rely on it.

Probate Court No. 1's page undercounts the state's probate bench. The court's own introduction says Tarrant County Probate Court No. 1 is one of 24 statutory probate courts in 12 different counties in Texas. The county count is right and the court count is now out of date: there are 25 statutory probate courts in those 12 counties, because a second probate court was created in Hidalgo County in 2025. The Office of Court Administration's December 2025 Court Structure of Texas chart carries the current figures. It makes no difference to a Tarrant filing, but it is a reminder to check the statute, Government Code § 25.2221(c), rather than a court's narrative page.

The county clerk holds court registry money and has a published procedure for minors coming of age. The clerk's probate division invests trust account money, much of it for minors, and publishes what happens when a minor turns 18: the minor is sent a letter and an acknowledgment form before the birthday, can start the process on the 18th birthday or later, brings an original birth certificate and a current state or school identification card and a social security card to the office, and the judge signs an order to pay. A mail request works too, with the acknowledgment form notarized and the original birth certificate enclosed, which the clerk returns with the check. The clerk also publishes a registry deposit form on its probate forms list. If an estate or a guardianship left money in the registry for a child, this is the procedure that gets it out.

In Tarrant County this question has a published answer, so start there rather than with general Texas advice. Both statutory probate courts publish pro se policies holding that a personal representative cannot be appointed unless represented by an attorney licensed in Texas. Probate Court No. 2 spells out the roles it covers, independent executor, dependent executor, independent administrator, temporary administrator and dependent administrator, and explains the reasoning: those positions carry a fiduciary duty to all heirs or beneficiaries and legitimate creditors, so appearing pro se in them is the practice of law without a license. Probate Court No. 1's policy names the three filings, applying to probate a will and be appointed executor, applying to become administrator, and applying for a guardianship, and both rely on Steele v. McDonald, 202 S.W.3d 926 (Tex. App. Waco 2006, no pet.). Probate Court No. 2's independent executor guide repeats it as a warning to the person serving: by law, throughout the entire process, you must be represented by an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, and your attorney must prepare and sign anything filed with the court. The Tarrant County Clerk gives the same answer in one word. You do not need to be a lawyer to serve as executor, administrator or guardian; you need a lawyer to apply. Two routes are carved out: probate of a will as a muniment of title where the applicant is the sole beneficiary and the estate owes no debt other than debts secured by liens on real estate (Estates Code § 257.001), subject to Probate Court No. 2's six published conditions, and a small estate affidavit, which the clerk says needs no attorney. Beyond the policies, counsel makes sense for the usual reasons and for some Tarrant-specific ones: when a will is contested or an heirship is disputed, because a statutory probate court keeps the contested matter rather than sending it to a district court (Estates Code § 32.005(a)), Probate Court No. 1 requires mediation before a final trial on the merits, and a related lawsuit can be pulled into the probate court and consolidated with the estate (§ 34.001); when a will is offered more than four years after death (§ 256.003) or cannot be produced in court; when the estate has to sell Fort Worth area real property through a court-ordered sale (§ 356.251); when an intestate estate needs an heirship determination before an independent administration can be created (§ 401.003(b)); and when a guardianship runs alongside the estate. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Tarrant County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

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, Tarrant County real estate, business interests and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value and its debts, and therefore which Texas estate settlement route fits, before anything is filed in Room 233.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route and pairs it with Tarrant County's own documents, including the Supplemental Probate Case Information Sheet the courts require and the detail Probate Court No. 2 expects in an inventory, prepared so an attorney can e-file it through eFileTexas.gov as separate lead documents.

Find a local probate attorney. Both Tarrant County probate courts require a licensed attorney for anyone seeking to be appointed personal representative, so counsel is the norm here rather than the exception. Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Tarrant County and the Fort Worth 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).