Uvalde County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Uvalde, 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 here because Uvalde County's own fee schedule prices citation and sheriff or constable service items separately from the base filing fee, so the total cost depends on what your filing actually needs.

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

The Uvalde County Courthouse at 100 N. Getty St in Uvalde is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or annex counter for estates. The court serves every part of the county, including Uvalde, Sabinal, Utopia, and Knippa and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys must e-file, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires an in-person trip to Uvalde; delivering an original will and any hearing still do.

Venue is straightforward for an Uvalde 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 Uvalde County, the case belongs in the Uvalde County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Antonio or Del Rio. 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. Uvalde County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Uvalde County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)). Docket scheduling for the county court runs through the County Court Coordinator rather than the County Clerk's counter or the judge's own office directly.

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. 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)). 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)).

The county's own case search reaches probate, not just real property. Uvalde County's "Online Records Search" (public.lgsonlinesolutions.com) is easy to mistake for a deed-records tool because it sits next to recording fee links on the Clerk's page, but the county's own Q&A document is explicit: registered users may "purchase images for Court Cases, such as Criminal, Civil, Probate, or Property Records." A free guest login shows index information only; a registered user may purchase up to five images before a subscription is required, and every purchase carries a mandatory $0.30 transaction fee.

Probate scheduling runs through the County Court Coordinator, not the County Clerk's counter. Uvalde County names Lupita Flores, County Court Coordinator, Courthouse Plaza, Box 6, (830) 591-9223, separately from both the County Clerk and the County Judge's own administrative staff; use that number for docket questions rather than the Clerk's filing line. The county court also publishes a signed annual calendar: the 2026 calendar, approved by the County Judge on October 23, 2025, sets Probate Court docket days on Mondays, at 10:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. depending on the date, typically several Mondays each month, and states that it is subject to additions, deletions, or changes at the court's discretion.

The mailing address changed recently. The Clerk's own Notice of Address Change states the new mailing address, P.O. Box 169, Uvalde, TX 78802, effective May 5, 2026, while deliveries by FedEx, UPS, or similar carriers still go to the physical courthouse address, 100 N. Getty St, 1st Floor. Using the old address for mail risks delay.

No fax filings, and an attorney's mailed paper filing is returned unfiled. The Clerk's own e-filing reminder is unusually blunt: documents mailed by an attorney "will be returned unfiled so that you may e-file them accordingly," and "NO FAX filings will be accepted by this office." A self-represented filer is not covered by either restriction.

One court, one counter, and the district court only enters the picture on a contest. Uvalde County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Uvalde County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. A district court reaches an Uvalde County 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 managing the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Plenty of uncontested Uvalde County estates are handled without a lawyer. 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. Two local factors are worth knowing before you decide. First, Uvalde County publishes no probate application forms at all, so most documents are drafted from scratch. Second, 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 Uvalde County and South Texas.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to be ready for the Uvalde County Clerk and for e-filing through eFileTexas.gov.

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 Uvalde 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).