Webb County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Laredo, 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 identical in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before your first filing matters here because Webb County charges by the kind of application: its published court fee schedule prices a new probate application at $468.00 with citation and sheriff service included (the $360 statutory base under Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) and § 133.151(a)(1) plus the county's $8.00 citation and $100.00 service items), while a Small Estate Affidavit is $360.00 because nothing is served. Filing the wrong application means paying twice.

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

1110 Victoria Street in Laredo is the probate filing location for the whole of Webb County. The Webb County Clerk takes estate filings in Suite 201, County Court at Law No. 1 sits in Suite 303 and County Court at Law No. 2 in Suite 404, and the Webb County Law Library is in Suite 105 of the same building. The county publishes no branch or satellite counter for estate filings. The court serves every part of the county, including Laredo, Rio Bravo, El Cenizo, Bruni and Oilton. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip downtown; what does require attention is the counter window, because the County Clerk's published hours close at 3:00 p.m. with a midday closure.

Venue is the ordinary Texas rule: 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 Webb County, the case belongs here even if the death happened in a hospital elsewhere. 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 a generic page gets wrong. Webb County has no statutory probate court. Government Code § 25.2421 provides that Webb County has the County Court at Law No. 1, the County Court at Law No. 2 and the County Court at Law No. 3 of Webb County, and that they sit in Laredo, but the third court is a future court: the Act that added it provides that "the County Court at Law No. 3 of Webb County is created January 1, 2031, or on an earlier date determined by the Commissioners Court of Webb County by an order entered in its minutes" (Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 3 (H.B. 79), Sec. 4.44(b)). Today the county publishes two courts at law, and both take probate work. Because a county court at law exercises original probate jurisdiction here and there is no statutory probate court, the county court at law and the Webb County Court have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), with the courts at law drawing that jurisdiction from the general grant in Government Code § 25.0003(d). The county's own chapter 25 provisions add concurrent district-court jurisdiction in family law matters, in controversies between spouses, parents, or parent and child, and in expunctions (Government Code § 25.2422(a)); none of that removes probate.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the route in a county-court-at-law county is a transfer, not an outside assignment. Under Estates Code § 32.004, in a county in which there is no statutory probate court but in which there is a 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, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the judge of the county court may also transfer the entire proceeding to the county court at law. The court to which the matter is transferred may then hear it as if originally filed there. That is the Webb County path, and it is different from the path in a county that has only a constitutional county court, where the alternatives are an assigned statutory probate court judge or a district court.

The district clerk is not the office that opens an estate here, but it is not absent from the county courts at law either, and it is worth knowing why. Webb County's statute divides the clerkship: "The district clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in the cases enumerated in Subsection (a)(2), and the county clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in all other cases" (Government Code § 25.2422(g)). Subsection (a)(2) is the category of justiciable controversies between spouses, between parents, or between parent and child, and between any of those and third persons. A decedent's estate is not in that category, so it falls in "all other cases" and the Webb County Clerk is the clerk for it. The county's own publications line up with the statute: the County Clerk is the office that publishes Webb County's probate filing fees and the county's court e-filing instructions.

Two courts at law, both doing probate, and no published assignment rule. Webb County's probate work is spread across County Court at Law No. 1 in Suite 303 and County Court at Law No. 2 in Suite 404 of 1110 Victoria Street. County Court at Law No. 1 staffs a Probate Court Coordinator at (956) 523-4343 and posts probate notices; County Court at Law No. 2, whose page the county brands with its presiding judge, the Honorable Victor Villarreal (verified July 2026), publishes probate motions, a guardianship set, local court rules and court policies. The county does not publish a rule for which court gets which estate, so after your application is accepted, call the Webb County Clerk at (956) 523-4266 and ask which court has the case before you file anything court-specific. Both courts also share the constitutional county court's jurisdiction: the Webb County Court and a county court at law have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings here (Estates Code § 32.002(b)).

County Court at Law No. 2 wants a motion to set, not a phone call. That court publishes the specific motions it uses to put a probate matter on the calendar: a Motion to Set Probate of Will, a Motion to Set Probate a Copy of Will or Codicil, a Motion to Set Heirship and a Motion to Set Administration. Its docket page also asks that a motion for continuance be filed at least three business days before the hearing so the clerk's office can process it and the court can review it, and it warns that a Rule 11 agreement is not binding on the court and that agreed does not mean approved. If your case lands in that court, use its forms.

The counter closes at 3:00 p.m., and that is earlier than almost any Texas county clerk. The Webb County Clerk publishes office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed weekends and holidays, while the courts at law publish 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Anything that has to be handed across the counter has to arrive inside that window, and the clerk's own e-filing page names the two documents that must be hand delivered in a probate matter: the original will and the death certificate. The original will must be filed with the clerk within three business days after an electronically filed application to probate it (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), so count the days against the counter's hours, not the building's.

The clerkship is split, and the split does not touch estates. Webb County's own statute provides that "The district clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in the cases enumerated in Subsection (a)(2), and the county clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in all other cases" (Government Code § 25.2422(g)). Subsection (a)(2) is a narrow list of controversies between spouses, between parents, or between parent and child. A decedent's estate is not on that list, so it is one of the "all other cases" and belongs to the Webb County Clerk, which is also where the county publishes its probate fee schedule and its court e-filing instructions. If a clerk's office ever tells you otherwise for your particular matter, ask which subsection they are applying.

A third county court at law is already on the books for 2031. Government Code § 25.2421 lists three statutory county courts for Webb County, but the Act that added the third provides that "the County Court at Law No. 3 of Webb County is created January 1, 2031, or on an earlier date determined by the Commissioners Court of Webb County by an order entered in its minutes" (Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 3 (H.B. 79), Sec. 4.44(b)). Until the commissioners court acts or that date arrives, two courts at law sit in Laredo, and the statutory list is not a count of courtrooms you can walk into.

Videoconference access is real but is published by court, not by case type. County Court at Law No. 1 posts a standing Zoom link and a dial-in number for its court proceedings. County Court at Law No. 2 puts the Zoom link at the top of its posted PDF docket, requires witness testimony to be given in person or by videoconference rather than by telephone, and asks parties to log in or arrive 15 minutes before the start of the hearing so they can be identified. Neither court publishes a rule specific to probate settings, and the older emergency-period video order that one of the courts still links expired years ago by its own terms, so confirm the arrangement for your setting with the court that has the case.

Plenty of uncontested Webb County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's courts publish enough procedure that a careful filer can follow it. 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 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 elsewhere. First, no Webb County office publishes an application template, so the opening document is drafted from scratch even though the courts publish procedural forms around it. Second, the county's probate work is spread across two courts at law with different published practices, and one of them expects a specific motion to set a hearing. Third, the contested-matter route matters: if a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the judge of the county court may on the judge's own motion, and shall on the motion of any party, transfer the contested matter, and may transfer the entire proceeding, to the county court at law (Estates Code § 32.004), which is a change of forum worth understanding before it happens. County Clerk staff and the courts' coordinators can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice, and the Webb County Law Library states plainly that its staff cannot interpret the law. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Webb County and the Laredo 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, Webb County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which route fits before anything is filed in Laredo.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your estate settlement route, drafted to the right Webb County fee category and ready to file with the Webb County Clerk through eFileTexas.gov, with the original will going to the counter in Suite 201 within three business days as Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12) requires.

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 Webb 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).