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Wood County, TX Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Current rules |
|---|---|
| Court | The Wood County Court, the constitutional county court, presided over by the elected County Judge, who need not be a lawyer. Because Wood County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, the county court has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings under the Texas Estates Code (§ 32.002(a)). County Judge Kevin White is named on the county's own County Judge page (verified July 2026) |
| Filing office | The Wood County Clerk, Kelley Price, who is the clerk of the county court (Texas Constitution article V, § 20). Estates, wills and guardianships are filed with the County Clerk. The Wood County District Clerk, Suzy Wright, serves the district courts and does not open estates |
| Courthouse | Wood County Courthouse, 100 S. Main Street, Quitman, TX 75783 |
| Mailing address | P.O. Box 1796, Quitman, Texas 75783, per the County Clerk's own page |
| Phone | 903-763-2711 for the Wood County Clerk, the number the Clerk's own page publishes and the number the Clerk's own e-filing FAQ directs filers to call with fee or procedure questions. For probate hearing scheduling, the County Judge's office is 903-763-2716 |
| Fax | Not published by the County Clerk |
| Office hours | Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., per the County Clerk's own page (verified July 2026) |
| Filing fee | Wood County publishes its own itemized probate and civil fee schedule, effective as of January 1, 2022, with totals that vary by case type: $422.00 for the original filing of Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship; $420.00 for a muniment of title, a small estate affidavit, an open safe deposit box, sale of property of a minor without guardianship, or an ancillary or foreign-will proceeding; $428.00 for a determination of heirship; and $424.00 for a temporary or dependent administration. Every total is built on the same statewide $360 base, $223 (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1)) plus $137 (§ 133.151(a)(1)), both effective January 1, 2022; the schedule itemizes the $223 into its component funds and adds statutory per-service items, the sheriff's fee, citation fee, county judge signature fee and letters fee, to reach each total. Confirm the current total with the County Clerk before you file |
| Local forms | None for the application itself. Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms, and Wood County publishes no county application, order, oath or inventory template. What Wood County does publish is a Probate Request for Setting form that governs how a hearing gets scheduled |
| E-filing | Mandatory for attorneys since January 1, 2016 in Wood County, per the County Clerk's own e-filing FAQ, which also records that the Clerk's office began accepting e-filings on a permissive basis on October 31, 2014. Filing is through eFileTexas.gov or another certified electronic filing service provider. Under the statewide rule an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)) |
| Case search | Wood County runs its own Tyler Odyssey portal, branded "Wood County Court Records Inquiry," linked from the county's own pages as "Records Inquiry" and described by the county as covering "case's, court calendar, jail records and more." Its search categories include All Courts, All County Courts (the court that hears probate), All District Courts, All Justice of the Peace Courts, Criminal Records, Civil Records, Court Calendar and Jail Records. Documents e-filed in a Wood County probate case may also be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, which requires free registration and charges for documents |
| Remote appearance | Available for some probate hearings. The County Judge's own probate hearing-setting form states that mornings are reserved for Zoom hearings and afternoons for in-person hearings, and sets a submission deadline for Zoom hearings: proposed orders and judgments and a copy of the death certificate must be e-filed by 9:00 a.m. the Friday before the scheduled Monday hearing |
| Website | https://www.mywoodcounty.com/page/cc_home (the Wood County Clerk) and https://www.mywoodcounty.com/page/countyjudge (the County Judge, with the Probate Court Docket link and the Probate Request for Setting form) |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Before you file anything in Quitman, 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 Wood County sets probate hearings on Mondays, splits them between morning Zoom sessions and afternoon in-person sessions, and requires renunciations, waivers, consents, the original will and proposed orders to be on file before a hearing can even be requested. A wrong route means starting over.
Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Wood 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 Wood County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.
Which court handles jurisdiction
The Wood County Courthouse at 100 S. Main Street in Quitman is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk takes filings and the County Judge's court hears them at the same courthouse. The court serves every part of the county, including Quitman, Mineola, Winnsboro, Hawkins and Yantis and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys must file electronically and a hearing date is requested by email on the county's own form once everything required is on file, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Quitman, and even the hearing itself can be a morning Zoom appearance rather than a drive to the courthouse.
Venue is straightforward for a Wood 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 Wood County, the case belongs in the Wood County Court, even if they died in a hospital outside the county. 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)).
Wood County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Wood County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The district courts that also sit in Wood County do 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. 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 jurisdiction process
- Confirm the route and gather the documents. Collect the original signed will if there is one, a certified copy of the death certificate, the names and addresses of the people who inherit, and a list of assets and debts with values. A person named in a will to settle the estate is an executor; a person appointed by the court where there is no will, or where no named executor qualifies, is an administrator; the Texas Estates Code's umbrella term for either is personal representative.
- Draft the papers yourself or with an attorney. Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms and Wood County publishes no application, order, oath or inventory template of its own, so those documents are drafted, not filled in on a form.
- E-file the application and the will as two separate documents. Attorneys must e-file in probate matters, and Wood County's own e-filing FAQ sets the county's date: the mandate took effect January 1, 2016 in Wood County, and the Clerk's office began accepting e-filings on a permissive basis on October 31, 2014. Wood County's own guidance is explicit: "When filing an Application for Probate/Administration, the application and will should be submitted as two separate PDFs in one filing." An unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1).
- Deliver the original will to the County Clerk within three business days. This is statewide and there is no electronic substitute: when a party electronically files an application to probate a document as an original will, the original must be filed with the clerk within three business days after the application is filed (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Wood County's own e-filing FAQ repeats it verbatim and adds that "A hearing will not be set until the original will is filed with the clerk." Take or send the wet-ink original to the County Clerk, 100 S. Main Street, Quitman, TX 75783, or mail it to P.O. Box 1796, Quitman, Texas 75783.
- Pay the filing fee. Wood County's own itemized schedule, effective as of January 1, 2022, prices the original filing of Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship at $422.00: the statewide base of $223 (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1)) plus $137 (§ 133.151(a)(1)), then a $2.00 county judge signature fee, a $50.00 sheriff's fee, an $8.00 citation fee and a $2.00 letters fee on top. A filer who cannot afford the cost files a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, the statewide form required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145.
- Make sure everything required is on file before requesting a hearing. Wood County's own Probate Request for Setting form states plainly that "Renunciations of Right to the Issuance of Letters Testamentary, Waivers, Consents, Appointments of Registered Agent, Original Wills and Codicils, Proposed Orders etc., MUST BE ON FILE PRIOR TO REQUESTING A HEARING."
- Request the hearing and pick morning or afternoon. Complete the Probate Request for Setting form, stating whether the matter is contested, whether a court reporter is needed, and whether the original will has already been delivered to the Clerk, and email it (the county's form specifies email, not e-filing) to [email protected]. Hearings are set on Mondays; mornings are reserved for Zoom hearings and afternoons for in-person hearings. For a Zoom hearing, the proposed orders and judgments and a copy of the death certificate must be e-filed by 9:00 a.m. the Friday before the Monday hearing, or the hearing may be rescheduled.
- Attend the hearing, by Zoom or in person, and collect the letters. On an admitted will the court grants Letters Testamentary to a qualifying executor (Estates Code § 306.001); where there is no will, or no named executor qualifies, it grants Letters of Administration (§ 306.002). Order enough certified sets, at $2.00 each under Local Government Code § 118.061, for every bank, transfer agent and title company the estate has to deal with.
- Administer the estate and file what the statute requires. The steps that follow, including notice to beneficiaries after an order admitting a will (§ 308.002), the published notice to creditors within one month of receiving letters (§ 308.051), notice to secured creditors within two months (§ 308.053), and the inventory, which must be filed with the court clerk before the 91st day after the personal representative qualifies unless the court grants longer (§ 309.051(a)), are set by state statute and apply the same way in every Texas county. File them with the Wood County Clerk. An inventory filed more than 90 days after qualification without an extension draws the county's own late filing fee.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Wood County
Wood County publishes no application, order, oath or inventory form for opening a probate case. Texas as a whole has no comprehensive set of probate procedure forms either: the Texas Judicial Branch forms page carries only will forms, a transfer on death deed kit and civil forms in this area, and the Supreme Court of Texas has not promulgated a small estate affidavit form or a muniment of title form under Government Code § 22.020(b)(1). In practice this means the application, the proof of death and other facts, the proposed order, the oath and the inventory in a Wood County estate are drafted documents.
What Wood County does publish, and what a filer needs before requesting a hearing, is a Probate Request for Setting form. It is not an application; it is the document that gets a completed, properly filed case onto the Monday docket, morning by Zoom or afternoon in person. The county also publishes its own itemized probate and civil fee schedule and a separate e-filing requirements document that restates the statewide original-will and lead-document rules in Wood County's own words.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Probate Request for Setting (mywoodcounty.com) | Wood County's own form for getting a case onto the Monday probate docket: whether the matter is contested, whether a court reporter is needed, whether the original will has been delivered, and the morning-Zoom or afternoon-in-person choice. Emailed, not e-filed, to [email protected] |
| Probate/civil fee schedule, effective January 1, 2022 (mywoodcounty.com) | Wood County's own itemized fee totals by case type: original filing of Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship; muniment of title; small estate affidavit; determination of heirship; temporary and dependent administration; adverse action; and later filings such as an inventory, an annual accounting or a final accounting |
| Civil and probate e-filing requirements (mywoodcounty.com) | The Clerk's own e-filing FAQ: the January 1, 2016 county mandate date, the requirement to file the application and the will as two separate PDFs, the three-business-day original-will rule, and a list of common rejection reasons |
| Posted probate dockets (mywoodcounty.com) | The County Judge's own page of posted probate docket settings, subject to change without notice |
| Texas Judicial Branch court forms (txcourts.gov) | The statewide forms that do exist, including the Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145, and the Supreme Court of Texas will forms. There is no statewide application, order, oath or inventory form |
Fees
Wood County publishes a dollar-itemized probate and civil fee schedule, effective as of January 1, 2022, that prices several different probate case types, all built on the same statewide base.
| Case type | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Original filing: Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship | $422.00 | The statewide $360 base: a $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1)), which the schedule itemizes into its component funds (records management, court reporter, courthouse security, judicial education, clerk of the court, appellate judicial, law library, court-initiated guardianship, court facility, language access, county jury, dispute resolution), plus the $137 state consolidated fee (§ 133.151(a)(1)), both effective January 1, 2022. On top of the base: a $2.00 county judge signature fee (§ 118.101), a $50.00 sheriff's fee (§ 118.131), an $8.00 citation fee (§ 118.059(c)) and a $2.00 letters fee (§ 118.061) |
| Temporary or dependent administration | $424.00 | Same components as above; the county judge's signature fee is $4.00 rather than $2.00 for this filing type |
| Muniment of title (Estates Code chapter 257) | $420.00 | Same components as the letters filing except the $2.00 letters fee, which does not apply because no letters testamentary or of administration issue on a muniment of title |
| Determination of heirship | $428.00 | Includes a double citation ($16.00) and, where citation by publication to a newspaper is required, an additional $100.00 |
| Small estate affidavit, open safe deposit box, sale of property of a minor without guardianship, or ancillary or foreign-will proceeding | $420.00 | Same components as the muniment of title filing, including the citation and sheriff's fees, with no letters fee |
| Adverse action or application in an existing estate | $178.00 | The statewide adverse-action base of $120, a $75 local fee (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(2)), which the schedule itemizes as its records management, clerk of the court and court-initiated guardianship lines, plus a $45 state fee (§ 133.151(a)(2)), then an $8.00 citation fee and a $50.00 sheriff's fee on top |
| Inventory, appraisement and list of claims filed after the 90th day of qualification | $27.00 | A $25.00 filing fee (Local Government Code § 118.052(2)(A)(i) and § 118.056(d)) plus a $2.00 county judge signature fee; a timely inventory filed before the deadline draws no separate clerk fee |
| Annual accounting | $27.00 | A $25.00 filing fee (Local Government Code § 118.052(2)(A)(iv)) plus a $2.00 county judge signature fee |
| Final accounting | $85.00 | Filing fee, county judge signature, citation and sheriff's fee combined |
| Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship | $2.00 each | Local Government Code § 118.061 |
| Claim against the estate | $10.00 | Local Government Code § 118.058 |
| Wills deposited for safekeeping | $16.00 | Local Government Code § 118.062, plus records management and courthouse security |
The schedule carries a printed effective date, January 1, 2022, the same date the current statutory base amounts took effect under S.B. 41, and its itemized components sum to the current statutory base, so the 2022 header does not make it stale. Confirm the current total with the County Clerk at 903-763-2711 before you file, and remember that a filer who cannot afford the fee may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, the statewide form required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145.
Local nuance
Wood County-specific considerations
Hearings are set on Mondays, and the morning or afternoon choice matters. Wood County's own Probate Request for Setting form splits the day in two: "MORNINGS ARE FOR ZOOM HEARINGS - AFTERNOONS ARE IN PERSON HEARINGS." Pick the format that fits your case when you request the setting, and specify two to three convenient dates.
A Zoom hearing has its own paperwork deadline. If you request a Zoom hearing, the county requires that "ALL PROPOSED ORDERS AND JUDGEMENTS ALONG WITH A COPY OF THE DEATH CERTIFICATE" be e-filed by 9:00 a.m. on the Friday before the scheduled Monday hearing, "OR THE HEARING MAY BE RESCHEDULED." Missing that Friday deadline costs you the Monday date.
Everything has to be on file before you can even ask for a hearing date. Wood County states this without qualification: "Renunciations of Right to the Issuance of Letters Testamentary, Waivers, Consents, Appointments of Registered Agent, Original Wills and Codicils, Proposed Orders etc., MUST BE ON FILE PRIOR TO REQUESTING A HEARING." That includes the original will, which under the statewide rule (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)) must reach the Clerk within three business days of e-filing the application.
The request goes to a dedicated hearings mailbox, and it is emailed, not e-filed. Wood County's own form directs filers to "Please email (DO NOT EFILE) completed form to [email protected]," with questions to 903-763-2716. Sending the request through the e-filing system instead of by email is a documented way to have a setting request missed.
The application and the will are two separate documents in one filing, not one combined PDF. The Clerk's e-filing FAQ is explicit: "the application and will should be submitted as two separate PDFs in one filing." This is Wood County's version of the lead-document rule several small Texas counties enforce, and the county's own FAQ lists documents submitted as attachments that should have been lead documents among its common rejection reasons.
One court, one counter, and the district courts only enter the picture on a contest. Wood County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Wood County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk takes the filing. The district courts sit in the same county but do not open estates; a district court reaches a Wood 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 the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).
Recent updates
| Change | What it means in Wood County |
|---|---|
| Probate hearing-setting procedure, including the morning Zoom / afternoon in-person split and the Friday filing deadline for Zoom hearings | The County Judge's own Probate Request for Setting form governs how a completed case reaches a Monday hearing date; there is no printed effective date on the form itself, so treat it as current as of this page's review and confirm with the Clerk or the County Judge's office |
| Probate/civil fee schedule, effective January 1, 2022 | The County Clerk's own itemized schedule prices probate case types individually rather than a single flat total; the base figures match the statewide statutory amounts set by S.B. 41, effective January 1, 2022 |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Wood County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the Wood County home was held with a right of survivorship or passed under a recorded transfer on death deed, it goes to the survivor outside the estate. Where other assets stood in the decedent's sole name, the spouse applies in the Wood County Court: the application and a copy of the will go in as two separate PDFs in one eFileTexas.gov filing, the wet-ink original will follows to the County Clerk within three business days (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)), and once everything required is on file the spouse requests a Monday hearing, morning by Zoom or afternoon in person. Budget $422.00 for the original filing, per the county's own fee schedule. | Asset discovery to establish how the home and the accounts are titled and what actually has to reach the court. Packet generation for the Wood County filing, drafted to the county's two-document e-filing rule. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | Much of this can be done from out of state, including a morning Zoom hearing once the case is ready. Attorneys must e-file in Wood County (mandatory since January 1, 2016 per the Clerk's own FAQ), and an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1). Two things still require a physical connection to Quitman or exacting timing: the original will must reach the County Clerk within three business days of the application, and a Zoom hearing requires the proposed orders and the death certificate to be e-filed by 9:00 a.m. the Friday before the Monday hearing. | Asset discovery to size the estate from out of state and confirm which route fits before anyone books a flight. Packet generation so the filing is accepted the first time. Attorney referral where the logistics of an out-of-state filer make local counsel the practical answer. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | Selling real property means someone needs the authority document, so this goes through an administration in the Wood County Court. The parent applies, everything required (including any renunciation or consent from other heirs) must be on file before a hearing can be requested, and at the Monday hearing the court appoints the personal representative and grants Letters of Administration (Estates Code § 306.002), or Letters Testamentary if there is a will (§ 306.001), at $2.00 each. The inventory follows, filed with the County Clerk before the 91st day after the representative qualifies (§ 309.051(a)); filing it late draws the county's own $27.00 late fee. | Asset discovery for the child's accounts, insurance and real property. Packet generation for the administration and the inventory. Attorney referral where a sale, a mortgage payoff or a disagreement among heirs makes counsel worthwhile, which matters more here because a contested matter can be assigned to a statutory probate court judge or transferred to a district court (Estates Code § 32.003). |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Wood County Clerk (mywoodcounty.com), 903-763-2711 | The filing office for estates in Wood County: the courthouse address, hours, the fee page and the county's own e-filing FAQ. Clerk staff can explain procedure and what the counter needs, but cannot give legal advice |
| Wood County Judge (mywoodcounty.com), 903-763-2716 | County Judge Kevin White's own page, with the Probate Court Docket link and the Probate Request for Setting form that gets a case onto the Monday docket |
| Wood County Court Records Inquiry (tylertech.cloud) | The county's own Tyler Odyssey case search, covering All Courts, All County Courts, All District Courts, All Justice of the Peace Courts, Criminal Records, Civil Records, Court Calendar and Jail Records |
| eFileTexas.gov | Registration for the statewide electronic filing system, the list of certified electronic filing service providers, and filing instructions. This is where a Wood County probate application is filed |
| re:SearchTX (research.txcourts.gov) | The statewide court records portal, run by the Office of Court Administration with Tyler Technologies. Free registration is required, documents are charged for, and the portal states that it provides an unofficial copy and that the clerk of the court is the official custodian |
| Texas State Law Library probate research guide (guides.sll.texas.gov), (844) 829-2843 toll free in Texas | The strongest government self-help source for Texas probate, from a state agency: general information, probating a will, when there is no will, executors, formal administration, informal methods and legal forms. The library's own caveat is that it cannot tell you what the law means for your situation |
| TexasCourtHelp.gov | General information and videos about making your way through the Texas court system |
| TexasLawHelp.org, wills, estate planning and probate (texaslawhelp.org) | Plain-language Texas probate articles and self-help toolkits from the Texas Legal Services Center, a non-profit. Useful for orientation; it is not a court site and its materials are not court-approved forms |
| Lone Star Legal Aid (lonestarlegal.org), (800) 733-8394 | Free civil legal help for eligible low-income residents. Lone Star Legal Aid's own office list names Wood County as served by its Tyler office, alongside Henderson, Rains, Smith and Van Zandt counties. Confirm it can take a decedent's estate matter before relying on it |
| State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information Service (texasbar.com), (800) 252-9690 | Referrals to Texas attorneys, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central, Spanish spoken. The initial consultation is capped at $20 for 30 minutes. It is a referral service, not a reduced-fee or pro bono program |
| Texas law libraries directory (guides.sll.texas.gov) | The Texas State Law Library's curated directory of law libraries. It lists no law library in Wood County. The directory is curated rather than exhaustive, so contact a library directly about public access |
| Texas Estates Code (statutes.capitol.texas.gov) | The statute itself, including the court structure provisions in chapter 32, venue in chapter 33, letters in chapter 306, notices in chapter 308 and the inventory in chapter 309 |
When to hire an attorney
Plenty of uncontested Wood County estates are handled without a lawyer, but two local factors weigh in favor of counsel more than they would in a metro county. First, Wood County publishes no probate application, order, oath or inventory forms, so every document is drafted from scratch to the county's own two-document e-filing rule and hearing-setting procedure. Second, the Zoom-or-in-person, Monday-only docket with its Friday 9:00 a.m. filing deadline for Zoom hearings is easy to run afoul of without someone tracking the calendar. Counsel earns its keep as well 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, or when a business or out-of-state property is involved. 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. Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Wood County.
How Sunset helps
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, Wood County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Quitman.
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to Wood County's own requirements, including the two-separate-document e-filing rule and the Probate Request for Setting form, ready to file with the Wood 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 Wood 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).
Frequently asked questions
Where do I file for probate in Wood County?
With the Wood County Clerk at the Wood County Courthouse, 100 S. Main Street, Quitman, TX 75783, or by mail to P.O. Box 1796, Quitman, Texas 75783. The case is heard by the Wood County Court, the constitutional county court, presided over by the elected County Judge, because Wood County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law (Estates Code § 32.002(a)). File in Wood County if the decedent lived here and had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (§ 33.001(a)(1)).
Is e-filing required for probate in Wood County?
For attorneys, yes. Wood County's own e-filing FAQ states that the Texas Supreme Court mandate took effect January 1, 2016 in Wood County, with the Clerk's office accepting e-filings from October 31, 2014. The application and the will must be submitted as two separate PDFs in one filing. Under the statewide rule an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)); call the County Clerk at 903-763-2711 to confirm what the office will accept from a self-represented filer.
What do I do with the original will in Wood County?
E-file a copy of the will as one of the two PDFs in your filing, then get the wet-ink original to the County Clerk within three business days (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Wood County's own e-filing FAQ repeats the rule and adds that "A hearing will not be set until the original will is filed with the clerk." Deliver or mail it to 100 S. Main Street, Quitman, TX 75783, or P.O. Box 1796, Quitman, Texas 75783.
When is the probate docket in Wood County, and can I appear remotely?
Hearings are set on Mondays. Wood County's own Probate Request for Setting form splits the day: mornings are Zoom hearings and afternoons are in-person hearings. For a Zoom hearing, the proposed orders, judgments and a copy of the death certificate must be e-filed by 9:00 a.m. the Friday before the Monday hearing, or the hearing may be rescheduled. Everything required, including the original will, must already be on file before you can request a setting.
How do I request a probate hearing in Wood County?
Complete Wood County's Probate Request for Setting form, which asks for the cause number, the specific type of hearing, whether it is contested, whether a court reporter is needed, and whether the original will has been delivered, then email (do not e-file) it to [email protected]. Questions go to 903-763-2716.
How much does it cost to file probate in Wood County?
It depends on the case type. Wood County's own itemized schedule, effective January 1, 2022, prices the original filing of Letters Testamentary, Administration or Guardianship at $422.00, a muniment of title or small estate affidavit at $420.00, and a determination of heirship at $428.00, all built on the statewide base of $223 (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1)) plus $137 (§ 133.151(a)(1)), with the county's statutory service items, the sheriff's, citation, signature and letters fees, making up the difference. Confirm the current total with the County Clerk. If you cannot afford the cost, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145).
Are there local probate forms in Wood County?
Not for the application itself. Wood County publishes no application, order, oath or inventory template, and Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms either. What Wood County does publish is the Probate Request for Setting form, which is how a properly filed case actually gets a hearing date.
How do I look up a Wood County probate case online?
Through the county's own Tyler Odyssey portal, branded "Wood County Court Records Inquiry" and linked from the county's site as "Records Inquiry." Its categories include All Courts, All County Courts (the court that hears probate), Criminal Records, Civil Records, Court Calendar and Jail Records. Documents e-filed in a Wood County probate case may also be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, which requires free registration and charges for documents.
What happens if someone contests the will in Wood County?
The contest does not necessarily stay with the County Judge. In a county with no statutory probate court and no county court at law, 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, 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 (Estates Code § 32.003(a)). A party's motion for assignment beats a transfer: if filed first, the county judge shall grant it and may not transfer the matter unless the motion is withdrawn (§ 32.003(b)). Meanwhile the Wood County Court continues to manage the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).
Do I have to travel to Quitman to settle an estate in Wood County?
Not necessarily for the hearing. Wood County offers a morning Zoom hearing option alongside afternoon in-person hearings, so long as the proposed orders and the death certificate are e-filed by 9:00 a.m. the Friday before the Monday hearing. The rest can largely be handled at a distance through e-filing. The one firm physical requirement is the original will, which must reach the County Clerk within three business days of the application (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). The counter is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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