When probate matters are complicated or go wrong:
We handle contested probate matters, dependent administrations, and large or complex estates in Harris County and the surrounding counties.
Practice areas
Most probate work is routine, and we leave that to other firms. We take the estates that have gone wrong or grown complicated, and the ones with enough value at stake that a mistake gets expensive.
Mineral and royalty interests, family businesses, property in more than one state, and estates that owe federal estate tax.
Court-supervised administrations, where every significant act needs a court order first.
Self-dealing, failure to account, failure to distribute, and conflicts of interest.
Disputed family relationships, unknown heirs, and competing claims to the estate.
Lack of capacity, undue influence, forgery, improper execution, and revocation.
Breach of trust claims, disputed distributions, and trustee accountings.
Each of those pages explains how that kind of matter actually runs in the Harris County statutory probate courts. You’ll find the full list on our practice areas page.
The courts
Harris County has five statutory probate courts, established by Texas Government Code Section 25.1031(c). It’s the largest dedicated probate bench in the state. Most Texas counties don’t have a statutory probate court at all and hear probate in the constitutional county court.
Your case is assigned to a court when the original application is filed. Under the local rules, everything filed later in that estate goes to the same court under the original cause number. You don’t get to choose your judge, and a contest filed years later goes to whichever court already has the estate.
These courts also hear more than ordinary probate. Suits by or against executors, administrators, guardians, and trustees can be brought here, and the probate courts share that jurisdiction with the district courts. In a contested estate, that means a will contest, a fiduciary duty claim, and a fight over trust property can often all be decided by the same probate judge.
Statutory Probate Courts
Courts 1 through 4 are at 201 Caroline. Probate Court No. 5 is at 1115 Congress St., 5th Floor, so check which court has your case before you head downtown. Filings go through the Harris County Clerk.
Contested matters
Plan on mediation before you get a trial date. The Harris County probate courts’ local rules say that, except for good cause, only cases that have gone through a previously ordered ADR procedure will be tried.
Treat mediation as a real chance to resolve the case, and prepare for it the way you’d prepare for a hearing.
You have a right to a jury. Texas Estates Code Section 55.002 entitles a party in a contested probate proceeding to a jury trial as in other civil actions, and capacity and undue influence are fact questions juries decide every day.
You have to ask for one, though. The jury demand has to be filed and the fee paid in time.
Contested cases take time. An uncontested probate is often done in a few months. A contested one goes through pleadings, discovery, depositions, mediation, and a shared trial docket, and it commonly runs well over a year.
Be skeptical of anyone who promises a quick result in a contested Harris County estate.
Don’t wait
A will contest generally has to be filed within two years of the date the will was admitted to probate. The clock starts at admission, not at death, and those two dates can be years apart.
The statute has two exceptions. A suit to cancel a will for forgery or other fraud can be filed within two years after the forgery or fraud was discovered, and an incapacitated person, which includes a minor, has two years from the date the disability is removed. Both are narrow, and you shouldn’t plan a case around them.
If you think you may have a contest, count two years from the date of admission and call us before you’ve made up your mind.
Service area
Estates with real property in more than one of these counties are routine for us, and they’re one of the situations where handling the estate yourself tends to get expensive.
If what you need is a simple uncontested probate, a muniment of title, or a small estate affidavit, we’re not the right firm. We’ll tell you that on the first call, before you’ve paid us anything.
The first conversation is short and free. Bring what you have: the will if there is one, the date it was admitted to probate if it has been, and a short description of who’s on the other side.