When probate matters are complicated or go wrong:
Kreig LLC's Dallas office handles contested probate. We take will contests, claims against fiduciaries who haven't done their jobs, estates too complicated to run on autopilot, and inherited property the family can't agree how to divide.
Dallas County has three statutory probate courts, named in Texas Government Code Section 25.0591(d). All three are on the 7th floor of the George Allen Courts Building at 600 Commerce Street.
Under Local Rule 2.01(a), new cases are assigned at random, subject to distribution percentages the three judges agree on. The one standing exception is mental illness cases, which all go to Probate Court No. 3.
Once a case is assigned, it stays with that court. Local Rule 2.01(a)(4) sends related and ancillary proceedings to the court where the main case is pending, and Local Rule 2.01(a)(3) sends any attempt to set aside an order back to the court that signed it. So a will contest filed years after the will was probated goes to the judge who already has the estate.
The Supreme Court of Texas approved the local rules for the Dallas County statutory probate courts in Misc. Docket No. 19-9079. Several of them change how a contested case runs day to day.
Texas Estates Code Section 256.204 gives an interested person until the second anniversary of the date the will was admitted to probate to file a contest. The clock starts on the admission date, and that can be years after the death.
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 under Section 22.016 includes a minor, has two years from the date the disability is removed. Because a probated will sits in the clerk's public file, a late-discovery argument is hard to win. Plan on two years from admission, and call us before that time runs.
Local Rule 3.03(h) lets the court send a case to mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution on its own motion or by agreement, and counsel can ask for a mediation referral when the parties can't agree. Most contested estates settle at that stage.
If yours doesn't, Estates Code Section 55.002 gives a party in a contested probate proceeding the right to a jury trial, and in a will contest the questions of capacity and undue influence usually go to that jury.
Our practice doesn't include uncontested probate, muniment of title, small estate affidavits, affidavits of heirship, simple wills, or routine guardianship setup. If that's what your matter needs, we'll tell you on the first call and point you to someone who does that work.
Kreig LLC also has offices in Houston, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso and Corpus Christi, so we can handle an estate with property in several parts of Texas from one firm.
The first consultation is free and usually short. Bring the will if there is one, the date it was admitted to probate if it has been, and a brief description of who's on the other side.
Kreig LLC · 2351 W Northwest Hwy, Suite 1204, Dallas, TX 75220 · by appointment only