(a) An application for a probate proceeding, complaint, petition, or other paper permitted or required by law to be filed with a court in a probate matter must be filed with the county clerk of the appropriate county.
(b) Each paper filed in an estate must be given the docket number assigned to the estate.

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Terms Used In Texas Estates Code 52.051

  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Court: means and includes:
    (1) a county court in the exercise of its probate jurisdiction;
    (2) a court created by statute and authorized to exercise original probate jurisdiction; and
    (3) a district court exercising original probate jurisdiction in a contested matter. See Texas Estates Code 22.007
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • Docket: means the probate docket. See Texas Estates Code 22.011
  • Estate: means a decedent's property, as that property:
    (1) exists originally and as the property changes in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise;
    (2) is augmented by any accretions and other additions to the property, including any property to be distributed to the decedent's representative by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the decedent's death, and substitutions for the property; and
    (3) is diminished by any decreases in or distributions from the property. See Texas Estates Code 22.012
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Signature: includes the mark of a person unable to write, and "subscribe" includes the making of such a mark. See Texas Government Code 312.011

(c) On receipt of a paper described by Subsection (a), the county clerk shall:
(1) file the paper; and
(2) endorse on the paper:
(A) the date the paper is filed;
(B) the docket number; and
(C) the clerk’s official signature.