KREIG Austin handles probate litigation. Clients usually call after an estate has already turned into a fight: a will someone plans to challenge, an executor who won’t account, heirs who can’t agree on who the heirs are, or a guardian who needs to be removed. We don’t draft wills, and we don’t file uncontested probate.
Most firms that list probate are doing two separate jobs under one name. One is paperwork: an uncontested application, a prove-up, an inventory and a closed file. The other is a lawsuit, with discovery, depositions and a trial setting in front of a probate judge. This office takes only the lawsuits.
Matters we take:
Matters we refer elsewhere: muniment of title, small estate affidavits, affidavits of heirship, simple wills, estate planning, routine uncontested administration and routine guardianship setup. Plenty of people need those services, and they should be priced as paperwork. If that’s what you have, we’ll tell you on the first call so you don’t pay to open a file here.
Heirship is where people most often get confused. A contested heirship proceeding, where the parties disagree about who the heirs are and the court appoints an attorney ad litem, is our work. An affidavit of heirship records what the family already agrees on, and we don’t prepare those.
We’ve handled more than 500 estates. If you can’t tell which kind of matter you have, call (512) 273-7444 and ask.
Every new matter starts with the clerk’s record. We look at what was filed, what was admitted, which cause number it sits in, who has been served and whether an ad litem is still in the case. In Travis County a contested dispute can be filed as a related or ancillary case with its own cause number, so the original probate cause often shows only part of the history.
Travis County Local Rule 3.1(b) says none of the probate dockets are drop-in dockets, so every hearing, including those on the uncontested dockets, has to be specifically set. Under Local Rule 3.3 the court doesn’t send notices of settings. The party that obtained the setting has to give every other party notice of the date, the time and the total time requested for the hearing. We treat calendaring as lawyer work for that reason.
Travis County Local Rule 4.3 prohibits affidavits signed by witnesses in place of live testimony or depositions unless the law authorizes them. Local Rule 4.2(b) prohibits remote appearances in a contested case when documentary evidence will be presented at the hearing.
So we prepare every case for witnesses in the courtroom. We identify them early, depose anyone whose health or availability is uncertain, and request records while the people who made them can still explain them. A contested estate matter commonly takes well over a year.
Under Local Rule 6.1(b), the court may dismiss on its own motion a case that has been on file for more than 12 months, isn’t set for trial, and has had no settings or substantive filings within 180 days. Contested estate cases often go quiet while the parties talk, and a long gap with no trial setting can put a case on that list.
Travis County has statutory probate courts, so an estate dispute and the trust dispute tied up with it can go before the same judge. Estates Code Sections 32.006 and 32.007 give a statutory probate court jurisdiction over trust actions, concurrent with the district court. Property Code Section 115.001(d) carves that jurisdiction out of the district court’s otherwise exclusive jurisdiction over trusts.
Travis is our home county. It’s the only one whose judges, dockets and local rules we write about in detail here, because those are the rules we work under every week. We also appear in Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell and Burnet counties.
The Estates Code applies the same way across all six counties, but each county’s courts have their own local practices. We read a county’s local rules and standing orders before we tell a client how its judges handle things.
Bring the cause number if you have one, the date of any order you’re unhappy with, and a short list of the people involved. We’ll tell you whether it’s a contested matter worth filing or routine administration another firm can handle for less, and we’ll tell you the next deadline.
The first call is free and usually short. Our Austin office is at 7600 Chevy Chase Drive, Chase Park, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78752, by appointment only.