In which county will your Oklahoma probate case be filed?

If you end up needing to do an Oklahoma probate case after a loved one passes away, where will that case be filed?

Oklahoma has a system of county courts, with one court in each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.  The question of where a case is filed comes down to something called “venue”, a fancy French word that simply means “the place where something happens.” 

Oklahoma has a statute that determines the place where probate happens (i.e., the venue) and the statute provides these places that could be the county court where your probate case is filed:

1. County where the decedent was a resident.

2. County where the decedent died if the decedent was not a Oklahoma resident

3. Any county in which the decedent left property, if the decedent was not a resident of Oklahoma.

4. The county where the decedent left property, if the decedent died in a different county and was not a resident of Oklahoma.

5. Outside of the cases listed above, in the county where a probate case is first filed

 

An Oklahoma probate case can be filed in any county that fits into one of those 5 options.

Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."