What Does Probate Court Mean in Alabama? A Plain-English Guide

The short version

“Probate” means proving. Historically, proving a will. In Alabama the probate court kept that job and picked up several others along the way, which is why the same office that admits your mother’s will also holds the record of your home’s deed.

What Alabama law actually gives the probate court

Ala. Code § 12-13-1 gives the probate court “original and general jurisdiction” over a specific list, plus “all other matters which may be conferred upon them by law.” The listed matters include:

• The probate of wills
• The granting of letters testamentary and of administration, and their repeal or revocation
• All controversies about the right of executorship or administration
• The settlement of accounts of executors and administrators
• The sale and disposition of the real and personal property of intestate estates
• The appointment and removal of guardians for minors and persons of unsound mind
• Controversies about the right of guardianship and the settlement of guardians’ accounts
• The allotment of dower in land, in the cases provided by law
• The partition of lands within their counties
• Name changes for adults, and for minors with parental consent

Why your deed is in the probate office

This surprises people who move to Alabama from elsewhere. Under Ala. Code § 35-4-50, conveyances of property required by law to be recorded “must be recorded in the office of the judge of probate.” Deeds, mortgages, easements, liens — all of it goes to the same county office that handles estates.

That matters more than it sounds. Under § 35-4-90(a), an unrecorded conveyance is “inoperative and void as to purchasers for a valuable consideration, mortgagees, and judgment creditors without notice, unless the same have been recorded before the accrual of the right of such purchasers.” In plain terms: in Alabama, recording is what protects you against someone else claiming the same property.

Which county do you file in?

For an estate, you file in the county where the decedent was domiciled at death. For a deed, you record in the county where the land sits. If someone lived in Limestone County and owned a lake lot in Morgan County, both counties end up involved.

When you actually have to go to probate court

1. Someone dies owning property in their name aloneReal estate, a bank account with no beneficiary, a vehicle title — anything titled solely in the decedent’s name generally has to move through probate to get to the heirs.
2. There is a will that needs to be admittedA will has no legal effect until the probate court admits it. Until then it is a piece of paper.
3. An adult can no longer manage their affairsGuardianship and conservatorship petitions are filed in probate court.
4. Co-owners cannot agree about landPartition of land within the county sits with the probate court under § 12-13-1.
5. You are recording a deed or a mortgageNot a court proceeding, but the same office. And under § 35-4-90 it is not optional if you want priority.

When you can skip it

Plenty of property never goes through probate at all:

• Assets with a valid beneficiary designation — life insurance and most retirement accounts pass by contract to the named beneficiary.
• Jointly owned property with right of survivorship — passes to the survivor by operation of the deed.
• Assets titled in a properly funded trust — the trust already owns them, so there is nothing to probate.
• Small estates — the Revised Alabama Small Estates Act, Ala. Code §§ 43-2-690 to 43-2-696.02, offers a shorter route for estates under the statutory threshold.

That is why estate planning is largely the work of deciding what should not go through probate court, and setting it up that way in advance.

How long the probate court process takes

Once letters are granted, several statutory clocks start. Notice to creditors must be published within 30 days (§ 43-2-60), and it runs once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county (§ 43-2-61). Creditor claims must then be presented within six months of the grant of letters or five months from first publication, whichever is later (§ 43-2-350). Claims not presented in time are forever barred.

A straightforward Alabama estate commonly takes six to twelve months from filing to final settlement. A contested one takes considerably longer.

Questions we hear about Alabama probate court

Written and reviewed by

Daniel Shawn Pickens

Attorney at Daniel S. Pickens Law in Athens, Alabama. The firm handles estate planning, probate, real estate closings and title work, deeds, business formation and contracts for families and businesses across Limestone, Madison, Morgan, Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence Counties.