Probate Attorneys Serving Pasco County

Pasco County Probate, Handled Right

Pasco County probate runs through the Sixth Judicial Circuit and the Clerk of Court in New Port Richey. Whether you are opening formal administration, qualifying for summary administration, or facing a will dispute, the process involves strict deadlines, creditor notices, and court filings. A single misstep can delay distribution by months or expose the personal representative to personal liability. We have guided hundreds of Florida families through probate efficiently and correctly.

The Florida Law That Governs Your Pasco County Estate

Probate in Pasco County is governed by the Florida Probate Code. Which path your estate takes, and which deadlines bind you, comes down to a handful of statutes. These are the ones that decide most cases.

Summary administration: section 735.201

Florida allows a shortened proceeding called summary administration when the value of the entire estate subject to administration in this state, less the value of property exempt from the claims of creditors, does not exceed $75,000, or when the decedent has been dead for more than two years. In a testate estate, the will must also not direct administration as required by chapter 733. That exempt-property subtraction matters: a Pasco County estate whose gross value looks too large often still qualifies once protected homestead and statutory exempt property come out of the calculation.

The creditor window: section 733.702

Creditor claims are barred unless filed in the probate proceeding by the later of two dates: three months after the first publication of the notice to creditors, or, for a creditor entitled to be served with a copy of that notice, thirty days after service on that creditor. A late claim is barred even if nobody objects to it. A court may extend the period only on grounds of fraud, estoppel, or insufficient notice of the claims period, which is why serving reasonably ascertainable creditors correctly is one of the most consequential things a personal representative does.

The two-year wall: section 733.710

Separately, and notwithstanding any other provision of the Probate Code, two years after a person’s death neither the estate, the personal representative, nor the beneficiaries are liable for any claim against the decedent, whether or not letters of administration were ever issued. This is a different rule from the two-year figure in the summary administration statute, and the two are frequently confused. Section 733.710 does not apply to a creditor who filed a claim within the two years and whose claim has not yet been paid or disposed of, and it does not affect a duly recorded mortgage or security interest.

Filing in Pasco County: where it actually goes

Pasco County probate is filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in New Port Richey and heard in the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Pasco is a dual-courthouse county in the Sixth Judicial Circuit: the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey serves the west side, and the historic courthouse in Dade City serves east Pasco. Probate in Pasco is heard by circuit judges alongside civil dockets rather than a standalone probate bench, so responsive, complete filings move estates measurably faster here.

Sixth Judicial Circuit local practice

Florida’s probate code is statewide, but each circuit layers its own administrative orders, mandatory checklists, and submission rules on top of it. Getting these wrong is the most common reason a Pasco County filing sits without an order. In this circuit:

• The original will must be deposited with the Clerk within 10 days. That deadline is statutory, not local: under Fla. Stat. § 732.901(1) the custodian of a will must deposit it with the clerk of the court having venue within 10 days after receiving information that the testator is dead. An electronically filed copy does not discharge it.
• Pasco probate is handled by circuit judges with mixed civil/probate dockets, so there is no standalone probate bench. Clean first filings avoid slow round-trips.
• File at the courthouse serving where the decedent lived: West Pasco Judicial Center (New Port Richey) or the Dade City courthouse for east-county estates.
• Proposed orders go through the E-Portal in PDF format; the Sixth Circuit publishes its probate and guardianship administrative orders on jud6.org.

What Pasco does differently

Pasco shares the Sixth Judicial Circuit with Pinellas, which leads people to assume the two counties work the same way. They do not, and the first difference is geographic.

• Pasco is a two-courthouse county. The West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey serves the west side of the county and the historic courthouse in Dade City serves the east. Getting this wrong does not just cost a drive, it costs the time it takes to sort out a filing that landed in the wrong place.
• Probate is heard alongside civil dockets. Pasco does not have a standalone probate bench in the way Pinellas does. Circuit judges carry probate together with other civil work, so a complete and responsive filing moves an estate measurably faster here than a filing that invites a second look.
• The original will still has to reach the Clerk. Depositing a will is a physical act. An electronically filed copy does not discharge the obligation.
• A Pasco estate is not a Pinellas estate. The circuit is shared; the county is not. Venue under Fla. Stat. § 733.101(1)(a) follows the decedent’s domicile, so a Land O’ Lakes or Wesley Chapel decedent is administered in Pasco even where the family, the bank and the lawyer are all in Hillsborough or Pinellas.

Because the Sixth Circuit publishes separate administrative orders for each of its two counties, the safest habit in Pasco is to confirm which order governs the specific step you are taking before you take it.

Administrative orders that govern Pasco County cases

These are the local orders a filing in this county has to satisfy. Each links to the court’s own published order.