Probate Attorneys Serving Tampa

Tampa Probate, Handled Right

Tampa probate runs through the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit and the Clerk of Court in Tampa. 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 Tampa Estate

Probate in Tampa 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 Tampa 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 Tampa: where it actually goes

A Tampa estate is filed with the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court and heard in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. Venue is fixed by domicile, not by where the assets sit: under Fla. Stat. § 733.101(1)(a) the proceeding belongs “in the county in this state where the decedent was domiciled.” A Tampa resident was domiciled in Hillsborough County, so the estate is administered here even if the bank, the brokerage and the vacation property are somewhere else.

The probate file itself lives downtown at the George Edgecomb Courthouse. The clerk also keeps probate counters in Plant City and Brandon, which matters when you need to deposit an original will and would rather not drive into downtown Tampa to do it.

You will not be carrying a petition to a counter. Probate filings are submitted electronically through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal under Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.525. That is why the distance between your house and the courthouse has almost nothing to do with how fast your case moves. What actually slows a Tampa estate down is a filing that does not match the circuit’s own submission rules, and those rules are not in the statute.

Which judge gets your case, and why it matters

Hillsborough does not funnel probate into a single division. Under Administrative Order S-2024-013, which superseded S-2021-078, the clerk assigns proceedings under the Florida Probate Code to Probate, Guardianship, Mental Health and Trust Divisions “A” and “B” on a 5:3 ratio. There is an exception that catches a lot of families: if the decedent was domiciled inside the East Division boundaries, the case goes instead to East Circuit Division “O,” “U,” or “W” by random equitable distribution.

The division you land in decides which judicial assistant you deal with, which divisional e-mail address a hearing request goes to, and whose calendar your case waits on. It is the first thing we check when a family brings us an estate that has been sitting for months without an order.

Thirteenth Judicial Circuit local practice

Florida’s probate code is statewide. What varies by circuit is the layer of administrative orders, submission formats and timing rules sitting on top of it, and that layer is where most Tampa filings actually stall. The Thirteenth Circuit’s requirements are set out in Administrative Order S-2024-013:

• An independent tort is not a probate filing. A tort claim brought by or against a personal representative, a beneficiary, or an interested person is assigned to the Circuit Civil Division, not to probate. Filing it in the wrong division costs a transfer order and weeks of calendar time.
• Consolidating a probate matter with a related civil case is disfavored unless every party in the civil action has waived any right to jury trial.
• Hearings are set through JAWS, the Judicial Automated Workflow System, or by e-mailing the assigned division’s judicial assistant directly.
• A notice of hearing that says “all pending motions” is not authorized. The notice has to state the time reserved and identify what is being heard with particularity. There is no cross-noticing onto an existing hearing time without contacting the judge’s office and obtaining everyone’s agreement.
• Anything to be heard must be on file at least five days before the hearing. Documents filed later can have their consideration postponed to a later hearing date.
• The court does not provide a court reporter. If you want a record of a probate hearing in Hillsborough, arranging it is counsel’s responsibility.
• Emergency applications require 48 hours of actual prior notice to an opposing interested person unless every interested person agrees otherwise.
• Proposed orders run on two clocks. Counsel must confer with the other side within five days of the court’s decision and make a genuine effort to agree on the language, then submit the order within ten days. Submission is through the E-Filing Portal in searchable PDF or PDF/A, and it must carry a cover letter certifying either that all parties agreed or that opposing counsel did not respond within five business days. If an objection was registered, the cover letter has to state what it is.
• Form rules that get orders sent back: the signature page must contain substantive text, so no order may end on a page holding nothing but the judge’s signature, and every page after the first must be numbered. Titles should read “order granting” or “order denying” rather than “order on.”
• Property has to be described properly. Every item of tangible personal property worth more than $500, or specifically devised, must be separately described. Real property needs a complete legal description and mailing address; accounts need the institution, type, number and balance.
• Adversary proceedings carry a 60-day clock. In an adversary proceeding as defined by Fla. Prob. R. 5.025, the petitioner must schedule a case management conference within 60 days of commencement.
• If your attorney is also your resident agent and you change counsel, the former attorney should resign as resident agent and a new one must be designated. A substitution stipulation has to be signed by the personal representative personally, not only by the lawyers.

None of that appears in Chapter 733. All of it will be applied to your file.

Administrative orders that govern Tampa cases

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

Local requirements are set by administrative order and change from time to time. The items above reflect the circuit’s published orders and the Florida Courts survey of circuit probate practices as of August 2026, and should be confirmed against the current orders before filing.

Go Deeper On Tampa Cases

Detailed guides on the issues that come up most often in these cases: