Thomas County Court Guide

Note: NEBRASKA PROBATE FILING FEES ARE SET BY STATUTE, STATEWIDE, AND NO NEBRASKA COUNTY SETS ITS OWN. There are two paths and only one of them is a single number. An INFORMAL probate commenced and closed informally collects $44.00 at the counter: $22.00 under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 33-125(1)(a)(i), plus $2.00 under § 24-703(3)(a), which charges ten percent of the § 33-125 fee, plus $20.00 of per-case statutory court costs (§ 33-107.01 legal services $6.25, § 33-107.03 automation $8.00, § 33-154 NSC education $1.00, § 33-155 dispute resolution $0.75, § 33-156 indigent defense $3.00 and § 47-633 uniform data analysis $1.00). A testate informal probate adds $1.00 for the certificate of probate of will and seal under § 33-126.05, so $45.00. A FORMAL probate is GRADUATED on the gross value of the estate across twenty brackets and collects between $44.00 and $1,670.00, so there is no single formal figure and publishing one would be wrong for almost every estate. Gross value for that purpose is real and personal property in Nebraska at the time of death less liens and joint tenancy property (§ 33-125(2)). Under § 33-125(2) formal fees are charged in full for all services performed by the court and no additional fee is charged for petitions, hearings and orders in the course of that administration, and § 33-125(1)(a) caps informal fees so they can never exceed what a formal probate of the same estate would cost. Publication of the creditor notice is paid to a newspaper, not to the court. Every figure here was read on 2026-09-10 at the statute and reconciled line by line against the Nebraska Judicial Branch fee schedule effective 07-01-2026.