Oregon Probate Forms Finder

Important Notes

• -OREGON PUBLISHES ONE STATEWIDE PROBATE FORM PACKAGE AND NO OTHERS. The Simple Estate Packet at the Oregon Judicial Department Forms Center is stamped OJD OFFICIAL and holds the instructions plus the Simple Estate Affidavit. No statewide form exists for the petition, the order, the letters, the inventory, a claim or the final account. Any website advertising the official Oregon probate petition is selling somebody’s template.
• -That is by design. ORS 111.205(2) says no particular pleadings or forms of pleadings are required in the exercise of probate jurisdiction, while requiring every petition, inventory, report and accounting to be in writing with a declaration under penalty of perjury in the form required by ORCP 1 E.
• -No statewide form set is not the same as no published form text. ORS 113.125(3) prints the wording of the letters in the statute itself, and ORS 93.975 prints a form of transfer on death deed. Those are statutory forms with no form NUMBER, so cite the section and never invent a number.
• -THE SIMPLE ESTATE PACKET STATES A $275,000 GATE THAT CURRENT LAW DOES NOT CONTAIN. Page 2 says the affidavit can only be filed if the total value of the estate is under $275,000. ORS 114.510 has no such figure: $275,000 is only $75,000 plus $200,000. Because the packet joins all three conjunctively the extra sentence never changes an outcome, and it still teaches the wrong model. A $250,000 estate that is all personal property is under $275,000 and the route is CLOSED. Use the packet as the form and the statute for the figures.
• -The route is called a SIMPLE ESTATE AFFIDAVIT. 2023 Oregon Laws chapter 17 renamed it, and ORS 114.505(3) and ORS 114.510 use the new name. Older Oregon material, including some official pages, still says Affidavit of Claiming Successor or small estate affidavit. It is the same document.
• -THE FILING FEE IS BANDED BY THE VALUE OF THE ESTATE, not flat. ORS 21.170(1) sets $278 under $50,000, $591 from $50,000 to under $1 million, $882 from $1 million to under $10 million, and $1,176 at $10 million or more. An accounting fee is charged again on the same bands at $35, $298, $591 or $1,176. The simple estate affidavit is $124 instead, and an amended affidavit is free. A single Oregon probate fee number is wrong.
• -The schedule is identical in all 36 counties. ORS 21.170(5) says the fees established under that section apply to county courts exercising probate jurisdiction, so the six county-court counties charge the same amounts as the 30 circuit counties.
• -COPY CHARGES ARE NOT STATEWIDE. A circuit court charges what the Chief Justice sets, which the Oregon Judicial Department schedule prints as $5.00 plus 25 cents a page for a certified copy of letters and $0 delivered electronically. A county court charges under ORS 205.320, at not more than $3.75 to locate a record plus 25 cents a page, with an official certificate at $3.75. Ask the office that holds the file.
• -The Forms Center says its forms are accepted in all CIRCUIT courts. It does not speak to the six county courts of ORS 111.075, so do not extend that promise to Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman or Wheeler. Ask the county clerk there.
• -Two official statements about court staff point different ways and both are current. ORS 9.160(3) says a Judicial Department employee or volunteer acting with the authorization and direction of the Chief Justice or a presiding judge who assists the public with court processes, selecting and completing court forms and legal information is not practising law. The Forms Center separately says court staff cannot give legal advice, which includes telling you which form to choose. Expect help completing a document and not with choosing your route.
• -You do not need a lawyer to file. ORS 9.320 says any action, suit or proceeding may be prosecuted or defended by a party in person, and no probate section conditions appointment on having counsel. ORS 113.135 asks for the attorney’s name only IF the personal representative has employed one.