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The Clerk of District Court's office located in the Law and Justice Center is restricted from providing legal advice because we are not practicing attorneys. However, in a few instances, people may file an action as Pro Se (without an attorney), granting that they:
know the proper deadlines for filing documents after the initial documents;
have the means to create the proper documents;
know the proper recipients.
The Clerk's office does not have templates for probate cases, but if the estate amounts to over $20,000, a person may download the documents for an Informal Probate with or without a will at http://courts.mt.gov/library/default.asp then scroll to forms and select the probate case. (Templates for formal probate cases do not exist, therefore, it is best to contact an attorney.) Once these documents are filled out, they are brought to the Clerk of District Court's office to be filed. The filing fee for a probate case (formal or informal) is $100. In addition to using the templates provided through the state's law library, a person may request to look at public informal probate cases to see the proper filing order and to note any additional
documents that are required.
If the estate amounts to less than $20,000 a one-page document is available, but only through an attorney. Prior to contacting a probate attorney to get this document, the Clerk of District Court's office can show you an example of the information you'll need to gather to complete the document.
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