St. Lucie County Probate Court: Where to File and What to File

Where the St. Lucie County Probate Court Actually Sits

St. Lucie County probate is heard in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, and the county keeps the filing counter and the courtrooms in two different buildings. Probate filings go to the Clerk’s Main Office at 201 South Indian River Drive, on the 4th floor in Fort Pierce, and hearings are held at the St. Lucie County Courthouse at 218 South 2nd Street. The South County Annex at 250 N.W. Country Club Drive in Port St. Lucie takes county civil, small claims and traffic filings, along with marriage licenses and passports, and it is not a probate location.

Two circuit judges split the county’s probate docket between them, and a general magistrate hears referred probate and guardianship matters on an order of referral. The split is the part to check first, because the two judges publish different procedures.

St. Lucie case numbers carry CP for a decedent estate and GA for a guardianship, so the letters in the file number tell you which kind of case you are looking at.

The probate counter is at the Clerk’s Main Office, 201 South Indian River Drive, Fort Pierce, FL 34950, the 4th floor, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 772-462-6938. The counter is not inside the courthouse where the hearings are held, and the South County Annex at 250 N.W. Country Club Drive in Port St. Lucie takes county civil, small claims and traffic filings rather than probate. Probate mail goes to the Clerk and Comptroller, Circuit Civil Department, P.O. Box 700, Fort Pierce, FL 34954, and the fax is 772-462-2843. A will on deposit carries a $1.00 index fee, personal checks are accepted in probate, and since October 1, 2025 the Clerk charges $7.00 to confirm that a Statement of Claim was served.

• The clerk’s probate page for St. Lucie County
• Nineteenth Judicial Circuit judges directory
• Administrative orders of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit
• Local probate forms and checklists

One thing worth settling before you go any further. The case belongs in the county where the person was domiciled when they died, and Florida law fixes that rather than letting anyone choose it. If your mother lived in St. Lucie County, her estate is a St. Lucie County case, even if you live in another state and even if a different courthouse would be more convenient for everyone involved. It is the county that decides, not the town, so estates from Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Tradition, St. Lucie West, Hutchinson Island, and Lakewood Park are all St. Lucie County cases filed with the same clerk. Which division or section then hears the case is a separate question, and the next section answers it.

Parking and Coffee on the Way to the Courthouse

Parking is free in the courthouse parking garage on 2nd Street and in the city and county public lots, and the Clerk gives the same garage instruction for the Main Office on Indian River Drive. Many downtown street and lot spaces are limited to two hours, and the tow zones are enforced. The court keeps its own parking and directions page.

If you are dropping off an original will or sitting through a morning calendar, coffee within a short walk is Havana George Cafe at 100 S 2nd Street, Fort Pierce, about a two to three minute walk north on 2nd Street from the public entrance. Its posted hours are Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed Sunday. If the errand is at the Clerk’s Main Office instead, Importico’s Bakery Cafe at 134 South Indian River Drive is on the same street, and Sunrise City Cafe at 204 Orange Avenue sits a block from the courthouse.

Which Judges Hear Probate Cases in St. Lucie County?

Probate cases in St. Lucie County are heard by the judges the chief judge assigns to the division, and the circuit publishes who they are. Knowing who has the division tells you whose procedures apply to your hearing, and how long a judge has had it tells you how settled those procedures are.

• Steven J. Levin, one half of the St. Lucie probate docket, every even numbered case, plus all guardianship and the matching mental health cases, courtroom 3E at the courthouse on South 2nd Street, assigned January 12, 2026, and he held the same half under the order before it (Amended AO 2026-03, restating AO 2025-08).
• Katherine Mish, the other half of the St. Lucie probate docket, every odd numbered case, courtroom 1A at the courthouse on South 2nd Street, assigned January 26, 2026 (Amended AO 2026-03, footnote 2).

The circuit’s judicial directory is the source, read on September 16, 2026. Assignments rotate, usually at the start of a calendar year, so check it before a hearing.

How Busy the St. Lucie County Probate Court Is

The state court system counts every petition filed in the circuit probate division, and the FY 2024-25 figures for St. Lucie County are 1,286 probate filings, 184 guardianship filings and 0 trust filings, plus 659 Baker Act and Marchman Act cases that the same division carries. The division closed 1,140 probate cases in the same year.

Statewide the probate column was 73,282 filings against 141,166 for the whole division in FY 2024-25, so more than a third of what a Florida probate judge signs has nothing to do with an estate. The figures come from the Office of the State Courts Administrator's Statistical Reference Guide, chapter 6, and the next fiscal year's edition usually appears the following autumn.

When the St. Lucie County Courthouse Is Closed

Florida sets nine paid state holidays by statute, and a circuit may close on more. The St. Lucie County courthouse follows the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit calendar, which adds Good Friday, Yom Kippur, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to the statutory nine. The practical point is simple. E-filing accepts a document at any hour, but nothing is reviewed, docketed or signed on a day the courthouse is dark, so a petition filed the night before a closure sits until the next business day, and a deadline counted in days runs on regardless.

There is one caution about counting. A Florida deadline stated in days does not pause for a holiday in the middle of it, and only the last day matters. When the final day of a period falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday, the period runs to the end of the next day that is none of those. The circuit posts the calendar on its court holidays page, read on September 17, 2026, and it publishes the following year well in advance.

How a Case Gets Filed in St. Lucie County Today

Florida runs one statewide electronic filing system, the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, and every circuit court in the state receives filings through it. Attorneys have no choice about it. The rule says attorneys must file through the portal, and no other method is permitted except in the narrow situations the rule itself lists.

A self-represented person is in a different position, and this is the part almost nobody is told. You may elect to register for the portal and file electronically, or you may hand or mail paper to the clerk, who converts it to electronic format for the official court file. Both routes are proper and both land in the same queue. One caution rides along with the choice. Once you elect to file electronically, you cannot go back to paper without the court’s permission.

Registering costs nothing and filing itself costs nothing. What you pay is the statutory filing fee for the case, plus a payment convenience fee that depends on whether you pay by card or by electronic check.

The practical consequence is that a St. Lucie County estate does not require anyone to be in Florida. An out-of-state family can open, run, and close a case from a kitchen table in another state, because the filings, the notices, and the proposed orders all move electronically. The exceptions are physical documents, and there are only a few of them.

Here is the rule that decides whose procedures you follow. Under the amended assignment order for 2026, St. Lucie probate is split between two circuit judges by the parity of the case number, with the even numbered cases and every guardianship going to one judge and the odd numbered cases to the other since January 26, 2026. Nobody chooses a side. The case number the Clerk hands back decides it, and the two judges publish separate procedure documents, so the first thing to look up in a new case is whether the number is even or odd.

Are St. Lucie County Probate Hearings Remote?

Probate hearings in St. Lucie County can be held remotely on Zoom, and the division decides which matters must be in person. Each judge keeps a standing room. The even numbered docket meets at https://zoom.us/j/5017263383, Meeting ID 5017263383, with dial-in at 1-786-635-1003 or 1-646-558-8656, and that judge’s remote appearance sheet lets a party attend by Zoom except at a contested evidentiary hearing, a non-jury trial or a lack of prosecution hearing, with the judicial assistant told by email at least three days before a uniform motion calendar or special set hearing. The odd numbered docket runs a hybrid virtual courtroom at Meeting ID 242 915 8598, passcode 123456, where every evidentiary hearing is in person unless the court permits otherwise and a non-evidentiary hearing is noticed as either virtual or in person, with the notice saying which. Anyone testifying appears on video, and neither judge’s published rules require a motion for a non-evidentiary Zoom appearance.

Where the Original Will Goes

Here is the rule that catches almost everyone, and it is stricter than families expect. Whoever is holding the original will has to deposit it with the clerk of the court that has venue over the estate, within 10 days of receiving information that the person has died. Read that trigger carefully. The clock does not start at the death, it starts when the custodian learns of the death, and the duty belongs to that custodian personally. It does not wait for a lawyer, it does not wait for the family to agree on anything, and it applies whether or not anybody intends to open a probate case. When the will goes in, the clerk also wants the date of death or the last four digits of the deceased person’s Social Security number.

The original itself travels on paper. Whatever a county does about an electronic copy, the physical document has to reach the clerk, and how it gets there is settled county by county rather than statewide. The original goes to the Clerk on paper, and in St. Lucie that means the Main Office at 201 South Indian River Drive rather than the courthouse where the judges sit. The Clerk charges a $1.00 index fee to deposit a will and wants the date of death or the last four digits of the Social Security number with it. Mail reaches the same office at P.O. Box 700, Fort Pierce, FL 34954, addressed to the Circuit Civil Department.

Three things families routinely get wrong here are worth naming. Depositing the will is not probating it, so handing the original to the clerk does not open an estate, does not appoint anyone, and does not make you responsible for the debts. It is a filing, not a job. A copy is not a substitute either, because a court can admit a lost or destroyed will but proving one is a separate proceeding with a heavier burden, which is a poor trade for a document that could have been walked to a counter. And sitting on a will is a genuinely bad idea. A custodian can be compelled to produce it, and where the court finds there was no just or reasonable cause for holding it back, Florida awards costs, damages, and a reasonable attorney fee against that person personally.

Two small mercies. If the original goes in attached to the petition, Florida treats it as deposited, so it is not a second errand. And once the clerk has it, the original is kept in its original form for at least 20 years whether or not it is ever admitted to probate. Scanning a will does not replace it.

Which Forms You Actually Need

The honest answer surprises people, so here it is plainly. Florida has an official statewide form set for family law, approved by the Supreme Court and free for anyone to use. It has never built the same thing for probate. The state’s own self-help service says as much, telling visitors that it does not provide any forms related to the probate process and to ask a lawyer which form is needed.

So when you search for the St. Lucie County probate forms, you are looking for something that does not exist as one official packet, which is why the results are a scatter of clerk pages, circuit pages, and companies selling you a template. What actually controls comes from three layers, and you need all three.

• The Florida Probate Rules, which prescribe contents rather than forms. The rule on the petition for administration lists eleven things the petition must state, from the decedent’s domicile to whether the proposed personal representative has been convicted of a felony. A document that satisfies the rule is legally sufficient even if it looks nothing like anyone’s template. The rules do carry a small set of forms of their own, but they are almost entirely guardianship forms, and the rules say outright that those forms are not intended to be part of the rules and are provided for convenience only. The one decedent-estate form actually written into the probate rules is the oath of the personal representative.
• The practitioner form set. Most Florida probate documents you will ever see are built from a numbered probate form set published by a private nonprofit and sold commercially. Lawyers treat it as the standard. It is not court-approved, and nothing obliges a court to accept it.
• The local layer, which is the one that rejects you. What St. Lucie adds is a routing rule rather than an extra affidavit, and it is strict. Every probate submission goes by email to ProbateSLC@circuit19.org, which reaches the probate case managers for both judges, and it carries the completed checklist signed by the attorney personally, with no signature stamps, the proposed orders and letters in Word, and a description of what is being submitted and the action requested. The probate memorandum governing the odd numbered half of the docket adds that hard copies sent to the judge and proposed orders sent through the e-filing portal are not accepted, that resubmitting in a fresh email is prohibited, that an urgent item carries EMERGENCY or URGENT in the subject line, and that a probate order can take up to two weeks. The notice of hearing and the hearing packet then go somewhere else again, to the judicial assistant rather than to the case managers, and a late packet gets the hearing stricken. On the odd numbered docket a probate motion also needs a certificate stating that the movant conferred with the other side, printed above the signature block, or the motion or the hearing is stricken. Two rules apply in both courtrooms. A bond is required on every estate with a foreign personal representative even where the will waives it, and every filing and order carries the full service address of every party, because a portal service certification by itself is not enough.

So start at the bottom of that list rather than the top. The circuit and the clerk publish what they want on their own forms and checklists page, and half an hour there before you draft anything is the cheapest half hour in the case.

The Administrative Orders That Govern Probate in St. Lucie County

Each circuit adds its own layer on top of the Florida Probate Rules through administrative orders signed by the chief judge and the procedures each division publishes, and that layer is where a petition gets rejected. These are the orders that govern probate practice in St. Lucie County as of September 16, 2026.

• Amended AO 2026-03, Judicial Assignments for 2026 (January 12, 2026, effective the same day). Splits St. Lucie probate between two circuit judges by the parity of the case number, with the even numbered cases and all guardianship to one and the odd numbered cases to the other from January 26, 2026.
• AO 2025-06 Amended, Magistrates and Hearing Officers (indexed October 21, 2025, with the roster revised August 3, 2026). Lets the circuit’s general magistrates hear referred probate and guardianship matters and conduct guardianship file reviews, on a separate order of referral in each case, and names the magistrate who covers St. Lucie.
• AO 2017-06, Order for Compensation of Examining Committee (April 28, 2017). Fixes the form of order and the compensation for a guardianship examining committee, and both judges’ guardianship procedures require that form rather than one of your own.

The division also publishes its own procedures, and the points a filer most needs are these.

• Every probate submission for either judge goes by email to ProbateSLC@circuit19.org, which reaches the probate case managers, and it carries the completed checklist signed by the attorney personally, with no signature stamps, the proposed orders and letters in Word, and a description of what is being submitted and the action requested.
• The two halves of the docket run on two separate documents. The probate and guardianship guidelines governing the even numbered cases took effect December 10, 2025, and the St. Lucie probate memorandum governing the odd numbered cases took effect February 18, 2026, with the matching judicial practices last modified May 8, 2026.
• The memorandum on the odd numbered docket refuses hard copies sent to the judge and proposed orders sent through the e-filing portal, prohibits resubmitting in a fresh email, asks that an urgent item carry EMERGENCY or URGENT in the subject line, and says a probate order can take up to two weeks.
• Hearings are self-scheduled online at the circuit’s attorney calendar once you register for a login. One judge takes hearings of 45 minutes or less online and anything longer by email, with uniform motion calendar from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. on the probate and guardianship days, ten minutes a case and a 10:00 a.m. notice time. The other takes probate hearings up to one hour online and requires a status hearing first for anything longer.
• The notice of hearing and the hearing packet go to the judicial assistant rather than to the case managers, at least five business days ahead on the even numbered docket and with the e-filed motion on the odd numbered one, and a late packet gets the hearing stricken.
• On the odd numbered docket a probate motion needs a certificate of conferral above the signature block or the motion or the hearing is stricken. In both courtrooms a bond is required on every estate with a foreign personal representative even where the will waives it, the original surety bond goes to the Clerk, who forwards it, and every filing and order carries the full service address of every party, because a portal service certification by itself is not enough.

The full procedures are on the court’s site, and they change more often than the statutes do.

The Checklist for Opening an Estate in St. Lucie County

This is the sequence for a formal administration, which is the full version. A smaller estate skips most of it, and the section after this one covers that. Each step below happens in this order for a reason, because the later ones depend on the earlier ones being done.

1. Order certified death certificates. The funeral home usually orders them and will ask how many you want. Ask for more than feels sensible, often five to ten, because the court, each bank, each insurer, and the property records all want their own certified copy, and reordering later is slow.
2. Find the original will and deposit it with the clerk. The 10-day clock runs from when the custodian learns of the death, not from when anyone files anything, and it is the one deadline that can already be running while the family is still planning a funeral. Where the original goes in St. Lucie County is above, and it is never just a matter of uploading it.
3. Decide which kind of administration the estate needs. Formal administration is the default. Summary administration and disposition without administration are lighter and cheaper, and they are worth ruling out before you file anything, because you cannot un-file a formal case cheaply.
4. Confirm the county. Venue follows the decedent’s domicile at death, or for someone who lived out of state, a county where they owned property. This is one of the few things in probate that is genuinely hard to fix later.
5. Prepare and e-file the petition for administration, with the local extras. The petition is verified, meaning signed under penalty of perjury, and it has to name every interested person, which is the line that most often comes back to bite an estate later. File it with whatever St. Lucie County adds on top, because that is what a rejection is usually about. The filing fee is $400.
6. File the oath, the address designation, and the designation of resident agent. All three are due before letters issue. The oath is a sworn promise to faithfully administer the estate, and the appointment rests on it. The address designation puts the representative’s street and mailing address on the record. The resident agent designation, signed by the agent accepting the job, is required unless the representative is a corporate fiduciary with a Florida office or a Florida Bar member who lives and keeps an office in Florida, which in practice means nearly every family representative files one and the attorney usually is the agent. These can be folded into the petition or the oath rather than filed separately.
7. Get the order and the letters of administration. Once the petition is in and the will is admitted, the court appoints the representative, sets or waives bond, and confirms the oath and resident agent papers are on file. Letters of administration then issue, and the letters are the thing that carries weight in the outside world. Order roughly ten certified copies at once, because banks, brokerages, and title companies each keep one and many will not accept letters more than 60 to 90 days old.
8. Get an estate tax identification number and open the estate account. This comes right after the letters and before anything else useful can happen, because no bank will open an account for the estate without both.
9. Serve the notice of administration. Florida says promptly rather than naming a day count. It goes to the surviving spouse, the beneficiaries, anyone who may be entitled to exempt property, and the trustee and qualified beneficiaries of certain trusts. Service starts a 3-month clock for the person served to challenge the validity of the will, the venue, or the court’s jurisdiction, and after that those objections are barred. That deadline is close to unextendable, because Florida allows an extension only for estoppel based on a misstatement by the personal representative about the deadline itself, and expressly not for failure to disclose information or for other misconduct. The clock also runs only against people who were actually served, so leaving someone off the list does not save time, it leaves the case open. The same notice starts a 4-month window to claim exempt property and a 6-month window for a surviving spouse to elect against the estate.
10. Publish the notice to creditors, serve the ones you know about, and document the search. The notice runs in a newspaper in the county once a week for two consecutive weeks. An unknown creditor then has 3 months from the first publication, and a creditor who had to be served gets the later of that or 30 days from service. The representative has to make a diligent search for reasonably ascertainable creditors, though Florida does not demand an impracticable one, and a verified statement about that search goes in within 4 months of the first publication, with proof of publication filed within 45 days. One item gets missed constantly. If the person who died was 55 or older, a copy of the notice and a death certificate go to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration within 3 months of the first publication. And a reasonably ascertainable creditor who was never served keeps a claim for up to two years from the death.
11. File the inventory within 60 days of the letters, then close the estate. The inventory lists each asset at its date-of-death value and is served on the residuary beneficiaries and the surviving spouse. After the creditor period runs and the claims are resolved, the estate distributes and the representative files a final accounting and a petition for discharge. Florida puts a real deadline on that too, generally within 12 months after the letters issued for an estate that files no federal estate tax return. A straightforward case runs 6 to 12 months from letters to discharge, and the creditor window is what sets the floor.

What It Costs to File in St. Lucie County

These are the charges the clerk posts, not anyone’s legal fee.

Posted August 2026. Fee schedules move, so confirm the current charge with the clerk before you file. The reason the number looks the same everywhere is that it is the same number. Florida law sets the base charge for opening a formal administration and adds a small statutory service charge on top, so the entire statewide spread across the ten largest counties is one dollar. Our county-by-county filing fee study has all ten posted schedules.

And then there is the number that dwarfs every line above. Florida publishes an attorney fee schedule that is presumed reasonable and scales with the size of the estate, and it is a ceiling the estate may agree to rather than a mandate. On a $100,000 estate the schedule calls $3,000 reasonable. That, not the clerk’s $400, is what probate costs a family. You can run your own numbers in the Florida probate cost calculator.

When the Estate Does Not Need All of This

Before you open a formal administration, rule out the three lighter paths, in this order.

• No probate at all. Only assets in the deceased person’s sole name with no other instruction go through probate. Life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, pay-on-death bank accounts, jointly held property with survivorship, property in a funded trust, and a home that passed under a lady bird deed all move without a court case. Sometimes the whole estate turns out to be in that category. Our page on whether you need probate in Florida walks the test.
• Disposition without administration. For the smallest estates, with no real property and not much more than the final bills, whoever paid those bills can ask the clerk to release what is left. It is a request rather than a case, and it costs $231 here. See how disposition without administration works.
• Summary administration. Available when the probate estate is worth $150,000 or less after exempt property, a threshold raised from $75,000 on July 1, 2026, or when the person died more than two years ago. No personal representative is appointed, and the case can close in weeks rather than months. The summary administration guide has a short qualifier.

One warning about that last figure, because it will confuse you if you go looking. Florida publishes its statutes once a year, and the edition on the official statute site still shows the old $75,000 line. The increase to $150,000 is real, it came from a 2026 session law, and the probate rule on summary administration has already been amended to match. Check the rule rather than the posted statute until the new edition appears.

If none of the three fits, the estate needs a formal administration, and the checklist above is the map.

Doing It Yourself, and Where Families Stop

Florida does not require you to hire anyone to file a document. It does require something else, and this is where most families stop. Under the Florida Probate Rules, every personal representative has to be represented by an attorney admitted to practice in Florida unless the representative remains the sole interested person in the estate, or is a Florida-admitted lawyer appearing for himself or herself in that role. Those are the only exceptions. Read it as the practical test it is. One heir, nobody else with an interest, no creditors, and you may proceed alone. A second sibling, or a creditor, and the court expects counsel regardless of how well everyone is getting along.

The smaller paths are different. Disposition without administration is designed to be done without a lawyer, and clerks routinely help with it. Summary administration sits in between, simple on its face and easy to get wrong in ways that surface years later when someone tries to sell the house.

If you do want counsel for a St. Lucie County estate, our probate attorney page for Port St. Lucie covers what we charge and how the remote process works. And if you would rather do it yourself, nothing on this page is holding anything back. Everything above is the actual sequence.

What Changed at the St. Lucie County Probate Court This Year

Court practice changes without much announcement. These are the developments in the last year that affect a St. Lucie County probate filer, each with its source.

• August 3, 2026. The magistrate roster attached to AO 2025-06 was revised, naming the general magistrates who take referred probate and guardianship matters in St. Lucie. Source.
• February 18, 2026. A new St. Lucie probate memorandum took effect on the odd numbered half of the docket, setting the email-only submission rule, the two-week turnaround on probate orders and the conferral certificate. Source.
• January 12, 2026. The amended assignment order for 2026 gave the odd numbered half of St. Lucie probate to a second circuit judge from January 26, 2026, a docket the prior order had left waiting on a Governor’s appointment. Source.
• December 22, 2025. The Governor appointed Katherine Mish of Fort Pierce and Steven Wilson of Vero Beach to the Nineteenth Circuit, and the assignment order that followed put Judge Mish on half of St. Lucie probate. Source.
• October 1, 2025. The St. Lucie Clerk began charging $7.00 to confirm that a Statement of Claim was served, which is a new line item in every estate with creditor claims. Source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The proposed order that went to the portal. A Port St. Lucie family finished a hearing, prepared the proposed order, and uploaded it through the e-filing portal the way every other document in the case had gone. The case number came back odd, which put the file with the judge whose memorandum says a proposed order through the portal is not accepted and that probate submissions arrive by email at ProbateSLC@circuit19.org. The order was correct in every line, and it sat in a queue nobody at the court was watching, so the two weeks the memorandum allows for a probate order had not started.

The morning lost at the courthouse. A daughter drove to the courthouse at 218 South 2nd Street with her father’s original will, because that is where the probate judges sit. The Clerk takes probate filings at the Main Office at 201 South Indian River Drive, on the 4th floor, and the annex on Country Club Drive that her search results offered takes county civil, small claims and traffic and no probate at all. She lost a morning, and the 10-day deposit clock did not stop for it.

Sources of Law

Statutes and rules retrieved August 19, 2026. Court, clerk, and filing-fee data retrieved on the dates noted. Local requirements change without much announcement, so confirm the current version at the links above before you file.

• Rules cited are the Florida Probate Rules, current through the opinion issued July 16, 2026, and the Florida Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration, effective July 1, 2026.
• Filing. Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.525(b)(1) (attorneys must file through the portal; no other method permitted except as the rule provides), 2.525(b)(2) (an unrepresented party may elect to file through the portal, and once made the election may not be withdrawn without leave of court), 2.525(c)(1)(A) (a paper document may be submitted to the clerk, who converts it, where filed by an unrepresented party who has not elected). Filings move through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, operated by the Florida Courts E-Filing Authority, which states there is no cost to register and no fee to file electronically, apart from the statutory filing fee and a convenience fee based on the payment method.
• The original will. Fla. Stat. §732.901(1) (custodian must deposit within 10 days after receiving information that the testator is dead, with the clerk having venue, supplying the date of death or the last four digits of the social security number), (2) (custodian may be compelled; costs, damages, and a reasonable attorney fee where there was no just or reasonable cause), (3) (an original submitted with a petition is deemed deposited), (4) (clerk preserves the original in original form for at least 20 years; digitizing does not eliminate the requirement). Fla. Prob. R. 5.043 (deposit of wills and codicils; retained in original form).
• Opening the estate. Venue, Fla. Stat. §733.101. Petition, §733.202 and Fla. Prob. R. 5.200 (the eleven required contents). Preference in appointment, §733.301. Nonresident personal representatives, §733.304. Oath before letters, Fla. Prob. R. 5.320 (which also carries the only decedent-estate form written into the rules). Address designation and designation of resident agent with acceptance, both before letters, with the corporate-fiduciary and Florida-Bar-member exceptions, Fla. Prob. R. 5.110. Issuance of letters and bond, Fla. Prob. R. 5.235 and §733.213.
• Notices and claims. Notice of administration served promptly, the persons served, the 3-month objection window for the validity of the will, venue, or jurisdiction, and the estoppel-only extension, Fla. Stat. §733.212 and Fla. Prob. R. 5.240 (exempt property 4 months, elective share 6 months). Notice to creditors published once a week for 2 consecutive weeks, the diligent search for reasonably ascertainable creditors, and notice to the Agency for Health Care Administration within 3 months where the decedent was 55 or older, Fla. Stat. §733.2121 and Fla. Prob. R. 5.241 (proof of publication within 45 days; verified statement of the search within 4 months). Claim deadlines, the later of 3 months from first publication or 30 days from service, §733.702. Two-year bar after death whether or not letters ever issued, §733.710.
• Running and closing. Inventory within 60 days after issuance of letters at date-of-death value, Fla. Stat. §733.604 and Fla. Prob. R. 5.340. Final accounting and petition for discharge within 12 months after issuance of letters for an estate filing no federal estate tax return, Fla. Prob. R. 5.400(c). Attorney required for the personal representative unless the representative remains the sole interested person or is a Florida-admitted attorney appearing in that role, Fla. Prob. R. 5.030(a). Presumed-reasonable attorney compensation, §733.6171.
• Smaller estates. Summary administration, Fla. Stat. §735.201 and Fla. Prob. R. 5.530(a)(7). Reading note. The statute as officially published still shows $75,000, because Florida publishes its statutes annually and the 2026 edition is not yet posted. The $150,000 figure comes from CS/HB 1337 (2026), ch. 2026-57, Laws of Florida, section 7, effective July 1, 2026, and Rule 5.530 has been amended to match. Disposition without administration, §735.301.
• Forms. The Florida Probate Rules place their forms in Part V and state that the forms are not intended to be part of the rules and are provided for convenience only; the Part V set is essentially guardianship forms. The Florida State Courts System’s self-help service states that Florida Courts Help does not provide any forms related to the probate process, in contrast with the Supreme Court-approved family law forms. The practitioner form set commonly used in Florida probate is published and sold by a private nonprofit and is not court-approved.
• Cost. Probate filing service charges, Fla. Stat. §28.2401. Posted St. Lucie County charges read from the clerk’s own schedule, retrieved 2026-08-09; all ten largest counties are documented in our probate cost by county study.
• Caseload. Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator, FY 2024-25 Statistical Reference Guide, Chapter 6, Circuit Probate, tables of filings and dispositions by circuit, county and category, retrieved September 15, 2026.
• St. Lucie County local court layer, retrieved September 16, 2026, from the judicial directory · Amended AO 2026-03 · AO 2025-06 Amended · AO 2017-06. Judge assignments come from the circuit’s assignment orders cited above. The parking and coffee notes are conveniences for visitors, not court information, and the research file with every source is reference/research/probate-court-pilot/st-lucie-county.md.
• St. Lucie County practice, retrieved 2026-08-12: clerk probate page · Nineteenth Judicial Circuit administrative orders · judges directory · local forms and checklists.

Updated on September 16, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. This page is general information about Florida court procedure, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Court addresses, local checklists, and clerk charges change; confirm them at the official links before you file. We serve Port St. Lucie residents wherever you are, and this is not a St. Lucie County office.