Columbia County Probate Court: Where to File and What to File

Where the Columbia County Probate Court Actually Sits

Columbia County probate is heard in the Third Judicial Circuit, at the Columbia County Courthouse at 173 NE Hernando Avenue in Lake City, which is both the street address and the mailing address. Filings go through the Columbia County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller, whose probate counter answers on its own line at (386) 758-1051 rather than through the main switchboard, Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Columbia is the largest probate county in this circuit, with 260 probate filings in the 2024-25 fiscal year, more than Suwannee and Taylor together. Court Administration for all seven counties sits in Room 408 of the same building, which is where an accommodation request under the Americans with Disabilities Act goes for any county in the circuit. The county funded an exterior revitalization of the historic courthouse in 2026, so expect construction fencing outside the building.

The probate counter is at the Columbia County Courthouse, 173 NE Hernando Avenue, Lake City, FL 32055, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., (386) 758-1051 for probate directly, or (386) 758-1342 on the main line. Columbia is the only county in this circuit with a direct probate line rather than a switchboard, and the clerk asks that court cases be handled by phone rather than by email. Depositing an original will is free, within ten days of learning of the death, with the date of death or the Social Security number, and the office also asks for a death certificate to be filed alongside the will, which Florida law does not require. The depositor gets back a Receipt for Deposit of Will carrying the file number, the date and the seal. Clerk staff will fill out a disposition of personal property without administration petition with you at the counter and present it to the probate judge, with the $231.00 fee due at filing. Certified copies of a will are $1.00 a page plus $2.00 for the certification. No room number is published for the probate counter, the only floor the clerk publishes is the third, where foreclosure sales are held, and the mailing address is the same street address.

• The clerk’s probate page for Columbia County
• Third Judicial Circuit judges directory
• Administrative orders of the Third Judicial Circuit

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 Columbia County, her estate is a Columbia 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 Lake City, Fort White, Five Points, Watertown, Columbia City, Ellisville, and Winfield are all Columbia 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

If you are dropping off an original will or sitting through a morning calendar, coffee within a short walk is XAPA coffee & bakery at 311 N Marion Avenue, about 250 metres, a three to four minute walk from the public entrance. Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at weekends, one block west across the downtown grid. Columbia is one of only three counties in this circuit with a cafe that close to the courthouse.

Which Judges Hear Probate Cases in Columbia County?

Probate cases in Columbia 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.

• Garrett Hill, probate and guardianship for Columbia County, as a county judge sitting as an acting circuit judge, alongside county criminal, traffic and first appearance work and half the county’s circuit felony docket, with judicial assistant Chelsey Chewning at 386-243-6367, assigned July 1, 2026, the start of the current six-month assignment period, which ends December 31, 2026 (GAO 2026-020).

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 Columbia County Probate Court Is

The state court system counts every petition filed in the circuit probate division, and the FY 2024-25 figures for Columbia County are 260 probate filings, 34 guardianship filings and 0 trust filings, plus 435 Baker Act and Marchman Act cases that the same division carries. The division closed 197 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.

How a Case Gets Filed in Columbia 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 Columbia 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.

A Columbia case is filed once and lands with the judge the circuit’s general assignment order names, currently Judge Garrett Hill, a county judge sitting as an acting circuit judge who also carries the county criminal and traffic docket and half the county’s circuit felony docket. Two standing recusals in the same order reassign a case automatically, without a motion, when Darby, Peele and Greene appears in a case that would go to Chief Judge Olin, or when Douglas and Douglas, Thomas, Holladay and Claiborne or Thomas T. Demas appears in one that would go to Judge Douglas. The assignment order expires on December 31, 2026 and is rewritten every six months, so confirm the assignment before you notice a hearing in January.

One more thing is worth knowing before you file, because it explains most of what happens next. The Third Circuit is one court visiting seven courthouses, with a single assignment order, a single general magistrate and no probate calendar in any county, and that shared layer is set out in our guide to how probate works across the Third Judicial Circuit.

Are Columbia County Probate Hearings Remote?

Probate hearings in Columbia County can be held remotely on Zoom, and the division decides which matters must be in person. Judge Hill publishes no remote-appearance policy, so whether a Columbia probate matter is noticed for Zoom or for the courtroom is settled case by case by his office, and judicial assistant Chelsey Chewning at 386-243-6367 is the route to an answer. The circuit publishes a Notice of Hearing (Zoom) template and an Order Setting Zoom Hearing form, and no standing probate meeting identifier is published anywhere in the circuit, so the credentials come from chambers and go on the face of the notice of hearing. There is also no standing probate calendar in any county here, because the circuit’s own six-month master calendar covers all seven counties day by day and never uses the word probate, so every Columbia hearing is specially set one at a time. Courtroom audio and video equipment is booked through Court Administration technology support in Lake City at 386-754-7066 at least seven days ahead, and the department says it cannot test or support equipment on the day.

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. Columbia asks for one thing more than the statute does. The custodian deposits the original with the Clerk within ten days of learning of the death, free of charge, giving the date of death or the Social Security number, and the Columbia office also wants a death certificate filed alongside the will. Depositing the will gets you back a Receipt for Deposit of Will carrying the file number, the date and the Clerk’s seal. No room number is published for the probate counter, and the only floor the Clerk publishes for anything is the third, where foreclosure sales are held, so call (386) 758-1051 before you carry an original in.

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 Columbia 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. Columbia adds no checklist, because the whole Third Judicial Circuit adds none. The circuit’s own Probate and Guardianship order category holds three administrative orders and not one of them is about administering an estate, a search of its media library for the word probate returns nothing, and the Columbia Clerk’s forms page offers eviction, indigency and address-change forms while pointing family law elsewhere. Several Florida circuits reject a petition that arrives without a signed local checklist, so families go looking for the Columbia version and lose a week. Nothing of the kind exists. What does exist locally is the counter and the judge’s office. Clerk staff will complete a disposition of personal property without administration petition with a walk-in at the Probate Division and present it to the probate judge, with the $231.00 fee due at filing, and certified copies of a will are $1.00 a page plus $2.00 for the certification. Judge Hill publishes nothing under the Preferences and Procedures heading on his own page, so scheduling, proposed orders and remote appearance all run through judicial assistant Chelsey Chewning at 386-243-6367. One published document in the circuit sets actual probate requirements, and it is Judge Griffin’s in Suwannee, which binds Suwannee alone. Read it as the only written statement of what the shared general magistrate expects, never as a Columbia rule.

The Administrative Orders That Govern Probate in Columbia 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 Columbia County as of September 16, 2026.

• GAO 2026-020, General Assignment of Judges No. 2026-020 (entered June 2026, posted June 29, 2026, running July 1 to December 31, 2026). Places every judge in all seven counties of the circuit and replaces all prior general assignment orders. Columbia probate and guardianship goes to Judge Hill, with Chief Judge Olin and then Judge Douglas as the recusal backups, and the order assigns the circuit-wide general magistrate. Two standing recusal footnotes reach a Columbia estate, because a case that would go to Judge Olin in which Darby, Peele and Greene appears, or to Judge Douglas in which Douglas and Douglas, Thomas, Holladay and Claiborne or Thomas T. Demas appears, is reassigned by the clerk automatically without a motion.
• AO 2024-001, Appointment of General Magistrate (March 2024). Appoints Christina Nieto Seifert general magistrate over mortgage foreclosure, probate, guardianship, trust and mental health matters in all seven counties. An objection to a referral must be in writing within ten days of service of the order of referral. Emergent matters go from the clerk straight to a circuit judge and are never referred to the magistrate, and neither are rehearing, clarification or contempt arising from a judge’s own order.
• AO 2010-004, General Magistrate in the Probate, Guardianship, Trust and Mental Health Cases (February 19, 2010). The older magistrate order, superseding AO 2004-025 and AO 2004-026. On the presiding judge’s request the magistrate reviews guardianship inventories, accountings and plans with no order of referral at all, under Fla. Prob. R. 5.697. Everything else needs an order of referral that the filing party drafts and submits to the assigned judge, and all magistrate proceedings are electronically recorded.
• AO 2024-002, Duty Judge and Emergency Hearing Protocol (April 30, 2024). Rescinds AO 2018-021 and puts one duty judge over all seven counties after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, at weekends, on holidays and during any courthouse closure, on a rotation of every judge in the circuit. Contact runs through the local Sheriff’s Office dispatch, which relays the message, and each term runs from 8:00 a.m. Monday to 8:00 a.m. the following Monday.
• AO 2025-005, Establishing Court Facility Security Procedures (signed October 1, 2025 in Lake City, effective immediately, superseding AO 2018-022). Designates the court facilities of the circuit, including the Columbia County Courthouse at 173 NE Hernando Avenue and the Lake City Annex at 4424 NW American Lane, which houses Court Administration. Minimum screening before entering a courtroom, hearing room or chambers is a bailiff, a metal detector and a barrier.

The Checklist for Opening an Estate in Columbia 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 Columbia 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 Columbia 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 Columbia County

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

Posted August 2026. The Columbia Clerk posts these four figures on its own probate fee page, read September 16, 2026, with no effective date printed, alongside eighteen further probate lines including $41.00 for a caveat, $41.00 for a notice of trust, $85.00 to file an inventory and $50.00 to reopen an estate. 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 Columbia County estate, our probate attorney page for Lake City 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 Columbia County Probate Court This Year

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

• September 5, 2026. The Columbia County Board of County Commissioners funded an exterior revitalization of the historic courthouse as a capital project, covering lighting, landscaping and the bells, and construction fencing is up outside the building. Source.
• June 29, 2026. The circuit posted GAO 2026-020, which keeps Columbia probate and guardianship with Judge Hill through December 31, 2026 and replaces every earlier general assignment order. A replacement order is due in late December. Source.
• October 1, 2025. AO 2025-005 replaced the 2018 courthouse security order for the whole circuit and designated both the Columbia County Courthouse and the Lake City Annex as court facilities, with screening before any courtroom, hearing room or chambers. Source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The will that came back for a death certificate. A daughter in Jacksonville mailed her father’s original will to the Lake City counter with a covering note giving the date of death, which is exactly what Florida law asks for. Columbia also wants a death certificate filed with the will, and the certified copies were still at the funeral home. Nothing was lost except the days, and the ten-day clock on depositing an original runs from the day the custodian learns of the death rather than from the day the paperwork is convenient.

The small estate that never needed a case. A Fort White widow paid her husband’s funeral bill and his last two medical bills out of her own account, and the only thing left in his name was a small bank balance. Clerk staff in Columbia will fill out a disposition of personal property without administration petition with you at the counter and present it to the probate judge, and the charge is $231.00. She had been quoted a formal administration by a service that never asked what the estate held.

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 Columbia 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.
• Columbia County local court layer, retrieved September 16, 2026, from the judicial directory · GAO 2026-020 · AO 2024-001 · AO 2010-004 · AO 2024-002 · AO 2025-005. 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/columbia-county.md.
• Columbia County practice, retrieved 2026-08-12: clerk probate page · Third Judicial Circuit administrative orders · judges directory.

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 Lake City residents wherever you are, and this is not a Columbia County office.