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

Where the Putnam County Probate Court Actually Sits

Putnam County probate is heard in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, at the Putnam County Courthouse at 410 St. Johns Avenue in Palatka, where Division 51 takes every probate, guardianship, incapacity, and trust case in the county and sits in Courtroom 305. Filings go through the Putnam County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, whose court intake counter is not in the courthouse.

The Clerk takes court filings at the Customer Service Center in the Tim Smith Building at 107 North 6th Street, about four blocks from the courtroom, and answers on the main line at (386) 326-7600, with probate sitting inside Civil Court Services at (386) 326-7620. Probate mail goes to P.O. Box 758, Palatka, FL 32178. The counter offices at the county government complex, Crescent City, and Interlachen are not published as taking a court filing, so treat them as records and payment desks.

The probate counter is at the Customer Service Center in the Tim Smith Building, 107 North 6th Street, Palatka, FL 32177, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., (386) 326-7600. Court intake is not in the courthouse. The Clerk puts court intake, records, recording and payments in the Tim Smith Building at 107 North 6th Street, while hearings are held at the Putnam County Courthouse at 410 St. Johns Avenue about four blocks away, so a filer with counter business and a hearing on the same day parks twice. No separate probate line is published, and probate sits with Civil Court Services at (386) 326-7620. The Clerk also asks that questions about a case come by phone on the main line rather than by email. Mail goes to P.O. Box 758, Palatka, FL 32178. Recording, marriage licences and injunctions stop processing at 4:30 p.m., and the branch offices at the county government complex, Crescent City and Interlachen are not published as taking court filings.

• The clerk’s probate page for Putnam County
• Seventh Judicial Circuit judges directory
• Administrative orders of the Seventh 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 Putnam County, her estate is a Putnam 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 Palatka, East Palatka, Crescent City, Interlachen, Welaka, Pomona Park, and San Mateo are all Putnam 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.

Which Judges Hear Probate Cases in Putnam County?

Probate cases in Putnam 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.

• Christopher A. France, Division 51, probate, guardianship, incapacity and trust cases, heard in Courtroom 305 at the Putnam County Courthouse in Palatka, and he shares his weeks with Division 47, the Flagler unified family court, while his chambers sit in Bunnell, assigned July 13, 2026, when the current Putnam assignment order took effect, and the circuit publishes no earlier order to date the assignment from (G-2026-043-PT, read with the circuit division assignments in G-2026-025-SC (A)).

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 Putnam County Probate Court Is

The state court system counts every petition filed in the circuit probate division, and the FY 2024-25 figures for Putnam County are 411 probate filings, 19 guardianship filings and 0 trust filings, plus 114 Baker Act and Marchman Act cases that the same division carries. The division closed 413 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 Putnam County Courthouse Is Closed

Florida sets nine paid state holidays by statute, and a circuit may close on more. The Putnam County courthouse follows the Seventh Judicial Circuit calendar, which adds Presidents Day, Good Friday, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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.

Every Putnam probate, guardianship, incapacity, and trust case goes to Division 51, so there is no draw and no ratio here. What Putnam does split is the elder-protection work, and the split surprises families who start there. A vulnerable adult exploitation injunction and an Adult Protective Services Act case go to Division 53 rather than to the probate judge, and guardianships of children in dependency go to Division 54, so one family can end up in front of three judges. Flagler County next door sends that same exploitation injunction to its probate judge, and St. Johns piles all of it onto one division, so the answer changes at the county line.

Are Putnam County Probate Hearings Remote?

Probate hearings in Putnam County can be held remotely on Zoom, and the division decides which matters must be in person. In person is the default here and the procedures say so twice. Hearings are noticed as in person, and a party who wants to appear by video files a motion showing cause and emails a proposed order for review. Evidentiary hearings are in person, and a court reporter a party engages may not appear remotely at all. The division publishes its room as Zoom meeting ID 386 313 4515, which is the same digit string as the chambers telephone number, and prints no password. Hearing time comes from the judicial assistant by email, with the amount of time needed stated in the request. A county away, in Flagler, the same circuit runs the opposite rule and makes video mandatory under an hour, so do not carry a neighbour’s practice into Palatka.

The division’s remote hearing instructions carry the current links and the dress and conduct rules, which judges enforce on camera exactly as they do in the room.

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 of the Circuit Court on paper within 10 days of learning of the death, with the date of death or the last four digits of the Social Security number, and the counter that takes it is the Customer Service Center on North 6th Street rather than the courthouse. Putnam hangs one more consequence on that deposit than most counties do. The Clerk will not process a disposition without administration until the will is on file, so in a small estate with a will the deposit has to happen before anyone can ask for the money to be released.

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 Putnam 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. Putnam adds no affidavit and no checklist, and what it asks for instead is that you address things correctly. Division 51 publishes no probate forms at all, which is the opposite of the Flagler division next door, and its one-page procedures document is the whole local rulebook. Proposed orders go by email in Word to the division mailbox, laid out for an electronic signature, and the document prints the exact signature block and the service paragraph it wants, including who serves a party that has no designated email address. Hearing time is requested by emailing the judicial assistant with the amount of time needed, and the address to use is the one on the circuit’s judge page rather than the one in the procedures document, which prints it without the 7 in circuit7.org and sends the email nowhere. Hearings are noticed as in person, and a party who wants to appear by video files a motion showing cause and emails a proposed order for review. Evidentiary hearings are in person, and a court reporter a party engages may not appear remotely. The notice of hearing goes to the Palatka courthouse address and Courtroom 305, never to the judge’s Bunnell mailing address, and the procedures say so in terms because it is the easiest mistake to make in this county. A self-represented filer also signs every document with a printed name, address, telephone number, and email, and files the designation of email address form the Clerk supplies.

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

• G-2026-043-PT, Assignment of Cases in Circuit Court, Putnam County (signed July 9, 2026, effective July 13, 2026). Section C(1) sends every probate, guardianship, incapacity and trust case to Division 51, and then splits the elder-protection work away from the probate judge. Vulnerable adult exploitation injunctions, Adult Protective Services Act cases and expedited medical treatment matters go to Division 53, so an exploitation case and the estate that follows it sit with two different judges.
• G-2026-025-SC (A), Circuit Division Assignments (signed January 7, 2026, effective January 20, 2026). Names the judge in every circuit division across the four counties, and puts Judge France in Division 51 for Putnam probate and in Division 47, the Flagler unified family court, at the same time.
• PB-2009-022-SC, Adversary Case Style on Probate Pleadings (May 22, 2009). A pleading that the probate rules make adversary is returned unfiled by the Clerk if its caption does not carry the adversary case style.
• PB-2022-019-SC, Motions to Compel Discovery in Probate Actions (September 30, 2022). No motion to compel discovery in a probate or guardianship case unless written notice of the deficiencies was given, 10 days were allowed to cure, and the notice is attached to the motion.
• PB-2022-018-SC, Guardianship Examining Committees (September 30, 2022). Guardianship only. The court keeps a list of qualified examining-committee members, and the petitioner confirms that each proposed member is willing before submitting the committee.
• PB-2019-006-SC, Guardianship Education Requirements (February 25, 2019). Guardianship only. Names the approved guardian-education providers for family guardians, and does not reach professional guardians.
• PB-2000-001-SC, Codification of Administrative Orders in the Probate, Guardianship, and Mental Health Division (October 4, 2000). The numbering key for the probate orders, by subject, year and number, with SC for a circuit-wide order and a county suffix for a single county, which is how you tell that the Volusia clerk-audit order does not reach Putnam.

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

• Notice the hearing at the Putnam County Courthouse, 410 St. Johns Avenue in Palatka, Courtroom 305, and not at the Bunnell address on the judge’s letterhead. The procedures say this in terms, because the chambers, the phone number and the mailing address all sit in another county.
• Proposed orders go by email in Word to [email protected]. Orders are signed electronically, so the order has to be laid out for an electronic signature, and the document prints the exact signature block and the service paragraph it wants, including who serves a party that has no designated email address.
• Hearing time is requested by emailing the judicial assistant with the amount of time needed, at [email protected]. Copy that address from the circuit site rather than from the procedures document, which prints it without the 7 in circuit7.org and sends the email nowhere.
• Hearings are noticed as in person. A party who wants to appear remotely files a motion showing cause and emails a proposed order for review, which is the strictest posture of the three counties at this end of the circuit.
• Evidentiary hearings are in person, and a court reporter a party engages is not permitted to appear remotely. A self-represented filer signs every filed document with a printed name, address, telephone number and email, and completes the designation of email address form the Clerk supplies.
• Division 51 publishes no probate forms and no checklists, which is the opposite of the neighbouring Flagler division. What the judge’s page offers instead is the circuit’s Florida Probate Rules pamphlet dated February 27, 2025.

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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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 Putnam County

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

Posted August 2026. Putnam’s figures come from the Clerk’s posted fee schedule, whose probate page is headed January 1, 2023, read on September 16, 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 Putnam County estate, our probate attorney page for Palatka 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 Putnam County Probate Court This Year

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

• September 18, 2025. Putnam County Judge Elizabeth A. Morris announced her retirement effective November 30, 2025, after covering the county drug court and often family and juvenile matters as an acting circuit judge, and the seat went to gubernatorial appointment. Source.
• December 22, 2025. The Governor appointed K. Mark Johnson to the Putnam County bench and Katherine Miller to one of two new circuit seats, and the assignment order that followed placed Judge Miller in Division 54, Putnam family, leaving probate where it was. Source.
• July 13, 2026. The Putnam case assignment order was reissued as G-2026-043-PT, signed July 9, 2026, and probate stayed in Division 51 with Judge France. Source.
• September 21, 2026. Courthouses in all four counties of the circuit close Monday, September 21, for Yom Kippur and reopen Tuesday, September 22, and the circuit’s 2026 holiday list also carries Rosh Hashanah on September 11. Source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The notice of hearing sent to Bunnell. A family read the judge’s address off his letterhead, saw Bunnell, and noticed the hearing there. The Putnam division’s procedures tell filers to notice a hearing at the Putnam County Courthouse at 410 St. Johns Avenue in Palatka, Courtroom 305, and the Bunnell address is where the chambers and the mail are. Nothing about the petition was wrong. The hearing was in the wrong county on paper, and it had to be noticed again.

The Zoom appearance that was never granted. A son in Atlanta assumed he would attend his father’s uncontested Putnam hearing by video, because a cousin’s hearing in Flagler County had run that way. Flagler makes a hearing under an hour a video call. Putnam notices every hearing as in person and grants a remote appearance only on a motion showing cause with a proposed order emailed for review. The two counties sit in the same circuit, one county line apart, and the rules run in opposite directions.

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 Putnam 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.
• Putnam County local court layer, retrieved September 16, 2026, from the judicial directory · G-2026-043-PT · G-2026-025-SC (A) · PB-2009-022-SC · PB-2022-019-SC · PB-2022-018-SC · PB-2019-006-SC · PB-2000-001-SC. 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/putnam-county.md.
• Putnam County practice, retrieved 2026-08-12: clerk probate page · Seventh 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 Palatka residents wherever you are, and this is not a Putnam County office.