Dallas County Probate Courts — Guidelines for Muniment of Title… — TX · BenchPath

Dallas County Probate Courts — Guidelines for Muniment of Title Applications (Medicaid Statement)

High confidence· verified August 28, 2026Case ManagementDallas County Probate Courts, Guidelines for Muniment of Title Applications (signed Apr. 6, 2009; effective immediately)

Summary

The Dallas County Probate Courts' guidelines for muniment-of-title applications (signed Apr. 6, 2009, effective immediately): because MERP may hold a claim against the estate of a decedent who received Medicaid benefits after March 1, 2005, the will cannot be probated as a muniment of title until all estate debts are satisfied — the Proof of Death and Other Facts must include the prescribed sworn no-Medicaid statement, reflected in the order admitting the will.

Applies to

Texas > Dallas County > all three Statutory Probate Courts — muniment-of-title applications; the guideline is the operational layer beneath Local Rule 5.07's Medicaid-statement requirements (the local rules composed separately)

Requirement

PREMISE: Texas has not adopted a Medicaid-lien approach to Medicaid recovery — "if a decedent applied for and received Medicaid benefits after March 1, 2005, the State-run Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP) may have a claim for Medicaid recovery and a potential debt against decedent's estate. Consequently, decedent's last will cannot be probated as a Muniment of Title until all debts against the estate are satisfied." REQUIRED STATEMENT: "To assist the Probate Courts in making a finding that there are no debts against decedent's estate, the form for Proof of Death and Other Facts must include the following sworn statement: 'The Decedent did not apply for and receive Medicaid benefits on or after March 1, 2005.'" ORDER LANGUAGE: "Additionally, this finding should be reflected in the Court's Order admitting decedent's will as a Muniment of Title."

Source of truth

Official source: Dallas County Probate Courts — dallascounty.org (county site tree)
Source health: Healthy · checked September 27, 2026
Effective date: April 6, 2009
Last verified: August 28, 2026benchpath-tx-ajr1-dallas-2026-08-28

Reviewer note: Own-site instrument composed by vision (image-only scan rendered and read 2026-08-28; custody sha in the crawl ledger); signed by the 2009-era bench (Judges DeShazo, Price, and Miller) — recorded historically; the guideline remains posted in the courts' general-orders library and its sworn-statement requirement is carried forward by Local Rule 5.07.