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The Denton County Probate Courts' fee-application standards (Judges David W. Jahn and Christopher J. Everett, Rev. 09.2023): fee applications identify the date, time in tenths and work performed; administrative tasks are not compensable; court approval must precede payment from an estate, guardianship or trust; private-pay hourly bands by years of probate and guardianship practice ($200 to $450, board certification considered), with resumes for new attorneys and paralegals; county-pay ad litems capped at $125 per hour and their paralegals at $65; attorney-fiduciaries keep segregated time and file two separate applications, are paid fiduciary rates ($100–$150; staff $50–$55) for fiduciary work and may seek above-statutory compensation only with time records; applications at least quarterly while a case is pending (final applications within 30 days of the final hearing), each entry identifying the professional, time, date and work in Rohrmoos detail, with N/C notations for reductions and a summary for complex work; proposed orders leave the amounts blank and state the period; paralegal work $75–$125 per hour on El Apple factors, secretarial tasks (faxing, scheduling, e-filing, scanning, redacting) not compensable at any rate; travel to the courthouse at the approved rate but out-of-county and client-visit travel at half rate; no reimbursement for basic probate research, bill preparation, faxes, routine hand delivery, or calls to the court auditor or clerk; copies at no more than $0.15 per page; billing in 0.1-hour increments, no block billing; costs caused by misfeasance fall on the representative or attorney; applications are held ten days for objections and usually decided on submission, and fee requests filed as claims against the estate always require a hearing under §§ 355.056 and 1157.056.
Texas > Denton County > Probate Courts Nos. 1 and 2 — attorneys, ad litems, attorney-fiduciaries and paralegals seeking fees from estates, guardianships, trusts or the county.
"In order for the Court to evaluate the reasonableness and necessity for the payment of the attorney's fees and expenses, the Court requires that the attorney submit a written Application for Payment of Attorney's Fees and Expenses. In the Application, the attorney needs to identify the date the work was performed, the amount of time incurred in one-tenth hours, and describe the legal work performed in sufficient detail in order that the Court may make a ruling. Pursuant to case law the Court will not approve time charged for administrative tasks such as scheduling hearings and opening files. An attorney seeking to have fees paid from assets of an estate, guardianship or trust subject to Court supervision and administration should always obtain court approval of the attorney's fees before receiving payment from the assets of an estate, guardianship, or trust. … Years Practicing Probate and Guardianship Law / Court-Approved Rate: 0-2 years Up to $200/hour; 3-5 years $200 - $250/hour; 6-10 years $250 - $300/hour*; 11-20 years $300 - $375/hour*; 20+ years $375 - $450/hour* (*Board Certification will be a considered factor) … B. Attorney Fees Paid by Denton County ('County Pay Cases') … The Court compensates attorney ad litems and guardian ad litems involved in county-pay cases at the maximum hourly rate of $125.00 per hour. The Court will also consider compensating paralegals of the ad litems in county-pay cases at the maximum hourly rate of $65.00 per hour. C. … 2. The attorney-fiduciary must keep accurate detailed time and expense records, carefully segregating legal and fiduciary work. Attorneys must submit two separate applications: one application for legal work; the other application for fiduciary work. … 3. Under Texas law, an attorney-fiduciary must seek only fiduciary compensation for guardian/personal representative services and may seek attorney's fees only for legal services he or she rendered … 4. … the hourly fee approved by the Court for attorney fiduciary services ($100 to $150 per hour), is significantly less than the Court approved legal rates for attorneys. The hourly fee approved by the Court for support staff, including paralegals, performing fiduciary services is between $50 and $55 an hour … D. Process for Filing Fee Applications — … counsel for a party who intends to seek court approval for payment of fees from an estate and all court-appointed attorneys should file a fee application no less frequently than quarterly while the case is pending. … The Court requires that applications for attorney's fees and fiduciary fees be submitted in a manner as required by the Texas Supreme Court in Rohrmoos Venture v. UTSW DVA Healthcare, LLP 578 SW3rd 469 (Tex. 2019). Each time entry must identify the professional who did the work, the amount of time charged, and date the time was incurred, and provide sufficient information in order to allow the court to make an informed decision concerning the legal work performed. … Content of Fee Application — • The title (or subtitle) of both the application and the proposed order should indicate the time period covered by the bill. … • A sworn affidavit of attorney for payment of attorney's fees, which includes a detailed invoice of all services rendered and amounts charged … • Clearly identify all of the following for each billed service: 1. The date the service was rendered. 2. The attorney or the paralegal/legal assistant performing the service. Do not use initials unless the application identifies which initials correspond to which individuals. 3. A sufficiently detailed description of the service. 4. The time involved. 5. The amount billed for that service. • Somewhere in the application, indicate the hourly rate for each attorney or paralegal/legal assistant whose services are being billed. … Proposed Orders — • Proposed orders (including a proposed order authorizing the fees and the Order on Mandatory Report of Judicial Appointment and Fees) must include blanks where the amounts to be awarded will go. The Court will decide what is reasonable and necessary. It will not approve a pre-printed amount and will ask you to re-submit a proposed order with blanks. … II. Paralegal Charges — … the Court may reimburse an attorney for paralegal work at a rate between $75 and $125 for private pay cases … the Court does not approve time charged for secretarial services at the paralegal rate even if such services are performed by an attorney or a paralegal. … Tasks the Court considers to be secretarial include faxing documents to other counsel, scheduling or calendaring hearings, efiling, file indexing, scanning, redacting, and other secretarial tasks. III. … A. Travel — … travel time from an attorney's office to the courthouse to attend hearings is normally reimbursed at the attorney's approved rate. If, however, the attorney resides or has an office outside the Denton County area, the attorney's travel time to the courthouse from his home or office will be reimbursed at half of the attorney's approved rate. … B. Legal Research — … the Court will not reimburse attorneys for basic legal research in these areas. … C. Preparation of Fee Applications — … this Court will not reimburse attorneys for the costs of preparing invoices and the fairly standardized fee applications and corresponding orders. D. Copies and Faxes — … it will reimburse attorneys for copies at a rate of no more than $0.15 per page. … The Court will not authorize payment for facsimile transmissions. … IV. Billing Methodology — A. Minimum Billing Increments — We ask attorneys to bill in 0.1 hour increments. The Court doesn't permit 0.25 hours as a minimum billing increment … B. No Block Billing — If the application lists a series of legal services as one entry, the Court may determine how long each service took, or the attorney may be required to file an amended application with this information. C. Timing of Application — … Attorneys should file final fee applications no later than thirty (30) days after the final hearing. V. Costs Necessitated by Misfeasance or Malfeasance — The Court does not believe that guardianship or probate estates should be charged with any attorney time or mileage for resolving problems or attending hearings necessitated by the misfeasance or malfeasance of client or attorney. … VI. Court Action on Fee Applications and Hearings — Consistent with the Court's local rules, the Court holds all attorney-fee applications for ten (10) days to give other parties an opportunity to file objections to those applications. If no objections are filed, typically the Court will consider the applications on submission and without a hearing. … Fee requests should be filed as applications for payment of fees or for reimbursement of fees (if already paid by the representative) and not as claims against the estate. … If the representative chooses to disregard the Court's policy and file the fee application as a claim, the Court will – in every case – require a hearing under Estates Code § 355.056 and § 1157.056."
"In order for the Court to evaluate the reasonableness and necessity for the payment of the attorney's fees and expenses, the Court requires that the attorney submit a written Application for Payment of Attorney's Fees and Expenses. In the Application, the attorney needs to identify the date the work was performed, the amount of time incurred in one-tenth hours, and describe the legal work perform
Reviewer note: Own-site document (text layer, 9 pp, 22,912 chars) read in full 2026-09-06; the standards quoted verbatim by section with explanatory passages abridged; dated 'Rev. 09.2023'; a joint instrument of both statutory probate courts → one county-level probate rule (court-less; effective date recorded as the first day of the revision month). Composed benchpath-ajr8-denton (own-site lane).
2 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1986-33A.
1 verbatim requirement from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1987-09.