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Standards adopted by the Johnson County Probate Courts (County Courts at Law Nos. 1 and 2) for attorney and fiduciary fee applications in probate and guardianship cases (rev. May 3, 2023): reasonable-and-necessary review under the Estates Code and Rule 1.04, a written sworn application with tenth-hour invoices before any payment from estate assets, court-approved hourly rate bands by years of probate experience ($175–$425), county-pay ad litem rates (ordinarily $125/hour), dual-compensation rules for attorney-fiduciaries, quarterly filing, paralegal rates ($75–$105) with secretarial work non-billable, limits on research, application-preparation, copy, fax and hand-delivery charges, and a 10-day objection hold before submission or hearing. Posted on the County Court at Law No. 2 page; the county site blocks server-side fetches, so the document was captured in the Browser pane.
Texas > Johnson County > County Courts at Law Nos. 1 and 2 sitting in probate and guardianship ("the Johnson County Probate Courts") > attorney and fiduciary fee applications paid from estates or by the county. "These standards are not absolute rules" — the Court makes exceptions as fairness and justice demand. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
ATTORNEY'S FEES: the Court's duty is that estates of decedents and wards "pay only for 'reasonable and necessary' attorney's fees and expenses" (TEC §§ 352.051, 352.0521, 1155.054, 1155.52, 1155.53, 1155.101), weighing the Rule 1.04 factors — time and labor, difficulty or novelty, amount involved and results, time limitations, and the customary rates of similarly qualified attorneys. Every request requires a written Application for Payment of Attorneys' Fees and Expenses identifying the date, the time in one-tenth hours and the legal work in sufficient detail; "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 attorneys' fees before receiving payment from the assets." Fees of attorneys for feuding family members promoting their own interests are not reimbursed from the protected person's estate, bad-faith prosecution or objection may be charged to the party (TEC § 1155.054(d)), and estates are not charged for time spent resolving problems caused by client or attorney misfeasance — the attorney or client bears any show-cause costs. RATES — private pay (ad litems and court-appointed fiduciaries), by years practicing probate and guardianship law: 0–2 years up to $175/hour; 3–4 years $175–$225; 5–9 years $225–$300; 10–15 years $250–$375; 15+ years $350–$425 (board certification a factor). The Court may depart for a particularly difficult matter, reduce a fee that would consume a small estate or that reflects excessive time or substandard performance, and asks attorneys new to the Court to submit a résumé with the first application (and the résumés of attorneys and paralegals whose work is billed; a rate increase is requested by letter with a current résumé). County pay: court-appointed counsel for indigent proposed wards are paid within the Commissioners Court budget, ordinarily $125/hour for ad litems. DUAL COMPENSATION (attorney serving as fiduciary): the statutory commission applies unless the matter is complex or time-intensive; a request made after appointment must come within a reasonable time with notice to all parties; legal and fiduciary work are segregated in separate applications and time records (Henderson v. Viesca, 922 S.W.2d 553); fiduciary services are paid at fiduciary rates ($100–$150/hour for the attorney; $50–$55 for support staff), never at attorney rates, and a statutory fee that is unreasonably low may be supplemented on submitted records (TEC §§ 352.003, 1155.006). PROCESS: fee applications "no less frequently than quarterly while the case is pending"; lodestar-quality contemporaneous records (El Apple I v. Olivas, 370 S.W.3d 757; Rohrmoos Venture v. UTSW DVA Healthcare, 578 S.W.3d 469) — each entry states the professional, the time, the date and the work, and heavily redacted entries cannot be approved (Estate of Poe, 2019 WL 4058592). Each application includes a sworn affidavit with a detailed invoice, a summary explanation where the matter involved complex or extraordinary issues, "no charge" ("N/C") notations where fees were reduced under Rule 1.04, a proposed order authorizing payment, and a completed proposed Order on Mandatory Report of Judicial Appointment and Fees; the invoice states the task and the tenths of an hour, the date, the person and billing rate, and the total. PARALEGALS: reimbursed at $75–$105/hour on the El Apple factors (substantive legal work under attorney supervision; qualifications, experience, certification and CLE), with résumés kept on file; secretarial tasks (faxing, scheduling or calendaring, e-filing, indexing, scanning, redacting) are overhead and not billable at any rate. OTHER CHARGES: no reimbursement for basic probate and guardianship research or for preparing the fee application itself; copies at no more than $.25 per page with the per-page charge and count stated (clerk or third-party copies at the rate charged); no facsimile charges beyond long-distance; hand delivery is discouraged in favor of e-filing and e-mail and its cost approved only where the Court deems it appropriate. COURT ACTION: "the Court holds all attorney-fee applications for 10 days to give other parties an opportunity to file objections"; absent objection they are ordinarily considered on submission without a hearing, but significant or questionable fees are set for hearing.
The Johnson County Probate Courts adopt these standards to assist attorneys with drafting fee applications in probate and guardianship cases. … These standards are not absolute rules. The Court will make exceptions in particular circumstances as fairness and justice demands.
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-07 (re-audit F11) from the seven-page scan captured in the Browser pane (image-only; every page read in the vision lane). Missed at the AJR-8 Johnson close because the county's Akamai edge blocks server-side crawlers. The revision date on every page (Rev. 2023.05.03) is used as the effective date.
2 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1986-33A.
1 verbatim requirement from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1987-09.