Washington runs probate through the Superior Court in each of its 39 counties, and the county Clerk of the Superior Court holds the file. There is no single statewide probate index that covers all of them.
Jonathan Khorsandi on Sep 30, 2026
Washington runs probate through the Superior Court in each of its 39 counties, and the county Clerk of the Superior Court holds the file. There is no single statewide probate index that covers all of them. The state's own case search reaches most counties, but it does not reach King or Pierce, the two largest probate markets in the state.
That matters more here than in most states, because Washington also breaks the assumption most probate research is built on. The estate inventory, the document that lists the property, does not have to be filed with the court. RCW 11.44.015(2) says it "may, but need not be, filed in the probate cause." In practice many personal representatives never file one.
So the method that works in Georgia or Florida, pull the file and read the property schedule, fails in Washington often enough that you cannot build a workflow on it. What follows is what the four covered counties actually put in front of you, and how to find the property without the inventory.
Yes. A Washington probate case is a public court record held by the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county of filing, and anyone can inspect it. You do not need to be an heir, a creditor, or a party.
What is reliably in the file: the petition, the order appointing the personal representative, the letters testamentary or letters of administration, the notice to creditors and the affidavit proving publication, and the full docket. RCW 11.40.020 requires the personal representative to file the creditor notice with the court and to file proof of publication by affidavit, so that one is dependable.
What is not reliably in the file is the inventory and appraisement. RCW 11.44.015 requires the personal representative to make and verify one within three months of appointment, but subsection (2) makes filing optional. When it is not filed, the statute requires a copy to be furnished within ten days only to an heir, legatee, devisee, creditor, or the Department of Revenue who asks for it. An agent or investor is none of those. There is no public route to an unfiled inventory.
Two further limits. Public does not mean viewable from a desk: Thurston publishes case data online but not document images, and Pierce gates document images behind a paid subscription. And public does not mean free: every county charges per page for copies.
In the Superior Court of the county where the decedent was domiciled at death. RCW 11.96A.050 fixes venue there. If the decedent was not a Washington resident but owned real property in the state, venue is the county where the property sits, which is the case that most often produces an out-of-state personal representative.
Each of the 39 counties has its own elected Clerk of the Superior Court, its own docket, and its own records practice. Superior Court judges sit in judicial districts that in a few cases cover more than one county, but the file always lives with the county clerk, so the county of domicile is the only thing you need to get right.
Not every estate is filed. RCW 11.62.010 allows a small estate affidavit where the estate subject to probate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000, and the procedure reaches personal property and debts only. It does not transfer real estate.
That threshold is the filter that makes this data useful. An estate holding a house in the decedent's sole name goes through probate regardless of value. Every case you find is therefore a case where real property is at least plausible.
Testate cases open with an application to probate the will and produce letters testamentary naming an executor. RCW 11.20.020 sets no required content for the application itself, so how much the petition says about property depends on the county's own form and the drafting attorney.
Intestate cases, and cases with the will annexed, run under RCW 11.28.110, which does require content: the petition must set out "a general description of the major probate assets of the estate, including real property, motor vehicles, and any known property or interest estimated in good faith to exceed $10,000 in value." Specific values and locations are not required except as needed to set bond, and an applicant with statutory priority may instead describe the search they made. Even so, this is the one Washington document that has to mention real property at all, which makes intestate petitions the more informative filing of the two.
Washington's default path is nonintervention administration under RCW 11.68.011. Once the court finds the estate solvent and grants the powers, the personal representative can sell estate real property without returning to court for approval on the transaction. For anyone working these leads, that removes the court hearing that slows probate sales in other states. The person named in the letters can sign.
County by county, using the system that county actually uses. The statewide Washington Courts case search covers Superior Court cases in most counties through the Odyssey portal, and Snohomish and Thurston are both on that list. King and Pierce are not. King is directed to its own portal on that same page, and Pierce does not appear at all. Searching the state system for a Seattle or Tacoma estate returns nothing, and the empty result tells you nothing about whether the case exists.
The four counties below are the ones ProbateData covers.
Seattle and the largest probate market in the state, with a population of 2,424,700 as of the April 2026 estimate from the Office of Financial Management.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Court | King County Superior Court, Clerk's Office |
| Address | King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 |
| Phone | 206-477-0691 (general correspondence) |
| Online case search | KC Script Portal, not the statewide search |
| Documents | Searchable and orderable through the portal; free viewing at the Clerk's public records areas |
| Copies | $0.50 per page non-certified; $5.00 first page plus $1.00 per page certified |
King is the county most often researched wrongly, because people assume the statewide search covers it. It does not. Work the KC Script Portal directly. Documents ordered through the portal stay available to download for 14 days.
Two claims that circulate about King County filing practice are worth discarding. There is no rule requiring electronic working copies within 24 hours of filing; King's local rules tie working copies to hearings, and a probate hearing requires them seven days ahead. King also charges a $30 ex parte presentation fee, so Pierce's fee is not the outlier it is often described as.
Tacoma and the south Puget Sound, population 967,000 as of April 2026.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Court | Pierce County Clerk of the Superior Court |
| Address | County-City Building, 930 Tacoma Avenue South, Room 110, Tacoma, WA 98402 |
| Phone | 253-798-7717 (Records and Copies Division) |
| Online case search | LINX, not the statewide search |
| Documents | Document images require a paid LINX subscription; free viewing at the Clerk's records counter |
| Ex parte | $30 filing fee plus a $40 presentation fee |
LINX gives free public access to case indexes, parties, charges and calendars. Reading the actual documents is a subscription product. Budget for that if Pierce is a core county, or plan a records counter visit.
Everett and the corridor north of Seattle, population 879,700 as of April 2026, with noticeably thinner investor competition than King.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Court | Snohomish County Clerk of the Superior Court |
| Address | 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, M/S 605, Everett, WA 98201 |
| Phone | 425-388-3411 |
| Online case search | Statewide Washington Courts search, Odyssey portal |
| Probate information | Snohomish County probate and wills page |
Snohomish is often described as a paper-only ex parte county under a "Local Rule 30." That is wrong on both counts. Snohomish County local rule SCLGR 30 covers electronic filing and service and says nothing about ex parte procedure.
What is true is that the two official Snohomish pages do not agree with each other. The Clerk's Ex Parte via the Clerk page describes an electronic portal available around the clock, charges a $30 presentation fee for up to five orders per cause number, and lists original probate filings among the submissions the portal does not accept. The court's separate Ex Parte page describes dropping working copies at a first-floor inbox and in-person ex parte in Commissioner courtroom 1B on Monday mornings and afternoons, with no mention of the portal. Confirm the current route with the Clerk on 425-388-3411 before relying on either. For research purposes it changes nothing: the resulting case is in the statewide search either way.
Olympia, the state capital, population 312,400 as of April 2026. The smallest of the four and the least worked.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Court | Thurston County Clerk |
| Address | 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW, Olympia, WA 98502 |
| Phone | Not published on the Clerk's pages; use the Clerk's contact page |
| Online case search | Statewide Washington Courts search, Odyssey portal |
| Documents | Not viewable over the internet; Odyssey kiosks at the Clerk's office only |
Thurston is the trap in this group. Case and hearing information searches cleanly online at no cost, which makes it look like a fully digital county. The Clerk's own page states that associated public documents are not viewable over the internet and must be read on Odyssey kiosks at the Clerk's office. You can identify a Thurston case from a desk. You cannot read the petition or the letters without a courthouse visit or a copy order.
Whether Thurston charges an ex parte presentation fee is not published clearly. Confirm it with the Clerk rather than assuming there is none.
| County | Case search | In the statewide search | Documents online |
|---|---|---|---|
| King | KC Script Portal | No | Yes, orderable per page |
| Pierce | LINX | No | Paid subscription only |
| Snohomish | Odyssey, statewide search | Yes | Yes, through the portal |
| Thurston | Odyssey, statewide search | Yes | No, courthouse kiosk only |
Snohomish is the only one of the four you can research end to end from a desk without a subscription. King is a desk county if you are willing to pay per page. Pierce needs a subscription. Thurston needs a trip.
The filing fee is uniform. RCW 36.18.020 sets $290 to open a probate case, and that figure holds in all four counties. Everything after that is county by county.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Probate case filing fee, statewide | $290 |
| Ex parte presentation, King | $30 |
| Ex parte presentation, Snohomish | $30, up to five orders per cause number |
| Ex parte, Pierce | $30 filing plus $40 presentation |
| King copies | $0.50 per page; certified $5.00 first page plus $1.00 per page |
| Pierce copies | $2.00 first page plus $1.00 per additional page |
| Pierce LINX document images | Paid subscription |
Creditor notice publication is a separate cost paid to a legal newspaper, not to the court, and rates are set by the paper. The Tacoma Daily Index publishes a flat $165 for the run. Other counties' legal newspapers set their own rates, and figures circulating around $105 to $117 are not supported by any published rate card.
For research rather than filing, the cost that actually bites is Pierce's subscription and the per-page charges in King. Identify the case first through the free index, then spend money only on the files that carry real property.
Six to twelve months is the normal range for a nonintervention administration, longer where there is a dispute or an unsold house. The statutory deadlines that generate public filings along the way are these.
| Stage | Statutory position |
|---|---|
| Inventory and appraisement made | Within 3 months of appointment, RCW 11.44.015. Filing with the court is optional |
| Creditor notice filed and published | Filed with the court, published once each week for 3 successive weeks, RCW 11.40.020 |
| Creditor claim window | 4 months from first publication, RCW 11.40.051 |
| No notice published | 24 months from date of death, RCW 11.40.051 |
| Declaration of completion | Filed by the personal representative; interested parties have 30 days to petition, RCW 11.68.110 |
The creditor notice is the most useful date in the file, because it is the one deadline that has to be filed and proved. Count four months from first publication. An estate past that date has a settled claim picture and a personal representative who can move. An estate that never published is running on a 24-month clock and is likely to sit.
The declaration of completion is the closing signal. Once it is filed and the 30 days run, the estate is finished and so is the opportunity.
The honest starting point is that the file will often not tell you what the estate owns. Plan around that rather than against it.
1. Read the petition, and know which kind you have. An intestate petition or one for letters with the will annexed must give a general description of major assets including real property under RCW 11.28.110. A testate application to probate a will carries no such requirement. If you are looking at a testate case with a thin petition, the file may never name the property at all.
2. Take the name and authority from the letters. The letters testamentary or letters of administration name the one person who can sign a listing or a deed. Under nonintervention powers that person does not need a court order to sell. The letters, not the inventory, are the document your outreach is built on.
3. Do not wait for an inventory. RCW 11.44.015(2) makes filing optional, and where it is not filed the copy goes only to heirs, legatees, devisees, creditors and the Department of Revenue on request. Checking the docket for one is worth thirty seconds. Building a process around finding one is not.
4. Find the property at the assessor and the recorder instead. This is the step that replaces the inventory in Washington, and it is not optional. Run the decedent's name and last known address through the county assessor's parcel search in King, Pierce, Snohomish or Thurston to identify the parcel, the most recent owner of record, and the tax status. Then check the county auditor's recorded document index for the deed, any mortgage, and whether a personal representative's deed has already been recorded. A recorded PR deed means the sale is done.
5. Date the case off the creditor notice. Pull the notice and the affidavit of publication, count four months, and prioritise accordingly. A case in month five with a published notice, a named PR, and a parcel still in the decedent's name is the shape you want.
6. Work the attorney where there is one. Most King and Pierce probates run through counsel, and the attorney of record is named in the filing. Probate attorneys carry several clients in the same position and refer the people they trust.
Follow-up is where this either works or does not. Washington estates run six to twelve months, so a personal representative who declines in month two is a different conversation in month seven. A 90-day cadence across the four counties is the difference between working probate and collecting names.
Four: King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston. Together they run from Everett through Seattle and Tacoma to Olympia, which is most of the state's transaction volume.
Every lead is a verified court filing with a case number, not a death record or a prediction. Each carries the property records matched to the estate, which is the step Washington's optional inventory rule makes essential and tedious. The personal representative is skip traced with mailing address, phone and email where available, the attorney of record is included where one is named, and MLS tracking shows whether the property has already listed.
The manual version means two portals the statewide search does not reach, a paid subscription in Pierce, a courthouse kiosk in Thurston, an assessor and recorder cross-reference on every case because the inventory is not there, and skip tracing after that. It is legitimate research and it works. It is also several days a month.
You can see the full coverage list at probatedata.com/counties, or start a 7-day trial for $1 and search the Washington counties directly.
For the wider method across every state, see the national guide to finding probate records by county.
Yes. A Washington probate case is a public record held by the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county of filing, and anyone can inspect it without being an heir, a creditor or a party. The petition, the order appointing the personal representative, the letters, the notice to creditors and the docket are all in the file. The inventory often is not, because RCW 11.44.015 makes filing it optional.
County by county, using the system that county actually uses. Snohomish and Thurston Superior Court cases are in the statewide Washington Courts case search on the Odyssey portal. King and Pierce are not in that search: King runs the KC Script Portal and Pierce runs LINX. Searching the statewide system for a King or Pierce estate returns nothing, and that empty result says nothing about whether the case exists.
Only if the personal representative chooses to file it. RCW 11.44.015 requires the inventory and appraisement to be made and verified within three months of appointment, but subsection 2 states that it may, but need not be, filed in the probate cause. Where it is not filed, the statute requires a copy within ten days only to an heir, legatee, devisee, creditor or the Department of Revenue who requests it, so there is no public route to it.
The most reliable one is the petition in an intestate case or a case with the will annexed. RCW 11.28.110 requires it to set out a general description of the major probate assets of the estate, including real property, motor vehicles and any known property estimated in good faith to exceed $10,000. An application to probate a will under RCW 11.20.020 carries no equivalent content requirement, so testate petitions vary by county form.
RCW 36.18.020 sets a $290 filing fee, and that amount holds in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston. Ex parte presentation fees are separate and set locally: $30 in King, $30 in Snohomish for up to five orders per cause number, and $40 in Pierce on top of a $30 filing fee. Copy charges also vary, with King at $0.50 per page non-certified and Pierce at $2.00 for the first page plus $1.00 per additional page.
A nonintervention administration typically runs 6 to 12 months. The creditor claim window is four months from the date of first publication of the notice to creditors under RCW 11.40.051, or twenty-four months from the date of death where no notice was published. The estate closes when the personal representative files a declaration of completion and the 30-day period under RCW 11.68.110 runs.
Usually not. Washington's default path is nonintervention administration under RCW 11.68.011. Once the court finds the estate solvent and grants nonintervention powers, the personal representative can sell estate real property without returning to court for approval on the transaction. The person named in the letters testamentary or letters of administration can sign.
No. Thurston case and hearing information is searchable at no cost through the Odyssey portal, but the Clerk's office states that associated public documents are not viewable over the internet and can only be read on Odyssey kiosks at the Clerk's office. You can identify a Thurston case from a desk, but reading the petition or the letters requires a courthouse visit or a copy order.
