Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: Filing Probate

A probate is opened in the Probate courts of the county of residence of the decedent, and in any county in which the decedent owned real property. You can contact the clerk of the court and enquire.

Meanwhile, if the decedent was informed and smart, he or she had a fully funded living trust and no probate was required.

Re: Filing Probate

Go to your local Superior Court courthouse. They will have a listing of all cases filed in that county [go to the county where the deceased resided] and will let you fill out a card to look at the file right there. They probably will also have parts of the file on their web site, but some County [e.g. Alameda] require that you have the case file number to gain access.