Thanks to Massachusetts real-estate, probate and estate-planning attorney James Haroutunian, I have learned that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has made its probate dockets available online. The nice thing about online probate docket access in Massachusetts is that all of the counties are consolidated into one website: Massachusetts Trial Court Internet. In Florida (where I practice), this is unfortunately not the case. There are 67 different counties in Florida, which means there are 67 different ways to look up Florida probate dockets (or not - some Florida counties have refused to post their probate dockets online). Over the past year I have been compiling a list of county-specific instructions on how to access Florida probate dockets online: How to Locate Florida Probate Records. I'm a little over half way through the 67 Florida counties, so check back frequently to see which counties I have added.
- Massachusetts Probate Court Contact Information by County
- How to Obtain Copies of Probate Documents in Massachusetts
- How to Determine Where to Open a Probate Estate
- How to Probate an Estate
- How to Locate Online Probate Court Dockets and Request Copies of Documents
- How to Obtain a Copy of a Deceased Person's Will