Riverside County has unpublished rules for mid-county probate venue

Nominated executors and administrators filing a new probate petition in Riverside County beware of the court's unpublished venue rules.  My firm recently filed a new probate petition for a decedent who resided in Banning at the time of his death.   The probate petition we drafted for our client stated the case would be heard in the Riverside probate court.  To our surprise the case was assigned to the Palm Springs probate court.

We followed up with the clerk's office believing a mistake had been made.  A check of the court's local rules revealed there is no guidance on which court is the proper venue for filings in the mid-county region which roughly covers the area between Temecula, Hemet and Banning.  The clerk's office recently circulated a non-public memo assigning cases originating out of Banning and Beaumont to the Palm Springs probate court.

As Riverside and Palm Springs probate lawyers this a circumstance we can readily address for our client by amending the probate petition, giving new notice of the hearing and publishing notice.  For those who chose to try a California probate on their own this sort of change can cause confusion and delays.  More importantly, we have published laws and local rules so that all participants in the court system know what to expect and what standards must be met.  Unpublished rules severely undermine this principal.