About Connecticut Probate Courts

The Saybrook Probate Court is located on the second floor of the Old Saybrook Town Hall and serves the nine towns of Chester, Clinton, Deep River, Essex, Haddam, Killingworth, Lyme, Old Saybrook, and Westbrook. Probate courts are generally associated with overseeing trusts and decedent’s estates. However, Connecticut probate courts have jurisdiction over many additional issues.

The following is a list of the types of matters a probate judge may oversee, and is not exhaustive:

• Appointing conservators for people incapable of caring for themselves and/or managing their finances
• Civil commitments - the placement of individuals with severe psychiatric disabilities in a hospital that provides for proper care, without their consent
• Appointment and oversight of guardians for children
• Appointment and oversight of guardians for individuals with intellectual disabilities
• Removing a child from the custody of parents who fail to provide suitable living conditions
• Paternity claims of unwed fathers
• Granting adoptions
• Granting name changes
• Removal of life support