| name | tx-county-courts |
| description | Use when filing in a Texas District Court or County Court at Law OTHER than the Harris County (`tx-hcdc`) or Dallas County (`tx-dcdc`) District Courts, and other than Justice Courts. Covers the long tail of Texas counties and the District Court vs. County Court at Law vs. Constitutional County Court jurisdictional split. Triggers include "Texas District Court", "which Texas court do I file in", "County Court at Law Texas", "Constitutional County Court", "Travis County District Court", "Bexar County District Court", "Tarrant County District Court", "Smith County District Court", "Smith County Court at Law", "Tyler Texas district court", "appeal from JP to county court Texas", "de novo appeal county court", "Texas county civil court jurisdiction", "what is the jurisdictional limit of a Texas county court at law". Tells the reader to confirm the county's courts, their local rules, and the current jurisdictional dollar caps. Layer on top of `tx-statewide-format`.
|
| version | 0.1.0 |
Texas District Courts and County Courts — Roll-Up (Other Counties)
NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Drafting and filing guidance only. Verify the
county's courts, their current local rules, the controlling
jurisdictional dollar caps, and the e-filing posture with the clerk
and the current statutes before filing.
Use this skill in addition to tx-statewide-format when the case is
in a Texas District Court or County Court at Law in a county
other than the two highest-volume systems, which have their own
overlay skills:
| County | Principal city | Skill |
|---|
| Harris | Houston | tx-hcdc |
| Dallas | Dallas | tx-dcdc |
Justice of the Peace / small-claims / eviction matters are not
covered here — see tx-justice-courts (and tx-smith-county-jp for
Smith County's JP precincts).
The three civil trial-court tiers — the jurisdictional split
Texas civil trial jurisdiction is split across three court types, and
routing the case to the right tier matters. The dollar
jurisdictional caps are statutory and drift-prone — confirm the
current figures against the Texas Government Code (court-organization
chapters) and the corpus, and do not hard-code them:
- District Court — the general-jurisdiction trial court. No
upper jurisdictional dollar limit. Hears larger civil disputes,
title to land, divorce and SAPCR (family — see
tx-family-court), defamation, injunctive relief, and felonies.
Numbered and named by the county it sits in (e.g., "[Nth] Judicial
District Court of [County] County, Texas"). A district may serve a
single county or several smaller counties.
- County Court at Law (statutory county court) — a mid-tier civil
court created by statute (Gov't Code Ch. 25) in the more populous
counties. Hears civil matters within a statutory amount-in-
controversy range (the floor and ceiling are set by statute and
vary; confirm the current range against the corpus), probate in
many counties, and de novo appeals from the Justice Courts.
- Constitutional County Court — the single county court presided
over by the county judge (a constitutional office, Gov't Code
Ch. 26). It has a limited civil amount-in-controversy
jurisdiction (statutory floor and ceiling — confirm against the
corpus), probate, and certain appeals. In counties without a
County Court at Law, the constitutional county court carries the
mid-tier civil and probate docket; in counties with statutory
County Courts at Law, much of the civil docket shifts to them.
Concurrent and overlapping jurisdiction is common (e.g., District
Court and County Court at Law may share a band of amounts).
Confirm the county's specific court structure — how many District
Courts, how many County Courts at Law, and which court hears which
matter — with the clerk and the county's website before choosing a
tier; a misfiled case can be challenged or transferred.
De novo appeal from a Justice Court to the county court
An appeal from a Justice Court judgment goes de novo — a
brand-new trial — to the county court (the County Court at Law or
the Constitutional County Court, as the county's structure provides).
The appellant perfects the appeal under TRCP 506 by filing an
appeal bond, making a cash deposit, or filing a Statement of
Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, within the rule's
short deadline. The case is then tried anew in the county court as if
it had originated there. The Justice Court mechanics and the appeal
trigger live in tx-justice-courts; this skill is the destination
court for that de novo appeal.
The long tail of counties — handled here
Texas has 254 counties. Beyond Harris and Dallas, the most populous
include Tarrant (Fort Worth), Bexar (San Antonio), Travis
(Austin), Collin (McKinney), Denton, El Paso,
Hidalgo, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Williamson — each
with its own District Courts, County Courts at Law, District Clerk,
and County Clerk, and its own local rules. Smith County (county
seat Tyler) belongs here for its higher-tier matters: its
District Courts (the 7th, 114th, 241st, 321st (family), and 475th
Judicial District Courts — confirm the current list with the district
clerk) and its County Courts at Law (confirm the current count).
Smith County's Justice of the Peace precincts are handled
separately in tx-smith-county-jp.
Do not create a separate skill per county — confirm the controlling
county's courts and local rules through the county's District Clerk /
County Clerk and the Texas Judicial Branch directory, and draft to
the statewide TRCP plus that county's local rules.
Local rules — confirm per county
Practice is governed by the statewide TRCP and Texas Rules of
Evidence, supplemented by each county's local rules and each
judge's standing orders. Local rules govern civil case management,
scheduling / docket control, motion-setting and oral-hearing
practice, and chambers copies. Do not assume one county's practice
from another's.
Agent behavior: before drafting anything county-specific (a
Notice of Hearing, a trial-setting request, a page-limited motion, a
proposed order), confirm (1) which county and which court tier the
case is in, (2) the controlling jurisdictional dollar caps from the
corpus, (3) that county's current local rules and the assigned
judge's standing orders, and (4) its eFileTexas posture.
Caption — generic variants
CAUSE NO. ____________
[PLAINTIFF], § IN THE [NTH] JUDICIAL
§ DISTRICT COURT
Plaintiff, §
v. § OF
§
[DEFENDANT], §
Defendant. § [COUNTY] COUNTY, TEXAS
For a County Court at Law, substitute IN THE COUNTY COURT AT LAW NO. [N] OF [COUNTY] COUNTY, TEXAS; for a Constitutional County Court,
IN THE COUNTY COURT OF [COUNTY] COUNTY, TEXAS. See
tx-statewide-format for the full caption with the § divider, the
TRCP 57 signature block with the State Bar of Texas number, and
statewide drafting conventions. Confirm the county's accepted civil
case-type codes and cause-number format with the clerk.
Filing — eFileTexas posture
Texas e-filing runs through eFileTexas.gov (Odyssey File &
Serve), under TRCP 21(f) and Tex. R. Jud. Admin. 10. E-filing
is mandatory for attorneys in civil matters in the District
Courts and statutory/constitutional County Courts; self-represented
filers may e-file and are encouraged to. The civil case
information sheet (TRCP 78a) accompanies the initial filing. Confirm
the controlling county's document-type selections and the filing-fee
/ fee-waiver workflow before assembling a packet. See
tx-file-packet.
Composition
- For statewide format and the Texas caption:
tx-statewide-format
- For the two flagship counties:
tx-hcdc (Harris / Houston),
tx-dcdc (Dallas)
- For Justice / small-claims / eviction and the de novo appeal
trigger:
tx-justice-courts (and tx-smith-county-jp for Smith
County's JP precincts)
- For the Original Answer and the TRCP 99 "Monday rule":
tx-first-30-days
- For drafting motions / declarations / notices / orders:
tx-draft-motion, tx-draft-declaration, tx-draft-note,
tx-draft-order
- For discovery and deadlines:
tx-discovery, tx-deadlines
- For scheduling and filing:
tx-schedule-hearing, tx-hearings,
tx-file-packet
- For family-law venue and intake:
tx-family-court, tx-family-law
- For pro se conventions:
tx-pro-se
References
tx-law-references — Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, Texas Rules
of Evidence, the Government Code court-organization and
jurisdiction provisions (for the current dollar caps), and the
per-county local-rules pointers- The Texas Judicial Branch directory and each county's District
Clerk / County Clerk — confirm the county's courts, its local
rules and standing orders, and its eFileTexas posture
