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First Administrative Judicial Region (Region 1) · official region site ✓ · County seat: Kaufman
Preview of 25 instruments. All 12 county-scoped rules → search all three layers.
The district courts' SB 9 (Art. 17.029 CCP) bail-review procedure, signed Dec. 17, 2025 by Judge Casey Blair as Local Administrative District Judge: in every felony case where the initial bail was set by a magistrate who is not a district judge, a written request (a "Motion for Review of Bail" preferred, no form required) filed with the District Clerk triggers immediate time-stamping, assignment to the district judge who would receive the indicted case (any available district judge if unavailable), and immediate email-and-telephone notice to the reviewing judge with the defendant's name, filing time, the motion, current bail and conditions, and custody status; the clerk logs every request. The reviewing judge must rule "as soon as practicable, but no later than the close of business on the next business day" after the clerk received the request, complying with Art. 17.09 and all bail rules, considering the offense reports, affidavits, criminal history, and any evidence, with a discretionary hearing (video or in person for in-custody defendants). To increase bail or add conditions for an out-of-custody defendant, the judge must first issue a summons to a bail hearing and may issue an arrest warrant only if the defendant fails to appear.
The county-wide family standing order of the Kaufman County District and County Courts at Law (signed July 15, 2024 by all five judges; effective for every divorce and SAPCR filed on or after July 18, 2024; adopted under Family Code §§ 6.501–6.503, 105.001, 105.009): contempt-enforceable (up to $500 and six months' county jail per violation plus fee judgments), it operates as a 14-day TRO after filing and continues as a temporary injunction unless contested; the petitioner must attach it to the Original Petition. It orders the familiar protections: TRO/ex-parte applications require 2-hour advance notice to the other side (with irreparable-harm certificate exceptions); children may not be hidden, moved from Texas, or withdrawn from school absent written agreement or court order; no derogatory comments, litigation talk in a child's hearing, alcohol within 12 hours of possession, illegal drugs, or overnight dating partners during possession (divorces); conduct rules against harassment, mail diversion, account access, and pet interference; property/records/insurance preservation in divorces (including a metadata/native-format preservation clause and a no-social-media-deletion clause); mediation REQUIRED in all contested family cases (≥45 days before trial, rotating-list assignment if not agreed, sanctions up to dismissal or default for non-participation, and no continuance for failure to mediate); bond waived.
The county-wide media-exhibit order signed by all five Kaufman County district and county-court-at-law judges: audio/video exhibits must be in a format the court of appeals can upload and accept — audio files capped at 100 MB, video at 2 GB, valid extensions MP3, MP4, and WAV (the sponsoring party converts anything else); ONLY the offered segments may be on the tendered media (a 50-call jail DVD must be cut down to the offered calls); and if the 5th Court of Appeals cannot open an exhibit on appeal, the sponsoring party must re-supply it in the acceptable format.
The county's case-assignment map, signed by Judge Casey Blair as Administrative District Judge (effective 04/05/2024) and directed to the District and County Clerks: CCL No. 2 (Judge Rich) takes all misdemeanors and DWI felonies for last names L–Z, all contested probate, all mental-health hearings, all property-tax cases, and half the county civil docket; the CCL (Judge Russell) takes misdemeanors and DWI felonies A–K, juvenile, CPS, condemnation, and the other half of county civil; each district court (86th Blair, 422nd Gibbs, 489th Gray) takes one-third of district civil, one-third of family, and one-third of non-DWI felonies split by defendant last name (A–F Blair, G–M Gibbs, N–Z Gray).
Judge Shelton T.W. Gibbs, IV's court rules for the 422nd: certificate-of-conference gate on all motion settings (with the court's two-alternative certificate); a judge-approval list for show-cause, habeas, attachment, garnishment, injunctive, protective, and TRO-extension orders; the court's Notice of Hearing (2nd Floor) with the certificate required on every notice and coordinator-set hearings; TRCP 21 removal/reset; agreed final settings by scheduling order that MUST include mediation completed at least 5 weeks before trial; dilatory pleas heard ≥10 days pre-trial; mandatory scheduling conferences (contents list including a pre-trial-conference date; final trial date fixed at temporary orders); pre-trial attendance/authority rules where failure to conform "shall be ground for postponement… or other appropriate action"; conflicting-engagement and docket-call mediation-precedence rules; the DWOP regime (60-day inaction, 30-day notice, retention by contacting the Court, 30-day post-rendition judgment rule, 10-day objection letters); TRCP 10 withdrawals; ex parte presentment by e-filing with the enumerated contact certifications; 10-day-letter notice language; unagreed orders e-filed 5 business days before hearing (rejected if 30+ days early); criminal defendants attend every setting and check in with the bailiff; temporary orders carry trial dates with mediation required; Zoom evidence to the court reporter two days ahead via screen share; the Via-app A/V protocol tied to the standing A/V order; and professional-attire requirements.
Judge Bobby L. Rich, Jr.'s court rules for CCL No. 2 (the court holding misdemeanors and DWI felonies L–Z, contested probate, mental health, property tax, and half the county civil docket under the county assignment rules): the certificate-of-conference gate and two-alternative certificate; the judge-approval list for show-cause, habeas, attachment, garnishment, injunctive, protective, and TRO-extension orders; the court's Notice of Hearing (County Court at Law #2, 2nd Floor) with the certificate required on all notices and administrator-set hearings; TRCP 21 removal/reset with cost exposure; agreed final settings by scheduling order that must include mediation completed at least 5 weeks before trial; dilatory pleas heard ≥10 days pre-trial; mandatory scheduling conferences with the contents list and the trial-date-at-temporary-orders rule; optional pretrial conferences with attendance/authority rules and no-show consequences; conflicting-engagement and mediation-precedence rules; and the DWOP regime — the court's civil-practice framework in the 86th/422nd family, adapted to the county court at law.
Court rules and procedures of the 86th District Court of Kaufman County, Hon. Casey Blair: setting hearings and certificates of conference, submission and hearing requirements, scheduling orders and trial settings, exhibits and proposed orders, and communications with the court.
The 86th's posted disposition time standards: criminal — revocations 6 months, state-jail felonies 90 days, third-degree 180 days, second-degree 9 months, first-degree 1 year; family — uncontested 3 months, contested 6–9 months, with the court's modification and enforcement expectations stated in the same table.
The 86th's standard Discovery Control Plan and Scheduling Order (entered per case with dates; the standing terms bind every case that receives it): Daubert/Dupont expert challenges on file at least 10 days before hearing; dispositive motions filed AND heard by the set date; MEDIATION REQUIRED IN ALL CASES, completed 5 weeks before trial — failure to mediate is not an automatic continuance ground, and parties who fail to mediate are limited to 30 minutes per side at trial; jury-trial pretrial production two weeks out (one-page trial summary, proposed charges, exhibits for stipulation, Rule 166a matters; limine and other pretrial motions filed 10 days before the formal pretrial conference); jury trials set Mondays at 9:00 a.m., bench trials Fridays at 9:00 a.m. with a default-judgment warning; continuances filed and ruled on before the trial date absent extenuating circumstances.
Judge Casey Blair's court rules for the 86th (the current edition posted on the court's page, which extends the Nov-2024 registered edition): the party setting a motion contacts the court for dates and e-files a separate notice of hearing with a certificate of conference; unagreed orders e-filed 5 business days before hearing (rejected if 30+ days early); certificate-of-conference regime with administrator-set hearings; a judge-approval list for show-cause, habeas, attachment, garnishment, injunctive, protective, and TRO-extension orders; TRCP 21 removal/reset; agreed final settings require a scheduling order that includes mediation, completed at least 5 weeks before trial; dilatory pleas heard ≥10 days pre-trial; summary-judgment motions set (in person or by submission) by the filing party; scheduling conferences mandatory absent an agreed order (trial date fixed at temporary orders); optional pretrial conferences with strict attendance/authority rules; a DWOP regime (60-day inaction, 30-day notice, retention by motion-to-retain, 30-day judgment-submission rule, 10-day objection letters); TRCP 10 withdrawals (not within 30 days of trial); TRO/ex-parte presentment with 2-hour notice or certified excuse plus the A–D contact certifications; 10-day letters with prescribed notice language; continuances in writing (one by agreement; others set for hearing with a certificate and proposed reset dates); Zoom rules (evidentiary Zoom needs prior approval, exhibits to the court reporter two days ahead, no in-person-to-Zoom conversion within 3 days of court, NO criminal Zoom settings); professional attire; criminal defendants attend every setting (appearances cannot be waived by agreement); trial dates required with temporary orders; and the court's A/V equipment familiarization request tied to its standing A/V order.
The 422nd's posted disposition time standards, parallel to the 86th's: criminal — revocations 6 months, state-jail felonies 90 days, third-degree 180 days, second-degree 9 months, first-degree 1 year; family — uncontested 3 months, contested 6–9 months, with modification and enforcement expectations in the same table.
The 422nd's standard Discovery Control Plan and Scheduling Order (Judge Gibbs; entered per case with dates): Daubert/Dupont challenges on file at least 10 days before hearing; dispositive motions filed and heard by the set date; MEDIATION REQUIRED IN ALL CASES, completed 5 weeks before trial — not an automatic continuance ground, with non-mediating parties limited to 30 minutes per side at trial; jury-trial pretrial production two weeks out (one-page trial summary, proposed charges, exhibits for stipulation, Rule 166a matters; pretrial motions filed 10 days before the formal conference); jury trial, jury announcement, and pretrial slots set per case, bench trials with a default-judgment warning; continuances filed and ruled on before trial absent extenuating circumstances.
Judge Bouressa's procedures for cases assigned to her in the First Division (supplementing the court's Local Rules): email as the preferred court channel (all parties copied except true ex parte matters); her scheduling-order form with competing-order submissions when agreement fails, trial dates set by the court (agreed answer-date extensions do not delay trial; a case may be called on its date or within 14 days after); continuances heavily disfavored; written-discovery limits per the TRCP, BCLR, her procedures, and filed Rule 11 agreements; discovery-control-plan/protective-order/ESI settings with competing proposals e-filed in advance; motions to compel must attach the request and response and group requests by subject or objection; attorney's fees may be awarded for discovery abuse "even upon the first instance"; no-setting-needed classes (substitute service, default judgment, pro hac vice, unopposed non-continuance motions) with concurrent proposed orders; opposed motions require movant-obtained settings after conferring on dates; in-person oral hearings by default with evidentiary notices, specific-conflict availability statements, citation readiness, and at least four hard copies of demonstratives; submission settings by agreement; trials — older cases first, hour-based time limits fixed at pretrial, agreed or competing judgments in Word within 14 days of verdict, proposed findings within 10 days of a timely request; and settlement mechanics — a signed non-suit/agreed dismissal, agreed judgment, or all-party notice (with jury waiver where demanded) to clear a setting, and a 45-day dismissal-with-prejudice presumption after announced settlements. Her scheduling-order template adds conferral duties 14 days before pretrial, pre-marked exhibit and Word jury-charge delivery, joinder and arbitration-motion deadlines, staged expert designations, and the mediation default — parties who fail to mediate by the deadline "will be limited to 3 hours of trial time in a jury trial or 2 hours of trial time in a bench trial."
Judge Whitehill's comprehensive chamber guidelines for Division 1B (rev. Feb. 5, 2026): a party-autonomy philosophy with active judicial management; professionalism per the Texas Rules of Professional Conduct, the Lawyer's Creed, and Dondi; NO AI NOTETAKERS in virtual conferences; an in-person planning conference within 30 days of the first defendant's appearance (client representative attending; ESI plans pre-discussed; the proposed scheduling order helpful three business days ahead; a one-year trial goal; dispositive-motion cutoff and trial date immovable without leave); early identification of pure legal issues under TRCP 166(g),(p); informal jury-charge flowcharts within 30 days of the scheduling order; status calls every two to three months; email accessibility through the Court Manager and Staff Lawyer with all counsel copied; redline comparisons with amended pleadings; court reporters scheduled for trials and dispositive hearings; targeted document requests with rule-compliant objections; the informal discovery-dispute path (authorized counsel confer → brief court phone conference with non-binding guidance → 7-day letters → motion only for what remains, modifying BCLR 4(d)); electronic courtesy copies only; dispositive-motion responses in 14 days and replies in 7 (expert-strike motions treated as dispositive); special-appearance resolution plans within a week; special-exception hearings on the movant; sealing discipline (redaction-first, temporary orders discouraged, § 134A.0065 for trade secrets, in-camera email delivery); Word proposed orders; hearings requested after filing with a 25-minute-per-side default, conducted in person in the court's hearing room or at the Robert H. Dedman SMU School of Law; briefs per BCLR 5 in 14-point Century Schoolbook with tables for 10+ pages; record-stamped single-appendix practice; a pre-trial conference at least 14 days out with the proposed pre-trial order and limine motions three days ahead; party-selected mediators against a scheduling-order deadline; jury mechanics (fee paid eight weeks out; 30–40 minutes voir dire per party; 10–20 hours of evidence per party; 25–45 minute closings; Casteel-aware charges in Word by trial day one); equivalent non-jury practice with appellate-standard findings; non-speaking objections; a 30-day settlement dismissal presumption; and the court's legal-writing guidance.
The region's governing instrument: the Amended Rules of Administration and Procedure adopted by the Council of Judges of the First Administrative Judicial Region (Sept. 7, 2016) and approved by the Supreme Court of Texas under TRCP 3a (Misc. Docket No. 17-9015, Feb. 14, 2017), applying to all district and statutory county courts in the region: Council-of-Judges governance; the Presiding Judge's § 74.047 authority and acting-PJ designation; retired/senior/former-judge service (the § 74.055(a) eligibility list with per-judge areas of expertise, the no-assignment-outside-expertise rule, and annual recertification); judge-assignment mechanics (§ 74.056; the 10-day consent limit for out-of-county active-judge assignments; order contents naming the judge's status; active judges not subject to § 74.053 objections; § 74.059(a) powers; § 74.061 pay with PJ approval of claims; inter-region requests); local administrative judges (§§ 74.091–74.092, incl. OCA security-incident reporting); the county local-rules framework (§ 74.093 majority adoption, time-standards conformance, § 74.094 bench-exchange consistency, vacation-reservation and decorum-and-recording procedures, PJ review before SCOTX approval, publication, and regional-rules supremacy on conflict); the TRCP 18a recusal procedure (3-business-day act-or-refer duty, PJ transfer or assignment, PJ-recusal motions to the Chief Justice); the Rule 6 RJA time standards (civil jury 18 months / nonjury 12; family contested 6 / uncontested 3; juvenile detention next business day, adjudication 10 days detained / 30 not, disposition 15 days); and the conflicting-settings priority ladder with LAJ → Presiding Judge → Chief Justice escalation.
The region's Art. 26.05(c) CCP fee-appeal procedure (Council-approved, eff. May 14, 2015; also reaching juvenile appointments via FC § 51.10(i)): an appointed attorney appeals a trial judge's disapproval of — or 60-day inaction on — a fee request by motion to the Regional Presiding Judge (file within 20 days of a disapproval order or 80 days of submission on inaction, timelines non-preclusive); the motion's required contents run from the cause and jurisdictional statement through the case posture, compensation basis (standard vs hourly), fee-schedule deviations, expense pre-approval, the judge's Art. 26.05(c) findings, and the enumerated attachments (the disapproval order, findings, the itemized payment request, and the county's Fair Defense Act fee schedule); the original files with the District or County Clerk with copies to the trial judge and the Presiding Judge; the PJ abates the appeal at least 10 days so the trial judge may act or reconsider; a satisfied attorney withdraws in writing, and an unsatisfied one must notify the trial judge and PJ within 5 days of any revised order that the motion remains contested.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.9 — Attorneys Not Admitted to Practice Before this Court: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.8 — Loss of Membership and Discipline of Attorneys: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.7 — Admission of Attorneys: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.6 — Applications to Proceed In Forma Pauperis: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.4.1 — Compliance with Standards of Litigation Conduct: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.4 — Conduct of Attorneys at Trial or Hearing: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.3 — Assignment of Cases: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.2 — Miscellaneous and Special Orders: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.
N.D. Tex. LR 83.18 — Photographs, Broadcasting, Recording, and Television Forbidden: the court's own rule, verbatim from LOCAL CIVIL RULES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (Effective September 1, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas alongside the federal rules and any judge-specific procedures.