Denise M. Fortenberry
District Judge · 130th District Court
High confidence· verified August 25, 2026
District Judge · 130th District Court
What applies in this courtroom
485 verified requirements govern practice before Judge Denise M. Fortenberry across the judge, division, county, circuit, and statewide layers.
The tabs below show the judge-and-division layer only. The Full Premium Report assembles the complete stack — every requirement, deadline table, ruling intelligence, live case-type scan, and source appendix in one cited document.
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District Judge — 130th District Court, Matagorda County
6 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 485 total requirements apply in this courtroom across all layers — the Full Premium Report assembles the complete stack.
No judge-level deadline on record runs shorter than a statewide deadline with the same trigger. The sentinel compares quoted timing across every published rule scoped to this judge on each visit — a clean result today is re-earned tomorrow.
Judge Denise M. Fortenberry's governing P&P (TOPICs reg. doc. 2881, Rev. 03.26.26; supersedes the Sept. 2023 edition posted own-site): party-conference certificates before all settings, two-business-day response floor, MANDATORY formal mediation before final trials, the discovery-dispute letter regime, submission hearings, trial and jury-question requirements, family-case rules (Standing TRO adopted; 8-hour co-parenting class; Summarized Requested Relief; 20-minute-per-party temporary-orders hearings), and the CPS section (pre-adversary conference, mediation required, bench-warrant lead times).
The 130th's standing TRO (signed September 23, 2021; adopted by reference in the 2026 P&P): automatic child-protection and conduct provisions in every divorce and SAPCR — no removal from Texas, school withdrawal, hiding, or disturbance of children; no disparagement, litigation discussion with children, insurance changes, or substance use 12 hours before/during possession; no romantic overnight guests in original divorce actions; communication-conduct rules; bond waived; and the mandatory eight-hour online co-parenting class within 60 days of filing.
No judge-scoped deadlines on this tab. Deadlines are extracted only when the source rule text states them — we never infer or calculate dates the rule does not explicitly contain.
Timing shown here is quoted from the rule text. Compute your actual date against the court's calendar and the rule itself — not legal advice.
No verified ruling summary yet. BenchPath generates ruling summaries from opinion and docket corpora (CourtListener where covered) and publishes them only after human review — fabricated judicial analytics are exactly what this platform refuses to ship.
The attributed-opinion corpus covers Florida appellate decisions today; a Texas opinion corpus is a separate build. Absence here is a coverage statement, never evidence about this judge.
Use the live case-law search below to see what exists for this judge today.
Answer three quick questions. The platform pulls Denise M. Fortenberry's full public case-law record from the source, newest first — your matter never narrows the pull; it directs the relevance ranking and the dual-AI analysis. Every hit comes back Bluebook-cited with the opinion's own words quoted verbatim. The scan takes the time precision takes.
Case-law search
CourtListener · free connector · liveCoverage note: CourtListener is strongest for federal courts and state appellate courts. Texas trial-court opinions are essentially absent from the source — an absence of results is a coverage gap, not evidence about this judge.
last checked August 25, 2026
last checked August 25, 2026
Research connectors
CourtListener
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Westlaw
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LexisNexis
○ bring your licenseDistrict Judge — 130th District Court, Matagorda Countycurrent
date not recorded — present
assignment source →No source changes detected for this judge yet — when the underlying court pages move, it shows up here first.
The 130th's juvenile remote-hearing plan (signed March 10, 2026; TOPICs reg. doc. 2883): Zoom-based detention and related juvenile hearings with parent presence, open/closed courtroom and YouTube live-stream mechanics, deferred-adjudication motion procedure without live testimony, attendee and decorum rules, a recording prohibition under contempt, subpoena-notice language, and the exhibit-submission protocol.
The 130th's CPS case-management standing orders (signed August 31, 2023): DFPS lab-result routing and five-business-day documentation duties, drug-test filing with a seven-day objection window, redacted-file and supplement duties, seven-day placement-change notice (three hours on emergency removal), and visitation changes only by motion and hearing.
RELX
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