Denise M. Fortenberry
District Judge · 130th District Court
High confidence· verified August 25, 2026
District Judge · 130th District Court
What applies in this courtroom
23 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 6 published by Judge Denise M. Fortenberry · 3 county-wide · 3 region-wide · 11 statewide — with 9 rule deadlines across those layers. Only the judge's own rules are specific to this courtroom; the other layers apply by court, county and state scope, and a court- or case-specific order can displace them.
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
Appeals from this courtroom go to the Thirteenth Court of Appeals.
● LiveThat court's published bench (6): Clarissa Silva, Jaime E. Tijerina, Jenny Cron, Jon West, Lionel Aron Peña Jr., Ysmael D. Fonseca
County-to-district assignment per Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.201(n), live-fetched registry.
6 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 23 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 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 CPS Judge's local rules (effective September 1, 2023, Rev. 08.31.23; Fam. Code § 107.015, C.C.P. arts. 26.04/26.05, Gov't Code ch. 37): attorney qualification criteria for the CPS/GAL/AAL lists (criteria 1.1-1.20), appointment and disqualification procedure, duties, and the fee regime under the court-adopted schedules — expanding the Matagorda County Indigent (CPS) Appointment Plan, with applicable law controlling on any conflict.
The county's Chapter-37 CPS appointment plan (preamble October 21, 2021; Rev. 08.30.23): the Indigent Defense Coordinator, prompt-appointment rules (children at the ex parte stage; qualifying parents by the end of the first business day after the indigence finding), indigence-determination standards, the fee schedule reference, and recoupment.
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.
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.
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. 9 rule deadlines apply in this courtroom across all layers — assembled with citations in the Full Premium Report.
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's and California's 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 October 24, 2026
last checked October 24, 2026
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District 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.