District Judge · 461st District Court
What applies in this courtroom
34 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 4 published by Judge Joe (Patrick) Bulanek, Jr. · 16 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 — 461st District Court, Brazoria County
Appeals from this courtroom go to the First Court of Appeals or the Fourteenth Court of Appeals.
● LiveThat court's published bench (18): Amparo "Amy" Guerra, Andrew Johnson, Clint Morgan, David M. Gunn, Jennifer Caughey, Kristin Guiney, Susanna Dokupil, Terry Adams, Veronica Rivas-Molloy, Brad Hart, Chad Bridges, Katy Boatman, Ken Wise, Kevin Jewell, Maritza M. Antu, Randy Wilson, Tonya McLaughlin, Tracy Christopher
This county lies in the district the First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals share; new appeals are assigned between them by random draw (Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.202(h)). County-to-district assignment per Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.201(b) and Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.201(o), live-fetched registry.
4 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 34 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 Patrick Bulanek's court guidelines: email-only coordinator contact, e-filing with pre-confirmed hearing dates, Zoom prohibited without prior approval, the weekly docket architecture (weeks 1-3 non-jury family; fourth week criminal jury; second week of even months family jury), Associate Judge Donnell's ancillary dockets, affidavit-by-submission prove-ups, entry-docket mechanics, two-hour Temporary Orders limits, custody evaluation OR amicus, courtesy-copy list, and final-trial requirements.
The 461st's published procedures for self-represented litigants in uncontested family matters (adult adoption, adult and minor name changes, and related case types): the pleadings required, the step-by-step filing procedure, and submission alternatives.
The 461st's qualification standards for appointment as attorney ad litem, amicus attorney, guardian ad litem and mediator: Brazoria County practice, 15 annual CLE hours (10 family law/ad litem) verified by September 1, court registration, and tiered experience thresholds.
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 Joe (Patrick) Bulanek, Jr.'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 23, 2026
last checked October 24, 2026
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District Judge — 461st District Court, Brazoria 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.