Joe Stephens
Justice Of The Peace · Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Place 1
High confidence· verified August 22, 2026
Justice Of The Peace · Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Place 1
What applies in this courtroom
184 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 0 published by Judge Joe Stephens · 170 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.
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Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Place 1, Harris County
Judge Joe Stephens was sworn in as Presiding Judge of Harris County Justice of the Peace Court (Precinct 3-1) on January 1, 2017.
Judge Joe Stephens was born and raised in Houston Texas. After graduating from The University of Arkansas at Little Rock, he returned home to Houston to play for the Houston Rockets which launched his four-year NBA career, followed by a six-year basketball career in Europe. He returned to school after playing basketball and graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Master’s in Business Administration.
Judge Stephens is generous with his time and resources. He founded the Joe Stephens Foundation in 1999 to benefit at-risk youth in the North Channel area, best known for putting on basketball camps for over 1,000 youth while simultaneously teach them valuable life skills. To date, more than 50 college scholarships have been awarded, over 75 participants from the camp have attended college on full athletic scholarships, and a number of local charities have benefited from donations from the foundation.
Judge Joe Stephens serves on numerous boards and is a member of many organizations. His passion is for helping youth and success for him would be defined by every student going on equipped with tools to become positive, productive citizens. His motto that he lives by is, “If you shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you are still among the stars”.
North Shore Senior High School
University of Phoenix, Master of Business Administration
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Bachelor of Science, Health Education
South Texas College of Law (current)
Professional Memberships:
National Basket Ball Players Association Retired Players Association Member; Big Brothers/Big Sisters – Mentor
Philanthropic/Volunteerism/Entrepreneurism:
Joe Stephens Foundation – Founder
Joe Stephens Basketball Camp – Founder
St. Johns United Methodist Church – Member/Youth Leader
Wendell D. Ley YMCA – Director
The Texas Society – Member
Galena Park ISD School Board President
Former Woodforest Section 26 HOA President
Barrett Station Civic League President
Baytown Chamber of Commerce
Baytown Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Member
Crosby Chamber of Commerce Member
Highlands-Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce Member
North Channel Chamber of Commerce, Board Member
Galena Park/Jacinto City Rotary Club
Who’s Who American Colleges & Universities – Member
Published by the Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Place 1 on this judge's own profile page and reproduced verbatim — BenchPath does not write or paraphrase judicial biographies. Read it on the court's site →
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.
This tab lists judge-and-division rules only, and this judge's division publishes its practice at the county, region, and statewide layers instead — 184 verified requirements may apply across those layers. The Full Premium Report assembles every one of them, cited.
See all 184 in the Full Premium Report →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.
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 Stephens'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.
No rule-level sources registered yet — judge-level provenance is listed in the Overview tab.
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Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Place 1, Harris 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.