Patricia Marie Burns
Probate Judge · Probate Court No. 1
High confidence· verified September 6, 2026
Probate Judge · Probate Court No. 1
What applies in this courtroom
62 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 2 published by Judge Patricia Marie Burns · 48 county-wide · 1 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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Judge — Probate Court No. 1, Tarrant County
Appeals from this courtroom go to the Second Court of Appeals.
● LiveThat court's published bench (7): Bonnie Sudderth, Brian Walker, Dabney Bassel, Dana Womack, Elizabeth Kerr, J. Wade Birdwell, Mike Wallach
County-to-district assignment per Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.201(c), live-fetched registry.
2 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 62 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.
Probate Court No. 1's posted Court Policies: uncontested dockets mainly Mondays and Thursdays, contested matters Tuesdays and Wednesdays with time estimates; hearings requested by e-mail (first come, first served) with a minimum of 3 days' notice and an e-filed confirmation letter; proposed proofs, oath and order e-filed at least 5 days before the hearing or it may be cancelled; court reporter requests at scheduling and never less than 5 business days out; a genuine attempt to resolve discovery disputes before any hearing; hearings in person with Zoom only when absolutely necessary; submissions by agreement; the certificate-of-conference rule strictly enforced; in camera materials retained no more than 10 days; ex parte relief (other than with original petitions) requires proof of notice to appearing parties; business attire and phones off; ad litem lists kept by the court administrator (decedents' estates) and court investigator (guardianships) with résumé, certification and a conference with the judge; attorney-fee applications judged under Rule 1.04 and Rohrmoos; scheduling orders in all contested cases with the court unlikely to move agreed trial dates; mediation required before final trial absent good cause; the associate judge hears anything but jury trials; pre-trial conference about 10 days before trial; juror questionnaires 30 days before trial; voir dire with individual questioning at the bench and cause challenges outside the panel's presence; voir dire and arguments unrecorded unless requested; counsel stand to object and ask permission to approach; no gratuities.
Probate Court No. 1's hearing and trial procedures (page last modified Mar. 11, 2026): uncontested prove-ups and motions scheduled by e-mail to probatecourt1@tarrantcountytx.gov (first come, first served), then an e-filed hearing setting letter with the requesting party notifying all necessary parties; under the court's standing orders (Standing Order No. 17-AF00001-1 and the Uniform Standing Order on Court Rules for E-Filing) all proposed documents for uncontested applications must be e-filed at least five business days before the hearing or it may be cancelled; the Local Rules' certificate-of-conference rule is strictly enforced; contested litigation proceeds by docket control worksheet and agreed scheduling order; hearings needing a record must say so when requested (official reporter Michelle Stewart).
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 Patricia Marie Burns'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 6, 2026
Research connectors
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No source changes detected for this judge yet — when the underlying court pages move, it shows up here first.