Paula Herring Goodhart
Statutory County Judge · Criminal Court at Law No. 2
High confidence· verified August 22, 2026
Statutory County Judge · Criminal Court at Law No. 2
What applies in this courtroom
184 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 0 published by Judge Paula Herring Goodhart · 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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Judge — Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 2
Paula Goodhart is currently the Judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law #2. Judge Goodhart grew up in Houston, attending schools in the Pasadena Independent School District. After receiving her undergraduate degree with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin, Judge Goodhart received her law degree from the University of Houston. Upon graduation in 1993, Judge Goodhart was hired as an Assistant District Attorney where she served the citizens of Harris County until 2007. While at the District Attorney’s Office, Judge Goodhart tried more than 100 jury trials. She also served as a District Court Chief, was assigned to the Trial Bureau, the Public Affairs Bureau, and Special Crimes. In 2007, she began a private practice focusing on criminal defense. In March of 2010, Judge Goodhart was appointed by the Harris County Commissioner’s Court to fill the judicial vacancy in County Criminal Court at Law #1. In November 2010, Judge Goodhart was elected Judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law #1 where she served until December 31, 2018. In November 2022, Judge Goodhart was elected Judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law #2.
Judge Goodhart was the fourth judge to preside over Harris County Criminal Court at Law #1 since its inception, and the first female judge elected to that court. Judge Goodhart received the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Judiciary Service Award and the Houston Bar Association’s President’s award for her efforts to restore criminal justice in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Additionally, Judge Goodhart was honored with the Exemplary Judicial Faculty Award from the Texas Center for the Judiciary. Judge Goodhart is also an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow and member of Criminal Justice Class IV and a J. Frank Dobie Hall of Honor recipient.
In addition to her other judicial duties, Judge Goodhart presided over the fourth Harris County SOBER (Saving Ourselves by Education and Recovery) DWI Court for several years. Her SOBER Court served young offenders primarily in their 20s. The goal of the Harris County SOBER Court program is to increase public safety and to reduce long-term costs to the criminal justice system and the community through intense supervision utilizing a multi-disciplinary team effort.
Published by the Criminal Court at Law No. 2 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 Paula Herring Goodhart'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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Judge — Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 2current
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.