District Judge · 501st District Court
What applies in this courtroom
76 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 0 published by Judge Richard T. Bell · 62 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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District Judge — 501st District Court, Fort Bend County
Judge Bell graduated with a Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law in May 1997 and earned a Bachelor of Arts Business Degree from Southwestern University in 1994. After graduation from law school, Judge Bell began concentrating his legal practice to family law, handling cases throughout the State of Texas. He maintained a successful legal practice handling complex property cases and child custody disputes for nearly twenty years. During his years of private practice, Judge Bell was regularly recognized by the State Bar of Texas as a member of the Pro Bono College, an organization devoted to helping individuals that are unable to afford legal services. Judge Bell is an active member in the legal field as well as the local community. He regularly speaks at continuing legal education courses assisting lawyers to stay abreast of important changes in the law. Judge Bell currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Judge Bell served on the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee for the four years immediately prior to taking the bench. He is a former president of the Fort Bend County Bar Association as well as the Fort Bend County Dispute Resolution Center. In addition to his contributions to the legal field, Judge Bell is an active member of the local community. He regularly sits on the boards of local non-profit organizations, and has held officer positions in many of those organizations. In 2022, he served as the president of the Exchange Club of Sugar Land and for several years he was the treasurer of the Sugar Land Little League. Judge Bell is passionate about serving the needs of others within his community.
Published by the 501st District Court 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.
Judge Richard T. Bell was appointed to the 501st District Court December 1, 2025.
The court's page · checked October 2, 2026
This tab lists judge-and-division rules only, and this judge's division publishes its practice at the county, region, and statewide layers instead — 76 verified requirements may apply across those layers. The Full Premium Report assembles every one of them, cited.
See all 76 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.
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Answer three quick questions. The platform pulls Richard T. Bell'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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District Judge — 501st District Court, Fort Bend 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.