Loading…
District Judge · 40th District Court
What applies in this courtroom
764 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 3 published by Judge Robert (Bob) J. Carroll · 8 county-wide · 2 region-wide · 751 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.
Your first 7 Judge Intelligence Reports are free with a free account — no payment card required.
District Judge — 40th District Court (Ellis County)
Appeals from this courtroom go to the Tenth Court of Appeals.
● LiveThat court's published bench (3): Lee Harris, Matt Johnson, Steven Lee Smith
County-to-district assignment per Tex. Gov't Code sec. 22.201(k), live-fetched registry.
3 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 764 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.
The 40th's standard civil jury-trial scheduling order (template revised Sept. 15, 2025, entered per case with dates): jury selection in person at the Waxahachie Civic Center central jury pool at 8:00 a.m.; final-pretrial filings e-filed 3 business days before the hearing (witness list, exhibit list, exhibits copies to reporter and judge, proposed jury charge in Word on flash drive, motion in limine, deposition designations, and a concise statement of significant issues); paper-discovery, deposition, responsible-third-party, joinder, and amended-pleading deadlines; summary-judgment motions due at least 45 days before final pretrial; expert designations with substance-and-basis disclosures plus documents and CV for controlled experts; and a mediation order requiring a NAMED mediator ("TBD" is unacceptable) with full-settlement-authority attendance.
The 40th's standard civil bench-trial scheduling order (template revised Sept. 15, 2025): instead of a final pretrial hearing, counsel must e-file a final-pretrial package by the specified date — witness list, exhibit list, a concise statement of significant issues, and a DETAILED set of Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law; the same paper-discovery, deposition, responsible-third-party, joinder, amended-pleading, expert-designation, and named-mediator requirements as the jury version — with the court's note that summary-judgment motions are DISCOURAGED in cases proceeding to a non-jury bench trial.
Standing order in every delinquent tax collection case in the 40th District Court (which holds all Ellis County tax delinquencies under the Court Rules of Administration): compliance with TRCP 194.1's automatic-disclosure requirements is WAIVED for taxing entities and their attorneys — the court found the compliance expense "greatly outweigh[s] any negligible benefit" and that everything needed to defend a Property Tax Code Subtitle E, Chapters 31–34 suit is in the pleadings and public records — but any party served with a party-initiated discovery request must still answer it fully under the TRCP.
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 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 Robert (Bob) J. Carroll'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 September 28, 2026
last checked September 24, 2026
Research connectors
CourtListener
● liveFree Law Project
Free. Opinions, dockets, RECAP, judge metadata. Powering the case-law search on this page.
Westlaw
○ bring your licenseThomson Reuters
Bring your firm's license — enterprise connector queries your judge and related cases inside Westlaw. Phase 2.
LexisNexis
○ bring your licenseRELX
Bring your firm's license — enterprise connector for Lexis+ research tied to your matter. Phase 2.
BenchPath never scrapes licensed databases. Westlaw and LexisNexis connect only through your firm's own credentials and entitlements when the enterprise connectors ship.
District Judge — 40th District Court (Ellis County)current
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.