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The region's governing instrument: the Amended Rules of Administration and Procedure adopted by the Council of Judges of the First Administrative Judicial Region (Sept. 7, 2016) and approved by the Supreme Court of Texas under TRCP 3a (Misc. Docket No. 17-9015, Feb. 14, 2017), applying to all district and statutory county courts in the region: Council-of-Judges governance; the Presiding Judge's § 74.047 authority and acting-PJ designation; retired/senior/former-judge service (the § 74.055(a) eligibility list with per-judge areas of expertise, the no-assignment-outside-expertise rule, and annual recertification); judge-assignment mechanics (§ 74.056; the 10-day consent limit for out-of-county active-judge assignments; order contents naming the judge's status; active judges not subject to § 74.053 objections; § 74.059(a) powers; § 74.061 pay with PJ approval of claims; inter-region requests); local administrative judges (§§ 74.091–74.092, incl. OCA security-incident reporting); the county local-rules framework (§ 74.093 majority adoption, time-standards conformance, § 74.094 bench-exchange consistency, vacation-reservation and decorum-and-recording procedures, PJ review before SCOTX approval, publication, and regional-rules supremacy on conflict); the TRCP 18a recusal procedure (3-business-day act-or-refer duty, PJ transfer or assignment, PJ-recusal motions to the Chief Justice); the Rule 6 RJA time standards (civil jury 18 months / nonjury 12; family contested 6 / uncontested 3; juvenile detention next business day, adjudication 10 days detained / 30 not, disposition 15 days); and the conflicting-settings priority ladder with LAJ → Presiding Judge → Chief Justice escalation.
Texas > First Administrative Judicial Region (Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Kaufman, Rockwall) > all district and statutory county courts. The region's office: Presiding Judge Ray Wheless, Collin County Courthouse, 2100 Bloomdale Road, McKinney (the txcourts.gov region page, probed live 2026-08-29, states the region was created in 1927 and spans the seven counties; the fee-appeal rules print the office address with "Dallas, Texas 75071" — quoted as printed, the ZIP is McKinney's). County local rules yield to these rules on conflict.
AUTHORITY (Rule 1): "These rules are promulgated by the Council of Judges of the First Administrative Judicial Region… pursuant to Section 74.048(c)(1) of the Texas Government Code and Rule 4(c) of the Rules of Judicial Administration… These rules apply to all district and statutory county courts in the First Administrative Judicial Region." COUNCIL (Rule 3): composed of the Presiding Judge as Chair, the region's district and statutory county court judges (excepting statutory probate courts), and qualified § 74.055(c) retired/former judges residing in the region; at least one annual regular meeting; majority decision, no proxies. PRESIDING JUDGE (Rule 4): § 74.047 authority; may appoint an Acting Presiding Judge (§ 74.056(c)) with all rights, duties, and powers. RETIRED/FORMER JUDGES (Rule 5): definitions (retired / senior / former); "the Presiding Judge is required to maintain a list of qualified retired and former judges eligible to sit by assignment in the Region" (§ 74.055(a)); the list "shall include the areas of expertise (criminal, civil, or family) for each eligible judge… a judge may not be assigned to a case or docket outside the judge's listed area(s) of expertise"; annual recertification on the Region's form; § 74.055(c) requirements include the two-year no-appearance certification and continuing-education compliance. ASSIGNMENTS (Rule 6): the PJ may assign judges "to try cases and dispose of accumulated business" (§ 74.056(a)); RJA 8 grounds (absence, inability, voluntary or Rule 18b recusal, disqualification, heavy docket, vacancy); assigned judges may be active or qualified retired/former; "active judges may not be assigned outside the judge's district or county for more than 10 calendar days in a year without the judge's consent" (§ 74.060); "the order of assignment shall state whether the judge is an active, retired, senior, or former judge. An active judge assigned under Chapter 74 is not subject to an objection under Section 74.053"; assigned judges hold all powers of the receiving court (§ 74.059(a)); pay and expenses per § 74.061 with claims "subject to the approval of the Presiding Judge after certification by the assigned judge"; presiding judges may request judges from other regions. LAJs (Rule 7): every district and statutory county court has an LAJ (§§ 74.091(a), 74.0911(a)) — the PJ designates one if the local judges do not choose; the LAJ adopts management rules and policies (§ 74.092(a)), provides statistical and management information to the Supreme Court and OCA, and reports courthouse security threats or incidents to OCA (CCP art. 102.017(f)). LOCAL RULES (Rule 8): each county's district and statutory county judges adopt local rules by majority vote (§ 74.093); the rules must provide for filing, assignment, docketing, transfer, and hearing of all cases to achieve the RJA 6 time standards; no transfer to a court without jurisdiction; bench/docket exchanges per § 74.094; the rules "should include procedures for attorneys who wish to reserve vacation weeks, guidelines for courtroom order and decorum… and procedures for recording and broadcasting court proceedings"; RJA 7, 9(b), and 10 compliance; "The county local rules shall not be inconsistent with these rules. In the event of a conflict, these rules control"; and "Local rules must be submitted to the Presiding Judge for review and approval before submission to the Supreme Court of Texas… any proposed local rule is not effective until approved by the supreme court. Once approved, the local rules must be published and available to the Bar and public." RECUSAL (Rule 9): on a TRCP 18a motion the clerk immediately delivers copies to the respondent judge and the PJ; the respondent judge must act within 3 business days — recuse or refer — "even if the motion does not comply with Rule 18a," taking no further case action until resolution except for good cause stated; on voluntary recusal the PJ transfers the case within the county or assigns another judge; on refusal the PJ rules or assigns a judge to rule, with any hearing "as soon as practicable"; a granted motion returns to the PJ for transfer or assignment; "Motions for recusal of a Presiding Judge are referred to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas." TIME STANDARDS (Rule 10, per RJA 6): criminal per law; civil jury within 18 months of appearance, civil nonjury within 12; contested family the later of 6 months from appearance or from the Family Code waiting period (Chapter 262 excepted), uncontested 3 months on the same terms; juvenile — detention hearings "on the next business day following admission," adjudication/transfer hearings within 10 days of the petition for detained juveniles (30 days otherwise, good cause excepted), disposition within 15 days of adjudication; recesses permitted in the child's and society's best interests; special circumstances and complexity excepted. CONFLICTS (Rule 11): "An attorney who is in trial in one court may not be ordered to trial in another court" — the second court verifies and holds or resets; unresolved conflicts are conferred between judges using the priority ladder (criminal over civil per CCP art. 32A.01; statutory preferences; court-ordered preferential settings; then age of case, jury status, and county context); criminal-vs-criminal factors enumerated (confinement, age, resets, speedy-trial rights, witness availability); deadlocks go to the LAJ (same county) or the Presiding Judge, and inter-region deadlocks to the Chief Justice or designee. ADOPTION: "adopted by the Council of Judges of the First Administrative Judicial Region on September 7, 2016… effective as of this date, subject to approval by the Supreme Court of Texas, and supersede previously adopted rules of administration and procedure for the Region." Approved by the Supreme Court Feb. 14, 2017 (Misc. Docket No. 17-9015); signed by then-Presiding Judge Mary Murphy.
Reviewer note: Composed in full from the registered instrument's text layer (10 pages, TOPICs doc 318). Dual custody: the region's own posting at txcourts.gov/media/1437211 (region-1-local-rules-approved-misc-docket-no-179015.pdf, 3,036,066 B, fetched 2026-08-29). Region-close merge per the AJR-11 precedent: supersedes the recon-era summary row tx-topics-318-1st-ajr-local-rules (archived with a successor pointer). Composed benchpath-ajr1-p8.
Establishes a Traffic Violations Bureau within the Clerk of the County Court under Fla. R. Traf. Ct. 6.100(a) (Burnstein, C.J., Nov. 1, 1988).
Approves the National Highway Safety Council Defensive Driving course as a school to which traffic courts may require attendance (Fla. R. Traf. Ct. 6.110(a)).
Designates the D.W.I. Counterattack School (Broward County Commission on Alcoholism) as an approved school for court-ordered attendance (Fla. R. Traf. Ct. 6.110(a)).