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The Collin County indigent-defense attorney-qualification requirements for the district, county, and juvenile appointment lists: majority-judge (or MHMC-director) approval, the twice-yearly July 1–14 and December 1–31 application windows, the minimum felony-list standards (two years' criminal-law experience, Collin County residence/office/80%-practice, TBLS certification or 10 hours annual criminal-law CLE, TIDC practice-time reporting by October 15, no public discipline within five years, office capabilities, and three Collin County bar-association reference letters), and the graduated list tiers (state jail/third-degree through the higher felony lists).
Texas > Collin County > the district, county, and juvenile courts' appointed-counsel lists — the county's indigent-defense attorney-qualification standards administered by the district judges (and the MHMC director for the mental-health list) through the Indigent Defense Office
Felony Wheel Qualifications An attorney must: ➢ Provide accurate and complete information on his or her application; ➢ Be a licensed practicing attorney and member in good standing of the State Bar of Texas; ➢ Have at least two (2) years of experience practicing criminal law; ➢ For all felony cases (other than Appeals, Crimes Against Children, and Spanish Speaking Cases): must be a resident of Collin County, maintain a principal office in Collin County, or have at least 80 percent of the attorney's practice in Collin County; ➢ For Appeals, Crimes Against Children, and Spanish Speaking cases: be a resident of Collin County or a contiguous county, maintain a principal office in Collin County or a contiguous county, or have at least 80 percent of the attorney's practice in Collin County or a contiguous county; ➢ Be certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; OR complete a minimum of ten (10) hours of continuing legal education ("CLE") in the area of criminal law each year. New applicants must have completed at least ten (10) hours of CLE in the calendar year preceding the submission of their application. An attorney must file a certificate with the Indigent Defense Office each year attesting to completion of required CLE. CLE completed during any reporting period in excess of the minimum may be applied to the following period's requirement. The carryover provision applies to one year only; ➢ Submit on or before October 15th of each year a statement describing the percentage of the attorney's practice time in connection with Collin County appointments for adult criminal and juvenile delinquency cases for the prior twelve (12) months (October 1-September 30). The report must be submitted electronically using the Texas Indigent Defense Commission ("TIDC") website; ➢ Not have been the recipient of a public disciplinary action by the State Bar of Texas or any other attorney licensing authority of any state or the United States within the last five (5) years; ➢ Maintain an office capable of sending and receiving email, fax, and voice calls; ➢ Have the means to produce typed motions and orders; ➢ Notify the local administrative district judge promptly, in writing, of any matter that would disqualify the attorney by law, regulation, rule, or this Plan from receiving appointments to represent indigent defendants; and ➢ Provide three (3) letters of reference from members of the Collin County Bar Association or Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association; ➢ Additional eligibility requirements for each graduated list are described below. Attorneys may apply for and be placed on more than one list. ➢ State Jail and Third Degree Felonies An attorney must: o Be certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; OR have experience as lead counsel in at least four (4) criminal cases tried to verdict before a jury. The styles and cause numbers of each case must be included in the application. ➢ Second and First Degree Felonies An attorney must: o Have at least four (4) years of experience practicing criminal law; and o Be certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; OR have experience as lead counsel in at least eight (8) cases tried to verdict before a jury, at least four (4) of which were felonies. The styles and cause numbers of each case must be included in the application. ➢ Crimes Against Children ("CAC") An attorney must: o Have at least five (5) years of experience practicing criminal law; o Have at least three (3) years of experience handling CAC cases; o Have at least eight (8) hours of CLE in sex crimes; and o Be certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; OR have experience as lead counsel in at least six (6} felony cases tried to verdict before a jury, and experience as lead counsel in at least three (3) trials of CAC cases tried to verdict before a jury. The styles and cause numbers of each case must be included in the application. ➢ Capital Cases o Within 24 hours of arrest, the local administrative district judge shall assign a case to a presiding trial court judge who will appoint lead counsel from the list of attorneys approved by the local selection committee of the First Administrative Judicial Region for appointment as lead counsel in death penalty cases pursuant to the requirements of CCP Art. 26.052(e). If the presiding trial court judge is unable to timely make the appointment of lead counsel, the local administrative district judge shall appoint lead counsel within the required timeframe. o Upon indictment, the presiding district judge shall promptly appoint second-chair counsel, unless the state gives notice in writing that that the state will not seek the death penalty. In a non-death penalty case, the presiding judge may appoint second-chair counsel at his or her discretion. o Second chair counsel shall be appointed from the list of attorneys approved by the local selection committee of the First Administrative Judicial Region for appointment as lead counsel or second-chair counsel in death penalty cases. o Appellate counsel shall be appointed from the list of attorneys approved by the local selection committee of the First Administrative Judicial Region for appointment as appellate counsel in death penalty cases. ➢ Appeals and Non-Capital Writs An attorney must: o Be certified in criminal law or criminal appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; o Have personally authored and filed at least three (3) criminal appellate briefs or post-conviction writs of habeas corpus; o Have submitted an appellate writing sample approved by a majority of the district judges; or o Have worked as a briefing clerk of an appellate court of record for at least one (1) year. ➢ MHMC Cases An attorney must: o Be approved for the corresponding felony list; o Have served as a prosecutor in a county or district attorney's office for at least two (2) years or have practiced criminal defense law on a regular basis for a minimum of two (2) years; o An attorney must be certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization OR have experience as lead counsel in at least eight (8) cases tried to verdict before a jury; o Have been lead counsel in at least three (3) mental health cases, in all of which at least one of the following issues was presented: competency, sanity, or court-ordered mental health treatment. The styles and cause numbers of each case must be included in the application; o Complete at least six (6) hours of mental-health-related CLE each year. New applicants must have completed at least six (6) hours of CLE in the calendar year preceding the submission of their application; o Be familiar with the Texas Mental Health Code; and o Comply with all MHMC program policies and procedures. [Three-page document "Felony Wheel Qualifications", posted by Collin County on its Indigent Defense "Forms and Documents" page as "Requirements for Receiving District Court Appointments" (https://www.collincountytx.gov/docs/default-source/indigent-defense/documents/requirements-for-receiving-district-court-appointments.pdf; 436,310 bytes, sha256 36174bedb21bbbe11179025e00db2518241b8dfdf0421adafc6df29009eb77ad), read on September 23, 2026 against its digital text layer and page images. Every page is footed "Felony Wheel Qualifications" and "Revised 8-27-26". The arrowhead bullets (➢) and hollow sub-bullets (o) are given as printed. Source wording is kept as printed, including "six (6}", "that that the state" and the heading "Appeals and Non-Capital Writs An attorney must:". The ordinal suffix printed as a superscript is given in line. Bold and underlining are not reproduced.]
Felony Wheel Qualifications An attorney must: ➢ Provide accurate and complete information on his or her application; ➢ Be a licensed practicing attorney and member in good standing of the State Bar of Texas; ➢ Have at least two (2) years of experience practicing criminal law; ➢ For all felony cases (other than Appeals, Crimes Against Children, and Spanish Speaking Cases): must be a resident of Col
Reviewer note: Own-site instrument composed verbatim (text layer; custody sha in the crawl ledger); own-site-only; the district requirements are composed in full with the county (caa-requirements-county) and juvenile (caa-requirements-juvenile) variants noted — each governs its own list; undated on face — no effective date claimed. Confidence set to medium 2026-09-17 (fix program 2026-09-17, Phase 5 - audit L6): the registered source URL (https://www.collincountytx.gov/docs/default-source/indigent-defense/documents/caa-requirements-district.pdf) answers HTTP 404 on 2026-09-17 to a verification client and to a browser-class client, so no receipt could be taken and the text cannot be re-verified against the court's current publication; an open data_gap task asks for the successor document. Not archived on a restructure alone. [2026-09-23 (corpus-0920 P16a): the registered URL https://www.collincountytx.gov/docs/default-source/indigent-defense/documents/caa-requirements-district.pdf answered 404; Collin County's Indigent Defense "Forms and Documents" page (https://www.collincountytx.gov/courts/indigent-defense/forms-and-documents) now links the district requirements as "Requirements for Receiving District Court Appointments". The file was fetched (436,310 bytes, sha256 36174bedb21bbbe11179025e00db2518241b8dfdf0421adafc6df29009eb77ad), receipted, and the rule recomposed verbatim from it against its digital text layer and page images; lifted to high. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p16-2026-09-23]
6 verbatim requirements on divisional requirements in GIUSEPPINA MIRANDA's division.
4 verbatim requirements on divisional requirements in HILARY CREARY's division.
2 verbatim requirements on divisional requirements in NATASHA DEPRIMO's division.