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The Supreme Court-approved Local Rules of the Statutory Probate Courts of Dallas County (Misc. Docket No. 19-9079, Aug. 23, 2019), governing all three statutory probate courts as standing orders enforceable by contempt: random assignment (mental-illness cases to Probate Court No. 3), transfer and consolidation practice, the submission-ruling regime with its 14-day objection window, the 2-hour TRO notice rule, the four verbatim certificate-of-conference forms with the three-attempt/two-business-day conference duty, Rule 91a motion mechanics, brief deadlines, the motion-to-quash deposition stay, self-represented-litigant restrictions, ad litem answer deadlines, vacation letters, remote testimony, the two-disinterested-witness heirship preference, Medicaid muniment statements, personal-representative signature requirements, and temporary-administration accounting.
Texas > Dallas County > the Statutory Probate Courts of Dallas County — Probate Court (Hon. Julia Malveaux), Probate Court No. 2 (Hon. Ingrid Michelle Warren), and Probate Court No. 3 (Hon. Margaret R. Jones-Johnson), per the OCA roster; the mental-illness docket is assigned to No. 3 by Rule 2.01 — standing orders of all three courts, enforceable by contempt
AUTHORITY: Approved by the Supreme Court of Texas under Tex. R. Civ. P. 3a (Misc. Docket No. 19-9079, Aug. 23, 2019). "These rules are standing orders of the Statutory Probate Courts of Dallas County. Knowing or intentional violation of these rules may be punished by contempt or other sanction." They bind the Probate Court, Probate Court No. 2, and Probate Court No. 3 (and any later-created statutory probate court). ASSIGNMENT (2.01): random assignment, except (1) "All mental illness cases shall be assigned to Probate Court Number 3"; (2) refilings after nonsuit/DWOP return to the prior court; (3) every proceeding attacking a statutory probate court's judgment goes to the rendering court; (4) related/ancillary proceedings go to the court of the principal action. Will contests are filed in the cause number where the contested will is pending; claims suits and testamentary-trust actions get new cause numbers in the administering court. FILING (2.02–2.03): every page of every pleading and proposed order carries the cause number, consecutive page number, and title in the lower margin; original wills per TRCP 21(f)(12); no emergency application is presented to a judge before filing and assignment except when the Clerk's office is closed. TRANSFERS (2.04): inter-probate-court transfers on written order — but on counsel's request the Clerk may transfer without order to unite a decedent's probate with the spouse's pending probate, or a proposed ward's guardianship with a sibling's; case files move within ten days of the transfer order; counsel seeking affirmative relief must notify the court of an inbound foreign-county transfer within three business days of assignment. CONSOLIDATION/SEVERANCE (2.05–2.06): consolidation motions are filed in the earliest case with notice to the later court; severed claims take the next new number in the same court. BANKRUPTCY (2.07–2.08): prompt Suggestion of Bankruptcy on filing; prompt notice on conclusion or stay relief. DWOP (2.09): matters on file at least one year with no trial or hearing setting may be dismissed under TRCP 165a procedures. TRO/EX PARTE (3.01): opposing counsel gets a copy of the application and proposed order "at least 2 hours before" presentation, unless a verified certificate states imminent irreparable harm with insufficient time, or that notice would defeat the relief. UNCONTESTED MATTERS (3.02): requests may be ruled on by submission if no one is entitled to notice, all entitled persons agree or state no objection, or "no person entitled to notice files a written objection to the request within fourteen days after the request for relief is filed"; expedited relief by agreement or on two days' notice; every request under the rule is presented with a proposed order showing the parties' agreement. CONTESTED MATTERS (3.03): pleadings for expedited relief or matters set within seven days must be served for same-day receipt; anything served within 30 days of trial (witness lists, exhibit lists, designations, objections, discovery responses) must be transmitted for receipt by the deadline; the court enforces TRCP 21 on request of any party given less than three days' notice; "no motion for continuance will be granted within five days before trial" absent a verified motion on facts arising on or after the fifth day; no trial is passed or reset without written or on-record consent of all counsel, or notice and an opportunity to object; special exceptions and dilatory pleas must be heard at least thirty days before trial. MOTIONS (3.04): every request states its statutory or common-law basis (with authorities); probate-related requests name the personal representative and state whether the administration is independent or dependent; before filing any contested motion, movant's counsel must make "at least three attempts" to confer, "during regular business hours on at least two business days"; no contested motion may be filed or set without a Certificate of Conference in one of the four verbatim forms prescribed by the rule (conference held; respondent unresponsive after receiving the proposed motion; emergency; unopposed) — dispositive motions, MSJs, defaults, show-cause, arbitration-confirmation, expert-exclusion, jurisdictional pleas, responsible-third-party motions, nonsuits, post-verdict motions, and service motions are exempt; responses and replies are filed at least one day before hearing; Rule 91a motions announce themselves on the first page and carry a separate fiat setting a hearing not less than 21 days after filing; fiats are submitted as proposed orders; a party who sets a hearing serves notice of the setting within one business day. BRIEFS (3.05): motion briefs are due one business day before hearing; MSJ briefs travel with the motion, opposition briefs with the response, replies at least one business day before hearing — late briefs "likely will not be considered"; "Any motion or brief that is ten pages or longer must begin with a summary of the argument"; pertinent portions of transcripts, exhibits, and cases highlighted. DISCOVERY (3.07–3.08): no discovery materials filed except under TRCP 191.4, TRE 902(10), or court order; a motion to quash a deposition filed and served within three courthouse-open days of delivery of the notice stays the deposition pending determination. ORDERS AND JUDGMENTS (3.09): counsel tender proposed orders at contested hearings; a directed order goes to opposing counsel two business days before submission and is "deemed approved as to form" if no objection within three business days; "Within 30 days after the Court has announced a verdict or judgment or the Court receives a written announcement of settlement," counsel submit a proposed judgment or dismissal order. ATTORNEYS (4.01–4.04): current contact information on file with the Clerk (communications to the address of record are deemed received); withdrawal only by motion and order — non-consented motions are mailed to the client certified and first-class with a ten-day objection window, and "no such motion may be presented within thirty days of the trial date" absent leave; an attorney for a personal representative or guardian of the estate must also warn the client that representative-capacity appearance requires counsel and that failure to hire replacement counsel risks removal; out-of-state attorneys comply with Rule XIX of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar; attorneys may reserve up to three vacation weeks per year by letter. SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS (4.05): an individual "shall be represented by an attorney" when applying to serve as executor or administrator, applying for guardianship of another, or representing a third party (beneficiary, heir, creditor, estate representative) — the court takes no action on such filings until an attorney appears; self-representation is permitted for non-corporate creditors, non-corporate parties in ancillary civil actions, small-estate-affidavit distributees, or as the court allows; all attorney rules bind self-represented litigants; no ex parte merits communications. AD LITEMS (4.06): "An attorney ad litem shall file an answer not later than 10:00 AM on the first Monday after the expiration of ten days after the date of the order of appointment"; ad litems receive notice of all hearings and service of all pleadings until dismissed or discharged. DECORUM (4.07): entering an appearance acknowledges familiarity with these rules, the Civil District and County Courts' Rules of Decorum, the Texas Lawyer's Creed, and the probate courts' administrative orders. WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE (5.01–5.07): remote appearance or testimony on written request absent objection, third-party fees borne by the remote participant or taxed; interpreters and accommodations flagged in advance; trial media (except impeachment) tendered to opposing counsel early enough for pre-trial objection hearings — "Any media not so tendered will not be permitted into evidence"; counsel must stipulate to facts not reasonably in dispute; testimony on applications to appoint administrators or determine heirs is committed to writing, subscribed, and sworn in open court; heirship judgments are preferred on "the testimony of at least two disinterested witnesses"; muniment-of-title applications state whether the decedent applied for and received Medicaid benefits on or after March 1, 2005, and whether any MERP claim is waived or satisfied. FIDUCIARIES (6.01–6.03): the personal representative personally signs inventories, accounts, annual reports, applications to expend funds over $1,000, attorney-fee applications, claim memoranda, ratification applications, and bond-reduction applications; distributee ratification can cure an unapprovable account; temporary administrators and temporary guardians of the estate file an inventory within thirty days of qualification and a final account within thirty days of termination (guardians of the person, a final report).
Reviewer note: Composed verbatim from the county's current posting (Local-Probate-Rules-w-Table-of-Contents-20250807.pdf, 24 pp with ToC and the Supreme Court approval order; custody sha in the crawl ledger); a second own-site copy at probate-3/DALLAS-COUNTY-LOCAL-RULES.pdf verified as the same instrument (leads with the Misc. Docket order); TOPICs registration doc 1080 IDENTITY-VERIFIED by vision (2026-08-28): the 18-page scan opens with the probate courts' Administrative Order 2023-1 (signed Jan. 13, 2023 by Malveaux, Warren, and Jones-Johnson as presiding judge) reaffirming and ratifying the 2019 rules under amended Rule 3a / Misc. Docket 22-9081 and ordering OCA submission, with the same Local Rules attached as Exhibit A — spot-checked pages match the composed text verbatim; bench names in the applies_note are informational, the rules bind the courts as institutions.
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)).