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Local Rules of the Civil Courts of Dallas County — the Supreme Court-approved combined rulebook (Misc. Docket No. 14-9023, Tex. R. Civ. P. 3a) governing the thirteen Civil District Courts (14th, 44th, 68th, 95th, 101st, 116th, 134th, 160th, 162nd, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, and 298th) and County Courts at Law Nos. 1–5, as registered in the statewide TOPICs local-rules registry (registered twice: 01/05/2023 under the County Civil Courts listing, doc 908, and 03/06/2026 with appendixes, doc 2852 — byte-distinct scans, text-identical instrument). Filing, assignment and transfer; motions, conference and proposed-order practice; trial announcements; attorney obligations; County Court at Law modifications.
Texas > Dallas County > 14th, 44th, 68th, 95th, 101st, 116th, 134th, 160th, 162nd, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, and 298th District Courts; County Courts at Law Nos. 1–5 (the book's Rule 6.01 scope; family, juvenile, criminal, and probate courts expressly unaffected)
1.01 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT: "All civil cases filed with the District Clerk shall be filed in the Civil District Courts in random order." 2.01 FILING WITH THE COURT IN EMERGENCY ONLY: "Except in emergencies when the Clerk's office is not open for business, no application for immediate or temporary relief shall be presented to a Judge until it has been filed and assigned to a Court as provided in Local Rule 1.01." 2.02 APPLICATION FOR TRO AND OTHER EX PARTE ORDERS: counsel "shall notify the opposing party's counsel, or the opposing party if unrepresented … and provide opposing counsel or party with a copy of the application and proposed order at least 2 hours before the application and proposed order are to be presented to the Court for decision," unless a verified certificate states that irreparable harm is imminent with insufficient time to notify, or that notice "would impair or annul the court's power to grant relief." 2.03 JUDGMENTS AND DISMISSAL ORDERS: "Within 30 days after the Court has announced a verdict or judgment or the Court receives a written announcement of settlement … counsel shall submit to the Court a proposed judgment or dismissal order"; failure "will be interpreted to mean that counsel wish the Court to enter an Order of Dismissal with prejudice." 2.07 CONFERENCE REQUIREMENT: "No counsel for a party shall file, nor shall any clerk set for hearing, any motion unless accompanied with a 'Certificate of Conference'"; before filing, movant's counsel "shall make at least three attempts to contact counsel for the potential respondent … during regular business hours on at least two business days" (four verbatim certificate forms prescribed; dispositive motions, summary judgment, defaults, and the other listed classes excepted). 2.08 SUBMISSION OF PROPOSED ORDERS: counsel seeking affirmative relief "shall be prepared to tender a proposed order to the court at the commencement of any hearing on any contested matter"; a directed post-hearing order "shall be tendered to opposing counsel at least two working days before it is submitted"; without approval or objections "within five days of the submission … the proposed order is deemed approved as to form." 2.09 BRIEFS, RESPONSES AND REPLIES: except in emergency, "briefs, responses and replies relating to a motion (other than for summary judgment) set for hearing must be served and filed … no later than three working days before the scheduled hearing"; summary-judgment briefs with the motion, opposition briefs by the response deadline, replies "no less than three days before the hearing"; "Any brief that is ten or more pages long must begin with a summary of argument." 2.11 NOTICE OF HEARING: the setting party "must serve written notice of such setting on all parties, with a copy to the Clerk of the Court, within one business day of receipt of such setting." 2.12 EFFECT OF MOTION TO QUASH DEPOSITION: a motion to quash filed and served "no later than the third day the courthouse is open after delivery of the notice of deposition, is effective to stay the deposition subject to determination of the motion." 3.01 REQUESTS TO CONTINUE TRIAL DATE: no pass/postponement/reset absent consent of all counsel or notice and opportunity to object; "After a case has been on file for one year, it shall not be reset for a party except upon written motion for continuance, personally approved by the client in writing, and granted by the Court." 3.02 ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR TRIAL: counsel "are required to make announcements to the Court Administrator on the preceding Thursday and in any event, no later than 10:30 A.M. on the preceding Friday"; plaintiff's failure to announce permits dismissal for want of prosecution; a non-announcing defendant "may be deemed … ready." 4.02 WITHDRAWAL OF COUNSEL: withdrawal only by motion and order; without client consent, the motion is mailed certified and regular mail with at least ten days' notice before presentment, and "no such motion shall be presented within 30 days of the trial date" absent leave. 4.04 VACATION LETTERS: "Any attorney may reserve up to three weeks in any calendar year" by vacation letter per case; once filed, "no hearings, depositions, or trials may be set during the reserved weeks except upon notice and hearing." 4.05 SELF-REPRESENTED/PRO SE LITIGANTS: "All requirements of these rules applicable to attorneys or counsel apply with equal force to self-represented litigants." 4.07 LOCAL RULES AND DECORUM: entering an appearance acknowledges familiarity with these Local Rules, the Rules of Decorum (Appendix 2), and The Texas Lawyers Creed (Appendix 3). 5.04 COUNTY COURT AT LAW — COUNSEL TO APPEAR AT TRIAL: "in all cases in the County Courts at Law, all parties and counsel are expected to be present at all trial settings"; untimely failure to appear "may result in the rendering of a default judgment or in dismissal." 6.01 SCOPE: "Civil District Courts" means the 14th, 44th, 68th, 95th, 101st, 116th, 134th, 160th, 162nd, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 298th District Courts; "County Courts at Law" means County Court at Law Nos. 1–5; these rules "govern and affect the conduct of the Civil District Courts and the County Courts at Law only."
Reviewer note: Operative mandatory-language provisions quoted verbatim from the registered document (unambiguous OCR letterforms normalized: TilE→THE, MATIERS→MATTERS, LEITERS→LETTERS); custody sha256 ed7a31d5890475c6eed2e3d726175d539891e462a309890d13b2ab9d82ee34d8 (doc 2852) and e41be59c8ad4f5ff6de1c5c21b93bfe8359308942403da4c3b3569e2fbaa5ded (doc 908, text-identical prior registration); the registered book's Appendix 2 (Decorum) and Appendix 3 (Lawyers Creed) are also standalone registrations 2853/2854, composed separately; the county's district-clerk page hosts the same book (Local-Rules-for-Civil-District-Courts-With-Appendixes-Included.pdf) verified text-identical (similarity 1.000 — a re-post; own-site custody sha in the crawl ledger); the 193rd hosts the identical with-appendix book (similarity 1.000), and the 134th (2014_DallasCnty_LocalRule_14-9023.pdf) and 162nd (DallasCounty_LocalRules.pdf) host the appendix-less printing carrying the Misc. Docket No. 14-9023 approval order (own-in-reg 0.974 — the rules text is contained in the composed book); a 192nd-hosted 18-page scan (New_LocalRules_for_CivilCourt.pdf) has a corrupted text layer and sits in the vision queue for identity confirmation; registered doc 1203 (29-page scan) identity-verified by vision (2026-08-28): the Supreme Court approval order Misc. Docket No. 14-9023 (dated January 2014) with the amended civil local rules attached — the same instrument this rule composes, receipted as a second registered copy.
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)).