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The Supreme Court-adopted Rules Governing the Recording and Broadcasting of Court Proceedings in the Civil Courts of Dallas County (Misc. Docket No. 92-0067, signed March 11, 1992, adopted under TRCP 18c at the civil courts’ request): prior-day written media notice with binding-guidelines acknowledgment, objection hearings with written allow/deny/limit orders, prohibited-coverage classes (chambers, closed proceedings, jury selection, privileged conferences, jurors), the one-TV/one-still-camera equipment standard with a three-person crew cap, no-delay and pooling rules, the not-official-record rule, and judicial-order enforcement with access bars.
Texas > Dallas County > the civil-docket district courts, County Courts at Law, probate courts, and justice of the peace courts (per the rules' own scope clause)
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS Misc. Docket No. 92-0067 ADOPTION OF RULES FOR RECORDING AND BROADCASTING COURT PROCEEDINGS IN THE CIVIL COURTS OF DALLAS COUNTY ORDERED: At the request of the civil courts of Dallas County, the attached rules are adopted governing the recording and broadcasting of civil proceedings in those courts. TEX. R. CIV. P. 18c; TEX. R. APP. P. 21. This Order shall be effective for each such court when it has recorded the Order in its minutes and complied with Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 3a(4). SIGNED AND ENTERED this 11th [handwritten] day of March [handwritten], 1992. [signature] Thomas R. Phillips, Chief Justice [signature] Raul A. Gonzalez, Justice [signature] Oscar H. Mauzy, Justice [signature] Eugene A. Cook, Justice [signature] Jack Hightower, Justice [signature] Nathan L. Hecht, Justice [signature] Lloyd Doggett, Justice [signature] John Cornyn, Justice [signature] Bob Gammage, Justice RULES GOVERNING THE RECORDING AND BROADCASTING OF COURT PROCEEDINGS IN THE CIVIL COURTS OF DALLAS COUNTY Pursuant to Rule 18c(a) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the following rules govern the recording and broadcasting of court proceedings in those district courts, county courts at law, probate courts, and justice of the peace courts of Dallas County whose dockets consist primarily of matters and cases which are not criminal. 1. Policy. The policy of these rules is to allow electronic media coverage of public civil court proceedings to facilitate the free flow of information to the public concerning the judicial system and to foster better public understanding about the administration of justice. These rules are to be construed to provide the greatest access possible while at the same time maintaining the dignity, decorum and impartiality of the court proceeding. 2. Definitions. Certain terms are defined for purposes of these rules as follows. 2.1. "Court" means the particular judge or master who is presiding over the proceeding. 2.2. "Electronic media coverage" means any recording or broadcasting of court proceedings by the media using television, radio, photographic or recording equipment. 2.3. "Media" or "media agency" means any person or organization engaging in news gathering or reporting and includes any newspaper, radio or television station or network, news service, magazine, trade paper, in-house publication, professional journal, or other news reporting or news gathering agency. 3. Electronic media coverage permitted. 3.1. Electronic media coverage is allowed in the courtroom only as permitted by Rule 18c of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and these rules. 3.2 If electronic media coverage is of investiture or ceremonial proceedings as allowed by Rule 18c(c) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, permission for, and the manner of such coverage, are determined solely by the court, with or without guidance from these rules. If electronic media coverage is for other than investiture or ceremonial proceedings, that is, under Rule 18c(a) or (b) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the provisions of these rules shall govern. 3.3 Electronic media coverage under Rule 18c(a) or (b) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure is permitted only after written notice filed with the district clerk or county clerk, as applicable, and served on the parties to the proceeding no later than the day prior to the scheduled proceeding unless the proceeding is set on less than a day's notice in which case the notice shall be filed as soon as practicable. Such notice shall be signed by an authorized media representative and acknowledge that such media has received a copy of these guidelines and that these guidelines are binding upon it. Upon the filing of such notice and prior to the commencement of the proceeding, any party may request a hearing on objections to such coverage. Objections to media coverage should not be conclusory but should state the specific and demonstrable injury alleged to result from media coverage. The hearing shall be held at such a time so as not to substantially delay the proceedings. The court shall, by written order, either allow, deny or limit coverage. If the court denies coverage, it shall set forth in its order the findings upon which such denial is based. The court has the discretion to allow, deny, limit or terminate electronic media coverage of a proceeding when it is in the interests of justice to protect the rights of the parties, witnesses, or the dignity of the court, or to assure the orderly conduct of the proceedings, or for any other reason considered necessary or appropriate by the court. 4. Electronic media coverage prohibited. 4.1. Electronic media coverage of proceedings held in chambers, proceedings closed to the public, and jury selection is prohibited. Conferences between an attorney and client, witness or aide, between attorneys, or between counsel and the court at the bench shall not be recorded or received by sound equipment. 4.2. Filming, photographing or recording jurors or alternate jurors in the courtroom or in the jury deliberation room is prohibited. 4.3. Because of the routine occurrence of sensitive matters occurring in the courts, juvenile and family courts may establish and publish additional policies regarding electronic media coverage of certain types of proceedings in their courts. Under Title 3 of the Family Code, juvenile respondents are afforded confidentiality in delinquency cases. These rules recognize that there may likely be no proper circumstance for allowing media coverage in delinquency cases under the current state of the law. 5. Equipment and personnel. The court may require media personnel to demonstrate that proposed equipment complies with these rules. The court may specify the placement of media personnel and equipment to permit reasonable coverage without disruption to the proceedings. Unless the court in its discretion, and for good cause orders otherwise, the following standards apply to electronic media coverage. 5.1. One television camera and one still camera, with a combined crew of no more than three persons, are allowed; in the event the electronic media makes known to the court its intent to cover any entire or lengthy proceeding, or in other appropriate circumstances, the court in its discretion may allow an unmanned second camera into the courtroom. 5.2. Equipment shall not produce distracting sound or light. Signal lights or devices which show when equipment is operating shall not be visible. Moving lights, flash attachments, or sudden lighting changes shall not be used. 5.3. Existing courtroom sound and lighting systems shall be used without modification unless approved by the trial court. Microphones and wiring shall be unobtrusively located in places approved by the court. 5.4. Operators shall not move equipment while the court is in session, or otherwise cause a distraction. All equipment shall be in place in advance of the commencement of the proceeding or session that is the subject of the coverage. 6. Delay of proceedings. No proceeding or session will be delayed or continued for the sole purpose of allowing media coverage unless allowed by the court. 7. Pooling. If more than one media agency of one type wish to cover a proceeding or session, they shall make pool arrangements and designate a pool coordinator to interact with the court. If they are unable to agree, the court may deny all electronic media coverage by that type of media agency. 8. Official record. Films, videotapes, photographs or audio reproductions made in court proceedings shall not be considered as part of the official court record. 9. Enforcement. In any proceeding to which they apply, these rules shall have the force and effect of a judicial order and may be enforced by the court as allowed by law. A violation by the electronic media may be sanctioned by appropriate measures, including, without limitation, barring the particular media from access to future electronic media coverage of proceedings in that courtroom for a defined period of time. [Transmittal letter filed with the order] THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS, P.O. Box 12248, Austin, Texas 78711, Tel: (512) 463-1312, Fax: (512) 463-1365 — Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips; Justices Raul A. Gonzalez, Oscar H. Mauzy, Eugene A. Cook, Jack Hightower, Nathan L. Hecht, Lloyd Doggett, John Cornyn, Robert A. "Bob" Gammage; Clerk John T. Adams; Executive Ass't. William L. Willis; Administrative Ass't. Mary Ann Defibaugh March 16, 1992 Mr. Earl Bullock, Dallas County Clerk, 500 Main Street, Dallas, Texas 75202 Dear Mr. Bullock, Please find a copy of the order of this Court of March 11, 1992, that approves local rules for the civil courts of Dallas County. Please note that the Supreme Court has been approving local rules provisionally. The Court believes that the Uniform Local Rules Committee is nearing completion of its task. You may therefore be asked to further amend your local rules in the not too distant future. Sincerely, SIGNED John T. Adams, Clerk Encl. cc: Hon. Pat McDowell, 1st Admin Judicial Dist; District Clerk; Mr. Ray Judice, Office of Court Admin; State Law Library; Chmn Supreme Ct Adv Committee
Reviewer note: VISION-COMPLETED 2026-08-28: registered doc 2855’s scan defeated OCR (composition initially reconstructed from the 192nd’s citation), and registered doc 1202 — a cleaner registered copy of the same instrument — was rendered page-by-page and read, yielding the full verbatim rules composed here; the signature page shows "SIGNED AND ENTERED this 11th day of March, 1992" over the nine justices (Phillips, C.J.), fixing the effective date (previously recorded 1992-03-16 from the scan’s docket stamp); both registered custody shas in the registry ledger (docs 2855, 1202). [RECOMPOSED 2026-09-21 (corpus-0920 P7, digital-layer lane): the full text of the registered file (sha256 123769fd78a5..., 6 pages) replaces the earlier 3,838-character abstract. Method: pypdfium2 text layer reflowed page-aware, cross-checked word-by-word against PyMuPDF (4 substantive difference(s), 0 page-furniture), owner-corpus candidate sentences 95% (20/21) matched, 0 running header/footer line(s) removed, no U+FFFD/U+FFFE/form-feed debris. NOT yet checked page by page against the render, so confidence is medium with an open re-verification task; flip to high when a reviewer has read every page against the PDF. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p7-2026-09-21] [BY-EYE CHECK 2026-09-21 (corpus-0920 P11): every page of the registered file (sha256 123769fd78a5..., 6 page(s)) read against the rendered PDF; file-stamp, caption and signature-block defects of the text layer corrected from the render; confidence lifted to high. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p11-2026-09-21]
Standing order of the 109th Judicial District Court for every pending or later-filed case in Andrews, Winkler and Crane Counties: any attorney or self-represented litigant who uses any form of artificial intelligence for legal research or drafting in a case must, before using AI-generated information in a court submission or proceeding, sign and submit the court's certification form stating that all language, quotations, sources, citations, arguments and legal analysis created or contributed to by generative AI were verified as accurate by a human through traditional (non-AI) legal sources, and acknowledging responsibility and potential sanctions for their or their co-counsel's failure to comply. Effective immediately; in effect until rescinded or replaced.
Standing order of the 109th Judicial District Court for every pending or later-filed case in Andrews, Winkler and Crane Counties: any attorney or self-represented litigant who uses any form of artificial intelligence for legal research or drafting in a case must, before using AI-generated information in a court submission or proceeding, sign and submit the court's certification form stating that all language, quotations, sources, citations, arguments and legal analysis created or contributed to by generative AI were verified as accurate by a human through traditional (non-AI) legal sources, and acknowledging responsibility and potential sanctions for their or their co-counsel's failure to comply. Effective immediately; in effect until rescinded or replaced.