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The 387th Judicial District Court Rules of Practice (adopted April 1, 2026) — Fort Bend County. The operative requirements are quoted verbatim from the governing document (registered/posted 2026-07-20 (posted)); the document in custody is the controlling text.
Texas > Fort Bend County > 387th District Court
These Rules of Practice apply to all legal proceedings in the 387th Judicial District Court, effective January 1, 2025, until further ordered, and apply equally to attorneys and self-represented litigants. … The court is paperless; documents shall be filed with the District Clerk. All communication with the Court shall be through the court coordinator (387thHearings@FortBendCountyTX.gov), including opposing counsel and self-represented litigants except for hearing-date requests. … DOCKET CONTROL ORDERS: for all cases filed on or after November 1, 2025, a Docket Control Order is automatically attached to the case file thirty days from filing and mailed to the litigants, and a trial date shall be assigned: divorce with no children — trial set six months after filing; divorce with children — nine months; modifications — nine months. Cases filed before November 1, 2025 are assigned trial dates by the Court (trial within one year of an original suit; within six months of a modification). … ALL hearings except original filings shall be scheduled through the court's online scheduler (Schedulista); Orders to Appear will not be signed unless a scheduled hearing date is inserted before filing. ALL hearings and trials are in person except the Friday Zoom docket and the submission docket; no hybrid hearings. Docket call is at 9:00 a.m.; pass, conflict, and late-appearance announcements go to 387Late@FortBendCountyTX.gov before 9:00 a.m. with cause number and reason — without a reasonable excuse the Court may deduct the delay from the late party's hearing time. … RECORDINGS OF ANY COURT PROCEEDING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND A VIOLATION OF STATE LAW; recording Zoom proceedings is strictly forbidden and may result in contempt. … Mediation is required prior to temporary-orders hearings where conservatorship, possession and access, or geographical restriction is contested and prior to any temporary-orders hearing estimated over one hour, unless waived; mediation is required prior to trial except for applications for protective orders, motions for enforcement, contempt actions, and no-answer defaults; the mediator's report and MSA must be filed. … For temporary-orders hearings involving child or spousal support the parties SHALL exchange by 12:00 noon on the business day before the hearing the Financial Information Statement, two years' income tax returns, the two most recent payroll stubs, and proposed support calculations; for all temporary-orders hearings, proposed requested relief by the same deadline; this rule constitutes a discovery request. For final trial: final sworn inventory, FIS, Family Code financial information, proposed child-support calculation, proposed division of property, and proposed requested relief exchanged no later than ten days before trial; sworn inventories in column format showing community and claimed-separate net worth; THE ABOVE MUST BE SUBMITTED TO THE COURT DURING TRIAL. … Exhibit and witness lists shall be exchanged and filed by 12:00 noon the business day before any hearing or trial; exhibits pre-marked with numbers only. Temporary-orders hearings are limited to 1.5 hours (3 hours with contested parent-child issues). Pretrial conferences are mandatory for jury trials (≥7 days before trial; jury-trial-preparation information exchanged ≥3 days before the conference) and for adoptions (in person). Final trials before the Associate Judge require a filed Stipulated Waiver of Appeal. … The Friday Zoom Docket (9:00 a.m.) hears agreed divorce and SAPCR prove-ups, uncontested prove-ups, and contested entries of order only. The Thursday Self-Represented Litigant Docket (8:30 a.m., Judge Abraham, Courtroom 3-J) hears prove-ups of uncontested matters for unrepresented litigants only, with 72-hour signup and filing deadlines; no default judgments. The Submission Docket (Fridays 9:00 a.m.) hears the enumerated motions with 10-day notice, 3-day responses, opposed/unopposed captions, and certificates of conference. … Entry dates are set at rendition or after announced agreement (Fridays 9:00 a.m. by Zoom or submission); proposed orders to all sides five days before entry; objections by 12:00 noon the day before; ALL orders must be signed as APPROVED TO FORM; failure to file a proposed order by the entry date may result in dismissal. DWOP may result from failure to mediate, failure to appear at scheduled pretrial conferences, failure of the Petitioner/Movant to appear for trial, or failure to file the proposed final order by the entry date; Motions to Retain MUST be set for oral hearing before the DWOP docket date. … Court appointments require the annual Application for Court Appointments submitted by January 31 each year; absent agreement the Court utilizes the wheel. Parties have the right to request a de novo hearing before the District Judge under TFC § 201.015 (including IV-D cases, § 201.1042, and CPS cases heard in the Coastal Bend Children Court, § 201.2042); the associate judge may refer complex cases back under § 201.204, and ALL cases where termination is at issue on final trial are complex. … DISCOVERY DISPUTES (TRCP 190-215): before filing any discovery motion (except motions to quash under TRCP 199.4 and similar time-sensitive rules), the party seeking relief must file a letter summarizing the dispute (≤700 words) with a certification of personal consultation (≤300 words); any response letter within seven days (≤700 words, certificate ≤200 words); no replies absent leave; the Court may schedule a telephone conference, order briefing, or rule; matters may be assigned to a Discovery Master appointed by the Court. Adopted by the 387th Judicial District Court and signed April 1, 2026 — Oscar M. Telfair III, Presiding Judge; Jetty Abraham, Associate Judge.
Reviewer note: Operative provisions transcribed verbatim by vision-read of the posted scanned document (rasterized at 170 dpi and read page-by-page this session); the posted document (sha256 1701f5aa17b4…) is the controlling text. Supersedes the 2022 Heppard-era Rules of Practice (TOPICs doc 598), the January 4, 2021 Amended Rules, and the COVID-era policies. Full transcript retained in fb-transcripts/387th-telfair-rules.md.
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