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Notice of Court Procedures for In-Person Eviction Trials — Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 3 (April 2022) — posted on the court's own website — the court-procedure tier (standing procedures, policies, and preferences the court itself publishes), distinct from the TOPICs-registered local-rules tier (TRCP 3a registration applies to local rules). Operative requirements quoted verbatim; the posted document is the controlling text.
Texas > Harris County > Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 3
NOTICE OF COURT PROCEDURES FOR IN-PERSON EVICTION TRIALS Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Harris County Civil Courts at Law have conducted eviction trials solely by Zoom. In the continuing spirit of ensuring equal access to justice and effective administration of our dockets, beginning April 18, 2022 and with adequate safety measures in place, County Civil Court at Law 3 is returning to in-person appearances for eviction trials. Please note that at this time, CCL3 is the only court returning to in-person appearances. There is no exception for attorneys to appear by Zoom. Any special considerations must be presented to the Court by written motion just as they were prior to Covid- 19, consistent with civil rules of procedure. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU COME TO COURT: • Docket call and check-in will happen in the hallway. • At check-in, both parties in each case will be instructed to confer with each other before trial. Since CCL3 is the only court holding in person appearances, the ready rooms in each courtroom will be available to parties on a first come, first served basis. • After the parties confer, they will inform the court that they have done so and will be placed in the line-up for cases to be called to trial. • Where one party fails to appear, a default hearing will go before the other cases. In other words, defaults will take place first in the line-up for cases called. • After the default trials, the court will call five (5) cases at a time into the courtroom. • Pursuant to the Local Administrative Order, masks will be required. Lawyers and witnesses can remove their masks when they are speaking. • Trials will take place at the bench, including presenting witnesses. If there are multiple witnesses, the Court may choose to use the witness box. • A default or dismissal shall be entered if a party fails to check-in within 15 minutes of the beginning of docket call. As always, we are grateful for your commitment to access to justice for Harris County tenants and landlords. Please reach out to the trial coordinator Vanessa Richardson if you have any questions or concerns. April 2022
Reviewer note: Own-site content fetched by us 2026-08-22 (Phase 3 justex/page sweep; hashed receipts in custody). Complete document text quoted verbatim (whitespace-normalized); the posted document is the controlling text. April 2022 return-to-in-person procedures for eviction trials; CCL3 noted as the only court then returning in person.
17 verbatim requirements extracted from 4243-01__2021-05.pdf, across 4 topics.
Judge Eckley-Moulder's courtroom policies (court starts 9:30 sharp): at the Final Pre-Trial, all trial counsel and the defendant must be physically present, phones silenced, and no recording without media clearance.