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Policies and Procedures for Hearings via Zoom — Harris County Family District Courts — 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 > Family Trial Division district courts
Harris County Family District Court's Policies and Procedures for Hearings via Zoom. Non-essential matters (that cannot be heard by submission) may be set, by agreement of all parties, via Zoom. Steps: obtain agreement from all parties (a Rule 11 agreement can be filed to show it); schedule a Zoom hearing date and time by contacting the Court; upon confirmation, contact the court coordinator for the Zoom link and Meeting ID; the scheduling party is responsible for noticing other parties — the notice of hearing must be e-filed and must state the parties agree to the Zoom setting and contain the Zoom conference details generated by the coordinator. Policies: the scheduling party is responsible for noticing; cancel the setting online if no longer needed; local rules and Family Code requirements for filings and pre-exchange of materials/exhibits still apply — e-file your exhibit list before the Zoom hearing; parties are responsible for the logistics of their remote appearance, and unresolved technical difficulties may result in the hearing being passed or, if due to lack of familiarity with Zoom, a failure to appear; scheduling of a non-essential hearing is only allowed after the respondent has appeared and any required mediation has been scheduled to occur before the requested date; do not e-file exhibits (it does not make them part of the record except for a summary judgment motion); exhibits for a Zoom hearing should be sent to the court reporter — see each Court's justex website for specific instructions. Participating: attorneys are expected to appear by video; video activates and audio mutes on entry; hearings are transcribed on request (complete the record request form); only people on video will be permitted to testify unless in the physical presence of a notary public; private lawyer-client conferral is available through the chat/breakout process, but chat communication is prohibited during client testimony and with witnesses; witnesses are only in the virtual courtroom while testifying and may not hold notes while testifying; exhibits must be submitted to the coordinator and court reporter at least two business days before the hearing in PDF/JPG/PNG/MP4 formats, named in number format (P-1, R-1); combined exhibits of 50 pages or more require arrangements for physical delivery; a record job request form accompanies exhibits when a record is requested; all Zoom hearings are subject to additional instructions from the court.
Reviewer note: Own-site content fetched by us 2026-08-22 (Phase 3 justex/page sweep; hashed receipts in custody). Operative provisions transcribed by vision-read of the posted scanned document (170-dpi rasterization); the posted document is the controlling text. Family-division-wide Zoom procedures posted on the family courts' justex pages.
3 verbatim requirements on remote appearances in CALEB S. JOHNSTON's division.
6 verbatim requirements on remote appearances in MICHAEL G. KAPLAN's division.