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Rules of Court, Harris County Criminal Courts at Law (as amended through December 11, 2025) — Harris County, as registered in the statewide TOPICs local-rules registry (posted 12/22/2025). The operative requirements are quoted verbatim; the registered document is the controlling text.
Texas > Harris County > Criminal Court at Law No. 1; Criminal Court at Law No. 2; Criminal Court at Law No. 3; Criminal Court at Law No. 4; Criminal Court at Law No. 5; Criminal Court at Law No. 6; Criminal Court at Law No. 7; Criminal Court at Law No. 8; …
These rules shall not be construed as extending the jurisdiction of these courts, nor shall they be construed to overrule or conflict with the Texas Government Code, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Texas Penal Code, Texas Rules of Evidence, Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure or the ODonnell Consent Decree. … The district clerk shall not make any changes with regard to random filing, numbering of cases, docketing of cases, transfer of cases, assignment of settings, or any other matters that affect the distribution of work or the conduct of the business of the Harris County Criminal Courts at Law unless so directed by the Judges of the County Criminal Courts at Law. … The following rules shall govern the assignment of misdemeanor cases and other matters within the jurisdiction of the County Criminal Courts at Law of Harris County, Texas. … Each criminal and civil case filed and docketed into the county criminal courts at law shall be assigned a sequential number based on the following case number structure. … Beginning January 1, 2000, case numbers shall consist of seven numerical digits, the first case number filed on January 1, 2000, shall be “0978400.” Case numbers shall continue sequentially thereafter, which scheme shall allow cases to be numbered through 9,999,999. … All misdemeanor proceedings filed with the district clerk shall be randomly assigned by the district clerk to the various county criminal courts at law. … This shall be accomplished by means of a blind filing process that provides for the equal distribution of new cases in such a manner that it cannot be determined to which court a case will be assigned until after the assignment occurs. … To accomplish this, the district clerk shall assign 4 cases to the County Criminal Court at Law to which the presiding judge is elected for every 5 cases assigned to each other County Criminal Court at Law. … The primary means of assignment of cases shall be through the use of a computer program that provides for the random assignment and equal distribution of cases. … The computer program shall be capable of maintaining a journal of filings and distribution of cases that will permit periodic or random audit to determine whether the program is assigning cases as intended. … If the primary means of assignment, the computer program, is not available, the district clerk’s office shall use the manual random selection device for the filing of cases into the county criminal courts at law. … Prior to each case assignment, the random selection device shall be rotated on its axis, and one ball therein shall be withdrawn. … The court number indicated on the ball randomly chosen shall become the assigned court for the case. … The district clerk shall add the ball back into the random selection device immediately, so as to not disturb the random filing and docketing of all other cases into the county criminal courts at law. … The clerk shall receive, assign and account for all cases in ascending numerical sequence. … Before using the computer program or the manual random selection device to determine court assignment for a given case, the district clerk shall determine by research whether the defendant named in the misdemeanor information has a prior connection to an existing case in any of the county criminal courts at law. … If one of the above prior connections exists, the new misdemeanor case shall be attracted to the court in which the defendant has the prior connection. … If more than one prior connection exists, the new misdemeanor case shall be attracted to the court involved in the prior connection appearing first as listed above. … If a defendant has a pending case and is charged with a new case that would attract to a different court under these rules, all pending cases shall transfer to the different court (see Rule 3). …
Reviewer note: Operative mandatory-language provisions quoted verbatim from the registered document; the full document (sha256 f2a95d1373ac…) is the controlling text. This edition supersedes the editions registered as TOPICs docs 706, 2331, and 2616.
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