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The district courts' rules for self-represented divorce litigants in Jackson County: court staff cannot give legal advice; pleadings and decrees must be neat, fully completed with no blanks, stripped of inapplicable form language and printed on 8½ × 11 paper; vehicles identified by make, model year and VIN and real estate by legal description and lienholder; decrees with children must provide custody, a possession schedule, health insurance, guideline child support (rarely waivable), paternity orders for children not of the spouse and certified copies of prior orders; the vital-statistics form completed before the hearing; decrees submitted to the judge at docket call on the final hearing date; settings obtained through the Jackson County District Clerk; the clerk provides the instructions to every pro se petitioner.
Applies to self-represented parties in divorce cases before the 24th, 135th, 267th and 377th District Courts sitting in Jackson County (settings through the Jackson County District Clerk, 361-782-6151). Each county's clerk posts its own edition of the same May 31, 2017 instructions; the courts re-issued the instructions for Victoria County in 2025 (published on Victoria). Procedural information only; not legal advice.
INSTRUCTIONS TO PRO SE LITIGANTS IN DIVORCE CASES PLEASE READ COMPLETELY Court Administrators, Court Coordinators, nor any personnel of the District Clerk's office can practice law or give you any type of legal advice. Please do not ask them to do so. If you choose to represent yourself in a divorce, you MUST comply with the following Court rules before asking the Court to grant a divorce: 1. ALL pleadings and Court orders MUST appear neat, clean, with no smudges or strike-overs. 2. ALL fill in the blank pleadings and decrees MUST be FULLY filled in. NO BLANKS. 3. If anything contained in the forms you are using do not apply to you and your spouse, DO NOT include them in your petition or your decree. 4. All pleadings and decrees MUST be printed on 8 ½ X 11 inch paper. 5. If your divorce involves motor vehicles, you MUST describe the vehicle by manufacturer, model year, and vehicle I.D. number. 6. If the divorce/decree involves real estate, you MUST include the proper legal description of the real estate and information concerning the bank or lien holder. 7. If children were born during the marriage, the decree MUST include the following: a. Provision for custody of the children and with whom they will live. b. A schedule of visitation (possession order). c. Provision for the children to be covered by health insurance, and must identify the parent who is ordered to provide and pay for health insurance. d. Provision for child support in accordance with the guidelines in the Texas Family Code. CHILD SUPPORT CANNOT BE WAIVED without approval of the Court which will rarely be given. e. If a child is not the child of the spouse but was born during the marriage, the child MUST be listed in the decree and paternity MUST be established by a prior court order. A certified copy of the court order MUST be presented to the Court. f. If there is a prior court order which governs possession and access to a child or child support, a certified copy of that order MUST be presented to the Court. 8. Obtain the Bureau of Vital Statistics form from the District Clerk's office and have it completely filled out before you come to court for your divorce. 9. ALL Decrees of Divorce MUST be submitted to the Judge hearing the case upon the call of the docket on the final hearing date. 10. All Court settings shall be obtained by calling the Jackson County District Clerk's office at 361-782-6151. The District Clerk's office shall provide a copy of these instructions to all parties filing a pro se divorce petition. SIGNED AND ORDERED THIS THE 31st DAY OF May, 2017. [the day and month handwritten] [signatures] Kemper Stephen Williams, District Judge, 135th Judicial District; Jack W. Marr, District Judge, 24th Judicial District; Bobby Bell, District Judge, 267th Judicial District; Eli E. Garza, District Judge, 377th Judicial District
INSTRUCTIONS TO PRO SE LITIGANTS IN DIVORCE CASES PLEASE READ COMPLETELY Court Administrators, Court Coordinators, nor any personnel of the District Clerk's office can practice law or give you any type of legal advice. Please do not ask them to do so. If you choose to represent yourself in a divorce, you MUST comply with the following Court rules before asking the Court to grant a divorce: 1. ALL
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-08 by vision-lane transcription of the two-page image-only posting (custody sha 3c304ce5…). Four signers, two of them no longer on the bench (Marr, Bell), so no judge join. The Jackson County edition of the courts' 2017 instructions (the Calhoun edition is registered on TOPICs; the 2025 Victoria re-issue is published on Victoria).
In justice-court eviction cases: the citation sets a personal-appearance trial day not less than 10 nor more than 21 days after the petition is filed; a written answer is permitted but NOT required (appearing on the trial day is what matters); no trial may be held until 4 days after service; and an appeal must be perfected within 5 days after the judgment is signed.
Policy Regarding Pro Se Applicants — Harris County Probate Courts (Probate Court No. 1 posting) — 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.
Policy Regarding Pro Se Applicants — Harris County Probate Courts (Probate Court No. 5 posting) — 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.
Pro Se Litigants — 246th District Court — 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). Complete resource list transcribed from the posted document; the posted document is the controlling text.