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The county-wide master administration rules of the Jefferson County district and statutory county courts (Gov’t Code sec. 74.093, amended Oct. 4, 2024): four court divisions — Civil (58th, 60th, 136th, 172nd District Courts + County Court at Law No. 1), Probate (constitutional County Court), Family Law/Juvenile (279th and 317th District Courts), and Criminal (Criminal District Court, 252nd, and County Courts at Law No. 2 and No. 3); the clerks assign cases by subject matter and jurisdiction per the divisions (child-welfare cases to the 279th, juvenile-delinquency to the 317th); cross-division transfers with affected-court consent; felony transfers to the Felony Drug Court or a civil district court with the civil judge’s consent; and assigned-judge coverage on a requesting judge’s vacation/illness/conference with the receiving judge’s consent.
Texas > Jefferson County > all district and statutory county courts (the Board-of-Judges master administration rules). Supersedes prior editions (docs 430, 1850, 1957).
LOCAL RULES OF ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT AND STATUTORY COUNTY COURTS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS (Amended October 4, 2024) 1. These rules are promulgated In accordance with Texas Government Code 74.093. 2. Court divisions are established as follows: Civil, Probate, Family Law/Juvenile and Criminal. 3. Courts are assigned to each division as follows: a. 58th, 60th, 136th and 172nd District Courts and County Court at Law No. 1 – Civil Division b. Constitutional County Court – Probate Division c. 279th and 317th District Courts – Family Law/Juvenile Division d. Criminal District Court, 252nd, County Court at Law No. 2 and County Court at Law No. 3 –Criminal Division 4. a. The District Clerk and County Clerk shall assign cases by subject matter and jurisdiction pursuant to paragraph 3 above. Cases may be transferred or assigned to courts in other divisions subject to the approval of the courts affected. b. In addition to assigning family law cases to the 279th and 317th District Courts, the District Clerk shall assign child welfare case to the 279th District Court and juvenile delinquency cases to the 317th District Court. 5. Felony cases may be transferred or assigned by the Criminal District Court and the 252nd District Court to the Felony Drug Court and/or any Jefferson County civil district court with general jurisdiction with the consent of the affected civil district judge. 6. A judge may request another sitting judge in the county with the same subject matter jurisdiction to be assigned to preside over the requesting judge's court due to vacation, illness, attendance at a conference or other reasonable reason of the requesting judge so long as the receiving judge gives her or his consent. 7. Judges in each division may approve the transfer of cases to courts within the division to ensure there is a fair and equitable distribution of cases within the division with the consent of the courts affected. 8. a. The local administrative district judge will maintain a list for the transfer of cases due to recusals for district courts. The list in order is as follows: (1) 58th District Court, (2) 60th District Court, (3) 136th District Court, and (4) 172nd District Court. After each transfer, the next court in line is subject to the next transfer. If a judge in the civil division voluntarily recuses herself/himself from a case, the local administrative judge shall assign the case to a judge next in line on the recusal list. b. A voluntary recusal by a family law/juvenile district court will result in the case being transferred to the other family law/juvenile district court. c. A voluntary recusal by a felony district court will result in the case being transferred to the other felony district court. A voluntary recusal by a misdemeanor county court will result in the case being transferred to the other a misdemeanor county court. If there is a voluntary recusal in both misdemeanor county courts, the case will be transferred to the Criminal District Court. d. A voluntary recusal by the constitutional county court of a probate matter will result in a transfer to the County Court at Law No. 1. A voluntary recusal by the County Court at Law No. 1 will result in an assignment to a civil district court judge pursuant to the civil district court transfer rule in this paragraph if there is overlapping subject matter jurisdiction. 9. Judges shall hold court at least once a week or at intervals that will result in efficient court administration. 10. Court may promulgate local rules, forms and standing orders shall not be in conflict with other rules or statutes. 11. These local rules of administration or amendments shall be subject to the approval of the majority of the Jefferson County district, statutory county and constitutional county judges. 12. These local rules of administration have been approved by a majority of the district, statutory county and constitutional county judges and are effective June 4, 2024. Signed on the 4th day of October, 2024. [signature] Randy Shelton, Local Administrative District Judge
LOCAL RULES OF ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT AND STATUTORY COUNTY COURTS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS (Amended October 4, 2024) 1. These rules are promulgated In accordance with Texas Government Code 74.093. 2. Court divisions are established as follows: Civil, Probate, Family Law/Juvenile and Criminal. 3. Courts are assigned to each division as follows: a. 58th, 60th, 136th and 172nd District Cou
Reviewer note: Image-only registration read through the vision lane; divisions/assignments/transfer provisions quoted verbatim. The three prior editions (430, 1850, 1957) folded as superseded. Composed benchpath-ajr2-jefferson. [TRANSCRIBED BY EYE 2026-09-21 (corpus-0920 P12): every page of the registered file (sha256 4dbce5d8778a..., 2 page(s), image-only scan; the OCR layer used as a typing base and corrected word by word from the page) read against the rendered file; verbatim, source typos kept, stamps/signatures bracketed; the earlier abstract replaced by the full instrument; confidence high. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p12-2026-09-21]