Local Rules of Procedure and Rules of Decorum for the Justice of the Peace Court Precinct Five - Lindale (Smith County; effective October 1, 2024)

High confidence· verified September 20, 2026Local RulesLocal Rules of Procedure and Rules of Decorum for the Justice of the Peace Court Precinct Five - Lindale, Texas, Smith County, Texas, effective October 1, 2024. TOPICs registration 2087 (Smith County, Local Rules).

Summary

Local rules of Smith County Justice Court Precinct 5 under Gov't Code § 27.061: objective, scope and the justice courts' jurisdiction (civil cases up to $20,000, evictions, administrative hearings, fine-only criminal cases); organization by five precincts, weekly dockets, bench exchange and electronic jury selection; rules of decorum (unacceptable attire; nine courtroom conduct rules including no weapons, punctuality, rising for the judge, no food or drink, phones off; self-represented parties must be prepared - the court does not instruct on evidence or procedure; no video or audio recording without judicial approval); civil cases (filing where a defendant resides and evictions where the premises are, prompt settings and pre-trial conferences, written jury demand with the fee paid on filing, holidays); criminal cases (filing in the precinct of the offense, school-attendance cases in any precinct of the filing school district, first appearance per the citation, pleas of guilty or no contest at any time except by defendants under 17 and minors charged with alcohol violations, who appear with a parent or guardian; a list of standard fines is available from the court).

Applies to

Texas > Tenth Administrative Judicial Region > Smith County > Justice of the Peace Precinct 5 Place 1 (Lindale). By their own terms the rules govern cases filed in the Justice Court, Precinct 5 of Smith County, effective October 1, 2024.

Source of truth

LOCAL RULES OF PROCEDURE AND RULES OF DECORUM FOR THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE COURT PRECINCT FIVE - LINDALE, TEXAS SMITH COUNTY, TEXAS EFFECTIVE October 1, 2024 1.1 Objective. In accordance with Sec. 27.061 of the Texas Government Code, these rules are promulgated to provide a uniform system for the fair, impartial and prompt disposition of matters properly before the Justice Courts of Smith County

Official source: TOPICs — Texas local rules registry (topics.txcourts.gov)
Source health: Healthy · checked September 24, 2026
Effective date: October 1, 2024
Last verified: September 20, 2026benchpath-tx-ajr10-p2-2026-09-19

Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-19 (AJR-10 Tenth Region build) from BenchPath custody sources/registered/2087.pdf (application/pdf, 716980 bytes, sha256 607ea84441c8f2c5b13fdde0859c7b320c495cfc3bd1928c922766e856708892; 3 pages) - the TOPICs-registered document: transcribed by eye from the rendered pages of the scanned PDF (no text layer in the file was relied on), machine OCR draft corrected page by page; signature and file-stamp blocks bracketed. Three-page scan read by eye; typed from the pages and diffed against an independent OCR pass; page numbers dropped. No file stamp; the rules carry their effective date in the title. Printed as on the instrument: 'in proper manner', 'and is elicited and quoting from facts in the case', 'the first business date following the holiday', 'Section 27.031-27.034'. [judge-procedure lane 2026-09-20: attached to Danny W. Brown as the sole sitting judge of the Justice of the Peace Precinct 5 Place 1 (Smith County); operative court procedure, attribution by current seat.]

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