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The district judges' 2025 instructions to self-represented divorce litigants in Victoria County: pleadings and decrees must be neat, fully completed one-sided 8½×11 forms with inapplicable provisions removed; vehicles and real estate must be described by identifier and legal description; decrees with children must provide conservatorship, a possession schedule, health insurance and guideline child support (which cannot be waived without the Court's rare approval), with certified copies of any prior paternity or possession orders presented at the final hearing; the completed final decree must be submitted when the docket is called; settings are obtained from the court coordinator only after service and the answer date (or an answer or waiver) — the Court never sets cases on its own and unfinished cases go to the dismissal docket; the District Clerk gives a copy to every pro se filer. Court staff cannot give legal advice.
Applies to self-represented parties in divorce cases before the 24th, 135th, 267th and 377th District Courts sitting in Victoria County (settings through the Victoria County court coordinator). This is the 2025 Victoria edition of the instructions the same courts issued for Calhoun County in 2017 (published from TOPICs doc 864) and for DeWitt County; each county's edition carries its own clerk and coordinator contacts. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
INSTRUCTIONS TO PRO SE LITIGANTS IN DIVORCE CASES PLEASE READ COMPLETELY [File stamp: FILED 2025 AUG -7 AM 11:41, District Clerk, Victoria County, Texas] THE JUDGES, 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 – 1 SIDED ONLY. 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, either here or in another county, or a properly filed Acknowledgment of Paternity. A certified copy of the court order or Acknowledgment of Paternity MUST be presented to the Court on the day of the final divorce hearing. f. If there is a prior court order, either here or in another county, which governs possession and access to a child or child support, a certified copy of that order MUST be presented to the Court on the day of the final divorce hearing. 8. ALL Final Decrees of Divorce MUST be fully completed prior to your arrival at the final divorce hearing and submitted to the Judge hearing the case upon the call of the docket on the final hearing date. If a Final Decree of Divorce is not presented to the Judge in written form or does not comply with the instructions set forth above, it could result in your case being reset in order for you to correct any deficiencies. 9. The final divorce hearing can be set once service has been completed and the answer date has expired or when Respondent's Answer or Waiver of Citation is on file. All Court settings shall be obtained by calling the court coordinator at 361-575-2351, or by e-mail to sroskey@vctx.org. Please note, the Court does not automatically set cases for final hearing, nor will the Court reach out to you to schedule a final hearing. It is your responsibility to contact the Court to schedule any and all hearings needed. If a case remains pending without final disposition, it will be put on a dismissal docket and will eventually be dismissed if not finalized. 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 1st DAY OF [handwritten month], 2025. [signatures] KEMPER STEPHEN WILLIAMS, District Judge, 135th Judicial District; LISA HARVEY-MOORE, District Judge, 24th Judicial District; JULIE C. BAUKNIGHT, District Judge, 267th Judicial District; ELI E. GARZA, District Judge, 377th Judicial District. THE JUDGES, 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.
INSTRUCTIONS TO PRO SE LITIGANTS IN DIVORCE CASES PLEASE READ COMPLETELY [File stamp: FILED 2025 AUG -7 AM 11:41, District Clerk, Victoria County, Texas] THE JUDGES, 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 M
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-08 from the own-site custody copy (two pages; text layer read in full and checked against the page images through the vision lane — the file-stamp and signature blocks are read from the images). The handwritten month in the signing line is not legible on the scan; the District Clerk's file stamp (August 7, 2025) is used as the effective date. Four signers, all current — no single-judge join; bound to the four district courts sitting in Victoria County.
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.