33rd / 424th District Courts

Effective immediately mediator fees do not need to be paid via the District Clerk's office. The mediator is to be paid directly and the mediator will be solely responsible for the fiscal matters with the attorneys and parties.

There appears to be a consensus that the discovery stay during the mediation period (the period between the issuance of the order for mediation and the mediation date) should be deleted.

If anyone wants to weigh in pro or con, vote in the POLL (left column, near bottom) and add a comment there if you wish to further amplify your thoughts on the matter.

No, I'm not a recovering anything. My only addiction is long-distance touring on my trusty BMW and I don't intend to stop. Rather, the "road to recovery" is a plan to recover from the stacks of administrative matters that accumulated during the visiting judge debacle. This information may be important to the practicing bar.

All of the existing local rules have been uploaded other than the mediation rules. They all start with the filename of "ct-" and are in WordPerfect 5.0 format.

They include:
Appendix A - Form of Letter Requesting Setting for Trial

Just a reminder ... no such thing as an "agreed pass" in the 33rd unless you get Court permission. This is especially true for jury trial settings. The crowded docket makes this a highly undesirable situation unless you probably aren't going to be reached anyway, and even then the court administrator has to know about this as far in advance as possible in order to re-use your slot.

You will find a [Civil Scheduling Order|form for docket/discovery level 3 order] for your possible, but optional use. It is available in both [WordPerfect] and [Adobe PDF] formats. Any time the Court requests such an order to be drafted you may use this order or any other of your choosing. There are only a few prerequisites preferred by the Court:

Major pieces of the rules in drafting have been published on the Court's CMS site. Included are:
General Rules
Civil Rules
Family Law Rules
Miscellaneous

together with a Table of Contents to the whole. See them here.

The CMS site has a facility for adding comments to each section. Attorney comments are welcome as are those of any of the clerks where you might be affected.

The web-based master settings calendar is now fully implemented and the online setting request form is available to request any type of setting. Link to it from the Court's main page or from the attorney section. the entire setting instructions with links to both the calendar and the form to request a setting online are here.

Please have them prepared and submit to the Court at the time a plea is entered or any other disposition is made of the case other than from a jury trial.

Introducing:
Web-based Master Calendar and
Web-based email form for requesting a setting.
Click here for the calendar
Click here for the setting request.
This is the same information that was sent to the Court's general email list and is presented here for permanent reference.

In a brief talk with the Highland Lakes Bar Association gathering at its October meeting I mentioned a few things that I felt would help save time in court without causing much pain on the part of trial counsel.
These thoughts are presented in an attempt to avoid two problems:
(1) Wasted time during a court day, and
(2) Wasted court days.

Please have them prepared and submit to the Court at the time a plea is entered or any other disposition is made of the case other than from a jury trial.

August 2002 article by Richard E. Best. Thought-provoking, or it should be.
FindLaw's Modern Practice - Electronic Discovery Rules Needed

Subscribe to Yahoo Groups maintained by the Court. All email subscription links appear on the contact page. The lists are as follows:

I have a lot of drafting done on the local rules and will eventually be posting pieces of them on the Procedures blog for comment.

In the meanwhile -- let me know of anything that you feel needs particular attention in the rules.
If you have specific language or sample rules on the web to point to that's fine also.

The Court's main web site has a large section of forms.

The following was lifted directly from the State Bar site:
The State Bar Act recently passed by the 78th Legislature includes significant changes to the attorney disciplinary system that take effect Jan. 1, 2004. Click here for a draft proposal (pdf format) of changes to the Rules of Disciplinary Procedure which incorporate new requirements found in the State Bar Act. Read the amended portions (pdf format) of the State Bar Act as published in the July issue of the Texas Bar Journal. The State Bar of Texas Board of Directors seeks your comments and suggestions on the draft by October 24. Please email comments and suggestions to rules@texasbar.com.

This blog entry has been deleted and the subject matter is now found at this 'book' on this site.

If it turns out that a hearing is no longer needed, please let us know.
Call, fax or email the Court Administrator to advise of that fact.

First of all, it's common courtesy.
Secondly, if we know in advance -- even the day before -- we can make
adjustments in the schedule and use the time productively. Thank you!

• The judges of the two courts have adopted a joint
  administrative order for the division of cases falling under the family
  code.

• Click
  here for the order (Adobe PDF format)

• The essential part of the text is
  here.