Texas Court Information and Jurisdiction

Texas has several courts for the benefit of the residents who need to settle disputes or want a legal opinion. Here are the various Texas courts in the state:

•    The Supreme Court
•    The Criminal Appeals Court
•    The Appeals Court (present in 14 districts)
•    The District Courts (present in 420 districts)
•    The County Courts
•    The Justice Courts
•    The Municipal Courts

The Supreme Court in the state is also referred to as the 'court of last resort' in all civil matters. Please note here that issues related to juvenile delinquency in the state are considered a civil nature and so the court hears these cases as well. There is the Criminal Appeals Court in Texas, which is considered the last resort court for all criminal cases.

Based in Austin, in this Texas Court there are 8 Associate Justices and they are headed by a Chief Justice.

The Supreme Court enjoys administrative controls on the State Bar in Texas, and the court is also the only authority in the state that has the ability to issue licenses to attorneys. You can visit the official website of the state Supreme Court at http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us to learn more.

Criminal Appeals Court

As mentioned above, the Criminal Appeals Court in the state is the last resort court for all criminal issues. This TX Court is also based in Austin, and there are 8 Associate Justices and 1 Presiding Judge. Interestingly, there are just 2 states in the country where you will find 2 last resort courts. The first one is of course Texas, and the other is Oklahoma.

This Texas court is allowed to review cases at its discretion over criminal matters. In other words, whether the cases will be reviewed or not depends purely on the court. This Texas court must however hear all those cases where there is some capital punishment or bail denial. http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us is the website of the Criminal Appeals Court of Texas.

Texas Appeals Court

The Appeals Court can hear all cases that come to it from lower courts in the state like the District Courts. There are 14 such Appeals Courts in the state. While the court can hear all kinds of cases, there is an exception and this is for all instances where there is a death penalty – these cases must go to the Criminal Appeals Court.

There are as many as 80 judges who work at a time in these courts, and each of them has a term of 6 years. To hear each case, there is a panel of 3 judges.

Texas District Courts

District Courts in Texas are trial courts. There are hundreds of such District Courts in TX. The area that each court will cover is decided by  the legislature. Each county in the state must however have a minimum of 1  such court.

These courts have the jurisdiction to hear cases involving divorce, felony, land titles, cases of election contests, and civil matters where the disputed amount is equal to or less than $2000. While most District Courts hear all kinds of cases – criminal, civil, matters of family law or juvenile issues, there are some cases where a court specializes in one particular type of case. This happens in those counties that are more densely populated.