Tarrant County Criminal Court, Texas

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The Tarrant County Criminal Court resides in Texas. Click on the links below to learn more about the court's...

Jurisdiction

The Tarrant County Criminal Court "has jurisdiction over all criminal matters and causes, original and appellate, prescribed by law for county courts, but does not have civil jurisdiction." The court also "has concurrent original jurisdiction of criminal cases with a district court other than felony cases involving capital murder. The County Criminal Courts Nos. 9 and 10 of Tarrant County also have concurrent jurisdiction within the county of all appeals from criminal convictions under the laws of this state and the municipal ordinances of the municipalities located in Tarrant County that are appealed from the justice courts and municipal courts in the county."[1]

Judges


Elections

Texas is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in Texas, click here.

Selection method

See also: Judicial selection in the states
See also: Partisan election of judges

Judges of the county courts are elected in partisan elections by the county they serve and serve four-year terms, with vacancies filled by a vote of the county commissioners.[2]

Qualifications
To serve on a county court, a judge must:[2]

  • be at least 25 years old;
  • be a resident of his or her respective county for at least two years; and
  • have practiced law or served as a judge for at least four years preceding the election.

Judicial elections in Texas

See also: Texas judicial elections

Texas is one of 11 states that uses partisan elections to select judges and does not use retention elections for subsequent terms. To read more about how states use judicial elections to select judges across the country, click here.

Primary election

Partisan primaries are held if even one candidate has filed for a position. To advance to the general election, a candidate must win a majority (over 50 percent) of the vote. If no candidate in a race wins the majority—as in cases where more than two candidates are competing for a seat—a runoff election is held between the top two candidates.[3][4]

Though Texas officially has closed primaries (requiring that voters declare party affiliation in advance in order to participate), the state's primaries are functionally open: registered voters may vote in any single party's primary if they have not voted in the primary of another party. The elections are closed, however, in that voters may not participate in the proceedings (a runoff primary or a convention) of another party thereafter.[3]

General election

The winning candidates from each major party's primary, as well as any additional minor party candidates, compete in a general election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. If a candidate was unopposed in the general election, his or her name will still appear on the general election ballot.[3][5]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Texas Statutes, "Gov't Code Section 25.2223: Tarrant County Criminal Court Provisions," accessed June 20, 2025
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Texas Secretary of State, "Qualifications for Office," accessed January 14, 2016
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The University of Texas at Austin: Texas Politics, "Winning Public Office: General Elections and Special Elections," January 29, 2014
  4. ↑ Texas Election Code, "Title 10, Sec. 172.003 and 172.004," accessed May 1, 2014
  5. ↑ Office of the Secretary of State, 1992-Current Election History (Select "2012 General" & "County Race"; then click "Anderson" to view sample results)

Texas courts

Federal courts:

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas

State courts:

Texas Supreme Court • Texas Court of Appeals • Texas Court of Criminal Appeals • Texas District Courts • Texas County Courts • Texas County Courts at Law • Texas Statutory Probate Courts • Texas Justice of the Peace Courts

State resources:

Courts in Texas • Texas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Texas


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