Texas County Courts

Texas County Courts are trial courts in Texas with concurrent jurisdiction over many cases with the district courts. Some Texas county commissions are called commissioners courts. The county judge on these commissioners courts acts as the county's chief executive officer rather than as a judicial officer.

Courts by county

See List of Texas counties

and List of Texas District Courts

County courts

Constitutional courts

Each of the 254 counties in Texas has a single Constitutionally granted county court, presided over by a single county judge.

County courts at law

Since each county is Constitutionally limited to a single county court and judge, the Texas Legislature created statutory county courts at law for the counties with larger populations. Each of the county courts at law was established by an individual statute, and thus vary widely in scope. However, the "jurisdiction of statutorily-created county courts at law is usually concurrent with the jurisdiction of the county and district courts in the county".

Probate courts

In most of Texas the county constitutional court has original jurisdiction over probate matters. In a few counties however, the Legislature has statutorily created probate courts "so that a county court at law will have concurrent jurisdiction over probate matters with the constitutional county court". These are located in 10 out of the state's 15 largest metropolitan areas.

Other county courts

• Dallas County has a County Court of Criminal Appeals
• The counties of Dallas, El Paso and Tarrant each have a county criminal court.
• The counties of Dallas, El Paso, Jefferson and Tarrant each have a criminal district court.

See also

• Courts in Texas
• Texas counties

External links

• Texas Courts Online homepage
• Court Structure of Texas pamphlet
• Trial Courts and Jurisdiction by County