Changes on the Way

I attended the CLE on "Changes that Could Affect Your Practice" on Friday. I saw several former classmates of mine, a number of local county, district and appeals judges, and many local attorneys. It was great to get out and see some familiar faces and meet a few new people. The CLE itself was also worthwhile, addressing a possible revamp of the state's court structure.

The Lone Star State's court system can confuse even lawyers, with constitutional county courts, statutory county courts (county courts at law), justice of the peace courts, and district courts--with all sorts of overlapping jurisdiction. The details are laid out in a lengthy report by the Court Administration Task Force, which suggests several revisions to Texas courts.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, one of the panelists, discussed Senate Bill 992, which would enact most of the report's recommendations. The 130-page legislation would, among other things, eliminate the patchwork court jurisdiction that gets added to each year by the legislature and create uniform jurisdiction for all courts, allowing local districts to decide whether to create special courts (the Senator noted that because the special district courts were added by the Lege in a piecemeal fashion, the bill has to go back in and change each court specifically--that's what gives the legislation its heft). The bill would also limit district courts to cases involving $10,000 or more, and put a cap of $200,000 on county court cases.

I haven't read the entire bill, but I have skimmed through most of the Court Administration Task Force Report, and it has some good suggestions. I want to blog about this in greater detail soon.

Meanwhile, there are more sweeping changes on the table, such as a change in rules for jurors and for justices of the peace, which I also plan to address at a later date.