33rd / 424th District Courts

We've been advised that effective May 1 no visiting judges will be approved except in an emergency. That will impact existing settings that were dependent upon visiting judges but you should assume that your setting is still good until you hear differently. Eva is scrambling to figure out how to adjust some jury weeks in light of this development. The non-priority civil portion of the docket will suffer the most because priority must be given to criminal (jail), other criminal, juvenile and CPS termination cases.

Update on the legislative bill for a new court: SB585 was the original bill. The text of that has been added to the omnibus bill, SB1189 which is linked on my legislative page. There is every reason to be optimistic that we can get this new judicial district because there are only 8 or 9 new district courts being requested and the total fiscal note seems to be acceptable at a figure of around $800,000. That court, if approved, is to be effective 9/1/05 with the bench to be filled initially by the Governor's appointment. It will be the 424th.

Being out of visiting judges in May is a serious problem. There is a small amount of money being proposed in this legislative session that would add a small amount of visiting judge time statewide, but it's not near enough. Therefore, the new district is essential to our being able to operate effectively and efficiently. Thus, it would be helpful for the legislature to hear from you via Sen. Fraser in support of the new court. His address:

Sen. Troy Fraser
Senate District 24
101 Highway 281, Suite 301
Marble Falls, Texas 78654

'JJ'