The Texas Court System

Like to most states, Texas has their unique court network, that include civil, criminal, and family courts, usually with courts at both the state and federal levels. I am not a lawyer, I am a Judgment Broker, and I know how hard it is to enforce a judgment. This article is a summary of Texas civil courts, where most enforceable money judgments come from.

Most Texas judgments originate from the Texas Justice Courts, known as "JP Courts". For the rest of this article, JP is an abbreviation for (Texas Justice "JP" Court). Many Texas Small Claims judgments come from JPs.

JPs are popular because the costs of starting or recovering a judgment in a JP is much less than it costs in any other kind of Texas court. JPs have jurisdiction over civil cases in which the amount in dispute is not more than a $10,000 limit.

This $10,000 limit was raised in (2007 or 2008) from $5,000. The $10,000 limit is on the original debt amount claimed. In JP, that limit can include pre-judgment interest. Court-related costs can be added to the judgment amount owed, and are in addition to that limit.

The judges in JPs are often commissioners who are often not regular state-level judges. JP commissioner positions are voted for in regional elections. JP commissioners are authorized to make Court-related decisions in JP.

JPs (Gov. C. 27.031) are often best choices when the amount owed is near the $10,000 limit, because it is less costly to file lawsuits, and recover judgments in JPs. When the amount in dispute is above $10,000, one should consider Texas County Courts (TCCs), where claims between $10,000 and $250,000 can be filed. By law (Gov. C. 250003), each county in Texas is required to have only one TCC, usually located at the County seat.

All TCCs have Small Claims courts, similar to JPs. All TCC cases are heard by real (state-level) judges. In TCCs, both pre and post-judgment interest, and court-related costs, can be added to the amount owed, and are in addition to the Small Claims limit.

Judgments issued via the TC courts have a case numbering system 12-20 characters long. On Small Claims cases, there are often the letters SC in it somewhere.

An important quirk of Texas law is that small claims cases decided at a TCC court sometimes cannot be enforced by a Judgment Enforcer or a Collection Company. (Gov. C. Sec.28.003.)

Above TCC courts, are the Texas District Courts (Defined in article V, Section eight of the Texas Constitution and Section 24.007 and 24.008 of the Government Code.) The District Court's jurisdiction has no limits, and consists of exclusive, appellate, and original jurisdiction of all actions, matters of law, or equity.

Most Texas Judgments originate from the JPs. Many JPs make rulings on 500-1000 cases a month, and most of the time, the plaintiff wins. A typical JP case number may be: S09-079J3 (The S09 is the year the judgment was decided, the 079 is the 79th case that year and the J3 is in JP#3 in that county. Not all JPs use this numbering system. (Yet?)

In Texas, when someone says they have a small claims civil judgment, it's important to know whether it was won in a JP or a TCC court.


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Mark D. Shapiro - Judgment Broker, http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Judgments go to get enforced. JudgmentBuy.com has the best judgment FAQ, articles, and judgment enforcement solution.