Dallas County Civil District Courts Filing Rules

When a corporate party would be left without counsel, counsel must also advise the corporate party that it cannot represent itself pro se and only an attorney licensed in Texas can represent it in Court.

Final trial announcements must include witness counts, estimated trial length, and any coronavirus symptoms among parties, witnesses, or attorneys.

Attorneys filing a related case must disclose the relationship in the original pleading or a simultaneous filing, and failure to disclose constitutes certification that the case is not related.

Parties in delinquent ad valorem tax collection cases in Dallas County District Courts are exempt from the disclosure requirements of Tex. R. Civ. P. 194.1-194.4.

Attorneys filing a case related to a prior case must disclose the related case in the original pleading or a simultaneous filing, identifying it by style, case number and Court; otherwise the signature certifies no related case exists.

Faxing documents to the Court or the Court Administrator is prohibited unless prior permission is granted.

DWOP and status conference dockets may be handled by submission; parties email the 193rd Court Coordinator to request additional time.

Attorneys may reserve up to three vacation weeks per year by sending a vacation letter to the Court Coordinator and opposing counsel; once filed, no hearings, depositions, or trials may be set during reserved weeks except upon notice and hearing.

Contact the Judicial Information Section to add selections to the database for the Position to Which Appointed or Fee Source fields.

When the assigned judge is unavailable for a TRO, the Court Coordinator may direct the hearing to another judge; attorneys and others are strictly prohibited from approaching courts to inquire about a judge for such orders.

Parties must exchange all pre-trial materials no later than 10 days before trial.

A reset or continuance of the Initial Trial Setting does not change deadlines in this Order or under the Texas Rules unless the Court orders otherwise or the parties agree under TRCP 11.

A Suggestion of Bankruptcy must be filed no more than 20 days after a party receives notice of another party's bankruptcy petition.

Each court must submit a monthly report even if there was no activity to report.

In-person jury proceedings may only be conducted after the jury proceeding addendum is submitted and accepted by the Regional Presiding Judge.

The working charge must identify competing proposals, be emailed to the Court Administrator, be given in color hard-copy to the Court, and be submitted in MS Word.

Fonts smaller than 12 point are prohibited.

In multi-party cases, parties may optionally segregate and list exhibits by party.

Exhibits must be delivered to the Court Reporter in PDF format before the hearing, pre-marked with exhibit stickers, chronologically numbered, and with sequentially numbered pages.

Fonts smaller than 12 point and margins smaller than 1 inch on each side are prohibited.

The movant must send the Zoom link to all parties.

736 foreclosure matters must be scheduled with notice to obligors via certified mail return receipt requested and first-class mail, and the applicant must bring proof of service of that notice to the hearing.

The Suggestion of Bankruptcy must be filed with the clerk of the Court and copies served on all counsel of record.

Copies of exhibits must be directed to opposing counsel contemporaneously.

Substitute service may be made by leaving the citation, Petition, and Order with anyone over 16 at the address, or by affixing them to the front door of the defendant's last known abode or business.

Documents containing sensitive data must be redacted by the filer prior to submission.

Confidential Material may only be used by counsel for litigation of this case or related actions, and may not be revealed without the claiming party's written consent or a Court order.

A party may designate a document as confidential by stamping it "CONFIDENTIAL" or using another reasonable method agreed by the parties, provided the stamping does not obscure the document's writings.

The Court requires its standard Protective Order form to be used, and any modifications or additions require a hearing set within 3-7 business days of contacting the Court Clerk.

Discovery-based continuance motions must be filed at least 30 days before trial and must detail outstanding discovery efforts.

Permission to exceed page limits may be granted by the Presiding Judge upon a showing of compelling reasons.

Agreed motions for continuance must include a mutually agreed new trial date and conform to Dallas County Local Rules; no hearing is required for cases under one year old, but client sign-off is mandatory for cases 18 months or older.

Jury trial cases set between the effective date and May 8, 2020 are continued sua sponte and reset on future jury trial dockets.

The first continuance is granted if the case is under one year old; older cases must comply with Local Rule 3.01 and may require a hearing.

For all contested motions, courtesy copies of the motion, any response, and any reply must reach the Court at least two business days before the hearing.

All exhibits to be offered must be emailed to the court reporter as soon as possible.

Pleadings, briefs, or exhibits over 5 pages require a paper copy delivered to the Court at least 3 days before the hearing.

Courtesy copies required for submissions over 25 pages, delivered to the Court no later than 3 business days before the hearing.

Provide Judge Muñoz courtesy copies of any filing with 25 or more pages.

Pleadings may not be filed with the Administrator; the Administrator is not a e-filing channel.

All reports must be entered into the reporting database at card.txcourts.gov, beginning with the September 2016 report.

The 14th District Court no longer accepts fax filings.

All filings must be submitted through the E-Filing system.

The Court will not accept motions or orders faxed or emailed to the coordinator without the Judge's prior approval.

Unliquidated default judgment motions require a prove-up hearing.

No motion may be filed unless accompanied by a Certificate of Conference; movant's counsel must make at least three attempts on at least two business days to confer with opposing counsel before filing.

Exhibits and motions in limine must be discussed with opposing counsel beforehand to seek agreements that may shorten the pretrial.

Parties must diligently confer before bringing discovery disputes to the Court.

Parties must conference in compliance with local rules before filing a discovery motion.

Motions and briefs are limited to 25 one-sided pages.

Motions and briefs are limited to 25 one-sided pages; the Presiding Judge may grant permission to exceed upon a showing of compelling reasons.

At the close of evidence, parties must jointly upload all admitted exhibits to an external jump drive.

Attorneys and parties must collaborate and transmit participant information to the Court Reporter in a single submission.

The Court accepts electronic or courtesy binders delivered before the hearing and requests a proposed order be filed prior to the hearing.

For complicated motions, the Court appreciates brief books containing briefs, orders, and highlighted important cases.

Before a severed claim is assigned a new cause number, plaintiff's attorney must satisfy the Clerk's deposit-for-costs requirement.

Before a severed claim is assigned a new cause number, plaintiff's attorney must satisfy the Clerk's deposit-for-costs requirement.

Out-of-state attorneys must pay the Board of Law Examiners fee before requesting permission to participate in Texas Court proceedings.