Denton County District Courts Filing Rules

The proposed Agreed Order Granting Motion for Continuance must include a blank for the reset date.

Except when tendered at the hearing, the prevailing party should submit a proposed order on a contested matter after receiving notice of the Court's ruling.

Except in an emergency, briefs on motions other than summary judgment must be served and filed no later than three working days before the hearing.

Each party is directed to produce the following to the Court Reporter Deana Scobee at Deana.Scobee@dentoncounty.gov (and served upon all other parties) no later than 3 p.m. on the day before the Pre-Trial Conference: a. A completed Witness List. The completed Witness List located on the Court’s website at 442nd District Court. Civil Scheduling Order and Discovery Control Plan Page 1 b. All documentary evidence and exhibits. The Exhibit List located on the Court’s website at 442nd District Court. c. All pre-marked for identification exhibits must be submitted to the Court Reporter on a USB drive AND by email. THE EXHIBITS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DENTON COUNTY STANDING ORDER REGARDING EVIDENCE. ADDITIONALLY, hard copies must be provided for the Judge and the witness stand. Please be prepared to consider stipulations as to the authenticity and admissibility of exhibits with the judge. *Exception: The USB for the Court Reporter and Exhibit Binders for the Judge and Witness Stand may be brought to the pre-trial conference as long as all counsel have received a copy.

Text-document files must be searchable PDFs compatible with the latest Adobe Reader and must not be password-protected, encrypted, or subject to rights management.

Premarked exhibits must be submitted to the court reporter on USB and by email under the county evidence order, with hard copies provided for the judge and witness stand.

Each party must serve the other party with a sworn inventory describing and valuing all property and debts and proposing their division.

The attorney of record must serve all attorneys of record and parties with the vacation letter when the attorney will be unavailable for a vacation.

The Court Administrator may be contacted only by email at Ali.Hayslip@dentoncounty.gov.

All opposing parties must be copied on emails to the Court Coordinator, including emails requesting final hearing settings.

Every application for action or relief must be filed electronically.

For an agreed continuance in a case younger than 18 months, a proposed Agreed Order Granting Motion for Continuance must be e-filed as a separate lead document.

A continuance in a case filed more than 18 months ago requires a hearing and court approval even when the parties agree.

Continuances and subsequent passes may be granted only for a fair disposition of litigation, a higher-priority setting conflict, or as provided by law.

o motion or other request on any matter which will require the ruling of the Court after hearing shall be set, except (a) TRCP 13 motions for sanctions, (b) motions to transfer venue, (c) special appearances, and/or (d) pleas to the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court, until the moving party shall first communicate and confer with opposing counsel or the opposing party, if pro se, to determine whether the contemplated motion will be opposed.

The court will not hear motions on the trial date without first obtaining leave of court.

The adult name-change petition and order or decree must be fully completed and filed as separate lead documents.

Documents requiring separate filing fees must be filed separately; one document may not combine multiple such filings.

Provide copies of the Exhibit List to the opposing counsel or self-represented litigant, the Court Reporter, and the Judge.

The trial summary should be limited to one page if possible.

A severed claim must be filed as a new case in the same court, assigned a new cause number, and requires the standard new-case filing fee.