Texas Court System has five levels of courts: State Highest Appellate Courts, State Intermediate Appellate courts, State Trial Courts, County Trial Courts and the Local Trial Courts. At the State Highest Appellate Courts, there are two courts: Supreme Court and the court of Criminal Appeals. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction (final one) in juvenile and civil cases while Court of Criminal Appeals has appellate jurisdiction (final one) in both the criminal and death sentence cases. Each of the Court of Criminal Appeals and Supreme Court has nine judges and both of them have statewide jurisdiction.

Order Now
Use code: HELLO100 at checkout

At the State Intermediate Appellate Courts, we have the courts of Appeals which are fourteen in number and with eighty judges. Courts of Appeals have regional jurisdiction and deals with intermediate appeals from the trial courts regardless of the district court from which the appeals are made. At the State Trial Courts level, we have District Courts. District courts are 457 in number. District courts have 457 judges in number implying that there is one judge in every district court. All district courts have special and general jurisdiction. District courts exercise original jurisdiction over civil actions such as divorce, contested elections, and land title cases. They also exercise original jurisdiction over felony criminal and juvenile matters. Among the 457 courts of Appeals, 13 are designed as Criminal District Courts and some are designed to deal with specialized cases.

At the County Trial Courts level, there are 510 county-level courts with 510 judges and which exercise limited jurisdiction. Among the 510 courts, 254 are Constitutional County Courts, 238 are Statutory County Courts and 18 are Statutory Probate Courts. Constitutional County Courts deal with civil actions ($200-$10,000), probate, misdemeanors, juvenile matters and appeals from the lower court. Statutory County Courts deal with criminal, civil and appellate actions that are prescribed from the Constitutional County Courts while Statutory Probate Courts are primarily limited to the probate matters. At the lowest level, Local Trial Courts, there are 817 justice courts with 817 judges and 927 Municipal Courts with 1586 judges. Justice courts and Municipal courts deal with civil actions below $10,000, small claims, magistrate functions and Criminal Misdemeanors of no confinement. Both of them have limited jurisdiction.