Dutton Bill Pulls Civil Cases From Court Stats In Big Counties

The text as introduced · 638 words

89R12441 AMF-D

By: Dutton
H.B. No. 2799

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the exclusion of certain cases from judicial statistics

reporting, court performance measures, or other judicial or court

efficiency reporting by the Texas Judicial Council and the Office

of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 71.035(a), Government Code, as amended

by Chapters 486 (H.B. 841) and 677 (H.B. 1182), Acts of the 88th

Legislature, Regular Session, 2023, is reenacted and amended to

read as follows:

(a) Subject to Subsection (a-0), the [ The ] council shall

gather judicial statistics and other pertinent information,

including for each trial court in this state monthly court activity

statistics and case-level information on the amount and character

of the business transacted by the court, from the several state

judges and other court officials of this state. The monthly

information gathered by the council for each trial court in a county

with a population of at least one million must include, but is not

limited to:

(1) the number of cases assigned to the court;

(2) the case clearance rate for the court;

(3) the number of cases disposed by the court;

(4) the number of jury panels empaneled for the court;

(5) the number of orders of continuance for an

attorney before the court or by the court;

(6) the number of pleas accepted by the court;

(7) the number of cases tried by the judge of the court

or before a jury; and

(8) the number of cases tried before a visiting or

associate judge of the court.

SECTION 2. Section 71.035, Government Code, is amended by

adding Subsection (a-0) to read as follows:

(a-0) The monthly information the council gathers under

Subsection (a) on each trial court in this state excludes:

(1) family law cases; and

(2) for a county with a population of two million or

more, all civil cases.

SECTION 3. Section 72.082, Government Code, is amended to

read as follows:

Sec. 72.082. PERFORMANCE REPORT. The office shall annually

collect and publish a performance report of information regarding

the efficiency of the courts of this state. The report must include

certain disaggregated performance measures for each appellate

court, district court, statutory county court, statutory probate

court, and county court. The report may not include performance

measures related to:

(1) family law cases; or

(2) for a county with a population of two million or

more, any civil case.

SECTION 4. Section 72.083, Government Code, is amended by

amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (c) to read as

follows:

(b) Subject to Subsection (c), the [ The ] office shall

annually report the following performance measures for each

district court, statutory county court, statutory probate court,

and county court:

(1) the court's clearance rate;

(2) the average time a case is before the court from

filing to disposition; and

(3) the age of the court's active pending caseload.

(c) The office shall exclude from the report required under

Subsection (b) performance measures related to:

(1) family law cases; or

(2) for a county with a population of two million or

more, any civil case.

SECTION 5. As soon as practicable after the effective date

of this Act, the Texas Judicial Council shall adopt any rules

necessary to implement the changes in law made by this Act,

including the rules necessary for the Office of Court

Administration of the Texas Judicial System to collect the

information required under Sections 71.035, 72.082, and 72.083,

Government Code, as amended by this Act.

SECTION 6. To the extent of any conflict, this Act prevails

over another Act of the 89th Legislature, Regular Session, 2025,

relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted

codes.

SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.