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.