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Reviewed 15 September 2013 E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

Texas Court Decisions

A diagram of the state court system (called a “Court Structure Chart” and including a summary of each court’s jurisdiction) is available on the web site of the National Center for State Courts.

    Some opinions by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals can be found on the court’s web site.

    Additional Resources
    Briefs in Texas Supreme Court Cases


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Texas Constitution and Legislation

See also a database of statewide ballot measures maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
  1. Constitution (Tex. Const.) 
  2. Additional Resources
    Constitutional Amendments … [Tex. Legislative Reference Library] — The Texas Constitution has been amended more than 450 times (through 2008). Here are links to those amendments, organized by legislative session and also by subject-matter.

  3. Bills
    See also the Texas Legislature web site.

    Additional Resources

    NOTE—The Texas Legislature convenes in odd-numbered years, and normally there should be no legislation in even-numbered years.

    Researching Legislative History and Intent … [Tex. Legislative Reference Library] — Texas legislative intent is not readily available; it must be compiled case-by-case. The basic steps in researching legislative intent are presented here. See also a brochure, “Compiling Texas Legislative History” (a PDF file).
    Tables: Bill-to-Chapter / Chapter-to-Bill

  4. General and Special Laws of the State of Texas (Tex. Gen. Laws)
    Chaptered bills (called “Acts”) are not available on-line. However, tables (and a form) are available to convert an enrolled bill’s number to the chapter number (and vice versa) for legislative sessions back to 1941; and the text of the enrolled bill can be viewed. Top

  5. Texas Statutes  
  6. Additional Resources
    ¶ Effects of Legislation … For the effects of each session’s legislation on codified laws and revised statutes (since 1995), see an index of sections affected.
    ¶ Texas Codes … ASCII files containing one entire code each are available for downloading.


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Texas Rules of Procedure and Practice

Note—The Texas judicial system’s effort to publish court rules on-line has been haphazard. Available rules, linked below, might not be current. See also revisions and comments on revisions of state rules (called “rules advisories”).
  1. Texas Appellate Court Rules
  2. Texas Trial Court Rules
  3. Texas Local Court Rules … See also Additional Resources below.
    Note: An asterisk (*) in the first list below marks a county with combined rules for the district court(s) and county court(s) at law.
    District Courts 
    County Courts at Law 
    U.S. District Courts 
    U.S. Bankruptcy Courts 

  4. Rules of Practice • Judicial Rules • Professional Ethics Decisions
  5. Additional Resources
    ¶ Texas Probate Court Rules … These are local rules of statutory probate courts.
  6. Denton County
  7. Travis County


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Texas Administrative Law Sources

See also a page of links to sources of rules, maintained by the Administrative Codes and Registers Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
  1. Regulations
  2. Texas Administrative Code (Admin.)
  3. Texas Register (Tex. Reg.)
  4. Opinions • Decisions • Orders • Rulings
  5. Attorney General Opinions (Ops. Tex. Att’y Gen.)


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Texas Ordinances and Home-Rule Charters

Ordinances are local laws, commonly organized into codes, that have been enacted by municipalities — cities, towns, etc. — and counties. Charters are organic laws (similar in function to a constitution) of those local government entities for which “home rule” is authorized by state law. For local laws not found through the links given here, try the county web sites and municipality web sites at “State and Local Government on the Net” by Piper Resources, or a publisher’s web site:
  • Franklin Legal Publishing
  • American Legal Publishing Corp.
  • Municipal Code Corp.
  • Sterling Codifiers
    1. Charters
       
      Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
    2. County Ordinances
        
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the county. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    3. Municipal Ordinances
          
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the municipality. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.


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    Texas Law-Related Periodicals

    Periodicals providing on-line articles are linked here. See also links to all Texas law-review web sites as well as links to web sites of all U.S.-published law reviews and periodicals.

    1. Computer Law Review and Technology Journal (Computer L. Rev. & Tech. J.) … [Southern Methodist Univ. Sch. of Law]
    2. Houston Business and Tax Law Journal (Hous. Bus. & Tax. L.J.)
    3. Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy (Hous. J. Health L. & Pol’y)
    4. Houston Law Review (Hous. L. Rev.)
    5. Journal of Texas Consumer Law (J. Tex. Consumer L.)
    6. LBJ Journal of Public Affairs (LBJ J. Pub. Aff.) … [Lyndon B. Johnson Sch. of Public Affairs / Univ. of Texas] — debate on timely topics of national importance, including legal and judicial issues, local and state government, nonprofit organizations and community development, minority and women’s issues, public administration and financial management, U.S.-Mexico border issues, and more
    7. South Texas Law Review (S. Tex. L. Rev.)
    8. Texas International Law Journal (Tex. Int'l L.J.) … [Univ. of Texas Sch. of Law]
    9. Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, & Energy Law (Tex. J. Oil, Gas & Energy L.) … [Univ. of Texas Sch. of Law]


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    Other Texas Commentary

    1. Attorney General Publications … Links to newsletters, handbooks, guides, brochures, and other publications. See also consumer-protection brochures, below.

    2. Texas Tax Publications … [Comptroller of Public Accounts] — Includes Tax Policy News, a monthly summary of Texas tax policy.

    3. Legal Guide to Doing Business in Texas. Baker Botts L.L.P. … [Lex Mundi]


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    Texas Law-Related Topical Web Sites



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    Texas Court Information

    See also links to state court web sites, maintained by the National Center for State Courts. Additionally, the Ballotpedia.org web site presents information about courts and judges in the state, covering both state courts and federal courts, in a Wikipedia-style format.
    1. Web Sites — Appellate Courts

      See also the web site for the Southwest Intertribal Court of Appeals (SWITCA), a voluntary court of appeals available to tribes in west Texas.
    2. Web Sites — State Trial Courts • U.S. Courts


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    Texas Forms

    1. Court Forms
      1. Texas Courts
      2. Collin County Forms
      3. U.S. Courts
      4. Northern District Forms

    2. State Agency Forms
      1. Comptroller of Public Accounts
      2. Texas Tax Forms
      3. Secretary of State
      4. Texas Business Organization Forms

    3. Business Entity Forms …[Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.


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    Other Texas Resources

    1. Government-Related Web Sites

      See also the Piper Resources list of sites.
    2. Additional Resources
      ¶ Vital Records — Contact Information … [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
      ¶ Workers’ Compensation — Agency Contact Information … [Robert W. McDowell / N.C. Indus. Comm’n]

    3. State Bar of Texas

      These sections of the state bar have their own web sites, separate from the web site of the state bar. For additional section web sites, see a list of sections and divisions on the state bar web site.
    4. Bar Associations • Law-Related Organizations

      See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
    5. Law Schools • Admission to Practice • Continuing Legal Education
    6. Consulates of Canada and Mexico • ConsulatsConsulados


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    Legal Research and Assistance

    1. Law Libraries

      See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
    2. Attorney General Consumer-Protection Information

    3. State Bar of Texas
    4. Pamphlets
    5. Other Information
    6. Texas Young Lawyers Association Brochures

    7. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for Texas Residents … [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of Texas law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in Texas.

    8. Low-Cost Legal Aid … See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
      1. TexasLawHelp … “TexasLawHelp is a one-stop website where low-income Texans can get information about their legal rights and find out about free legal assistance in their area.”
      2. Texas Legal Help for the Poor … [Am. Bar Ass’n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA’s Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs’ web sites.
      3. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help … [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.

     

     


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