The Texas Court System
Similar many states, Texas has their unique court system, which include civil, criminal, and family courts, usually with courts at both the state and federal levels. I am not a lawyer, I am a Judgment Broker, and I know how difficult it is to recover a judgment. This article is a summary of Texas civil courts, where most enforceable money judgments come from.
Most Texas judgments originate from the Texas Justice Courts, known as "JP Courts". For the rest of this article, JP is an abbreviation for (Texas Justice "JP" Court). Many Texas Small Claims judgments come from JPs.
JPs are popular as the costs of starting or enforcing a judgment in a JP is much less than it costs in any other type of Texas court. JPs have jurisdiction over civil matters in which the amount in dispute is not more than a $10,000 limit.
This $10,000 limit was raised in (2007 or 2008) from $5,000. The $10,000 limit is on the original debt amount claimed. In JP, that limit can include pre-judgment interest. Court-related costs can be added to the judgment amount due, and are in addition to the limit.
The judges in JPs are often commissioners who are usually not regular state-level judges. JP commissioner positions are voted for in local elections. JP commissioners are authorized to make Court-related decisions in JP.
JPs (Gov. C. 27.031) are often good choices when the amount owed is near the $10,000 limit, because it is less expensive to start lawsuits, and enforce judgments in JPs. When the amount in dispute is above $10,000, one should consider Texas County Courts (TCCs), where claims between $10,000 and $250,000 may be filed. By law (Gov. C. 250003), each county in Texas is allowed to have just one TCC, usually located in the County seat.
All TCCs have Small Claims courts, similar to JPs. All TCC cases are heard by real (state-level) judges. In TCCs, both pre and post-judgment interest, and court-related costs, can be added to the amount owed, and are in addition to the Small Claims limit.
Judgments issued via the TC courts have a case numbering system 12-20 characters long. On Small Claims cases, there are usually the letters SC in it somewhere.
An important quirk of Texas law is that small claims cases heard at a TCC court often cannot be enforced by a Judgment Enforcer or a Collection Agency. (Gov. C. Sec.28.003.)
Above TCC courts, are the Texas District Courts (Defined in article V, Section eight of the Texas Constitution and Section 24.007 and 24.008 of the Government Code.) The District Court's jurisdiction has no limits, and consists of exclusive, appellate, and original jurisdiction of all actions, matters of law, or equity.
Most Texas Judgments originate from the JPs. Many JPs make decisions on 500-1000 cases a month, and most of the time, the plaintiff wins. A typical JP case number could be: S09-079J3 (The S09 is the year the judgment was decided, the 079 is the 79th case that year and the J3 is in JP#3 in that county. Not all JPs follow this numbering system. (Yet?)
In Texas, when someone says they have a small claims court judgment, it's important to know whether it was won in a JP or a TCC court.