{"courtSectionTextID":1637,"courtID":4,"title":"Court Procedures- UPDATED 3/13/2026","sectionText":"

FILINGS AND COURTESY COPIES

All documents shall be filed electronically through efiletexas.gov except as permitted by the Texas Supreme Court's e-filing rules effective January 1, 2014.

File your motion or other document with a certificate of service, (include certificate of conference as required by the TRCP) and a proposed order each time you ask the Court to grant or deny relief.  Please index your exhibits.  Once you have scheduled any hearing date with the court clerk, follow up with a notice of oral hearing or (if applicable) notice of written submission.  

The Court no longer accepts paper courtesy copies or e-mails of courtesy copies.  Instead, if a party wishes to bring a particular filing to the Court's attention, the party may (1) file the document electronically with the clerk's office as it normally does and then (2) call the Court to bring the document to the Court's attention, and ask the Court to view and consider the document that is already in the Court's electronic file system. If a courtesy copy is necessary, please bring a paper copy.

AGREED AND UNOPPOSED MOTIONS 

Agreed or unopposed motions do not have to be placed on the court’s oral hearing or submission docket.  All unopposed or agreed motions should be titled as such.  These motions are expeditiously presented to Judge Aston without the necessity of a hearing (this includes unopposed motions for continuance).  In addition, ALL continuance or reset motions (whether agreed, unopposed or opposed) MUST state what number continuance motion is being filed (i.e. “Plaintiff’s First” or “Defendant’s Second” or “Third Agreed Motion,” etc.).  If a motion is actually agreed, the motion and order should contain signature blocks for all parties that are agreed to the relief requested, and should state “AGREED AS TO SUBSTANCE AND FORM AND ENTRY REQUESTED.”


    REQUEST:  In certain situations, the Court will ask you to supplement your unopposed motion or request for default judgment or expedited foreclosure with additional evidence.  It is not always immediately brought to the Court's attention when you have filed that additional evidence.  Feel free to call the clerk to follow up on your motion. 

CERTIFICATES OF CONFERENCE 

Motions must have certificates of conference as required by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and our local rules.  All certificates of conference must be explicit as to the party’s efforts to resolve the motion with all other parties/counsel prior to filing.  If a party was unable to reach the other side prior to filing the motion, the certificate should state the efforts to communicate with that party, and should always be supplemented as soon as possible after the parties have actually conferred.  If the court does not see a supplemented certificate in such circumstances, please expect a call asking for one.

The court requires complete compliance with TRCP 191.2, which state as follows:

“Parties and their attorneys are expected to cooperate in discovery and to make any agreements reasonably necessary for the efficient disposition of the case.  All discovery motions or requests for hearings relating to discovery must contain a certificate by the party filing the motion or request that a reasonable effort has been made to resolve the dispute without the necessity of Court intervention and the effort failed.”

Please summarize your reasonable efforts in your certificate.  Note:  sending a copy of a motion, without more, is not a conference.  Sending an e-mail or leaving a telephone message, without more, is not a conference.  If opposing counsel refuses to return numerous phone calls or other messages, describe your efforts to confer in your certificate of conference.

The Court also requires complete compliance with Rule 3.3.6. of the Local Rules of the Civil Trial Division of the Harris County District Courts, which states as follows:

“The certificates of conference required by the TRCP are extended to all motions, pleas and special exceptions except summary judgments, default judgments, agreed judgments, motions for voluntary dismissal or non-suit, post-verdict motions and motions involving service of citation.”

MOTIONS

All Motions and Proposed Orders MUST be double spaced.

A)    Default Judgments

Default judgments are set on the submission docket unless you need to prove up unliquidated damages.  Please submit the proper non-military affidavit by visiting the Defense Manpower Data Center’s (DMDC) Military Verification service at https://scra.dmdc.osd.mil. Please make clear in your motion and proposed judgment whether the judgment will be final (disposing of all claims and all parties) or interlocutory (partial).

B)    Severances

All motions AND orders for severance MUST contain the following:

  1. New case number, court number, case type and new style name;
  2. Reference the parties in the new suit; 
  3. List of original pleadings to be severed out and transferred to the new case (together with a listing of the document type, activity date for the document, number of pages and image number);
  4. Indicate attorney name, address and bar number to whom costs for the severance are to be assessed; and
  5. Indicate the severance case's status, and whether the new case file is interlocutory (not a final appealable matter) or whether severance will cause the newly severed matter to be final and appealable upon severance.  As an example, if a plaintiff obtains a summary judgment as to one of multiple defendants, and severs the disposed claims against that defendant into a new cause, that severance order will start the appellate timelines because all claims in the new cause will be resolved as to all claims and all parties.  This should be expressly stated one way or the other in the motion for severance.

Talk to our court clerk for details.  Parties may consider, in the proper case, a request for abatement of a cause of action, or separate trials within one lawsuit, as this may be a more appropriate, and less expensive and cumbersome alternative.

C)    Substitute Service (Rule 106)

All motions for substituted service under Rule 106 must be accompanied by an affidavit that includes the following information:

F)    Daubert Motions (Exclusion of Expert Witness Testimony)

All motions to exclude experts should be filed AND set for hearing WELL IN ADVANCE OF TRIAL.  The court will NOT consider such motions filed after the deadline in the docket control order without a motion for leave demonstrating exceptionally good cause.  The court is not likely to consider such a motion on the eve, or morning, of trial.

VOLUNTARY NON-SUITS/DISMISSALS/JUDGMENTS

All non-suits, dismissals and judgments should be titled as interlocutory or final.  Interlocutory orders should expressly list which parties and claims are being dismissed and which remain (if any).  Final orders MUST state that the order disposes of all claims and all parties and is intended to be a final, appealable order.  Motions and notices of non-suit as well as orders of non-suit should expressly state that they are being filed pursuant to Rule 162 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.  These motions are immediately presented to Judge Aston without the necessity of submission or oral hearing.

NONSUITS INVOLVING MINORS: If you are seeking to dismiss or nonsuit a minor's claim, the Court will want to know whether the minor is receiving a settlement to determine whether a guardian ad litem should be appointed. The Court will not unnecessarily appoint a guardian ad litem where none is warranted by TRCP 173. The courtesy of receiving the information to determine whether, in the Court's opinion, a guardian ad litem should be appointed is necessary. 

AD LITEM (AND OTHERS) SUPREME COURT FORM AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2016:  The Texas Supreme Court has created a new form for ad litems (of all types) and other appointees to fill out regarding the amounts of their fees and by whom they are paid.

COURT DECORUM

1)     Dress appropriately.  Judge Hughes expects counsel, parties and witnesses to dress in a professional manner.  On hot days, the court will allow parties to remove their coats upon request.

2)     Stand each time the jury enters or exits the courtroom.

3)     Please stand when addressing the Court.  The court may instruct you to remain seated in a hearing in which there will be a lot of back and forth discussion amongst the court and counsel.  Please sit when questioning a witness.

4)     Ask to approach the witness the first time and then you may approach freely.

5)     Don’t address witnesses, parties or opposing counsel by their first names.  Use their titles.

6)     Line up your witnesses in order to avoid delay.  Advise the court if there are witness timing issues so that witnesses may be taken out of order, if necessary, or allowed to be on call so they don’t have to wait a lengthy period of time to testify.  Parties should be prepared to allow witnesses to testify out of order and be generous toward each other in this regard.

7)     Identify yourself to the Judge and the court reporter before a hearing begins.  Provide a business card with your name, correct address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address.  Also include party representation.

8)     Plaintiff’s exhibits are to be marked with red “Plaintiff’s Exhibit” stickers.  Defendant’s exhibits are to be marked with blue “Defendant’s Exhibit” stickers.  Use only numbers when marking exhibits instead of letters.  Parties should provide their own.  In an emergency, a limited number of exhibit stickers may be obtained from the court reporter.

9)     Accurate exhibit lists should be furnished to Judge Hughes and to the court reporter.  Exhibits with multiple pages should be stapled, bound and/or assembled so that they may be accurately preserved.

10)  Redactions should be made prior to the exhibit being offered.  Exhibits redacted after the exhibit is admitted (subject to redaction or without initial objection) are to be marked as an “A” exhibit and the original, unredacted exhibit is kept by the court reporter for the record.  Once an exhibit is offered (even if not admitted), it must be tendered to the court reporter.

11)  Once an exhibit number has been assigned, the same exhibit number may not be used for another exhibit, even if the original exhibit is withdrawn or not used in the hearing or trial.

12)  Page/line designations of deposition testimony, along with a non-condensed copy of the transcript, are to be furnished to the court reporter prior to the offer.  When one person is reading from written deposition testimony, the reader must say “Question” prior to reading each question and “Answer” prior to reading each answer.

13)  Arrangements for acquiring testimony after a hearing or during a trial may be made directly with the court reporter.  Please advise the court reporter a week before a hearing or trial if a daily copy is required.  You must notify the other side of your request.  You may reach the court reporter at donna_king@justex.net or call 832-927-2677.

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