The Texas judiciary faces a growing case burden, especially debt cases filed in the district courts, county courts, and justice courts, according to Texas’ Office of Court Administration.
In an annual statistical report, the Office of Court Administration stated, “Debt cases, which accounted for 30% of incoming caseload, dominated the growth trend, increasing almost 40% from the previous year.”
The district courts are no longer clearing cases faster than they are taking them on. Civil filings rose 11% in the district courts in 2019, outpacing the rate at which the courts disposed of civil cases, which grew only 6%.
The report notes, “In district courts, the clearance rates for all case types except family were below 100 percent, indicating that backlogs were growing, particularly in the civil caseload.”
Over a five-year period civil filings have increased 28% compared to 10% increase for criminal filings in the district courts. A similar trend has taken place at the county court level, where civil cases are up 49% over a five-year period while criminal filings are down 10%.
Still, civil cases currently account for only about a quarter of the caseload in district courts while family cases account for 37% and criminal cases 32%.
The most common types of civil case are injury or damage cases, debt, and tax cases.
The number of new debt cases filed increased over the last 5 years by 55% in the district courts, by 107% in the county courts, and by 162% in the justice courts.
Appellate courts are affected by the growing caseload too. Civil filings in the courts of appeals inched to a new historic high in 2019, and the number of petitions for review filed in the Supreme Court increased to the highest level since 2002. Even so, the Supreme Court’s clearance rate in 2019 exceeded 100%.
One area of slight relief for the courts is family cases, which declined slightly in 2019 after reaching an all-time high the year before. Child protection case filings declined by 7%.
Criminal cases have been another area of relief in recent years, with eight years of decline and 2019 mostly flat (0.4% increase). The number of new misdemeanor cases filed has fallen to its lowest filing rate since 1991.
The Texas judicial branch accounts for 0.39% of fiscal year 2020 appropriations.
