This section sets the counties in the 77th Judicial District, gives the 77th District Court concurrent jurisdiction with the 87th District Court, and assigns clerk and judge duties for dockets, grand juries, and case transfers.
Sec. 24.179. 77TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (FREESTONE AND LIMESTONE COUNTIES). (a) The 77th Judicial District is composed of Freestone and Limestone counties. (b) The 77th District Court has concurrent jurisdiction with the 87th District Court in Freestone and Limestone counties. (c) The terms of the 77th District Court begin: (1) in Freestone County on the first Mondays in February, May, August, and November; and (2) in Limestone County on the first Mondays in December, March, June, and September. (d) The judge of the 77th District Court shall impanel grand juries in Limestone County at the March and September terms and in Freestone County at the May and November terms and at any other terms of the court in each county as ordered by the judge. (e) The clerk of the district courts in each of the counties of Limestone and Freestone shall prepare civil, criminal, divorce, and tax dockets for each district court and shall file each new case in the court in which the party filing the case directed the clerk to file it. Each criminal case shall be originally filed in the court to which the indictment or information is returned. The district clerk in each county shall place letters on the envelope containing the file papers in each case after the number of the case, designating by the letter "A" cases pending in the 77th District Court and by the letter "B" cases pending in the 87th District Court. (f) The judges of the 77th and 87th judicial districts may, in their discretion, either in termtime or in vacation, on motion of any party, on agreement of the parties, or on their own motion to facilitate the administration of justice or to equalize the case load, transfer any civil or criminal cause on their dockets to the docket of the other court. The transfer shall be entered on the minutes of the court and the cause shall be tried and disposed of as if it had been originally filed in that court. The transferring court need not hold a formal proceeding to transfer a cause. The receiving court need not receive the transcript of the transferred cause to have jurisdiction over the cause. Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 480, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1985.