Montgomery County District Courts Filing Rules

Motions and responses must be written and include certificates of service and conference and a separate proposed order.

For each disputed objection or response, the respondent must succinctly state argument and authority explaining why the objection should be sustained or the response is adequate, as applicable.

When a responding party wholly fails to timely respond to written discovery, a simple motion stating that failure and the service date or dates, together with a simple proposed order granting the motion, suffices.

For family-law matters involving division of the marital estate, a sworn Inventory and Appraisement must be on file at the default-judgment hearing or the matter will be reset.

Each motion must include a proposed order granting the requested relief, filed as a separate instrument.

For final trials involving child or spousal support, the parties must file and exchange the specified information at least 30 days before trial unless the court orders otherwise.

A motion for remote witness testimony is timely if filed at least seven days before the hearing, or within one business day after receiving notice when notice comes less than seven days beforehand; a motion filed less than 72 hours beforehand is untimely unless the court grants leave.

Petitioners or movants must complete the course within 60 days after filing the original petition or motion; respondents must complete it within 60 days after their first appearance or filing an answer or waiver.

The party or parties seeking partition must file an Abstract of Title no later than 30 days after the first defending party appears.

Notices of hearing or submission must be served as required by law and the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, and, except for emergency motions, no fewer than 10 calendar days before consideration.

Motions and hearings without live testimony must be set by submission with at least 10 days’ notice, unless the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure require a longer notice period.

The respondent must electronically serve the response on the movant and provide a copy in Word or WordPerfect format.

Motions and hearings not requiring live testimony are set by submission with at least 10 days’ notice, unless the Texas Rules require more notice.

The respondent must electronically serve the response and provide the movant a Word or WordPerfect copy by email or other electronic service.

Cases within the concurrent jurisdiction of the District Courts and County Courts at Law must be filed with the District Clerk and assigned under a written order signed by both local administrative judges and filed with the District Clerk.

If the Movant wishes to do so, the Movant may prepare a succinct Reply to each discrete response immediately below that particular response and will electronically serve and file any such Reply in the usual fashion.

If the Movant wishes to do so, the Movant may prepare a succinct Reply to each discrete response immediately below that particular response and will electronically serve and file any such Reply in the usual fashion.

An agreed motion for continuance need not be set for submission.

When an attorney is already in trial, the Court determines the trial assignment and may hold or reset the case depending on when the attorney will be released.

Parties may request additional time beyond the final trial date to enter agreed final orders under a mediated settlement agreement when filing the required Joint Status Report for the submission pretrial conference.

The parties must participate in a separate mediation for final trial no more than 90 days before trial.

All attorneys and parties must attend every scheduled mediation session to engage in constructive settlement negotiations.

If the Juvenile Trial Judge is unexpectedly unavailable, litigants must contact the Administrative Judge for the County Courts at Law of Montgomery County about the emergency or exigent matter.

A Word or WordPerfect copy of the proposed order must be emailed to haley.paul@mctx.org with the specified filename format.

Email the proposed order in Word or WordPerfect format to the provided address using the specified filename.

The court will not consider exhibits that are not emailed on time as directed or are not in the correct format.

Do not attach written discovery, objections, or responses to the motion or response unless needed to show an inaccurate quotation; in that case attach only the necessary pages and highlight the error.

Contested motions and responses must be written in 12-to-14-point font, well organized, use complete sentences, and include a separate proposed order granting or denying the requested relief.

Do not attach written discovery or related objections and responses to a motion or response unless needed to show an inaccurate quotation; then attach only the necessary pages and highlight the error.

Documents containing sensitive data must have that data redacted before attorneys or parties file them.

Cases in which the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is a party must be sealed by the Montgomery County District Clerk.

Any document containing Protected Health Information that is offered in Court must be sealed for exhibit filing with the District Clerk and for the appellate record, whether or not it is redacted or admitted.

A severance order remains interlocutory and subject to vacatur until the requesting party pays any applicable clerk filing fees.

Discovery motions are to present each disputed request, its related objections and responses, and related arguments together in one document.

If the Movant wishes to do so, the Movant may prepare a succinct Reply to each discrete response immediately below that particular response and will electronically serve and file any such Reply in the usual fashion.