Collin County Commissioners approved a resolution requesting to add two new district courts in September to handle a growing caseload.

A resolution from the Feb. 18 meeting supports adding one district court specialized in family law and one court specialized in civil law. Commissioners asked that the courts be added to Collin County on Sept. 1, after the 86th legislative session ends. The two courts, which get much of their funding from the state, must be approved by the Texas Legislature.

Collin County Judge Chris Hill said there is a need to add more district courts as the county population grows.

The resolution also asked that Sen. Angela Paxton and state Rep. Jeff Leach file bills in their respective chambers to create the specialized courts requested.

Commissioners also approved a resolution that calls for the hiring of one or more part-time or full-time magistrates to help lighten the load for state district judges. Hiring a magistrate must also be approved by the Legislature.

Under the resolution approved Feb. 18, magistrates could handle proceedings involving bond forfeitures, pretrial motions, examining trials, occupational driver’s licenses, and jury selection, among other duties.

Collin County currently has 11 district courts. The two newest district courts were created by the state legislature in 2015.