Supporting the creation of an additional district court in Montgomery County was approved in a split 4-1 vote by the Commissioners Court on Nov. 20, with Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack voting against.

"We need a new district court," 359th District Court Judge Kathleen Hamilton said. "We have population growth, and with that population growth we have an unbelievable explosion in the numbers of cases we have—as one [judge] who does all felony cases, I can tell you my dockets are packed."

The last time the county created a new district court was during the 2007 Legislature, which created the Montgomery County 418th and 435th district courts.

Noack suggested using associate judges instead of full-time staffed judges, but district court judges said it simply would not be enough.

District court judges asked the county commissioners for an increase in full-time staff, including judicial officers, civil court judges and family court judges based on numbers from the state of Texas judicial branch Office of Court Administration, which crunches the numbers for the entire state.

The courts need 14.8 full-time judicial officers and currently have 11.2. They need 3.6 full-time judges for civil cases and currently have 1.8; they need 5.8 for family courts and have 4.9. The fractions come from full-time staff who split their time among departments. According to the OCA, statewide caseloads increased 1 percent, but in Montgomery County caseloads grew 11 percent.

"We are disproportionately growing much faster than statewide," Hamilton said. "We've got more boots on the ground with law-enforcement officers, so more [cases] are being brought to us—there are more [officers] out there investigating and working those cases."

Instituting a new district court would not require new property development, as there are currently office spaces available. Next, county officials will bring the request to the state Legislature. The additional district court would be added sometime in the summer of 2020.

In other news Nov. 20 the commission:

  • approved increasing fees for Spanish-English court interpreters to a more competitive level in a split 4-1 vote, with Noack voting against.

  • unanimously approved canvassing the Nov. 6 general election results.

  • unanimously passed funding for engineering services for the design of Old Houston Road and Sorters Road with Holzwarth Co.