About the district court coordinator

The court coordinator is responsible for managing court operations in several aspects, including internal and external interactions with various stakeholders, as well as assistance to the judiciary in making decisions except judicial decisions as pertained by law to be made by the judge. With this position, it is expected for a court coordinator to abide by the Code of Judicial Conduct while continually developing his/her role according to the dynamics of the court system.

The current district court coordinator of the 85th District Court is Kristie Evans.

The cases that may be filed with the 85th District Court are felony criminal cases, misdemeanor cases, civil cases exceeding $100,000, and Family Law cases, except Juvenile Cases in Brazos County that are solely assigned to the 272nd District Court of the same county. The 85th District Office is situated in the city of Bryan, and holds office hours from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Below are its current district court dockets:

Criminal pre-trial and trial dates: 8:30 AM

Civil pre-trial and trial dates: 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, 3:00 PM, 3:30 PM

Duties of a court coordinator

Court coordinators take on a variety of representative roles, on all matters in and out of the served court:

• Trial management (setting and maintaining trial dockets and case schedules, confirming the availability of various parties and court personnel, rescheduling of unreached trials, overseeing of trial mechanics, observation of trial procedures and recommendation of possible further improvements, etc.)

• Docket management (maintaining master dockets, confirming case schedules for preparation of weekly and monthly dockets, ensuring that all parties are notified of respective dockets to prevent delay, initiating possible ways for more efficient trial flows and procedures, informing parties and court personnel on changes in schedules and status, etc.)

• Jury management (proper planning for jurors’ schedules with respect to their schedules and dockets within the same court and with other courts, assisting jurors and providing answers to their inquiries, ensuring the security of jurors in coordination with the court bailiff, arranging with the serving Judicial Administrative Region for availability of visiting judges, soliciting verbal or written feedback from jurors after trials when necessary, etc.)

• Records and reports (ensuring the recording and reporting functions of respective court personnel, maintaining statistics and preparing reports as required by the court judges and departments, assisting in providing information for and analyzing specialized reports in order to verify court statistics and ensure proper flow of pending cases and dockets, etc.)

• Personnel management (assisting the judge in screening and hiring court employees, overseeing the training of employees,  providing inputs in preparing training manuals, providing employee policies as requested)

• Liaison (representing the district court in various meetings with other offices and departments)

• Public relations (representing the court in providing responses to inquiries from the press and special interest groups, facilitating the proper observance by media of court policies when attending trials, arranging for educational court tours, etc.)

• Legislative updates (obtaining familiarity with changes and new laws and how it would affect court operations, ensuring implementation of procedural changes, keeping updated with corresponding new fees and task requirements, etc.)

• Research and resources (obtaining and updating research materials and contacts, filing and maintaining legal resource data, conducting research on certain topics as requested by the judge, etc.

• Professional development (fulfilling the required 16 hours for mandatory continuing education, maintaining awareness in the development of various court administration matters, acting as resource speaker for various educational and professional judicial conferences, writing and publishing ideas and materials on court administration, establishing connections with other court personnel and other courts as part of court performance evaluation and solutions, etc.)

• Fiscal tasks (attending budget meetings, assisting in preparing court budgets, reviewing the budget and controlling budget spending, authorizing payment for necessary purchases of resource materials and supplies, assisting in acquisition or disposal of the fixed assets of the court, etc.)

• General administrative duties (handling any necessary non-routine matters or properly delegating them as needed

Mandatory continuing education for court coordinators

As a means to properly fulfill court duties, the Texas Government Code provides that court coordinators should complete at least 16 hours of continuing education every year. This must be in effect unless the court coordinator files a prescribed form to the Texas Center for the Judiciary, Inc. with signature from the judge, certifying that local or state funds are unavailable for the continuing education of the court coordinator.

There are several organizations that provide continuing education programs for court coordinators as provided by the Rules of Education, such as the Office of Court Administration, Texas Association of Court Administration, National Association for Cour Administration, Institute for Court Management of the National Center for State Courts, The Justice Management Institute, the Education Committee of Court of Criminal Appeals, Rural Association for Court Administration, several state and community colleges and universities, and other programs and conferences sponsored by courts and administrative offices.

Please visit our website for more information about us, bankruptcy, and the COURT COORDINATOR  85TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT OF TEXAS BRAZOS COUNTY Call us today at (713) 974-1151 to schedule a no-obligation consultation or feel free to email us at [email protected]

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