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House Bill 2384 |
House Author: Leach et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-23 |
Senate Sponsor: Hughes et al. |
House Bill 2384 amends the Election Code and Government Code to set out provisions relating to court administration, including the knowledge, efficiency, training, and transparency requirements for candidates for or holders of certain judicial offices. Specifically, the bill sets out provisions requiring the disclosure and inclusion of certain information, including certain disciplinary and criminal history, on the application for a place on the ballot for the following judicial offices:
· chief justice or justice of the Texas Supreme Court;
· presiding judge or judge of the court of criminal appeals;
· chief justice or justice of a court of appeals;
· district judge, including a criminal district judge; and
· judge of a statutory county court.
The bill sets out additional application requirements for a candidate for an appellate court office who does not hold or has not previously held such an office. The bill requires each officially prescribed form for an application to a judicial office to include a statement informing candidates that knowingly providing false information on the application constitutes professional misconduct subject to public sanctions or censure by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct or the state bar, in addition to other legally prescribed penalties. The bill provides sanctions for a false declaration on a ballot application.
House Bill 2384 sets out judicial education requirements applicable to all such judicial offices, including instruction requirements, and provides for a judge's suspension and removal from office if the judge fails to meet the bill's education requirements. The bill provides for specialty certification for attorneys in judicial administration and sets out certain recommendation requirements for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. The bill also sets out provisions relating to courts that need additional administrative assistance.
House Bill 2384 requires the annual performance report published by the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System (OCA) to include disaggregated performance measures for each appellate court, district court, statutory county court, statutory probate court, and county court. The bill requires OCA, in addition to annually reporting the clearance rate of such courts, excluding appellate courts, to annually report the court's average disposition time and age of its active pending caseload.