366th District Court Judge Tom Nowak said Collin County’s judicial system is “lauded by the Supreme Court” and one of the two counties in Texas that "basically" doesn't have a district court backlog. But he said the county needs more district court judges to meet the needs of the growing county.
“We’re going to need to expand,” Nowak said. “That's just a fact of life, and the fact that people are moving into Collin County.”
The county’s population reached over a million people in 2021 according to the U.S. Census. Right now, there’s 13 district court judges, plus one part-time judge, serving that population. Nowak said the Office of Court Administration estimates the county should have at least three more full-time district court judges.
The Texas Legislature meets every two years. Nowak said waiting until the next legislative session to ask for more courts would be too late.
“By the time we get another opportunity add courts, we will have added a city the size of McKinney to the entire county population,” he said.
The county commissioners say they want to lighten the judges’ workloads but are concerned about the cost to taxpayers — the state helps fund district courts, but the county typically supplements the judge’s salary and covers operating costs. Commissioners asked district court judges at a county judicial workshop about other options for easing the courts’ burden, including adding an auxiliary court with a rotation of visiting judges, whose are paid for by the state.
But 416th District Court Judge Andrea Thompson said the courts have already exhausted alternative options.
“The reason you can see the efficiencies that we have in the work we do is because we have already taken every opportunity we can to lighten the load in the places that we can,” Thompson said.
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For Americacorps member for KERA News.
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