APPELLATE, DISTRICT AND COUNTY COURT JUDGES

a. Each chief justice or justice of the 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 a Texas business court judge, and judge of a statutory county court performing judicial functions will, as an official duty: (1) complete before taking office, or within one year after taking office, at least 30 hours of instruction in the administrative duties of office and substantive, procedural and evidentiary laws unless the judge has previously complied with this requirement and has been absent from the bench less than one year before taking the present office; (2) each fiscal year after the first year of the judge’s term, complete at least 16 hours of instruction in substantive, procedural and evidentiary laws and court administration. In accordance with the Texas Minimum Continuing Legal Education Regulations and Accreditation Standards effective June 1, 2011, four hours of instruction may be obtained by electronic means and may include teleconferences, webcasts, satellite, on-demand/online CLE, and accredited downloadable CLE activities that have been recorded from live seminars. *H.B. 2384, 88th Leg., R.S., did not include Constitutional County Judges under the newly encoded application for judicial office and training requirements, but Constitutional County Judges are held to the training requirements pursuant to Section 74.025 of the Government Code. See also Texas Association of Counties, Continuing Education Requirements for County Judges. *H.B. 40, 89th Leg., R.S., exempts Texas Business Court judges from “training requirements under Chapter 22 that are not germane to the jurisdiction of the 2 | R u l e s o f J u d i c i a l E d u c a t i o n business court, including the training requirements of Sections 22.012 and 22.110.” See Rule 12 for Statutorily Mandated Training. b. Instruction credit completed during any fiscal year in excess of the minimum number of hours required may be applied to the following fiscal year’s requirement. Any exceptions to the education and reporting rules must be pre-approved by the Court of Criminal Appeals including an inability to timely complete the training or instruction due to a medical or physical disability. *The Texas Center for the Judiciary has an exception to Rule 2(b) and may use bench dates for reporting periods. c. Programs sponsored by the following organizations and approved by the Court of Criminal Appeals Education Committee for appellate, district, and statutory county judges, or, the County Judges Education Committee for constitutional county judges, can be utilized to satisfy the requirements of Rule 2(a): (1) Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas (2) Texas Center for the Judiciary, Inc. (3) Texas Association of Counties (4) National Judicial College, Reno, Nevada (5) Appellate Judges’ Conference of the American Bar Association, Chicago, Illinois (6) National Conference of Chief Justices (7) American Academy of Judicial Education, Washington, D.C. (8) Institute of Judicial Administration, N.Y.U. (9) Texas College of Probate Judges (10) National College of Probate Judges (11) An accredited law school (12) A local, state, or national bar association (13) A professional organization devoted to improvement of the legal profession such as the Texas Association of Defense Counsel and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association (14) The County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas or the V.G. Young Institute of Texas A&M University (15) Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (16) Texas District and County Attorneys Association (17) Wright Lecture Series (18) National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (19) Court Docket Management in conjunction with OCA 3 | R u l e s o f J u d i c i a l E d u c a t i o n (20) Texas Council on Family Violence d. All rules applicable to active appellate, district, and statutory county court judges, except Rule 2(a)(1), are also applicable to retired and former appellate, district, statutory county court judges if they are subject to assignment. e. A constitutional county judge whose only judicial duties are conducting hearings under Chapter 61 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code or conducting marriage ceremonies is exempt from the continuing judicial education requirement for any fiscal year for which the judge files an affidavit with the Registrar stating that the judge’s only judicial duties are conducting hearings under Chapter 61 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code or conducting marriages ceremonies.