District, Statutory County, and Business Courts

A district, statutory county, or business court judge must: (a) diligently discharge the administrative responsibilities of the office; Page 6 (b) rule on a case within three months after the case is taken under advisement; (c) if an election contest or a suit for the removal of a local official is filed in the judge’s court, request the presiding judge to assign another judge who is not a resident of the county to dispose of the suit; (d) on motion by either party in a disciplinary action against an attorney, request the presiding judge to assign another judge who is not a resident of the administrative region where the action is pending to dispose of the case; (e) request the presiding judge to assign another judge of the administrative region to hear a motion relating to the recusal or disqualification of the judge from a case pending in his court; and (f) to the extent consistent with due process, consider using methods to expedite the disposition of cases on the docket of the court, including: (1) adherence to firm trial dates with strict continuance policies; (2) the use of teleconferencing, videoconferencing, or other available means in lieu of personal appearance for motion hearings, pretrial conferences, scheduling, and other appropriate court proceedings; (3) pretrial conferences to encourage settlements and to narrow trial issues; (4) taxation of costs and imposition of other sanctions authorized by the Rules of Civil Procedure against attorneys or parties filing frivolous motions or pleadings or abusing discovery procedures; and (5) local rules, consistently applied, to regulate docketing procedures and timely pleadings, discovery, and motions.