Which Texas Court Level is Appropriate for your Real Estate Lawsuit?

Trey Wilson San Antonio Texas Real Estate Attorney, Trey Wilson Real Estate Lawyer in San Antonio wrote:

Filing or defending a lawsuit related to real estate (or any lawsuit for that matter) can be overwhelming. Many parties to real estate suits are first-time litigants, with scarce knowledge about the distinctions between Texas courts, or the intricacies of how the various court levels interact. 

Understanding the complex web of the various court levels in Texas -- and their respective jurisdictional limits -- is essential to a litigant's ability to make informed decisions about a lawsuit, including decisions relating to where the suit should be filed.  The following presents a very general summary of the types of real-estate related suits handed by Texas district courts, county courts, and justice courts: 

DISTRICT COURTS

District courts are the primary trial courts in Texas, and are courts of "general jurisdiction." Article V, Section 8 of the Texas Constitution extends a district court’s potential jurisdiction to “all actions” but makes such jurisdiction relative by excluding any matters in which exclusive, appellate, or original jurisdiction is conferred by law upon some other court. It can be said that Texas district courts generally have original jurisdiction in the following categories of real estate-related lawsuits: 

(i) all suits for title to land;

(ii) all suits for enforcement of liens on land; 

(iii) suits to determine the existence, nature and scope of easements;

(iv) suits (including divorce actions) to determine community property interests in real estate;

(v) suits to determine the validity and effect of deeds or there instruments affecting title to land; 
(vi) suits related to the enforcement of contracts to buy or sell real property; 
(vii) suits to remove encumbrances to title to real estate; and
(viii) suits among joint owners of real estate for partition.

Appeals from judgments of the district courts in civil lawsuit are to the courts of appeals. 

COUNTY COURTS

County courts generally have appellate jurisdiction (usually by trial de novo) over cases tried originally in the justice courts. This appellate jurisdiction includes cases in which a Judgement for eviction has been entered in the Justice Court (an "Eviction Appeal").

Original and appellate judgments of the county courts may be appealed to the courts of appeals. 

JUSTICE COURTS
Texas Justice courts generally have exclusive jurisdiction of civil matters when the amount in controversy does not exceed $200, and concurrent jurisdiction with the county courts when the amount in controversy exceeds $200 but does not exceed $10,000. 

Justice courts also have exclusive jurisdiction over forcible entry and detainer (eviction) cases. This means that all eviction suits must be filed in the Justice Court governing the county and precinct where the real property made the subject of the eviction suit is located.

Trials in justice courts are not “of record.” Appeals from these courts (including in eviction suits) are by trial de novo (i.e. "anew" and as if the first trial had not occurred) in the constitutional county court or the county court at law.