Taylor, TX – June 1, 2020 – Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell ordered all county offices to close to the public at noon on March 19. Although we have been closed for face-to-face interaction with the public since then, our staff is conducting business remotely to keep the Court operating to the fullest extent possible.
Your JP 4 Court continues to operate remotely and we started a phased-in reopening beginning June 2.
Court will be open for appointments only. Clients will be notified electronically of the dates and times to come to court. Signs will be posted on the doors of the courthouse alerting people they need to park in a designated parking spot and that they need to wait until a clerk tells them they can come into the courthouse. When people enter they will undergo a health check (details to be determined) and they will need to wear a mask. Our clerks will be wearing masks and practicing social distancing to protect clients as best we can.
Starting June 15 we will begin scheduling virtual eviction hearings. Plaintiffs and defendants will be provided with information to connect with the Court electronically.
Later in the summer we will schedule in-person eviction hearings and eventually add small claims and debt claim cases to our virtual and in-person services.
On the criminal side, people can continue to enter pleas, pay fines and court costs, ask to take the driving safety course and set up payment plans by emailing JP4@wilco.org or calling (512) (352-4155) and leaving a voice mail. A clerk will return calls within one business day.
In the past few weeks large rolling cabinets that held several thousand case files and took up a significant amount of office space have been removed. We are working with the County’s Facilities Department to turn that new space into cubicles for staff.
Our staff continue to digitize cases as we move to a paperless system. They also are cleaning up the database of cases so we have an accurate sense of open and closed cases. We are updating processes and procedures to make court records paperless as much as possible, saving taxpayers money as we reduce the need for paper, printing and hard-copy filing.
We have filed:
- 34 Criminal Cases*
- 3 Evictions**
- 102 Debt Claims
- 76 Truancy and Parent Contributing to Non-Attendance cases closed and dismissed
We have also:
- Processed $10,455.28 in fines and fees for 143 criminal and civil cases.
- Processed 403 motions and writs for civil cases
- Granted 45 requests to take the driving safety course
- Closed and dismissed 136 criminal cases and 134 civil cases.
- Conducted 12 inquests
- Officiated 9 weddings
*A computer glitch has prevented tickets issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety from being filed.
** On March 19 the Texas Supreme Court ordered a halt to all evictions except where there is a case of imminent harm or criminal activity. The Court lifted the ban on evictions on May 18.