On November 23, 2021, the Texas Supreme Court issued the 45th Emergency Order. As of today, it is not accessible on the txcourts.gov website and has not, to my knowledge, been emailed out to court personnel by OCA. It was emailed to attorneys by the state bar, however. The pdf of the 45th order has been added to end of this post for all who have not seen it.
Of note, all Texas courts are permitted to use teleconferencing through February 1, 2022. While courts may continue to use reasonable efforts to hold proceedings remotely, remote jury proceedings must not be conducted unless the court has considered on the record (or in a written order) any objection or motion related to moving forward with a jury proceeding at least seven days before the jury proceeding or as soon as practicable if the objection or motion is made or filed within seven days of the jury proceeding.
Additionally, municipal and justice courts may suspend or modify trial-related and pretrial hearing deadlines through March 1, 2022. Despite this, municipal and justice courts are to “move swiftly to return to regular pretrial and trial proceedings as soon as reasonably feasible before March 1, 2022.”
Stay tuned to see if more court guidance documents are to come from OCA.
Full Court Press 