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Getting a Hearing in Travis County
If the other side in your case filed an answer, and won’t agree to sign your final order, your case is contested. It would be best for you to find a lawyer to represent you. If you choose to represent yourself then you must attend a hearing, give testimony, and present evidence so the Court can decide your case. The Court expects you to follow the Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure, just like a lawyer.
If you represent yourself in a contested case, you have to set your case for a final hearing. You’ll need to follow these steps:
1. Get a Notice of Hearing form.
The Notice of Hearing tells the other party when and where to go for the hearing in your case. Use the attached form.
2. Set the Date. Go to the Court Coordinator’s Office (4th Floor, room 435 of the Courthouse), to get a date and time for your hearing. The other party must receive a copy of the Notice of Hearing at least 45 days before the day of the hearing, so ask the Court Coordinator for a hearing date at least 60 days away; to make sure the other party receives the Notice in time. Write the date and time of the hearing on the Notice of Hearing form.3. Make copies. Make copies of your completed Notice of Hearing. There is a copy machine in the Self Help Center, (1st Floor of the Courthouse). Copies are 20 cents per page. One copy is for you. The other copies are for the other parties in your case. Remember, every party in your case must receive the Notice of Hearing.
4. File the Notice. File the original Notice of Hearing in the District Clerk’s Office, (1st Floor, room 103 of the Courthouse). Ask the clerk to file-stamp your copies.
5. Mail the Notice. Mail a file-stamped copy of the Notice of Hearing to the other parties in your case. Send it by certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep the return receipt as proof that you mailed the Notice of Hearing and green card as proof that the other parties received the Notice of Hearing.
6. Write the final order. In a divorce case, this is the Final Decree of Divorce.
7. Come to the Courthouse on the day of your hearing. Give yourself plenty of time to find parking and your courtroom.
8. Bring these documents with you to your hearing:
1) your file-stamped copy of the Notice of Final Hearing,
2) the return receipt and green card,
3) your final order, and
4) evidence you want to present to the Court.9. Find your courtroom. Check the List of cases set for hearing, posted in front of the 1st Floor elevators. If you can’t find the List, ask someone at the Information Booth for help. Find your case. The courtroom number should be written at the bottom of the List. Go to that courtroom and wait for the Judge to call your case. If you can’t find your case, go to the Court Coordinator’s office (4th Floor, room 435) for help.