epcounty.com - Family Law Court

Family Law Court - 383rd Judicial District

About Us
Family Law Court II handles all family law matters out of the 383rd District Court by virtue of an automatic referral by the referring court at the time of filing of these cases. The only cases not heard by the Associate Court are adoptions, terminations, name change, and parental notification cases under Chapter 33 of Title II of the Family Code. In 2004, the 383rd District Court and the Associate Court disposed of 2,856 cases. Over 43.4% of the new family law filings were filed in this court. The court is located on the 11th floor at Room 1102. In the first 7 months of 2005, 1,668 cases were disposed of; 39.72% of the new cases were filed in this court.
Judge Kathleen C. Anderson has been an Associate Judge of this court since 1997. The former Associate Judge of the Court was Terry Pasqualone, who served approximately four years. He is now the Director of the Domestic Relations Office. Prior to that, Judge Art Aguirre had served as an Associate Judge for the 383rd Judicial District Family Law Court.
Daily dockets are posted outside the courtroom. An attorney briefing room has a phone and a copier available to those attorneys practicing family law. Miscellaneous mediation rooms and client interview rooms are also available on the floor on a first-come, first-serve basis. A beautiful children playroom is located right off the lobby.
Our settings are generally as follows: the first full week of the month is reserved for the long trials. Any hearing of 3 or more hours in duration requires that a written "Stipulated Waiver of Appeal" be signed (see Court Forms link.)
- Monday mornings are set for dismissals and enforcements, and the afternoons are for modifications
- Tuesday mornings are reserved for protective orders, miscellaneous motions to include withdrawals and discovery disputes; afternoon settings are scheduled for protective orders and enforcements from the Domestic Relations Office
- Temporary orders are heard all day on Wednesdays
- Final hearing are scheduled all day on Thursdays
- Friday mornings are the unscheduled/uncontested hearings from 8:00 A.M. to 9:30 A.M. (parties must use "Unscheduled Hearing Forms" when appearing on the uncontested docket - see Court Forms link for details.); followed by entry hearings and pre-trials; the afternoon is reserved for miscellaneous hearings, including compliance and review hearings
All requests for hearings must be submitted to the court in writing, using "Hearing Request Form." No case will be continued or reset without the written agreement of the other side. Forms for use in court hearings are available in the briefing room. Some, but not all forms, are available on the main page for the 383rd Judicial District Family Law Court website. All required forms should be filled out prior to the beginning of the hearing. Please check in with the court bailiff upon arriving on the floor.
All litigants in cases involving children are required to complete "Helping Children Cope With Divorce Seminar," offered through the YWCA, before their case can be finalized. Information about the seminar and the Registration Form for the class are available through this website, or by contacting YWCA Coordinator at 838-3518, or by logging on to www.ywcaelpaso.org and clicking on Coping with Divorce.
All parties who choose to represent themselves in cases filed in 383rd Judicial District must become familiar with the court rules and other rules governing family law. They are encouraged to go to the Law Library, located on the 12th floor of the County Courthouse building. To view the link to the "Pro Se Divorce Handbook," produced as a public service by the Texas Young Lawyers Association at no cost, go to http://www.tyla.org/family_law.html The handbook is available in English and Spanish.
Interpreters are available for all court proceedings; requests for them should be made to Council of Judges Administrator, Martha Banales (546-2143, mbanales@epcounty.com) immediately before commencement of the hearing. Requests for deaf interpreters and interpreters for languages other than Spanish need to be made at least 10 days in advance of the hearing.
Requests for transcripts should be made directly to the court reporter, Stephanie Onick at sonick@epcounty.com, and should specify the case number, style, the date and time of the hearing, as well as the date by which the transcript is needed.