Salaries of County Court at Law Judges

With the passage of House Bill 11 (judicial compensation) in the Second Called Session, several questions have been raised concerning the salaries of county court at law judges. While HB11 did not specifically address the county court at law judges, these are statutes that do specify certain minimum salaries for these positions.
Section 25.0005, Government Code, establishes a minimum salary for a county court at law judge in counties that elect to collect certain additional fees in the statutory court. If the commissioners court has authorized these fees, the state comptroller refunds $35,000 per court to the county plus any unexpended amounts remaining at the end of the fiscal year. In these counties, “a statutory county court judge…shall be paid a total annual salary set by commissioners court at an amount that is at least equal to the amount that is $1,000 less than the total annual salary received by a district judge in the county on Aug. 31, 1999 (emphasis supplied). A district judge’s or statutory county court judge’s total annual salary includes contributions and supplements, paid by the state or a county….”
The state salary of a district judge on Aug. 31, 1999, was $92,216.70. The minimum salary of a judge of a statutory county court, calculated according to Section 25.0005, Government Code, is $91,216.70 plus any additional contributions or supplements (such as juvenile board payments) being paid to the district judge on Aug. 31, 1999. The minimum salary could be lower if the conditions of Subsection 25.0005(c) apply. The commissioners court may set a higher salary, but the minimum salary is $1,000 less than the compensation for a district judge in the county on Aug. 31, 1999. This statute was not changed by HB11.
Local Statutes creating the county court at law may also contain minimum salaries for the judge. If these salaries exceed the minimum under Section 25.0005, the local statute prevails. Some of these statutes link the minimum salary for that judge to the salary of the district judges. Since HB11 increases the state salary of a district judge to $125,000, effective Dec. 1, 2005, these local statutes may increase the minimum salary of the county court at law judge in those counties. According to our review, the statutes for the following counties link the minimum statutory court salary to some percentage of the salary of a district judge: Austin, Bastrop, Bowie, Brazoria, Burnet, Cameron, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ector, Ellis, El Paso, Galveston, Gregg, Hidalgo, Hood, Hopkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Kendall, Lubbock, Medina, Midland, Montgomery, Nolan, Nueces, Panola, Parker, Polk, Reeves, Rusk, Smith, Tarrant, Travis, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Washington and Wichita. If you need assistance in determining whether HB11 will change the minimum salary of the judge of the county court at law in your county, please contact me at 1-800-733-0699.
Jim Allison