Centers of Excellence

Phase 1: Outreach and Review

In the initial stages of the program, the court can contact the Centers of Excellence at COE@txcourts.gov and express interest in participating in the program. The Office of Court Administration will then ask the court to conduct an internal Court Review.

The Court Review asks the court to think critically about their performance. Courts should be honest about their performance and be ready to support their answers with documentation and reporting.

Phase 2: Implementation

Following the Court Review, the Office of Court Administration will prepare and present a Court Profile which highlights each courts strength and identifies areas for improvement. Using the Court Profile, each court will begin working on their performance areas and collecting key documents.

In this stage, the court evaluates its processes with an eye for where it can begin to make changes and improvements. This may require auditing open cases, leveraging technology more efficiently, or simply altering signage and information on their websites to more effectively reach court visitors.

Phase 3: Assessment

As the court works through implementation it will inevitably generate or surface documents which outline court processes and procedures like case management plans, communications plans, or employee codes of conduct.

The Office of Court Administration reviews these documents, and uses the information provided by the court for the follow up onsite visit. This visit gives OCA a sense of how a court operates day to day, an opportunity to introduce staff, and provides a forum for the court to highlight their work and for OCA to ask any remaining questions they may have.

Phase 4: Nomination and Recognition

Following the onsite, OCA then evaluates the whole process from start to finish with an eye on key changes made across all performance and compliance areas and completes a nomination report. This nomination report highlights the work the work each court puts into the process as well as their ongoing pursuit of excellence. Once the report is complete, the court may be submitted to the Texas Judicial Council to be nominated as a Judicial Center of Excellence.