The Texas Business Court has established patterns after its first 90 days in business from September – November 2024. During that time the court received 50 total cases, comprising 33 new filings and 17 cases removed from Texas district courts. The Eleventh Division, serving Houston and surrounding areas, handles the majority with 26 cases. The remaining cases are distributed across other divisions:

• First Division (Dallas area): 13 cases
   
• Third Division (Austin area): four cases
   
• Fourth Division (San Antonio area): four cases
   
• Eighth Division (Fort Worth area): three cases

To help more evenly distribute the docket, on Nov. 25, 2024, Administrative Presiding Judge Dorfman assigned Judges Barnard and Sharp of the Fourth Division to preside over four cases filed in his and Judge Adrogué’s courts in the Eleventh Division. This was done “in order to equalize dockets within the Texas Business Court and to promote the orderly and efficient administration of justice.” The assigned judges will “handle all proceedings including final trial of the case, absent further order of the Administrative Presiding Judge.” The cases are not being transferred from the Eleventh Division to the Fourth Division; Fourth Division judges will preside over cases that will remain in the Eleventh Division.

Docket equalization may become the norm at the Texas Business Court, especially after the court adds divisions for the state’s less populated areas in September 2026. If the current case filing trends hold true, a case filed in Houston and/or Dallas may be administered by a Texas Business Court judge from another division, which will eventually include El Paso, Midland, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Tyler, and Beaumont.