How to Find Travis County Court Dockets
Most docket searches run through the Travis County Odyssey Portal. After you open a case in Smart Search, the case detail lists hearings and events. The official user guide says hearings and events sort in reverse order, newest first, and that only the first 50 show at once. Use Show More or Show All on a busy case, and use the browser find tool to jump to a date.
You can reach a docket two ways. Search a name to see all of a person's cases, then open each one. Or enter a known cause number to go straight to that docket. The Odyssey Portal covers County Clerk, District Clerk, and Probate Court cases.
- Open the portal and click Smart Search.
- Enter a cause number, or a name in Last, First Middle order.
- Open the case and scroll to Hearings and Events.
- Use Show All to load every setting on a long case.
- Confirm the date with the court before you rely on it.
Searching a Docket by Name or Cause Number
The portal gives you two ways into a docket, and the better one depends on what you know. A cause number is the fastest path because it opens a single case with no guessing. If you only have a name, the Smart Search wildcard rules help. Type at least three letters of a last name followed by an asterisk, and at least one letter of a first name followed by an asterisk, to catch spelling variants. Names are not case sensitive, and a single name can appear as a defendant, a plaintiff, an attorney, or a judge, so a broad name search may return cases the person is only loosely tied to.
Once results load, the default columns include the case number, the defendant, the case type, the party name, and the party type. You can sort by any column header and display up to six columns at a time. The system caps results at 200, so add a date of birth or a file-date range when a name is common. For a County Clerk cause-number search, remember to check the County Clerk box first, or the lookup will miss the case. After you open the right case, the docket itself lives under the Hearings and Events headings.
Which Travis County Courts Publish Dockets
Travis County spreads dockets across several court groups. District courts hold felony, civil, and family settings. County courts at law hold misdemeanor and county civil settings. The probate courts run their own dockets. Justice and municipal courts schedule small claims, evictions, and traffic. Each group posts settings through Odyssey or a dedicated tool, and the criminal courts offer their own online docket search.
Knowing the court group tells you where the docket lives and who to call to confirm a date. The breakdown below sums up the split.
- District courts, for felonies, divorce, and civil matters of $200 or more.
- County courts at law, for Class A and B misdemeanors and county civil cases.
- Probate courts, for wills, estates, and guardianships.
- Justice of the peace courts, for small claims, evictions, and many traffic cases.
Criminal Court Dockets in Travis County
Criminal settings run out of the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center. The District Attorney's office reports one Magistrate Court and nine felony courtrooms: the 147th, 167th, 299th, 331st, 390th, 403rd, 427th, 450th, and 460th district courts. County courts at law 3 through 9 hear misdemeanors. To confirm a criminal court date, call Criminal Court Administration at 512-854-9244.
The County Clerk misdemeanor FAQ notes the criminal courts offer an online docket and settings search, and that court dates can also be requested by phone. For the underlying charges, see Travis County arrest records. For active warrants tied to a missed setting, see warrant records.
Civil and Family Court Dockets
Civil and family settings run at the Civil and Family Courts Facility at 1700 Guadalupe. The facility houses the civil district courts, the civil county courts at law, and the Title IV-D child support court. Contested civil and family hearings are held in person there unless the parties agree otherwise and the judge announces it.
If your case was served and an answer was filed, the District Clerk divorce page says to schedule a hearing with Court Administration at 512-854-2484 and notify the other party. Family dockets connect to the divorce records process, which carries a 60-day waiting period in most cases.
Probate Court Dockets
Travis County has two probate courts at 200 W. 8th Street. They set hearings on wills, heirship, guardianships, and mental-health matters, and many uncontested probate cases move on a dedicated docket. The County Clerk Probate Division phone is 512-854-5958.
Probate dockets are searched in the same Odyssey portal, with the Probate Court location filter selected. The Travis County probate records page covers filing steps and fees.
How to Read a Docket Entry
A docket entry is short by design. It logs what happened and when, not the full text of a ruling. Read the whole list, not one line, before you draw a conclusion. The fields below appear on a typical Travis County docket.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Hearing Date | The date and time of a setting |
| Court and Judge | The courtroom and judicial officer assigned |
| Event Type | Motion, order, setting, plea, or disposition |
| Filing | The document filed on that date |
| Result | The action taken, such as granted, reset, or continued |
Hearings and events list newest first. A reset entry simply moves a date; it does not close a case.
Dockets vs Full Case Records
People mix up a docket with the case file. A docket is the index of events. The full record holds the documents behind those events. Both come from the same portal, but they answer different questions.
| Point | Court Docket | Full Case Record |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A dated list of settings and events | The complete set of filed documents |
| Best for | Finding a hearing date or status | Reading motions, orders, and judgments |
| Where | Hearings and Events tab in Odyssey | Documents in Odyssey or a clerk copy |
| Official copy | Confirm date with the court | Certified copy from the clerk |
For document copies, use the Travis County court records page and the clerk request process.
Date Changes and Confirmation
Dockets move. The County Clerk warns that hearing dates and times are subject to change and should be confirmed with the court. Case data updates every 24 hours, and newly filed document images take about 72 hours to appear online. A date you saw last week may have reset.
This lag has practical effects. A setting added late in the day may not show until the overnight refresh. A reset entered by the court can take a day to reach the public view, so the portal can show an old date while the courtroom has a new one. If a case is sealed, juvenile, adoption, mental-health, or otherwise confidential, the docket may be limited or hidden entirely. When the stakes are high, do not trust the screen alone. Call the assigned court or the clerk that holds the file, give them the cause number, and confirm the next date in person or by phone before you plan around it.
Note: Always confirm a Travis County hearing date with the assigned court before you travel, since dockets can reset without notice on the public portal.
Travis County Court Technology Access
Beyond Odyssey, Travis County runs a Courts Technology Access Portal built by its in-house team. It links an Appointment Management Portal, Civil Calendaring Online, and a Criminal Docket Search. These tools sit on the county courts pages and give attorneys and the public another route to settings and calendars.
The Civil and Family Courts Facility also documents e-courtroom technology for remote and hybrid hearings. For the courts that issue these dockets, see the Travis County District Court page.
Specialty and Diversion Court Dockets
Travis County runs a dense set of specialty dockets, and each one keeps its own calendar. These problem-solving courts hold regular settings where a person checks in, reports progress, and meets program terms. The county lists felony Drug Court, Felony Pretrial Diversion, reentry courts, a Veterans Treatment Court, a DWI Court, and several mental-health dockets. Settings on these dockets run more often than a normal criminal calendar.
The Mental Health and specialty dockets are supervised by the Honorable Leon Grizzard in the Magistrate Court, and many run 3 to 12 months with frequent court dates. The Veterans Treatment Court, led by the Honorable Brad Urrutia in the 450th District Court, holds settings across a 12 to 24 month program. A defendant on one of these dockets should confirm each check-in date with the program coordinator, since a missed setting can carry the same risk as any other missed court date. The arrest records page covers how these programs tie back to the underlying charge.