TEXAS SOURCES OF INFORMATION

This page contains links to Texas legislative, judicial, governmental, and business information. It is divided into six sections: Agency and Legislature Information; Codes, Statutes, and Legislation; Decisions, Opinions, and Judicial Information; Legal Aids; Legal Research Aids; and Business Information. The Fast Access Table of Contents [below] contains clickable links to each of the six sections.

AGENCY AND LEGISLATURE INFORMATION

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
(Official website of the Texas Governor; features information about the governor's speeches, major initiatives, appointments, and legislative information, including a legislative process guide)

TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
(Detailed information about the Texas House of Representatives, including committee memberships, directory information, legislation, and live audio and video of the House floor and committee meetings)

TEXAS LEGISLATURE ONLINE
(Official website of the Texas Legislature; features the Texas Statutes in full-text, information about prefiled bills, versions of bills, legislation, bill history with search functions, committee schedules and membership, and House and Senate calendars)

TEXAS ONLINE
(Agency Information, County and City Information, General Services Commission's Catalog, links to many other Texas sites; from the Texas Department of Information Resources)

THE TEXAS SENATE
(Detailed information about the Texas Senate, including its members and committees and legislation, and live audio and video of Senate floor and committee proceedings)

WINDOW ON STATE GOVERNMENT
(Wide selection of Texas government information, with an emphasis on economic and state fiscal data; from the Texas Comptroller)

CODES, STATUTES, AND LEGISLATION

CONSTITUTION OF TEXAS
(The Texas Constitution, in full text; accessible by article; from Texas Legislature Online)

GALLERY WATCH
(On-Line Legislative Tracking Service for Texas; fee-based; also offers a legislative clipping service)

GAMMEL'S THE LAWS OF TEXAS
(Nineteenth-Century Texas Law Online; 1822-1897; downloadable in .pdf format; in ten volumes; from the University of North Texas Libraries)

REAL ESTATE MATERIAL
(Texas real estate information, such as a Contract for Deed's Two Closings Table, Texas' Home Solicitation Transactions Act, Underground Easements Notices, Roll Back Tax Notice, and Seller's Residential Disclosure Notice; many are in zipped format, for Wordperfect 5.1; from the Law Offices of Anderson & Anderson)

TEXAS ADMINISTRATIVE CODE
(Access to the full-text of the Texas Administrative Code [state rules and regulations]; arranged by title; from the Office of the Secretary of State)

TEXAS LAWS
(Access to Texas laws through topical graphical buttons correlating to the Texas codes and statutes; from Texas Police Central)

TEXAS LEGISLATIVE SERVICE
(Fee-based online legislative bill tracking service for Texas; bills are accessible by author, subject, or committee, and searchable by word or phrase; site also features access to committee hearings, record votes, calendars, reports, campaign finance, Texas Weekly, and the Washington Weekly Report from Congressional Quarterly)

TEXAS LEGISLATURE ONLINE
(Official website of the Texas Legislature; features the Texas Statutes in full-text, information about prefiled bills, versions of bills, legislation, bill history with search functions, committee schedules and membership, and House and Senate calendars)

TEXAS OPEN GOVERNMENT
(Full-text access to the Texas Open Records Act, the Texas Open Meetings, Act, the Texas Open Records Handbook, the Texas Open Meetings Handbook the Administrative Procedures Act, and the Attorney General's Administrative Law Handbook; from the Office of the Attorney General)

TEXAS PROBATE WEBSITE
(Intended for Texas attorneys; resources about probate, estate planning, trusts, fiduciary litigation, and elder law; from Barnes & Karish, P.C.)

THE TEXAS REGISTER [CURRENT ISSUES]
(Full-text access to the current issue and issues from the past six months of the Texas Register; browsable and searchable; from the Office of the Secretary of State)

THE TEXAS REGISTER [ARCHIVE]
(Full-text access to issues older than six months of the Texas Register, beginning with the June 14, 1991 issue; browsable and searchable; offered through a partnership of the Office of the Secretary of State and the University of North Texas Libraries)

TEXAS STATUTES
(The Texas Statutes, in full-text; browsable by code, title/subtitle, chapter, and section, or by code in its entirety in ASCII format; from Texas Legislature Online)

DECISIONS, OPINIONS, AND JUDICIAL INFORMATION

ETHICS ADVISORY OPINIONS
(The Texas Ethics Commission's Ethics Advisory Opinions, in full-text; searchable by text string, or retrievable by number; State Ethics Advisory Commission Opinions, 1984-1 through 1984-27; Digest of Ethics Commission Advisory Opinions, Nos. 1-411; and Ethics Advisory Opinions Subject Indices, 1992-1996; in HTML and PDF formats)

OPINIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
(Full-text opinions and orders of the Supreme Court of Texas; includes a searchable database of opinions and orders dating from 10/2/97 to Present)

OPINIONS OF THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL
(The Index to Opinions link on this website contains AG Opinions from 1939-1943 and 1947-Present, AG Letter Advisory Opinions from January 1953-Present, and AG Open Records Decisions from July 1973-Present, arranged by name of Attorney General; in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) or HTML format; from the Office of the Attorney General)

OPINIONS OF THE TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
(Opinions of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, since 7/15/98; Hand-Down List and Issues are also available; in Wordperfect 7.0/7.1 format; from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals)

TEXAS CENTER FOR LEGAL ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM
("Resources" section includes access to the Supreme Court Professional Ethics Committee Opinions [1 - Present] with Subject and Source Indexes and a Table of Opinions, a guide to the basics of law practice, a bibliography of professionalism/ethics topics, Texas Bar Journal articles, law review articles, and Texas cases cites and pertinent points of law)

TEXAS CODE OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT & JUDICIAL ETHICS OPINIONS
(Full-text of Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, accessible by canon; judicial ethics opinions are from number 1 (issued in 1973) to present, and are accessible by number; from Texas Judiciary Online)

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH DISTRICT
(Opinions of the Texas Court of Appeals, 5th District (Dallas) from 1981 to Present, from the Court Case Management System; searchable by keyword, case information, or case/attorney information; includes a list of recent opinions and links to other court web sites)

TEXAS DISCOVERY RULES
(Guide to the 1999 Discovery Rules Revisions; in Wordperfect 6.0 or 7.0 or HTML format; from the Texas Judicial Server)

TEXAS ETHICS REPORTER
(Offers access to the Texas Ethics Opinions in full-text [accessible by subject or number], canons, disciplinary rules, the Rules of Professional Conduct, disciplinary actions, lawyer's creed, the Code of Judicial Conduct, Judicial Ethics Opinions by Number in full-text, Procedural Rules for the Removal or Retirement of Judges, and information on filing a complaint on a Texas Judge; from the University of Houston Law Center)

TEXAS JUDICIAL DIRECTORY ONLINE
(Search engine for locating personnel in Texas trial, district, county, justice of the peace, and municipal courts; search by type of court, name of court, and county, or by last name of judicial professional; from Texas Judicial Online)

TEXAS JUDICIARY ONLINE
(Information about the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas Courts of Appeals, and the Texas Trial Courts)

TEXAS RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE
(Full-text access to the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure; from the Texas Judiciary Online)

TEXAS RULES OF EVIDENCE
(Full-text access to the Texas Rules of Civil and Criminal Evidence; updates and revisions can be accessed through the Supreme Court of Texas website)

U.S. COURTS - EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
(Includes a district map, PACER Information, Important telephone numbers, and a documents section which includes General Orders and Local Rules)

U.S. COURTS - NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
(Includes Local Rules as of 4/15/98, the 1998 Attorney Handbook, a description of court services, statistical information, notable cases, and public notices)

U.S. COURTS - SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
(Information about the District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Southern District of Texas; includes local rules, jury service information, information on admission to the Southern District of Texas Bar, a description of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records [PACER] fee-based system, information on the court's noticing by fax program and court reporting services rate information, and maps to divisional offices)

U.S. COURTS - WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
(Includes general information, local rules, jury information, public notices, and PACER information)

LEGAL AIDS

DENTON COUNTY JUSTICE INFORMATION SYSTEM
(Conduct searches of Denton County's criminal and civil judicial records [since 1988] and Sheriff's Bond and Jail Records; from Denton County, Texas)

INTERNET OPEN RECORDS PROJECT
(Includes ability to conduct searches of the Texas Sexual Offenders Database (by name or city or zip code), Dallas County Voting Records, Texas Insurance Complaints, and Consumer Complaints)

PUBLICDATA.COM
(Fee-based; contains seven searchable databases - TexasDriverSearch, which contains Texas Driver's License Information [searchable by name or number]; TexasTagSearch, which contains Texas License Plates Information [owner information; searchable by plate number]; TexasParoleSystemSearch, a database of paroled convicts from the Texas Dept. of Corrections; TexasVoterSearch, a registered voter roll database - with electoral information on each voter - for the entire state of Texas; TexasTravisCriminalSearch, a database of disposed criminal misdemeanor records since 1988 and felony records since 1992 in Travis County; TexasDallasCriminalSearch, a database of criminal records by name in Dallas County since 1980; and TexasSexOffenderSearch, a database of registered sex offenders in Texas [searchable by name or zip code])

STATE BAR OF TEXAS
(Includes information about the State Bar of Texas' committees, sections and divisions, publications, Continuing Legal Education [CLE] seminars, ethics/grievances, courts, and member services)

TEXAS BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS
(Includes information on obtaining copies of birth and death certificates, verification of marriage and divorce, and the Central Adoption Registry)

TEXAS CONVICTIONS AND SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION DATABASES
(Fee-based; registration required; searchable databases of convictions records and sex offenders; from the Texas Department of Public Safety)

TEXAS COUNTY HIGHWAY MAPS
(County highway maps of Texas, listed alphabetically by name of county or searchable by name of county or place; includes a clickable state map of Texas; maps are those issued by the Texas Dept. of Transportation and offered online by the General Libraries of the University of Texas at Austin)

TEXAS LAW BLOG
(A weblog devoted to Texas law, legal issues and politics; monitors the U.S. Supreme Court, 5th Circuit, Texas Supreme Court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the various Courts of Appeals, the Texas Legislature, major Texas newspapers and legal websites)

TEXAS LAW ORGANIZATIONS RESOURCE CENTER
(Links to a variety of Texas legal information; "Professional Interest" section includes directory information for Clerks of the Texas Courts and a Texas CLE Calendar)

TEXAS LAWYERS CENTER ONLINE
(Legal directory for Texas; locate attorneys/law firms alphabetically by name or practice area; divided into Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Statewide [other cities]; includes links to legal products/services and resources)

TEXAS LEGAL AND BUSINESS FORMS
(A compilation of links to indices and sources of Texas legal and business forms)

TEXAS LEGAL SERVICES CENTER
(Goal is to provide assistance to the poverty law advocate and client community; includes an email directory for legal aid and services offices personnel in Texas, links to legal services and resources support websites, and links to Federal and Texas legal research resources)

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LEGAL RESEARCH AIDS

COURT STRUCTURE OF TEXAS
(Hyperlinked diagram of the court structure of Texas; from the Texas Judicial Server)

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS IN TEXAS
(Detailed explanation of the legislative process in Texas; includes a diagram; from Texas Legislature Online)

LEXIS-NEXIS XCHANGE
(Web-based version of LEXIS-NEXIS; hundreds of databases for conducting legal research; fee-based)

TEXAS LEGAL RESEARCH INDEX
(Focuses on the specifics of conducting legal research using Texas source materials, with lengthy explanations of historical background/content of major sources; includes a section containing a vast compilation of links to Texas Legal Research Internet Sites; from Lydia Brandt of The Brandt Law Firm)

TEXAS LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE LIBRARY
(Includes detailed information concerning the library's resources, a lengthy section describing how to compile legislative intent, an explanation of how a Texas bill becomes law, statistical information about the Texas Legislature, Chief Elected Officials of the 75th Legislature, and links to other Texas legal resources)

TRAIL: TEXAS RECORDS AND INFORMATION LOCATOR
(Search and locate information from over 150 Texas state agency web servers; conduct simple keyword searches, or advanced boolean, phrase, or truncation searches; from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission)

WESTLAW
(Web-based version of Westlaw; hundreds of databases for conducting legal research; fee-based; from the West Group)