§ 15.100.Disqualified Justice

The subchapter's answer to a problem small courts run into often.

If the justice in the proper precinct is not qualified to try the suit, suit may be brought before the nearest qualified justice in the county.

Disqualification is a live risk in a justice precinct. These are small communities, the judge is elected locally and need not be a lawyer, and the parties are often known to them. A rule requiring the case to stay put would leave it with no judge at all.

"Nearest" keeps the case as close to home as the problem allows, rather than sending it to the county seat or letting the plaintiff pick freely. The disqualification moves the case the minimum distance.

The case does not leave the county. The section looks for the nearest qualified justice in the county, so a disqualification changes the precinct but not the county — which preserves whatever the venue rules were protecting in the first place.

Where the precinct has more than one justice, the previous section deals with it first: the plaintiff may file before the other justice, and this section never comes into play.

Note that the section is framed at filing — "suit may be brought" — so it addresses a disqualification known at the outset. A justice who becomes disqualified after a case is under way is dealt with by recusal practice and by the county's local transfer rules rather than by this provision.