§ 151.004.Referral Order Entered

The order is the instrument that transfers authority, and the section separates what it must say from what it may say.

Two things are required: the issue referred, and the name of the special judge.

The issue defines the scope. A special judge’s power runs to what the order refers and no further.

Three things are optional. The order may designate the time and place for trial, and the time for filing the special judge’s report.

The report deadline is the useful option. Section 151.011 supplies a 60-day default, and the order can shorten or lengthen it.

The clerk sends a copy of the order to the special judge. The court’s own machinery notifies the person who will try the case.

The order is where the arrangement becomes official. Until it is signed, the parties have an agreement; afterward the case is stayed and the trial belongs to someone else.

The order also marks when the stay takes hold. Section 151.001 requires the referring court to stay its proceedings, and the referral order is the instrument that does it.

Specifying the issue protects the parties as much as the court. A special judge who decides something outside the order has decided something the parties did not submit.