§ 151.009.Fees and Costs

The money section, and its last subsection is the reason the chapter is written the way it is.

The parties pay in equal shares for the special judge’s fee and all administrative costs related to the trial, including the court reporter’s fee.

Costs belonging to one side are paid by that side. A witness called by a party, or any other cost related only to a single party’s case, falls on the party who incurred it.

No public money may be spent. The state and units of local government may not pay any costs related to a trial under this chapter.

That prohibition explains Section 151.010. A trial that cannot use public money also cannot use a public courtroom or public employees during working hours.

The arrangement answers the obvious objection to private judging. Parties who want a trial on their own schedule, before a judge of their choosing, pay for it themselves.

Equal shares is the default, not a rule about who ultimately bears the cost. The section allocates payment as the trial proceeds.

The fee is public from the start, since Section 151.002 requires the motion to state it.