Criminal Section

The Criminal Section of the County Clerk's office is responsible for keeping records of the County Court at Law, where all Class A and Class B misdemeanors are filed. Appeals from the Justice Courts or from the City Municipal Courts for Class C misdemeanors are also filed in the County Clerk’s office.

Payments

The County Clerk accepts full or partial payment for fines and court costs.  Refer to your payment schedule for the due date, your case number, and amount due.

Civil Section

The Civil Section of the County Clerk’s office is responsible for the filing of civil actions filed against one or more parties. The County Clerk manual states that a civil case can be defined as a personal action instituted to compel payment or the performance of some other act. All civil cases filed in the County Clerk’s Office will be heard in the County Court at Law, which has jurisdiction over cases where the amount in controversy is greater than $200 but less than $250,000.

Probate Department

The County Clerk also has a Probate Department. This is where applicants file petitions to probate wills or guardianships. The County Court has jurisdiction in Hood County for uncontested probates. 

New Guardianship or Temporary Guardianship applications must file with the County Clerk a fingerprint-based criminal history record information if:

     (1) the liquid assets of the estate of the ward exceed $50,000.00; or

     (2) the proposed guardian is not a resident of Texas.

This is what the Office of Court Administration sent:

Dear County Clerk,

Please be advised that due to the amount of time necessary for a county to be assigned an ORI number for the purposes of completing all fingerprint-based criminal history searches, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has recommended that guardianship applicants may arrange for an FBI Personal Review by using the following link: https://www.edo.cjis.gov.

The following two options are available for proposed guardians to obtain their national criminal history record information fingerprinting results:

1.       An e-mail with a secure link and personal identification number.

a.       The original confirmation e-mail is required to access the results.

2.       First Class Mail via the U.S. Postal Service, if requested.

If the FBI Personal Review option is utilized, all proposed guardians must be re-fingerprinted when an ORI number is assigned to the county. The ORI number is what creates the county’s subscription in the FACT Clearinghouse where the background check results are stored, and ensures the county receives any future event information after the proposed guardian has been fingerprinted.

If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Have a wonderful day.

Brian

Brian Keenan

Criminal History Specialist II

Regulatory Services of the Office of Court Administration

For More Information

The County Clerk's Office is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. For more information on obtaining copies of documents filed with the county clerk, please call (817) 579-3222.