Court Settings

Initial Appearance Setting (IA)
IA dockets are held in the Magistrate Court on the 6th Floor. The purpose of the IA docket is to ensure that each defendant has an attorney on all pending cases. A case will not progress to the next court event until the defendant is represented on all cases. The cases are usually passed for about 30 days at the discretion of the judge or court coordinator.

Pretrial Setting (PT)
The purpose of the PT docket is for the defense attorneys to announce their intentions with the case. There may be several pretrial settings. Judge Nekhom requires an announcement on the third setting of a case, absent any mitigating circumstances.

Motion Setting (MT)
Motions to suppress will be held with trial unless the ruling is dispositive of the case. These will be set as separate hearings as scheduled by the court coordinator. Once set, the State and defense must file all non-constitutional motions ten or more days before the motion setting as required by the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

Contest Docket (CT)
Contest dockets are held Monday morning. They usually include 8-11 cases that have announced trial.  The judge makes a decision as to whom gets tried that week, and the cases may not be called in the numerical order they appear on the docket. Judge Nekhom will consult the attorneys for State and defense in determining a trial schedule. 

Disposition/Plea (DI)
Cases set on this docket are expected to reach some sort of disposition on the day the docket is set. All requests for continuance must be approved by the judge.

More information and all forms may be obtained in the courtroom.