The Texas Business Court was created by H.B. 19, 88th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2023)i, signed June 9, 2023, effective September 1, 2023, and operational for cases filed on or after September 1, 2024. The Court is composed of eleven geographic divisions corresponding to the Administrative Judicial Regions. Five divisions — Dallas (First), Austin (Third), San Antonio (Fourth), Fort Worth (Eighth), and Houston (Eleventh) — were funded and operational at launch on September 1, 2024. The remaining six divisions were initially conditioned on legislative appropriations and scheduled to be abolished September 1, 2026 absent reauthorization; H.B. 40 (2025) eliminated that sunset provision and provided appointment authority for judges to the six remaining divisions (and additional judges for the First and Eleventh), contingent on legislative appropriations; the bill removed the structural threat to those divisions but did not itself open them or appoint sitting judges.23 The companion S.B. 1045, 88th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2023)i created the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, based in Austin, as a dedicated appellate venue for Business Court appeals.24
Operating record and bench (added September 29, 2026). The Office of Court Administration’s mid-year report records 409 cases filed and 221 pending through April 30, 2026, 82 written opinions in that window, three jury and five bench trials, and an average of twelve months and one day from first appearance to trial (OCA, Business Court Mid-Year Report, at 5–8). The court’s published opinions are collected, with posture and ruling coded, in the Texas Business Court Codex, which carries the running count. Ten judges sit across the five operating divisions on two-year terms (Tex. Gov’t Code § 25A.009); on July 29, 2026 the Governor reappointed all ten to terms beginning September 1, 2026. H.B. 40 also lowered the § 25A.004(d) amount-in-controversy floor from $10 million to $5 million and (§ 44) assigned Montgomery County to the Eleventh Division; H.B. 16, 89th Leg., 2d C.S. (Tex. 2025), §§ 7.06–7.07, moved Bastrop County from the Second to the Third Division.
Figure 5 · Business Court divisions
Sources. Tex. Gov't Code Ann. ch. 25A (West 2025); H.B. 19 and S.B. 1045, 88th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2023); H.B. 40, 89th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2025); Fifteenth Court of Appeals (txcourts.gov); Administrative Judicial Regions (txcourts.gov).