The Four Federal Districts of Texas

Texas has more federal judicial districts than any state except California has divisions — four districts covering 268 counties, from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley.

Venue is not a formality. The same conduct charged in Sherman and charged in Del Rio can produce materially different experiences: different prosecutors, different judges, different jury pools, and different local practices about everything from detention to plea timing.

How federal venue is decided

Federal venue generally lies where the offense was committed. For a conspiracy, that means anywhere an act in furtherance of it occurred — which in practice gives the government a genuine choice in many cases. For wire fraud, venue can attach wherever a wire passed. This flexibility is why two co-defendants in the same scheme can occasionally end up charged in different districts.

Once venue is set, the case is assigned to a division within the district, usually based on where the conduct occurred or where the defendant resides. The division determines the courthouse, and in most Texas districts it substantially narrows which district judges can be assigned.

The four districts at a glance

Northern District of Texas — 100 counties across North and West Texas. Divisions at Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls. The Dallas Division sits in the Earle Cabell Federal Building.

Eastern District of Texas — 43 counties in East and Northeast Texas. Divisions at Sherman, Plano, Tyler, Beaumont, Marshall, Texarkana, and Lufkin. Fast-growing Collin and Denton County cases run through Sherman and Plano.

Southern District of Texas — 43 counties along the Gulf Coast and lower Rio Grande. Divisions at Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo. Among the highest-volume criminal dockets in the country, driven heavily by border prosecutions.

Western District of Texas — 68 counties from Austin to El Paso. Divisions at San Antonio, Austin, Waco, El Paso, Del Rio, Midland-Odessa, Pecos, and Alpine. Also carries an extremely heavy border caseload.

Why the district changes your case

Prosecution policy. Each district is run by its own United States Attorney, and charging and plea policies genuinely differ between them. What resolves one way in the Northern District may not resolve the same way in the Western.

Docket pressure. The border districts handle enormous volumes of immigration and drug cases. High volume changes how quickly matters move and how much individual attention a case receives at the margins.

Jury pool. A jury drawn from the Sherman Division is not demographically the same as one drawn from Houston or El Paso. In a close case this is not a trivial consideration.

Local practice. Standing orders, discovery practices, whether the court expects written objections to a PSR, and how a particular judge handles variance arguments all vary. Familiarity with the specific court is worth real money to a defendant.

Who can appear in these courts

A lawyer must be separately admitted to each federal district to appear there — Texas bar membership alone is not enough. A criminal defense lawyer who has never been admitted in the district where you are charged has to either seek admission or associate local counsel. Our federal practice is led by attorneys admitted in all four Texas districts, the District of Columbia, the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.