Although it might seem odd, new cases added to district court dockets in 2019 increased at the largest clip in Austin, and decreased the most in Houston.

Texas Lawyer analyzed two years of court data from the Texas Office of Court Administration, and compared the numbers of new cases added in district courts among the Lone Star State's major metro areas—Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin.

As might be expected, Houston, the state's largest city, had the most cases added, compared with the other metros.

And Austin, the state's smallest major metro, had the least cases added. But its caseload grew the most.

Here are some of the biggest trends emerging when comparing 2019 with the previous year.

Legislative impact

It might seem weird, but Austin pulled off a feat: Compared with other big Texas cities, Austin saw the largest gains in new cases added in 2019.

Travis County experienced a 6% gain in total new cases, even though all the other major metros saw decreases in this metric.

Total Cases Added to District Court Dockets in 2019

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM

Civil cases in Travis County increased by 13% to land at just over 10,000, which is significant considering the statewide increase in this metric was just 1%. Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio also saw higher numbers of civil cases added, but their rate increased at a slower clip than Austin.

Travis County's local administrative judge, 261st District Judge Lora Livingston, said she has some guesses about why litigation increased in Austin in 2019.

"We had a legislative session in 2019 and that always increases our numbers to some extent," said Livingston, noting that Travis County, which houses state government, has exclusive jurisdiction over administrative law cases. "That might explain some of the increase."

Plateau in Harris County

Although it may seem unusual for Texas' largest city, and the fourth most populated city in the nation, the data shows that Houston saw 8% fewer total cases added in 2019 than in 2018. That's compared with a 1% decrease statewide.

Civil cases increased in 2019 in all the other major metro areas, yet Harris County bucked that trend. It experienced a 9% drop from its 2018 number to land at 57,400 civil cases added in 2019.

Civil Cases Added to District Court Dockets

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM

Clay Bowman, district courts administrator in Harris County, said that he's been tracking a spike in new cases since 2014, and he thinks the slight dip from 2018 to 2019 just shows that the county is reaching a plateau after its yearslong upward trend.

"This is coming at the end of four years of pretty continual increases in the numbers of cases filed in civil courts, actually a 30% increase from 2014 to 2018," explained Bowman.

David Slayton, administrative director of the Texas Office of Court Administration, didn't return a call or email seeking comment before deadline.

Harris County did follow a statewide trend of decreasing family cases, and to a larger extent than other cities. While the statewide drop in family law cases was just 5%, Harris County's metric decreased by 11% to 53,000 in 2019.

Family Law Cases Added to District Court Dockets in 2019

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM

Just as family law cases decreased in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio also saw drops here.

Austin was an outlier because it saw an 11% jump to nearly 15,000 family law cases added.

Incredible population growth in Central Texas and the Austin metro area is another driver of litigation upticks, added Livingston, the Travis County district judge.

"Particularly in family law cases, we are seeing pretty much a one-to-one correlation between population growth and the number of cases filed," she explained. "It's just true that when the population gets bigger, our caseload gets bigger, particularly when it comes to family law."