<P> The county court has exclusive jurisdiction over "Class A" and "Class B" misdemeanors (these offenses can involve jail time), concurrent jurisdiction over civil cases where the amount in controversy is moderately sized, and appellate jurisdiction over JP and municipal court cases (for municipal court cases, this may involve a trial de novo if the lower court is not a "court of record"). </P> <P> County court judges are not required to be licensed attorneys . Due to this, defendants in counties which only have the traditional constitutional county court may ask to have their cases transferred to that county's district court for trial if the district judge consents (1). However, defendants in counties with the county court at law structure do not have this option, as the county court at law judges are required to have law degrees . </P> <P> Section 15 states that the County Court shall be a "court of record". Section 16 states that the County Court "has jurisdiction as provided by law"; Section 17 states that the County Court shall hold terms as provided by law and that County Court juries shall consist of six persons, but in civil cases a jury shall not be empaneled unless one of the parties demands it and pays a jury fee or files an affidavit stating that it is unable to do so . </P> <P> Since the county judge is also responsible for presiding over the Commissioners Court (the main executive and legislative body of the county), in 94 counties the Texas Legislature has established county courts at law to relieve the county judge of judicial duties . The first multi-county statutory county court (composed of Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan counties) was created in 2013 . In most counties with courts at law, the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the constitutional county court has been transferred to the county courts at law . Unlike the county judge, judges of the county courts of law are required to be attorneys . The county courts at law may hear both civil and criminal matters, or hear them separately, depending on how the Legislature has structured them (Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Harris, and Tarrant counties have "county criminal courts" or "county criminal courts at law" that hear only criminal cases). </P>

The lowest level courts in the texas that deal with only class c misdemeanors are