The state-level rules are in the Texas guide. This page covers what is different about Austin: two court buildings that split civil and family work from probate, and city lines that do not match the county line neatly.
The search area around Austin
The Texas Comptroller's directory for Travis County lists the cities and villages that tax property there, including Austin, Bee Cave, Jonestown, Lago Vista, Lakeway, Manor, Pflugerville, Rollingwood, Westlake Hills, and Webberville. The same list includes Cedar Park, Round Rock, and Leander, so a city name alone may not tell you which county's courts a reader will use.
For your pages, that means saying plainly which county's courts you describe. A page for the Austin area that names only Travis County courts can mislead a reader whose matter belongs somewhere else.
Getting Travis County court facts right
Travis County lists the Civil and Family Courts Facility at 1700 Guadalupe St in Austin as home to the civil district courts, the civil county courts at law, and the Title IV-D child support court. The county's district court page says those civil district courts have original jurisdiction in all divorce cases.
Probate sits elsewhere. Travis County lists Probate Court No. 1 at 200 W. 8th St., Second Floor, the historic federal courthouse the county set aside for its probate courts. An estate page that sends families to Guadalupe Street sends them to the wrong building.
What differs from nearby markets
In San Antonio, probate and the civil district courts share one downtown courthouse. In Austin they are split. A page written for one city and reused for the other gets the building wrong, and an AI answer drawn from it repeats the mistake.
Local search in Austin also leans on your firm's listing details. How that interacts with AI answers is covered in whether a Google Business Profile matters for AI search.
What we build for Austin firms
- Practice-area pages that name the right Travis County building for each kind of matter
- Area pages that state which county's courts they describe
- Answer posts for the questions Austin-area clients ask before they call
The family law guide covers divorce and custody pages, and the estate planning guide covers probate pages.
Common questions
Should an Austin firm write separate pages for Williamson or Hays County clients?
Only if the firm takes matters there and has something specific to say about those courts. If it does, each page should name the county whose courts it describes.
Does an Austin website need to be filed with the State Bar?
Under Rule 7.05(b), information and links on a firm website are exempt from filing except the homepage contents, unless those are otherwise exempt. The Texas guide covers the filing rules in more detail.
Keep reading
Sources
- Travis County, Civil and Family Courts Facility, About
- Travis County, Civil District Courts
- Travis County, Probate Court No. 1
- Travis County, Civil and Family Courthouse project (200 West 8th Street for probate courts)
- Texas Comptroller, Travis County property tax directory
- Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 7.05 (Texas Center for Legal Ethics)