I am trying to create a No Refusal DWI program for our county. Local law enforcement is on board and gung ho about the idea. The problem is a lack of qualified magistrates (that are also attorneys) residing in the county to sign off on the warrants. Our large neighbor county to the north however, has a plethora of magistrates to staff its no refusal program.

My question is this: is anybody aware of a limitation on using an out of county magistrate to sign off on blood warrants?

I haven't been able to find anything statutorily that would prevent it, and nobody I've spoken with, attorneys included, seems to know the answer.

Thanks in advance!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HarvJ,

District judges have state-wide authority to authorize search warrants. I've always assumed that lower court judges are restricted to their jurisdiction.

Terry is correct. There are appellate opinions (email me if you need them) where the courts have held that county judges, county court a law judges, JPs and Municipal court judges do not have the authority to issue a search warrant that can be executed in another county. Only district courts may do so because they are state courts even if the court's "jurisdiction" is confined to a single county.

From our DWI case law publication available on our DWI resources page:

11. THE JURISDICTION OF THE STATUTORY COUNTY COURT IS ATTACKED AND FOUND TO BE LIMITED

Sanchez v. State, 2012 WL 1694594 (Tex.Crim.App. 2012).

Houston police arrested suspect in Harris County and sought a warrant from Judge of County Court at Law of Montgomery County. Kingwood is in Harris and Montgomery County. The arrest was in Harris. It was during a "No Refusal" weekend in Montgomery a few miles away so the cop drove 5 miles to MOCO rather than 22 miles to Houston. The issue presented was whether the judge of a statutory county court, acting as a magistrate, may sign a search warrant to be executed in a county other than the one in which he serves? The Court first pointed out that jurisdiction of JP's is limited to county, and the jurisdiction of District Judge is statewide. It then held that County Courts at Law do not have statewide authority because gov't code does not expressly grant them that jurisdiction, so the Court held that legislature limited a statutory county court judge's authority to acting within the county of the court. For this reason the warrant was invalid. Decision affirmed by Court of Criminal Appeals.