I hate showing my ignorance on this forum on a regular basis but I need imput. We are getting our DWI search warrant program up and running(thanks to those who have provided forms) and a question has arisen about which judge can sign the evidentiary warrant. Our dist. judge is a multi county judge but the municipal judge is an attorney but the court is a nonrecord court.

18.01(c) ccp. seems to conflict with 18.01(i) ccp.
(i) indicates that any magistrate may sign if the dist judge is the only licensed judge in the county and it is a multi-county jurisdiction. While (c) prevents our municipal judge from signing even though he is licensed because his is a nonrecord court.

What I am trying to accomplish is a plan where the Dist. judge can rotate weeks with the County judge (non atty), the J.P.(non atty) and the City judge (licensed atty. but court of non record).

Am I reading the statues wrong?

Does the fact that we have a licensed atty as the city judge(who would be disqualified under (c) becuase it is a non record court) prevent us from using the alternative under (i). If so, that is a ridiculous result.

Since the statute was obviously designed with rural counties in mind (where there are no municipal courts of record), the immediate question becomes: does a municipal judge "serve the county" (as presumably an attorney-judge of a constitutional county court would)? I think not. Thus, (i) applies.

Thanks Martin, Good thought!