The Texas judicial system has been called one of the most complex in the United States, if not the world. It features five layers of courts, several instances of overlapping jurisdiction, and a bifurcated appellate system at the top level. The structure of the system is laid out in Article 5 of the Texas Constitution.

The Legislature allows for the creation of municipal courts in each incorporated city in Texas, by voter approval creating such court. Within the city limits, these courts have shared jurisdiction with the JP courts only on Class C misdemeanor cases and on civil cases involving dangerous dogs, and have exclusive jurisdiction on cases involving city ordinances.

JP and municipal court cases are appealed to the county level.

As a general rule, the municipal courts are not "courts of record" (i.e., no written transcript of the proceedings was taken), and thus an appeal to the county level would require a whole new trial (i.e., a trial de novo). This proved to be a loophole for some defendants in traffic cases, who betted on the officer not being able to attend, and thus having the case dismissed. Furthermore, the de novo trials crowded the dockets of already busy county courts at law. Many major cities -- such as those in Austin, El Paso, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio-- have chosen to convert their muncipal courts to courts of record (this also requires voter approval) to close this loophole.