Fort Bend County Celebrates Law Library Unveiling
By Aziza Jackson
RICHMOND, Texas — County officials recently celebrated the grand opening of a new law library at the new Fort Bend County JusticeCenter.
The Fort Bend County Law Library is located in the Fort Bend County Justice Center in Richmond.
The justice center expansion project was completed earlier this year and included expanded spaces for services such as the law library.
The original facility was designed by PGAL for future expansion as the county’s judicial needs grow and funding becomes available. The first phase of the Fort Bend County Justice Center included two four-story wings. Two neoclassical wings flank a five-story, 85-foot high domed rotunda where all secured entry, circulation, and access takes place.
The 265,000-square-foot first phase included 17 courtrooms and an additional 10 planned as build-out, plus jury assembly and grand jury rooms. The lower level includes holding cells for 112 incarcerated adults and juveniles, with future provisions for 45 additional cells that access the courtrooms through a secured on-grade sally port.
The second phase includes the courthouse administration extension, which houses the district and county clerk offices, district attorney and bailiff’s offices, and new law library, totaling approximately100,000 square feet.
According to the Fort Bend Herald, as part of the justice center expansion project in 2018, the law library was relocated to a larger space on the second floor of the new facility to accommodate the growing needs of the legal community and the general public. Renovations of the new space reportedly took place over the summer.
The library reportedly provides support for the research, reference, and educational needs of the legal community that includes litigants, attorneys, judges, and county officials in addition to the general public. The library reportedly provides a good working collection of basic legal materials, for in-library use only. Most of the law library’s print collection reportedly consists of reference sources on Texas statutes and caselaw, U.S. Supreme Court case law and federal statutes, a wide selection ofTexas practice guides and forms manuals; and other research materials, including legal encyclopedias, state case-law digests, and federal practice guides.
A report from the Fort Bend Herald contributed to this story.