Judge Charles “Chuck” Ruckel is the presiding Judge for Collin County Justice Court 3-1 located in Plano, Texas. His precinct population is approximately 350,000 and includes parts of the city of Dallas that are located in Collin County. In fiscal year 2019, he will see approximately 8000 new civil cases with controversy of $10,000 or less and approximately 9000 new, fine-only, criminal cases. Beginning September 1, 2020 the Justice Court civil case jurisdictional limit will increase to $20,000. With anticipated increases in both population and litigation, he feels that the courts must test and embrace new and better ways to increase through-put.
Judge Ruckel holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree from the University of Texas. He is a graduate of the Leadership and Command College at Sam Houston State University and has attended graduate-level classes at Texas A&M. He also has over 3000 class room hours of civil and criminal law.
Judge Ruckel has been on the bench for 7 years and has been a vocal advocate of technology in the court room. During that time he has resolved over 60,000 civil and criminal cases.