San Antonio Corridor News

Bill Old has been elected for a third time to serve in as judge for the 25th Judicial District, which includes Guadalupe, Gonzales, Colorado and Lavaca counties.

Old won the Republican Primary for District Judge with 8,990 votes, which accounts for 54.3% of the vote. Jacqueline Phillips Ott earned 7,560 votes, or 45.7% of the vote. He will run unopposed in Novermber.

Old told Community Impact it was an honor to serve the people of Guadalupe County, and that it his ambition to improve the courtroom and be a faithful representative of the law.

"Well, there are things that I haven't accomplished still. In the past seven years, we've been successful," Old said. "One of them is getting a district court that was discussed in the last Legislative session. That goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2021. That is to primarily have civil cases because we have had a 38 percent increase in the civil cases since I've been on the bench."

Old continued to speak about what he plans to do in the future within the court and also assist with ushering a new judge into his current position.

"I want to help the new judge come on board," he said. "They are going to be appointed by the governor. I worked hard. I drafted the legislation for that. I appeared before the commissioners' court — got them to endorse the idea — and so I'm feeling vested in that. That's also going to free up a lot of my time. I won't be doing as much civil. I will continue to do some civil, but there are some things that we need with respect to specialty courts, primarily a felony veterans court. We have a misdemeanor veterans court and a mental health court. I think those are needs that we have in the county, and I would like to see those come to fruition."