Josh Herrera is the presiding Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3 for El Paso County. He was sworn in on January 1, 2019 and was eager to bring his judicial experience and knowledge of the law into the People’s Court. Since taking office, Judge Herrera’s goals have been to:
Audit the Courts existing cases
Judge Herrera has worked to establish a system that resolves cases that have been in the Court for less than one year while ensuring that no case goes unheard. In taking this approach, Judge Herrera and his staff have worked tirelessly in going through the Court’s archives and bringing stagnant cases to Court. This has allowed them to clear a back log of tens of thousands of cases resulting in an active caseload in which the overwhelming majority of cases is less than one year old. As a result of Judge Herrera’s approach to JP3, he has used the communities resources efficiently and reduced the waiting time for litigants.
Provide excellent customer service to the constituents of JP3
The other goal that Judge Herrera wanted to achieve in JP3 was improving customer service. The majority of practitioners in the Justice Courts are pro se, meaning they do not have an attorney; that is why Judge Herrera considers JP3 to be the People’s Court. To maintain that standard, Judge Herrera and his staff have focused on the accessibility of JP3 resources to the public. To achieve this, Judge Herrera extended office hours, established a customer service department within the staff, and allowed people to access their court hearings remotely (phone, videoconferencing, or in-person) during the pandemic.
Since joining the Court, Judge Herrera has served on:
Josh Herrera is a proud El Pasoan. A graduate of Cathedral High School and UTEP, Josh would go on to study law at the University of Utah Law School. He returned to El Paso soon after graduation. Since then, Josh has been a licensed attorney in the State of Texas with over a decade of experience practicing law. Additionally, from 2015-2018, he was appointed to serve as a Criminal Law Magistrate for El Paso County.
Josh is the proud dad to his young daughters, Emilia and Lilah and dog father to Nala.