JUDICIAL PROFILE
By Perry Cockerell, Perry Cockerell, P.C.
Judge Matthew Riek, 360th District Court
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udge Matthew Riek has been the Associate Judge of the 360th District Court in Tarrant County since January 2017. His appointment to the associate judge position followed the election of Judge Patricia Baca Bennett to the 360th District Court and caps an entire career devoted to family law and mediation. Judge Riek’s parents were Ronnie Riek and Edna Corbett Riek and he had a younger brother Bradley Riek. While growing up his family lived in many towns. His father was a small-town banker who moved the family frequently. “He was upwardly mobile trying to find the next better job. We had a lot of stops.” The family lived in Abilene, Dalhart, Amarillo, Fort Worth, Brownwood, and Oklahoma City. A graduate of Brownwood High School in Brownwood, Texas in 1986, Judge Riek received his B.B.A from Baylor University in 1990 and his J.D. from Texas Tech School of Law in 1993. After law school, he worked for two years for the firm of Earl Luna in Dallas handling school law. In 1995 he moved to Arlington to work with the Ball Law Firm. “Chester Ball was an excellent Tarrant County lawyer.” In 1997 he joined Bailey & Galyen and worked in their Bedford and Arlington offices. In 2006 he set up his own law firm in Arlington and practiced for ten years before being appointed to the associate judge bench in January 2017. During his years in private practice, he handled sixty percent family litigation and forty percent family law mediation. Judge Riek advanced professionally in his career in family law. In 2004 he became Board Certified in Family Law. In 2007 he was named a Rising Star by the Texas Monthly Magazine and a Super Lawyer in 2011 and 2013 through 2016. From 2008 to 2016 he was named a Best Family Lawyer in Tarrant County in Fort Worth Magazine. He is a member of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists. He also served as President of the Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association in 2011 following years of service as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors. Judge Riek has been a frequent speaker at courses by the State Bar of Texas and other legal organizations.
Tarrant County Recovery Court
Judge Riek is a member of the Texas Association of Specialty Courts. In addition to his duties as the Associate Judge of the 360th, Judge Riek oversees the Tarrant County 20 www.tarrantbar.org JANUARY–MARCH 2022
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Recovery Court. “I have a specialty drug recovery court that I've managed. These are cases where parents have had their children removed because of drug use and neglect. It’s a specialty court designed to assist people in getting back on their feet and recovering from drug addiction and being able to be reunited with their kids.” The court works closely with a team of social workers, CPS or OCOK workers, and MHMR. The court requires regular drug testing, counseling, and careful monitoring. “It’s designed to help people find stable housing and stable employment and hopefully find full recovery and be reunited with the kids.” “This program was founded by Judge Ellen Smith when she was an associate judge. She built the program for almost 10 years.”
Life in the 360th District Court
The court is located on the fourth floor of the Family Law Center at 200 E. Weatherford Street in downtown Fort Worth. Judge Patricia Bennett is the elected District Judge. Brittany Terry, the court coordinator, has been with the court for six months. Katherine Kramer is the court reporter and Deputy Vigil and Deputy Mills are the bailiffs. During the COVID pandemic, the court continued in operation by zoom hearings. “We had attorneys email exhibits to our court before hearings. We've returned to in-person hearings at this point and have lawyers bring their exhibits to the hearing and make sure that they are bringing the local rule documents that they have so they are exchanged before the hearing.” Presently the court is trying cases on a regular basis. “We’ve been back mostly in person for some months now. I hear general dockets of family law cases every morning and they're usually really busy. And they're tough days because they're usually the first time that a family has had to come to court on their family law case. Associate judges would generally hear the first appearance on a divorce and those hearings tend to sometimes be a little highly charged.” “I normally hear special set hearings every afternoon. And so, if somebody needs more than an hour or so they're sometimes reset on a special set afternoon hearing so that we can devote a little bit more time for cases with complicated issues or lots of witnesses.” The court can hear final trials in some cases. “They’re usually matters that can be tried in less than a half a day or less and that are heard by agreement of both parties and lawyers.” The Judge’s advice to the new lawyer is, “number one,
