At least in the counties contained within the Houston First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, family court judges cannot grant relief unless there are pleadings asking for that relief or unless the issue was tried by consent. A recent case provides a surprisingly broad view of what constitutes a "pleading" that can justify granting relief not explicitly mentioned in the current petition. I represented the father who won on appeal in Flowers v. Flowers, 407 S.W.3d 452 (Tex. App. - Houston [14th Dist.] 2013, no pet.) and that case holds: 1. A family court cannot grant relief unless there are pleadings asking for the relief or the issue was tried by consent. The Rules of Civil Procedure apply in family cases, even those involving children. 2. An issue is not tried by consent if it is never mentioned or discussed at trial. The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in May 2014 reaffirmed the basic notion that relief cannot be granted without pleadings requesting the relief or ... Read More >
Judge Alicia Franklin: Please Provide an Explanation!
Reprinted from August 26, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. I take a fair airing of facts about Judge Alicia Franklin and her work as an appointed CPS attorney very seriously. I played a significant role in the chain of events that resulted in Franklin becoming a judge and I genuinely like her. I have helped Franklin in ways no other lawyer could and I contributed financially to her campaign when she was running against Denise Pratt. I also know and really like the Democrat running against Franklin, Sherri Cothrun. Cothrun provided me most of the information described below, but I have done my own home work as well. I write below about facts I have verified, not partisan attacks from the opposing candidate. I now have a box of copies of every fee invoice Ms. Franklin ever submitted to the county and I have someone doing my own independent, non-political analysis of those vouchers. I really hope to announce soon that I have found a sterling example of how ad litem attorneys should do ... Read More >
Ted Cruz and the Gary Polland Scandal
It was a dark, but not a stormy night. Toni and I were up late, enjoying a Dr. Who view-a-thon, and my phone was on vibrate, so I missed the text message from Senator Ted Cruz. During commercials, I picked my phone up off the bedside table so I could Google to confirm the name of the 4th Dr. Who (Tom Baker) when the phone started vibrating. It was Ted calling. 11:41 p.m. in Houston meant it was way past Teddy's usual bed time in D.C. "Enos, you up watching some Hubert Humphrey documentary?"the Senator growled. I could hear the clink of ice in a glass and thought I heard a female giggle in the background. "Ted, it's late, I am kinda busy here,"I grumbled back. Toni paused the DVR and shot me one of her typical "I ain't putting up with late night calls from high ranking federal officials" looks. "Look, Enos, you simply gotta keep me out of this Polland mess," Senator Cruz said to me on the phone. "The fine Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire think tax dollars should ... Read More >
Standard Mutual Injunctions Can Make Your Gun Owning Client a Federal Criminal!
Standard injunctions routinely imposed in family cases in Texas can make cause our clients to violate "The Brady Bill", 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g), which states: "It shall be unlawful for any person-... (8) who is subject to a court order that- (A) was issued after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had an opportunity to participate; (B) restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child; and (C)(i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; or (ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; ... Read More >
The Crime of Tampering With a Government Record
Texas Penal Code Sec. 37.10 states in part: 37.10. TAMPERING WITH GOVERNMENTAL RECORD. (a) A person commits an offense if he: (1) knowingly makes a false entry in, or false alteration of, a governmental record; (2) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that it be taken as a genuine governmental record;.... Sec. 37.01(2) defines a "government record" to mean: (A) anything belonging to, received by, or kept by government for information, including a court record; This is the law former Judge Denise Pratt is alleged to have violated when she apparently back-dated court orders. One example of how attorneys can run afoul of this law arose in San Antonio recently: Former defense attorney Hilda Valadez, who pleaded guilty to charges of forging judges' signatures and double billing the county for indigent defense work, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison. .... Valadez, 52, was once regarded as the ... Read More >
The Polland Problem, Part 2
Reprinted from the August 21, 2014 Mongoose. Most Republican judges and party leaders, to their credit, realize that the brewing scandal involving court appointments and their former party chair, Gary Polland, has the potential to effect the November elections. They also realize that the current system just is not right. They point out to me that Democratic politicians, such as legislators who are also attorneys, are getting lucrative appointments from Democratic civil judges. The solution is very simple: a commitment by judges to appoint attorneys based on merit only and transparency of information. All judges of both parties should simply stop using court appointments as political patronage and ALL appointments and fees should be reported and made available to the public. Currently, the system hides appointment fees and makes it very difficult to determine accurately how much various attorneys are being paid. The County Auditor website is a great example of sharing ... Read More >
The Top 22: Who Got Paid the Most Since 2010 for Court Appointments
Reprinted from the August 13, 2014 Mongoose. Click here to see a list from the County Auditor showing everyone who has been paid by the County for court appointments since January 1, 2010. This report has a slightly different total for Mr. Polland than the other report I received, even though it covers the same time period. Here are the top 22 recipients of county funds for court appointments out of 1,574 payees according to this report: Oliver Sprott Jr $1,682, 655 Gary Polland $1,676,194 Jerome Godinich $1,161,871 R.P. Cornelius $1,619,476 Ricardo Gonzales $1,596,910 National Screening Center $1,297.398 Danny Easterling $1,036,530 Alvin Nunnery $1,031,498 George Clevenger $1,001,987 Donna Everson $981,361 William Thursland973,759 Angela Phea $973,650 Michael Trent 965,053 Hattie Shannon $950,180 Geraldo Acosta $917,927 The Griffin Law Firm $910,299 Sylvia Escobedo $901,981 Bonnie Fitch $852,952 Jimmy Ortiz $843,672 John Maisel ... Read More >
How to Make Millions from Abused Children & Taxpayers
Reprinted from the August 13, 2014 Mongoose. There can be no doubt: Gary Polland is a smart, successful lawyer who knows how to make a lot of money from the practice of law. Polland is politically powerful and able to influence and profit from every Republican primary election. Polland should be your hero and role model if high income and political influence are your goals in life. I asked a bunch of attorneys with experience in CPS cases how much they guessed Gary Polland had been paid in four and a half years for court appointments. Their guesses ranged from $300,000 - $700,000. They were totally floored to hear that Polland had been paid $1.9 million by Harris County since January 1, 2010 for court appointments. Just to be very clear, that is taxpayer dollars being paid to this one man for government court appointments only. It does not count the many cases where Polland was appointed by judges but paid by private parties. My investigation into this incredible situation ... Read More >
Book Review: The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Any woman lawyer at the end of 2014 might have a hard time imagining a time in America when women could not vote, when the few women with college degrees seldom could find jobs and people were sent to prison for selling contraceptives. The struggle of women to be treated as equal citizens is just one of the many stories told in "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" by Jill Lepore. This book is a biography of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator, but it is also the tale of the struggle for women's rights in the early 20th Century. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, which is why they play such a prominent role in the book. Marston was a lawyer, pioneer psychologist, Hollywood screenwriter and inventor of the polygraph machine. The seminal 1923 U.S. Supreme Court case of Frye v. U.S., which held that expert testimony must be based on scientific methods that are sufficiently established and ... Read More >
Most Heavy Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics!
Click here to read more about a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study which found that 90% of heavy drinkers fell short of the criteria for alcoholism. Women who have eight or more drinks per week and men who have 15 or more are considered heavy drinkers. Signs of alcoholism include an inability to stop or reduce drinking, continuing to drink even after it causes problems with family or work, and excessive time spent drinking each day. Judges need to realize that heavy drinkers are not necessarily alcoholics. Only a third of those who admitted binge drinking 10 or more times in the previous month were alcoholics, the study found. The CDC defines binge drinking as consuming four drinks for women and five drinks for men in a single occasion. This study should be sobering news for those "alcohol addiction specialists" who consider almost every regular drinker an alcoholic. I can imagine a great cross-examination of someone like Vicki Longwell based on this ... Read More >
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- …
- 15
- Next Page »