Click here to download the form I have prepared in response to the amendment of Tex. R. Evid. 902(10) on business record affidavits. In my last edition, I attached a link to a draft version of the rule, rather than the official version of this new rule, which became effective on September 1, 2014. I thank Russ Burwell for pointing out that error and I direct you this time to the correct, official, final order adopting this new rule approved August 19, 2014. Please note, this new rule applies to cases filed on or after September 1, 2014, which means the prior rule requiring affidavits and records to be filed with the clerk, still applies to pending cases. Parties can and should agree in writing not to file the actual records in the pending cases. Just to be sure, here is the full text of the final rule we now have to comply with: RULE 902. SELF-AUTHENTICATION The following items of evidence are self-authenticating; they require no extrinsic evidence of authenticity ... Read More >
The Defense Alicia Franklin Should Be Making
Reprinted from the September 16, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. The public relations flack Judge Franklin has hired (with either campaign funds or money she made on CPS cases), is not doing a very good job for her. It does not really help Franklin to tell her to lay low and say nothing while the PR firm tells the press that my 100% provable facts are just a "political smear." Here is what Franklin's spokesperson would be saying if I were Franklin's media and political advisor: First of all, it is a shame you are not looking into the hard work Judge Franklin is doing every day in her courtroom to provide justice to families and children. She took on a court that was devastated by her predecessor's incompetence and she has already done a mountain of work to close out cases and correct errors Judge Pratt made. I suggest you sit for a few hours in Judge Franklin's courtroom and decide for yourself what her dedication to justice and the law is. The issues Greg Enos has raised about ... Read More >
A Partial Defense of Judge Lynn Bradshaw-Hull
Reprinted from the September 16, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. I may criticize judges in this newsletter, but it is for unfair policies or unethical or criminal acts. I almost never write to complain about how a judge has ruled in a specific case (with only rare exceptions, Charley!). It is almost impossible for anyone to second guess a judge unless you have listened to every minute of testimony and argument and seen all of the evidence (or read the transcript and handled the appeal). I also appreciate the attitude of most experienced family court judges, that not every request for a protective order based on alleged domestic violence or threats of violence, should be granted. I believe that victims of domestic violence should be protected and nothing makes me angrier than a bully or an abuser. However, I know that people make false allegations or exaggerate true events or try to gain tactical advantages in divorce or custody cases by asking for protective orders. A domestic ... Read More >
Is False Billing on CPS Cases a Crime?
Reprinted from the September 16, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. There is no doubt that in some instances, a lawyer who falsely bills the county for court appointed work can be convicted and sent to prison. Last week, I was in an outlying county discussing this CPS billing scandal with some very good criminal attorneys. They were all amazed by the huge fees that are awarded to CPS attorneys in Harris County and they all agreed that what Alicia Franklin had done when she was billing as a CPS attorney was clearly totally wrong. Their debate was on the odds that Franklin could be convicted of a crime. They noted that the CPS pay vouchers do not specifically say that the attorney submitting the voucher was stating "under penalty of perjury" that only she did the work billed ... Read More >
“The Nail in the Coffin” for Attorneys Falsely Billing Harris County on CPS Cases
Reprinted from the September 16, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. This is perhaps the most important development in the CPS billing scandal reported in this newsletter because the false billers were claiming that there was nothing wrong with the appointed attorney billing for work done by another lawyer. A wise probate judge in Austin who reads The Mongoose e-mailed me about an appellate case that holds exactly what I have been saying: a lawyer appointed by a judge as an ad litem cannot and should not bill for work done by other attorneys (except in unusual circumstances and then only after informing the court). Let's see these "CPS appointment law firms" and mega-billers explain this: When a guardian ad litem is appointed, the trial court intends that appointed attorney to personally protect the minor's interests and to act as an officer of the court. Accordingly, it is generally not anticipated or reasonable for a guardian ad litem to delegate his ad litem responsibilities to ... Read More >
A Law Firm Policy on Fairly Billing Clients
This is a reprint from the September 9, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Me and a lot of attorneys are looking at our own billing practices after my articles on the outrageous and apparently false billing in CPS cases by Alicia Franklin. One excellent family law attorney, with much more experience than me, sent this e-mail: I just had 3 grueling non stop days in the office - totaled my hours for those 3 days - 18.5. I must be doing something wrong. I know few attorneys who work harder than my own Christina Tillinger, and she averages about 7.25 hours billed per day unless there is a trial or long mediation. I usually bill fewer hours than that. I have written ten simple rules for honest billing that I have now adopted as my law firm's policy. Click here to read all ten rules. Here are a few of these ten rules: 2. Bill actual time spent and round up only a little. If you spend 3 minutes on a phone call, bill 0.10 instead of 0.25. If you literally were on the phone ... Read More >
The Alicia Franklin Billing Miracle – 32.25 Hours Billed Plus 5 Court Appearances All In One Day!
This is a reprint from the September 9, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. A future postulator writing a positio about Alicia Franklin will surely include as one of the two required miracles the amazing events of March 20, 2013, when Alicia Franklin billed Harris County, as well as the parents in a private amicus case, for the following all on one blessed day: 28.5 out-of-court hours in CPS cases 3.75 hours on a private amicus case 1 CPS trial appearance 4 non-trial CPS court appearances The hours billed for this one day total 32.25 hours plus Franklin claims to have been in court on CPS cases for one trial appearance and four other non-trial appearances on that same day. There may well be other private cases that Franklin also billed for on that day. In CPS cases, ad litems bill per hour for "out of court work," but they are paid a flat rate per court appearance for trial or non-trial hearings. Ad litems are paid a higher flat rate for trials than they are for non-trial court ... Read More >
Criminal Complaint Filed Against Judge Alicia Franklin
This is a reprint from the September 9, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Click here to read the criminal complaint I have filed with the Harris County District Attorney against Judge Alicia Franklin. The more I see of how Franklin billed the county in CPS cases and parents in her amicus cases, the less pity I feel for her. I know that at some point my perfect batting record in taking down elected judges for criminal behavior will fall below 100%, but this does not feel like the time when I will strike out. I do not know that Franklin has committed a crime, but I have found 100% provable facts that need to be looked into by someone other than Republican District Attorney Devon Anderson, who bungled the Judge Pratt investigation and then made a "sweet heart" deal with Pratt that allowed her to avoid criminal prosecution. Click here to read a motion filed by a District Attorney who wisely recused herself and asked for appointment of a prosecutor pro tem under Texas Code of Criminal ... Read More >
Enos Schools County Auditor and Harangues County Judge Emmett
This is a reprint from the September 3, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Lawyers are stealing tax payer dollars and the system in place at Harris County allows it. Here are the problems: 1. A paper based system from the 1950's is still in use. Lawyers fill out the pay vouchers by hand, the judges sign the vouchers and then they go to the County Auditor, who pays the amounts approved by the judges, no questions asked. 2. A judge, who may approve dozens of pay vouchers a week, cannot see what an attorney is billing in other cases in that same court or in other courts. 3. No one until me ever took a mass of vouchers from one single attorney and extracted the fees charged on all cases for a particular day to see what the attorney is billing the county for on that day. This is how Alicia Franklin got busted billing 23.5 hours in one day. If I can "audit" vouchers, why can't the County Auditor? 4. The real problem is that no one has any incentive to closely monitor the CPS pay ... Read More >
Alicia Franklin Scandal – County Five: Falsely Asking to be “Re-Elected”
This is a reprint from the September 3, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Someone actually reads this little newsletter. Sherri Cothrun complained that Alicia Franklin was improperly using the phrase,"Re-Elect Alicia Franklin" on her website, but the naive Chronicle editor thought Cothrun was just being picky and "hyper technical." Franklin apparently saw no need to change her web site after their Monday meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board. However, after my newsletter that pointed this "re-elect versus keep" problem out was published last Thursday, Franklin quickly changed her website. Franklin's problem is that it was simply not true and it was unethical for her to ask to be "re-elected" if she has never been elected in the first place. I checked with the Commission on Judicial Conduct and confirmed that an appointed judge cannot use the phrase ... Read More >
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