Loving It Lawyers Club hosted “An Insiders Tour of the New Travis County Civil and Family Law Court Facility” on June 30, 2023. The tour was presented by Travis County District Clerk Velva Price and featured Hon. Karin Crump, presiding judge of the 250th District Court. We had about 35 people in attendance, including five lawyers with more than 25 …
The Austin Bar Association recently won the 2023 Deborah G. Hankinson Access to Justice Award from the Texas Access to Justice Commission. The award is given to local bar associations that demonstrate a commitment to access to justice in their communities and to raising financial support for legal service providers on a local and statewide basis. The Austin Bar won …
A delegation of US legal professionals, led by former Austin Bar and Texas State Bar President Richard Pena, visited the United Arab Emirates to meet and exchange knowledge with professional counterparts, academics, and government officials. Also among the Legal Structures and Rule of Law Delegation were Kenneth Owens, administrative law judge with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission; and …
Legal writers should always aim for grammatically correct prose. Why? To me, the key reason is to establish and maintain your credibility: When readers see that you know how to write correctly, they are also likely to believe that you stated the facts and law correctly and presented accurate, valid arguments, explanations, or advice. But occasionally, grammar itself becomes an …
The following are summaries of selected civil opinions issued by the Third Court of Appeals during June and July 2023. The summaries are an overview; please review the entire opinion. Subsequent histories are current as of August 9, 2023. Administrative law – Emails with agency staff insufficient to constitute request for hearing. Udenze v. Johnston, No. 03-22-00084-CV (Tex. App.—Austin June …
FEDERAL PREEMPTION: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) does not preempt Texas law charging out-of-state citizens higher tuition than Texas residents, including noncitizens not lawfully present in the country. Young Conservatives of Tex. Found. v. Smatresk, 2023 WL 4419365 (5th Cir. July 10, 2023) The IIRIRA’s express preemption provision directs that “an alien who is not lawfully present …
Competency to stand trial – Trial court did not err by failing to sua sponte convene an informal inquiry into whether defendant was competent to stand trial. Vaughan v. State, No. 03-22-00038-CR (Tex. App.—Austin Mar. 30, 2023, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication). Vaughan spit on a detention officer while in jail and was charged with the offense …
Some people are terrified of heights. Others are scared of public speaking. What should keep attorneys up at night is a little-known law called the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)[1]. The CTA is a new, groundbreaking federal reporting law for business entities that may leave your office inundated with calls from disgruntled clients blaming you for failing to warn them about …
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Austin Bar Association membership or the Austin Bar Association board of directors. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Austin Bar Association membership or the Austin Bar …
Austin aviation attorney Michael Slack has been appointed to the External Advisory Board for Texas A&M’s Hagler Institute for Advanced Study. The Hagler Institute was established in 2010 by the Texas A&M regents to create an incubator for advanced study in various fields, including medicine, science, architecture, social sciences, business, education, engineering, agriculture, law, and public and foreign policy. The …