Travis County District Clerk Velva Price was named the County & District Clerks Association of Texas Clerk of the Year for 2023! Price was awarded her plaque at CDCAT’s 128th annual conference in June 2023 in McAllen. CDCAT’s Clerk of the Year award is presented to both a district clerk and a county clerk, each of whom should have provided …
The Maryland Supreme Court has issued an opinion limiting the testimony of firearms experts. In Kobina Ebo Abruquah v. State of Maryland[1], the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County allowed a firearms examiner to testify that bullets recovered at a murder scene were fired from a gun Abruquah acknowledged was his. In so doing, the circuit court abused its discretion, …
Chief Justice of the Third Court of Appeals Darlene Byrne was awarded Jurist of the Year by the Texas Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates (TEX-ABOTA) at their annual awards dinner in Sante Fe, New Mexico, on June 17, 2023. ABOTA’s guiding principles are preservation of an independent judiciary and the right to a trial by jury, and …
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 …