It’s been a while since we had a Latest & Greatest post where we highlight some of the resources we have here at the Harris County Law Library. Today, we want to draw your attention to the 2020 Texas Municipal Guide. The Guide is a handy directory in which users can find the names and contact information for county and city officials, including county judges, mayors, and sheriffs. Those listings are organized alphabetically by county with the information for the municipalities within that county listed below. For instance, under the heading of Harris County, users can find the contact information not only for County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez but also for the mayors of nearby cities, such as Baytown, Bellaire, Houston, Katy, Pasadena, Tomball, and many more. There are also listings for state and regional agencies and commissions, including the Department of Criminal Justice, Health and Human Services Commission, and Workforce Commission, as well as regional river authorities like the Brazos River Authority and the Sabine River Authority. If you need the contact information for members of the state House of Representatives and Senate or for congressional and senate members representing the State of Texas in Washington, D.C., you can find that information in the guide, too, arranged by district.
Service of Process Through Social Media Approved by Texas Supreme Court
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/
In 2013, a bill was introduced in the Texas legislature to allow substituted service through social media websites. We wrote about if for this blog in August 2018. The 2013 bill was never referred to committee, and the subject was not addressed again until last year when the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 891. This bill directed the Texas Supreme Court to adopt rules under Section 17.033, Civil Practice and Remedies Code that would “provide for the substituted service of citation by an electronic communication sent to a defendant through a social media presence.”
According to the high court’s Order, “the court may authorize service…in any other manner, including electronically by social media, email, or other technology, that…will be reasonably effective to give the defendant notice of the suit.” In deciding to authorize substituted service in this manner, the court may consider such factors as: the defendant maintains a social media page on the specified website; the profile on the social media page is indeed the profile of the defendant; the defendant regularly accesses the social media account; and the defendant can reasonably be expected to receive actual notice if the electronic communication is sent to the defendant’s social media account.
The amendments will take effect on December 31, but public comments submitted to the court until December 1, will be considered if any changes to the amendments are deemed necessary.
National Senior Citizens Day
Image by Dewald Van Rensburg from Pixabay
Today is National Senior Citizens Day. First proclaimed a holiday in 1988, National Senior Citizens Day seeks to recognize the achievements and contributions of the older members of our country and to demonstrate our gratitude for all they have done, not just for our country, but for our local communities and families. Here, at the Harris County Law Library, we thought we’d celebrate the day by compiling a list of resources that can help seniors with their legal needs and can point them to some community partners that might be able to assist them with any additional needs, such as meal programs and other social services.
Legal Information & Resources
Elder Law Handbook - Prepared by the Houston Bar Association
Seniors & the Law: A Guide for Maturing Texans - Prepared by the Texas Young Lawyers Association
Senior Citizen Rights : Nursing Homes and More - Available on TexasLawHelp.org
Old Age Benefits - Toolkits and related articles available on TexasLawHelp.org
Retirement & Pensions - Related articles available on TexasLawHelp.org
Facts for Consumers: Long-Term Health Care: Is Private Insurance Right for You? - Available on TexasLawHelp.org
Wills & Estate Planning - Toolkits and related articles available on TexasLawHelp.org
Senior Scams - Attorney General of Texas
Legal Aid and Hotlines
Legal Hotline for Texans (age 60 or older) - A project from the Texas Legal Services Center
Lone Star Legal Aid (Houston)
Advocate Legal Senior Center (Houston)
Community Resources
Harris County Protective Services for Children and Adults - Services for seniors and disabled adults, including guardianship programs and the Senior Justice Assessment Center.
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services - Report abuse, neglect or exploitation.
Harris County Community Services Department - Information on transit services, social services, and more.
Harris County Area Agency on Aging - Provides federally-funded social services for the elderly, including benefits counseling and meal programs.
Texas Health and Human Services - Provides a variety of services for eligible older Texans, such as long-term care options and caregiver services.
Interfaith Ministries - Provides home-delivered meals to homebound seniors through its Meals on Wheels for Greater Houston and Galveston County program.
Justice Court Cap Set to Double
Justice Court jurisdiction has been limited for years to controveries concerning $10,000 or less, but inflation has rendered this limit increasingly out of date.
This change comes almost a decade into the effort to make Justice Court more accessible to the average Texan. In 2011, the legislature adopted Texas Government Code Sec. 27.060, which states the purpose of small claims court is to “ensure the fair, expeditious, and inexpensive resolution of small claims cases.” Justice Court judges are further required to keep hearings “informal, with the sole objective being to dispense speedy justice between the parties.”
At the Harris County Law Library, we see first-hand how average Texans can be frustrated by the $10,000 limit in pursuit of restitution, particularly in cases involving damage to their motor vehicles, or sometimes by unscrupulous contractors to their homes. Filing a small claims case requires filing out a one page, fill-in-the-blank form by hand. The form is conveniently available for free on the Harris County Justice of the Peace website. But even a Houstonian savvy enough to find their way to our reference desk is likely to be frustrated by the legalese-laden templates and handbooks necessary to press a claim worth any more than $10,000. Especially if they are suing an established corporation, even a well-educated pro se litigant with a good claim is likely to be unfamiliar with legal terminology and procedure, and will face an uphill battle.
As our library strives to provide all the residents of Harris County with access to justice, we are pleased our patrons will benefit from the broadened access to Texas’s so-called “people’s court.”
What's That in the Sky?
Image by CoolCatGameStudio from Pixabay
Maybe Fox Mulder, the indefatigable FBI special agent, assigned to the X-Files, who sought answers to the unexplained week after week, did have it right. Maybe the truth is out there. The Pentagon is looking to find out whether that is indeed the case. The Department of Defense and the Pentagon have recently announced the formation of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force (UAPTF). According to a press release issued on August 14, the mission of the UAPTF, which will be led by the Department of the Navy and its Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for intelligence and Security, is “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. National Security.” The creation of the task force was the result of concerns triggered by the appearance of unauthorized aircraft in military airspace and near military installations and from encounters reported by Navy personnel. (Back in April, the Pentagon released three formerly classified videos documenting these encounters.) Additionally, the Senate Intelligence Committee had requested an analysis of all data relating to UAPs that would be made available to the public. These moves are sure to elicit responses of “I knew it!” from fervent believers in the existence of extraterrestrials and UFOs. However, many seem to believe that the UAPs at issue are intelligence-gathering drones, a more likely explanation that still merits investigation. Eventually, though, the truth will out, but until then, there may be many out there like Fox Mulder wanting to believe.
