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Judiciary of Texas

The latest Judiciary of Texas news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Protection or Exploitation?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In the last year, Texas probate courts approved more than $6 million in payments from private estates to court-appointed attorneys, guardians and physicians, in many cases depleting funds left to care for incapacitated people. Critics say the practice amounts to destroying the village in order to save it. Probate judges say they're simply making sure people who can't defend themselves have proper representation. Full Story 

    Scherry Levi with her mentally disabled nephew Deartis Preston in Preston's home in Bay City.
    Credit: Rory Pabon

  • The Fight For Ceci

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Frank and Chila Covington could hardly be mistaken for cruel. For four decades, they showered their daughter, Ceci, who has Down syndrome, with love, affection and opportunity. But when they argued with a group home provider who insisted that Ceci needed psychotropic medication, their world turned upside down. In the time it took for the provider to accuse the Covingtons of “cruelty,” a Tarrant County judge called a secret hearing and removed their guardianship, telling them they could no longer communicate with their own child. And he had every legal right to do so. Full Story 

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    Credit: Emily Ramshaw

  • TribBlog: Mostyn Wins a Round

    By Elise Hu

    Democratic donor Steve Mostyn wins his latest round in a battle with state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. A judge has blocked the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association from giving Taylor information about Mostyn's payouts in a massive windstorm settlement this year. Full Story 

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  • Still Seeking Justice

    By Elise Hu

    The mother of tow truck driver Steven Hardin explains her plight after a jury found her son's killer guilty of murder but sentenced him only to probation. The killer, firefighter Barry Crawford, completed his probation a few months ago even though he didn't fulfill the terms. Full Story 

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  • A Conversation With Greg Abbott

    By Evan Smith

    For the 11th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the attorney general of Texas on the politics and constitutionality of gay marriage, why he's suing the feds over health care and why he filed a brief in support of the Arizona immigration law. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Hu compares and contrasts the official schedules of four big-state governors (including Rick Perry) and picks the 21 Texas House races to watch, Ramshaw on a 19-year-old with an IQ of 47 sentenced to 100 years in prison, Stiles on Perry's regent-donors, Galbraith on a plan to curb the independence of the state's electricity grid, Thevenot on the turf war over mental health, Grissom on whether the Texas Youth Commission should be abolished, Aguilar on a crucial immigration-related case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ramsey's interview with GOP provocateur Debra Medina and M. Smith on how changes to campaign finance law will affect judicial elections in Texas: The best of our best from August 23 to 27, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Ben Hasson

  • Pat Lykos: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    The first female district attorney of Harris County on the massive scope of her job, softening her office's tough-on-crime reputation, the link between mental health care and criminal justice, why she set up a Post-Conviction Review Section and what she's learned from innocence cases so far. Full Story 

    District Attorney for Harris County, Pat Lykos.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • You Be the Judge

    By Morgan Smith

    Do two recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions have the far-reaching effects on Texas judicial elections that some in our legal community fear? Or do the state's current campaign finance laws adequately address the issues presented by both cases? Full Story 

    A joint meeting between the House Elections and Judiciary committees on Aug. 26, 2010
    Credit: Marjorie Cotera

  • Sued Into Silence

    By Morgan Smith

    Plaintiffs in so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, use the court system to bury opponents in a crush of legal fees and paperwork of Bleak House proportions. They're not concerned about winning damages. They usually don’t expect to be successful, and the targets often don’t have the money to adequately defend themselves. Yet in otherwise tort-reform-happy Texas, there is no prohibition on filing this particular form of meritless suit — yet. Full Story 

    SLAPP: "strategic lawsuit against public participation."
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Reservoir Dogged

    By Morgan Smith

    In 2004, two brothers thought they had found the perfect ecologically friendly business venture: create a wetlands preserve on 4,000 acres of neglected farmland along the Sulphur River in Northeast Texas and make a pile of money selling mitigation credits to developers who build over environmentally sensitive lands elsewhere. Seven years later, the only thing stopping them from realizing that dream is the state of Texas, which has plans to submerge their property under 80 feet of water. Full Story 

    The Hearts Bluff Mitigation Bank as pictured with the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir.
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Hopwood 2.0

    By Morgan Smith

    A court case involving two University of Texas applicants who believe they were denied admission because they're white threatens to reinvigorate an ideological skirmish that peaked in the late 1990s. The first lawsuit of its kind brought against a university since a pair of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2003, Fisher v. Texas has observers everywhere wondering if the state's troubled history with race-based admissions makes it the ideal incubator for the next round of affirmative action battles. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Long Arm of the Law

    By Morgan Smith

    Curbing the practice of barratry — "ambulance chasing," in the vernacular — has prompted an uneasy alliance between tort reformers and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association: They agree on reform ... just not on the form it should take. Full Story 

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    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • The Lobby Wars

    By Morgan Smith

    HillCo's lawsuit against two of its departing partners is threatening business as usual in the insular world of the Texas lobby, raising the specter of open combat in an industry that prefers to settle its fights behind closed doors. But as its allegations make plain, HillCo believes that two rogue employees are the ones who crossed the line, turning competition for clients into espionage and biting down hard on the hand that fed them. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman