33rd / 424th District Courts

The following was lifted directly from the State Bar site:
The State Bar Act recently passed by the 78th Legislature includes significant changes to the attorney disciplinary system that take effect Jan. 1, 2004. Click here for a draft proposal (pdf format) of changes to the Rules of Disciplinary Procedure which incorporate new requirements found in the State Bar Act. Read the amended portions (pdf format) of the State Bar Act as published in the July issue of the Texas Bar Journal. The State Bar of Texas Board of Directors seeks your comments and suggestions on the draft by October 24. Please email comments and suggestions to rules@texasbar.com.

Discuss possible preferences (about the office) or requirements of the office of the Burnet County Public Defender. As you know, Eddie Arredondo was recently elected County Attorney and thus a new PD will be appointed effective 1/1/2005.

Facts: P filed suit prior to giving the 60-day notice required under Section 4.01(a) of Article 4590i (R.C.S.) (now Sect 74.051, CP&RC). D filed Motion to Abate and also sought abatement of all other statutorily imposed deadlines during the same 60 days, such as the 180 days within which to file an expert report.

Ruling: The abatement also extends those deadlines.
Rationale: See Hagedorn, 73 s.W.3d 341 (Amarillo) and Campbell, 44 S.W.3d
647 (Dallas) which are on opposite ends of the argument. Followed Campbell's reasoning and ruling.

This is not a ruling, but a list of areas where I see counsel making errors on a consistent basis. Hope it helps someone in thinking about these things.

PREDICATES often done erroneously:
Use of writing to refresh: See TRE Rule 612. The writing is only useable to refresh memory when the witness cannot otherwise accurately recall a matter. Therefore, you must first establish the necessity of that reference, e.g. "Mr. Smith, are you able to accurately recall the points made on the occasion in question?" [Wit answers "no"]. "Is there a document that would help you to refresh your memory?" That sets it up but it's frequently not done. And DONT hand it to the witness until the predicate is laid.