Fair Defense Campaign Website

I found a good website with useful information for those persons who may be facing criminal charges.  It is the Fair Defense Campaign website at fairdefense.org.

For example, they have a brochure entitled, “What to do if you can’t afford a lawyer in Texas.”

Another great brochure is entitled, “Why you need a defense lawyer if you are charged with a misdemeanor in Texas.”

For all of those judges who think indigent defense funds are coming out of their own pockets, it might be educational to read the petition filed in Williamson County on June 12, 2006.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money on software

Any lawyer who practices in federal court knows that you need to electronically file all documents with the clerk in Portable Document Format (with the .pdf extension).  However, having just recently spent $400+ on yet another upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Professional, I understand that not everyone likes spending $400+ every year or two just to have the latest greatest version of such a bloated program.  If you are only a casual filer, it doesn’t make much sense to spend that much money for a program with limited usefulness to your practice.  Therefore, I would suggest one of the free, or lower cost, alternatives to Adobe’s package.  Which one, though? Lawyers ask me that all the time.

Well, now I have found a website that not only answers that question, but also the question of which products the experts recommend as alternatives to almost any other popular program.

The website is called alternativeto.net, and it lists alternatives for many of today’s most popular commercial programs.  From PDF creators, to video editors, to photo editors, to just about anything else that you can think of.  It just might be worth a check to see if there is an alternative to that high priced software suite before you plunk down some serious money first.

Combined District and County Dockets

Just as a reminder, if you’re tired of printing out both the District and County dockets for Bell County criminal courts, you can find a combined docket on my website.  Each Saturday morning I combine the "2C" docket for county criminal cases with the district courts’ criminal dockets and sort by attorney name.  At the bottom are listed the cases where the defendant does not have an attorney, sorted by defendants names. 

The dockets are located at: http://www.jeffparkerlaw.com/dockets/.  The most recent week is listed at the top, and the previous weeks are below that.  The docket is in Adobe PDF format.  If you need a free reader, you can download the latest version here.

If you ever need to go back and check an old docket, I’ve got those, too.  I started combining the dockets on my website during the second week of August, so that’s the oldest one listed.

You may already be a winner

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts maintains a website that you can use to see if there is any unclaimed property that belongs to you.  The website is located at https://txcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp.

I didn’t think that I would have any unclaimed property since I am in the habit of claiming all of the property I can, but there it was… a telephone bill that I must have overpaid several years ago.

When I searched the names of about a half-dozen attorneys, I found unclaimed property for every single one of them!  The amounts varied from around $50 (for me) to over $500 for one Temple attorney.

After you click the box to claim the property, you’ll have to enter in some identifying information about yourself.  Then, the Comptroller’s office will mail you a claim form to sign and mail back to them.  That’s it.  Simple enough.

Tip: the search allows you to type in your first name, last name, and a city.  Start off by doing this, but then go back and just type in your first name and last name without filling in the city.  Scan those results and look for old addresses for places you might have lived at in the past.  Then, enter in any alternative spellings of your name that you have used.

So, do yourself a favor, and check to see if you’ve got a secret stash of cash which Susan Combs is guarding for you.  If you feel compelled to pay me a finders fee, I’m sure something can be worked out.