Texas Small-Firm Practice Tools

Pilots and accountants have long relied on checklists to avoid omissions. Your legal work deserves the same care, especially if you handle a variety of practice areas.

Bring order and method to your practice, tackle new areas with confidence, and avoid omissions and wasted effort with the task checklists in Cindy Stormer’s Small-Firm Practice Tools.

These checklists break big jobs like probating a will, filing a divorce, forming a corporation, preparing for trial, and dozens more into manageable tasks. You receive:

Civil litigation checklists

• Preparing pleadings. §4:70
• Office procedures for discovery. §1:470
• Grounds for objecting to interrogatories and requests for admissions. §1:550
• Preparing and challenging objections to discovery. §1:560

Car accident checklists

• Questions to ask potential clients at the initial interview. Forms 2:20-30
• Office procedures. §2:290
• Evaluation of case, plaintiff’s §2:300, defendant’s §2:310
• Recording a witness statement. §2:400
• Deposition questions. §2:470
• Jury charge questions. §2:480
• Voir dire questions. §2:490
• Examination questions for plaintiff, doctors, and defendant. §2:500

Business checklists

• Before filing suit in employee/employer dispute. §6:120
• Collections procedure. §7:240
• Organizing a business. Form 8:130
• Buying or selling a business. Form 9:120

Divorce checklists

• Telephone intake. Form 10:10
• Questions to ask potential clients at the initial interview. Forms 10:20-30
• Marriage dissolution checklist. Form 10:90
• Calculating child support. Form 10:220
• Inventory and appraisement. Form 10:240
• Custody. Form 10:420
• Transfer of Automobiles and Mobile Homes. Form 10:290
• Final Hearing Prove-up. Form 10:310

Estate checklists

• Will intake. Form 11:20
• Execution of wills. Form 11:50
• Trusts interview. Form 11:210
• Probate client intake. Forms 12:10 and 12:20
• Analyzing the type of probate procedure. Form 12:30
• Heirship questionnaire. Form 12:40
• Procedure for affidavit of heirship. Form 12:60
• Office procedures for muniment of title. Form 12:140
• Independent administration office procedures. Form 12:340
• Procedures for dependent administration interrogatories. Form 12:740

Criminal checklists

• DUI intake questionnaire. Form 14:10
• Voir dire. Form 14:120
• DUI expert questions. Form 15:200
• Occupational license procedures. Form 14:170
• Script for writ of habeas corpus proceeding. Form 15:170
• Traffic ticket procedure. Form 15:240
• Hearing on speedy trial motions. Form 15:260

Real estate checklists

• Intake questionnaire. Form 16:10
• Foreclosure procedure. Form 16:210
• Adverse possession script. Form 16:320
• Settlement statement procedures. Form 16:360

And Over 560 Texas Forms

Each of the 16 practice areas in Cindy Stormer’s Small-Firm Practice Tools is supported with a: (1) summary of the essential law and procedures, and (2) collection of custom-drafted, time-tested forms in both print and digital via an emailed zip file. For example, here are the 24 forms found in the Credit and Collections chapter:

• Client Intake – Debts. Form 7:10
• Contract for Employment – Collections/Contingency. Form 7:20
• Acknowledgment of Claim. Form 7:30
• Unfair Debt Collection Practices Letter. Form 7:40
• Collections Letter. Form 7:50
• Abstract of Judgment. Form 7:60
• Letter to Client Post-Judgment. Form 7:70
• Application for Writ of Garnishment after Judgment. Form 7:80
• Writ of Garnishment Affidavit. Form 7:90
• Writ of Garnishment. Form 7:100
• Garnishment Notice. Form 7:110
• Agreed Judgment on Garnishment. Form 7:120
• Garnishee’s Answer. Form 7:310
• Writ of Garnishment Judgment. Form 7:140
• Writ of Execution Letter to Clerk. Form 7:150
• Writ of Execution Letter to Sheriff or Constable. Form 7:160
• Request for Production – Collections. Form 7:170
• Turnover Application. Form 7:180
• Turnover Order. Form 7:190
• Application for Receiver. Form 7:200
• Receiver Order. Form 7:210
• Oath of Receiver. Form 7:220
• Receivership Final Order. Form 7:230
• Procedures Checklist – Collections. Form 7:240

REVISION 15 HIGHLIGHTS

This 15th Edition of Texas Small-Firm Practice Tools brings you expanded coverage of the laws and procedures governing a broad range of practice specialties: consumer protection/fair trade practices; employment law; small-business formation and operation; estate planning and administration; guardianships; and DWI and misdemeanor defense. The highlights include new and updated text on issues related to:

Civil Litigation

• When an attorney is liable to non-clients.
• Making an objection of “vindictiveness” on the part
  of opposing counsel to preserve error.

Car Accident Cases

• Recovery of attorney’s under the uninsured motorist
  coverage provisions of a policy.
• Bifurcated trials required in certain personal injury
  cases.

Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Practices

• New responsibilities for business owners regarding
  identity theft.
• Criminal penalties for harassing electronic communi-cations.

Landlord-Tenant Relations

• New Form: Dealing with the negligent landlord.
• Service by attaching process to a door is not sufficient.
• Landlord not liable for damages resulting from officer’s execution of the writ of possession.

Organizing and Operating a Small Business

• Management of LLC’s.
• Exemption for filing fees for new veteran-owned
  businesses.

Marriage Dissolution

• New rules on modification of spousal maintenance.
• New requirements for attorney’s completion of Trauma-Informed Care Education.

Guardianship

• Financial abuse of an elderly individual is a felony.
• New Form: Declaration of Guardian in Event of Later Incapacity.
• New Form: Declaration of Appointment of Guardian of Children.
• New Form: Unsworn Declaration in Lieu of Sworn Oath.

Misdemeanor and DWI Defense

• New Form: Motion to Examine Reliability of Evidence Pretrial.
• New Form: Motion to Reduce Bond or Bail.
• Updated Form: Requesting law enforcement turnover all evidence; certification .
• Three-day period for seizing blood sample does not apply to testing/analyzing sample.
•  Drastic new rules make bail more difficult in Texas.
• Marijuana exceptions now include cancer and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Texas Supreme Court ruling on expunctions.
• Use of physical force with intent to restrain is a seizure, even if individual is not seized.
• Defendant’s appeal suspends the duty to pay fines, court costs.
• Restrictions on ability to obtain concealed handgun
  license for persons convicted of crimes that involve
  the use of alcohol or controlled substances.

AND MORE!

ABBREVIATED TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Civil Litigation
Chapter 2 Car Accident Cases
Chapter 3 Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Practices
Chapter 4 Business Litigation
Chapter 5 Landlord-Tenant Relations
Chapter 6 Employer-Employee Relations
Chapter 7 Credit and Collections
Chapter 8 Organizing and Operating a Small Business
Chapter 9 Buying and Selling a Small Business
Chapter 10 Marriage Dissolution
Chapter 11 Estate Planning
Chapter 12 Estate Administration
Chapter 13 Guardianship
Chapter 14 DWI Defense
Chapter 15 Misdemeanor Defense
Chapter 16 Real Estate
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cindy Stormer has been a practicing Texas attorney for over thirty years. She is currently practicing in Fort Worth. She was previously a Super Chief (an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas), the elected District Attorney in Cooke County, an Assistant District Attorney in Fort Worth, an Assistant City Attorney for Dallas, and she had a successful small firm practice for sixteen years. Stormer’s law firm was a general practice law firm handling civil and criminal trials, family law, personal injury, real estate, negligence, estate planning, employment and probate law.

In addition to a varied trial career with extensive jury trial experience, she has written approximately three hundred appellate briefs. Stormer is licensed to practice law in Texas; the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, and the Eastern District; and in the United States Supreme Court.

She has been a part-time Adjunct Instructor at North Central Texas College and Tarrant County College where she has taught Texas Trial Practices; Civil Litigation; Family Law; Probate, Trusts and Estates; Torts; Legal Research; Legal Writing; Criminal Procedure and Evidence; Government; English as a Second Language, and other courses. She has also taught at the Basic Prosecutor’s Course sponsored by the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, and at the Advanced Criminal Law Course for the State Bar of Texas, and various police academies. She is on the planning committee for professional development for the State Bar of Texas. She was in charge of the legal curriculum for the Dallas Police Academy when she was the Chief Attorney for the Dallas
Police Department. She was a police officer and in police work for ten years before becoming an attorney.

She has been named Outstanding Attorney of the Year by Court Appointed Special Advocates of Texas and Distinguished Alumni by Tarrant County College. She is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.