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 13 HIGHLIGHTS

This 13th 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

• Attorney’s ethical duty of technology competence
• Cybersecurity and data privacy duties to clients
• Proving up attorney’s fees

Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Practices

• Tips for clients if a credit card is stolen, including how to initiate a credit
• New Form: Social Security Confidentiality Letter

Employer/Employee Relations

• Vicarious liability for conduct of employees traveling to/from work
• Circumstances under which a property owner be liable  for  injury to a contractor or its employee

Organizing and Operating a Small Business

• Where to file an assumed name certificate
• Why every business must obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and how to do so

Estate Planning

• Specific language required to ensure survivorship of a joint account upon the death of one party
• Viability of a claim for interference with inheritance

Estate Administration

• Law governing community property when a person dies without a will and is survived by a spouse and descendants Guardianship

• Impact of the OCA electronic database of personal injury or wrongful death settlement agreements for which an incapacitated minor is the beneficiary
• Preferred terms and phrases for new and revised disability-related laws to ensure that the language of the statute places the person before the disability

DWI Defense

• Detention in a sobering center in lieu of arrest
• Warrantless blood tests
• Availability of deferred adjudication community supervision for first-time offenders

Misdemeanor Defense

• Legal hemp and marijuana: misdemeanor violations; scope of medical exceptions
• Requesting a hearing to establish whether fines and costs impose an undue hardship
• A fine-only misdemeanor alleging family violence required defendant to appear in court
• Indecent assault (groping) is a class A misdemeanor, which does not require sex offender registration

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.