Texas Small-Firm Practice Tools

Description

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 17 HIGHLIGHTS

This 17th Edition of Texas Small-Firm Practice Tools brings you expanded coverage of the laws and procedures
governing a broad range of practice specialties. The highlights include new and updated text on issues related to:

Civil Litigation

•  Tips to avoid liability and develop cultural competence at your law firm
• Attorney responsibilities re: trust accounts
• Statute of limitations and service of process on defendant who spends considerable time out of state during the
  limitations period
• Spoliation of social media evidence
• New Form: Trust Account Ledger
• New Form: Most Frequent Appellate Mistakes [10 mistakes]
• New Form: Supersedeas Checklist [7 steps]
• Updated Form: State Courts (re: new 15th court of appeals and statewide business courts in 2024)

Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Practices

• Notice of judgment must advise individual debtors of rights re: seizure of property
• Updated form: Writ of Garnishment, reflecting revisions mandated by Texas Supreme Court
• Updated form: Order on Motion for Appointment of Receiver
• New form: Seizure Exemption Claim Form

Employer-Employee Relations

• Jurisdiction/venue of judicial review of administrative decisions re: workers’ comp. benefits
• Vicarious liability for negligence arising during employee’s travel to/from work
• Disparate treatment: Whether excessive weight qualifies as disability

Organizing and Operating a Small Business

• Disclosures required under Corporate Transparency Act
• Nonprofit organizations: statutory prerequisites for charitable organization exemption

Marriage Dissolution

• Burden of proof on a claim for equitable reimbursement

Estate Planning and Administration

• Creation of a dynasty trust
• Availability of costs/fees in action to determine validity of durable power of attorney
• New Form: Creditor’s Guide in Independent Administration
• New Form: Creditor’s Guide in Dependent Administration
• Revised Form: Order Admitting the Will to Probate as a Muniment of Title
• Revised Form: Proof of Death and Other Facts—Muniment of Title

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.