Newsletters

Briefs

by Tom Noble ¹
8080 N. Central Expressway
Suite 930
Dallas, Texas 75206
214-692-1888
fax: 692-8577
tnoble28@hotmail.com
http://www.tnoble.com/

5.19.03

Calling All (Adult) Chess Players!

A rag-tag group of mostly old (approximately my age) farts meets once a month in my office under the aegis of "The Old Knights Chess Club". Hell, we're not really that old, but, come to think of it, I'm not sure how old anyone is and don't ask. Let's put it this way: most of the hair is either gray or gone, and we don't like losing to some cheeseburgery, knuckle-dragging ten-year old. So, please don't look at this as an opportunity to drop your kids off at my office for a few hours. We usually play on the third Saturdays of each month from 9:00 a.m. to noon. We range from intermediate to intermediate. If you would like to join us, please send me an e-mail.

"… we spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($80 billion) than we do on education ($65 billion)".

"In 1986, America still had more high schools than shopping centers. Less than 15 years later, we have more than twice as many shopping centers as high schools".

" … forty-six acres of prime American farmland are lost to 'development' every hour". ²

Recent Family Law Cases

Motions to Transfer. The transfer statutes apply on a per child basis. So, it is conceivable for one court to have jurisdiction of one child and another court to have jurisdiction of his sibling(s) because they live in different counties. If you file a motion to transfer and do not intend for it to apply to all of the children before the court, you need not file a motion to sever because the trial court must sever if it transfers jurisdiction for fewer than all of the children. In Re T. J. L., 97 S.W.3d 257 (Tex. App. - Houston [14th Dist.] 2002).

Unreimbursed Medical Expenses. If an order for medical support says that you must submit your bills to the other party within 10 days, and you don't do it, you may be SOL. Id.

Split Custody. One kid goes to live with dad and one stays with mom. How do you figure offsets against dad's child support obligation? See: In re S.L.M., 97, S.W.3d 224 (Tex. App. - Amarillo 2002).

And You Thought You Had Problems? Few cases have life's full range of diversity as Ganesan v. Vallabhaneni, 96 S.W.3d, 345 (Tex. App. - Austin 2002): an ad for a husband; ad answered; common law marriage; murder for hire - twice; bankruptcy; a six-day jury trial; rendition of divorce over 3 years after trial; an appeal more than 3 years after divorce and after the court reporter destroyed her record. And, they only lived together a little over a year!

"Indeed, a group of typical lawyers may easily vary by one hundred percent or more in placing a value on complex cases. Thus, a critical point to remember is that case value is a range, not one fixed amount.

During the negotiation process, each side's expectations about what can be obtained in the case can undergo substantial changes. One of the principal tasks of effective negotiators is to convince opponents of a possible range of trial outcomes (case value) and of a real risk that outcome may be as high (or as low) as they suggest." ³

Movement!

If you think me incommunicado, it may be because I moved my office a few months ago. My old space, in Preston Royal, had been the same stomping ground that I tread as an adolescent, with memories of the back row of the Preston Royal Theater (now Blockbusters), chips and Salsa at El Chico's (now Popolo's), and Cherry Cokes at John Cobb's (now Dougherty's). But, alas, my lease was up, and that mischievous gremlin, dynamism, reared its ugly head. I won't bore you with all of the details, but after an aborted attempt to undeservedly append myself to John Withers' firm, I am now hanging at the Compass Bank building at Caruth Haven and 75, a/k/a 8080 N. Central Expressway, Suite 930.

To be honest, even though I am a native Dallasite, I have spent most of my life avoiding Central Expressway. And, even though it is still not exactly George Bush (don't get me started), it is not too bad. In case you do not live in mall-lined, franchise-food ⁴ filled North Dallas, Caruth Haven is an uncomfortable walk from North Park. If you don't know where North Park is, well, there is a map on my web site, but, honestly, your obvious lack of concern for all things materialistic will make it very difficult for us to have a long-term relationship.

Previously isolated, alone, and, generally alienated from other lawyers since I went solo in 1987, I am normalizing. Pete Lawson, my legal assistant, and I are now joined by three other lawyers, including Brett Stalcup.

Most of what I do is "family law" - the civil kind (although there are times when "civil law" seems like an oxymoron), as opposed to the criminal kind. In the past 20 years or so we have seen our society go from one where the police refused to get involved in domestic violence cases to one in which the police arrest people in the flimsiest of swearing matches. Brett Stalcup is a great "go-to man" for cases involving domestic violence crimes. And, he has done an excellent job of making our office space attractive without its being stodgy or pretentious (you know - like lawyers - yuck!). Mediation clients will be much pleased with our upgraded, more spacious, facility. Come see us!

*

"Texas incarcerates more people, per capita, than almost any state in the country. Its prison system is so big that one of every nine inmates in the United States is incarcerated here. And each year the number grows. To accommodate this growth the state has built more than a hundred prisons since 1980." ⁵

¹ Not Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization

² Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by De Graaf, Wann, and Naylor (Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001).

³ Legal Negotiation by Larry Teply (West Publishing, 1992)

⁴ a step up from fast-food.

⁵ Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T. Hallinan (Random House, 2001).