Evictions And My Attorney - Landlord Forum thread 324921

Evictions And My Attorney by Anonymous on September 25, 2014 @10:33

Last week I sat in on some 56 eviction cases in my local Texas JP court. In about 30 of the cases the tenant did not show up so the landlords won an immediate default judgment against the tenants. The court clerk printed out the judgments one after the other. In one case the tenant won his immediate case representing himself. That landlord was not pleased. One of my objectives was to learn about evictions but also to find a good eviction attorney.

This week I spent an hour with my new eviction/small claims attorney. He has been practicing law here for over 30 years. He handles over 800 eviction cases per year on average. He told me that my security deposit issue with my most recent tenant had good acceptable documentation that would establish a preponderance of evidence. He also told me that estimates for repairs were acceptable here in these local JP courts and so was my personal labor as I had documented it. This is not to say that any LPA members were wrong about estimates and personal labor; he admitted that the laws and courts were different in each county, city and state. He also told me a number of areas where I was not legal and I had not read the latest tenant/landlord codes. The codes are updated every two years in Texas. IMO this was time and money well spent!

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Re: Evictions And My Attorney by Kim (WV) on September 25, 2014 @11:08	[ Reply ]

That sounds like time well spent! I intend to do this at my first opportunity (spend the day in eviction court, observing). I hope I never need an eviction attorney or eviction court, but this would be a good way to find out who's a good eviction attorney and what judges allow in your area.

Re: Evictions And My Attorney by Bill on September 25, 2014 @11:48	[ Reply ]

If you sat in on 56 evictions, why do you need a lawyer to tell you about your eviction. You should be representing yourself. What happened in the case where the tenant won representing himself?

Re: Evictions And My Attorney