George hired Austin eviction attorneys Girling Law to remove a tenant because of the tenant harassing neighbors.  Shortly after starting the eviction process, George’s tenant hired his own attorney.  Girling Law took George's case to trial and won a judgment before the Justice of the Peace.  George’s tenant then appealed the case to a County Court at Law.  Girling Law aggressively pursued a settlement agreement in this case.  The firm’s persistence paid off and the case settled just before a trial before the County Court at Law. Eviction Case Background George hired our office to evict his tenant as quickly as possible.  George’s tenant lived next door to another property George owns.  His son lives in the neighboring property.  George’s

After Yeshua’s first attorney’s attempt to evict a pair of problem tenants fell apart, Yeshua’s new Garland eviction attorneys from Girling Law started a second eviction cycle.  Yeshua’s tenant requested a jury trial in response to the second eviction.  They clearly expected to throw Yeshua’s legal team off balance.  But this tactic backfired in a bad way.  Girling Law has developed unique resources just for eviction jury trials.  The firm’s attorneys are both experienced and well trained in handling eviction jury trials at the Justice of the Peace level.  Girling Law quickly prepared for Yeshua’s eviction jury trial, executed on a well-designed trial strategy, successfully educated the jury, absolutely punished one of the witnesses on the stand, and obtained for Yeshua a

Janice S. decided to hire a Dallas eviction attorney after her tenant appealed a Justice of the Peace trial and obtained her own court-appointed attorney.  Janice made an error when filing her case, however.  This error was fatal to her case as it was highly likely to result in a dismissal.  Janice hired a Dallas eviction attorney, L. Marc Girling, who quickly identified the weaknesses in Janice’s case, developed a strategy to minimize her risk, and successfully executed on that strategy.  Girling Law solved the problem of Janice's non-paying tenant efficiently.  More importantly, Janice’s Dallas eviction attorney avoided a very expensive outcome: having the non-paying tenant’s attorney appeal the County Court at Law trial to the 5th Court of Appeals.

Dickson A. sought a McKinney eviction attorney after he realized he had virtually no chance of negotiating settlement. Dickson's tenant was angry because he became convinced he had a right to buy the property. Complicating matters further, Dickson lost his original, signed copy of his lease agreement. Also, he delivered the notice to vacate improperly. Girling Law was still able to obtain judgments against the tenant before the Collin County Justice of the Peace. The tenant appealed and Dickson's McKinney eviction attorney won a judgment before the Collin County Court at Law. EVICTION CASE BACKGROUND: Dickson used a written lease agreement with his tenant. But Dickson lost his copy of the lease. He had only a copy, but that copy

The landlord in this case used a high-risk notice to vacate delivery method. The tenant appealed her Arlington TX eviction trial to a County Court at Law in Fort Worth, TX. Because the landlord is a corporation, the landlord was required to hire an attorney for representation before the County Court at Law in Fort Worth. The landlord hired Arlington eviction attorney, Marc Girling to handle its County Court eviction trial.  The client was very certain our firm would be able to talk the tenant into a settlement agreement. Because of this, the client elected to not take preventative measures that would have substantially reduced its risk. The landlord’s gamble paid off. ARLINGTON TX EVICTION CASE BACKGROUND: K.I. rented a

Eviction Case Background: Bradley is a real estate investor who owns several properties in the Dallas Fort Worth area.  He hired us after his relatively new tenants broke several promises to pay their second rent payments.  Eventually they stopped returning his calls.  In addition to not paying rent, Bradley’s tenants moved into the property with a large dog.  This was also a violation of their lease. Rental Property Location: Fort Worth, Texas Eviction Court Location: Fort Worth, Texas Eviction Trial Outcome: Bradley’s lease permitted us to serve the tenants with only a one day notice to vacate.  However, we were familiar with the Justice of the Peace in this Fort Worth court, and we knew she only allows three day

EVICTION CASE BACKGROUND: Kathy K. needed to better understand landlord rights under landlord tenant law in Texas after her tenant appealed an eviction judgment.  Kathy sought out Dallas landlord attorneys after having won her first eviction trial before a Dallas County Justice of the Peace. Kathy’s relationship with her tenant had previously deteriorated.  She and her tenant would get into screaming matches and call the police on one another.  Kathy’s tenant appealed the first eviction trial using sureties to appeal.  Unfortunately, by the time Kathy hired her Dallas landlord attorneys, the County Court had already scheduled a trial.  This meant Girling Law did not have enough time to subpoena the tenant's two sureties.  Also, the tenant filed a written answer with the JP court.  Therefore, we were

Your attorney needs to prepare exhibits for your eviction trial – no surprise there. But it’s not enough for your eviction lawyer to simply prepare for your eviction trial. If your tenant fails to appear at trial, your attorney will need to have previously filed documents disclosing to the Court your tenant’s last known address, and a sworn statement that the tenant is not in the military. This last step requires your eviction attorney to obtain a report from the U.S. Department of Defense. Sadly, I sometimes witness attorneys who handle evictions “on the side” showing up to court with only the documentation needed for trial. When the tenant is a no-show at trial, the Judge will typically send these

I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts that Justices of the Peace are rarely attorneys. In fact, some will run for Justice of the Peace because they feel as though they were mistreated or poorly represented by an attorney. Others are active or former real estate professionals (non-attorneys) and they can get a bit touchy about an attorney “explaining eviction law to them.” Every Justice of the Peace has his own, unique reason for becoming a judge. And many Justices of the Peace have his own ideas about eviction law. It is important that you work with an attorney who knows these details about your Justice of the Peace. This information can be the difference between walking away

Starting Off on the Wrong Foot with Your Eviction Attorney I love it when a landlord calls me and tells me they have a written lease agreement with tenant who stopped paying rent.  For me, these are typically very easy cases.  This means my odds of having a very happy client will be high.  But then the landlord hits me with the nine words I hate the most: "I already handed my tenant a notice to vacate."  When I hear this, I can instantly hear the voice of a certain corpulent cartoon character saying, "Doooh!"  Never do this.  Never hand deliver a notice to vacate.  Doing so instantly turns your very low-risk eviction into a very high-risk, high-stakes eviction trial.

The idea doesn’t initially make a lot of sense, does it?  If you struggle with the urge to keep a close eye on your eviction attorney, it may even be too much to bear.  But it’s a really, really bad idea for landlords to appear at an eviction trial before the Justice of the Peace. The Texas Legislature changed the rules that apply to Justice of the Peace Courts (where every Texas eviction must start) in late 2013.  One of these changes gives the Justice of the Peace the right to “investigate” the case themselves.  Here is how this new rule from the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure reads: Rule 500.6 Judge to Develop Case In order to develop the