Possibly never? Or way too late? When a person has been involved in a profession, business, public service, or elected office is it possible to fall into that infamous slot similar to fish or company overstaying a welcome? Of course it is. Do we all know someone who should have hung it up sooner? You betcha. 

Avoiding that possibility was, of course, one of the reasons that I decided to retire from the active bench at the end of this term. The other reason for (semi) retirement at this point is that had I served another term I would have been almost 73 at then end of that one and that is getting a little late to start into something else. What sort of something else? Stay tuned …. And then there are the hobbies … more time needed there and with family.

Let’s be clear:  I still enjoy my work and continue to be grateful for this opportunity at public service. I cannot state my reasons and rationale any more clearly than in my recent press conference/announcement so that will be repeated here.

State of the 33^rd and 424^th Judicial Districts

February 2011

Some history

We cannot talk about the current state of the districts without first recalling some history. When I took the bench in January 1997 the 33^rd Judicial District (there was no 424^th yet) also included Mason County for a total of five counties. I was blessed with several resources:  Judge Clayton Evans was helpful when questions arose; we had the Intermediate Sanction Facility which he was instrumental in forming; CASA (CASA of the Highland Lakes) (Court Appointed Special Advocates) was up and running; and we had the Hill Country Childrens’ Advocacy Center (which Judge Evans’ wife Yvonne was instrumental in forming).  This constellation of resources to the judicial system was, in 1997, quite remarkable for a rural 5-county judicial district.

And there were direct judicial resources as well. Judge Evans assisted as a “visiting judge” as did Hon. D.V. Hammond (who had held the 33^rd bench) and Hon. Charles Hearn (who had a vacation home in the area). Since the district had too much activity for one judge to handle, these “VJs” were indispensable.

Changes have occurred over the years in how the Court’s business was conducted as cases grew more complex on both the criminal and civil dockets.  The volume of case filings has varied at times but with an overall steady increase in volume, and the overall level of activity, i.e. the amount of court time, has grown substantially. In the 2003 legislative year the Legislature cut the visiting judge budget by about 70%, effectively crippling that program. This was unfortunate as, at that time, the entire budget for the state judiciary was 3/10ths of ONE percent of the entire state budget. This led to the creation in 2005 of the 424^th Judicial District also serving the same four counties (Mason County having been moved to another district in the late 90’s), and Hon. Dan Mills was appointed to that bench in October 2005. Having the “sister district” replaced the need for use of visiting judges except in extraordinary situations.

The path

Some of the significant changes made over the years have included:

• 1997, implemented a requirement that all probationers who do not have either a diploma or GED must work toward a GED. Literacy Highland Lakes is given much credit for furnishing the adult education and GED programs for all of these years.
• 1997, the 33^rd became the second judicial district in Texas to implement the CourtCall system for efficiently conducting telephonic hearings. Only the 133^rd District Court (Hon. Lamar McCorkle, Houston) was using the system at that time. CourtCall has saved attorneys and their clients countless hours and dollars by avoiding unnecessary travel.
• June 1997, as one of the early courts in Texas to do so, implemented the “Kids First” seminar for divorcing parents, a 4-hour seminar designed to focus parents on effective communications regarding their children during the trying times of a divorce, and afterward.
• 1997, appointed to the Texas Supreme Court Task Force on Foster Care, Court Improvement Project (extensive description here), serving on that Task Force until 2007 when it was superseded by establishment by the Supreme Court of the Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families. I continue to serve on the Technology Committee of the Commission.
• 1997, supported and assisted in legislation creating the Burnet County Court-at-law.
• 1998, one of the first courts to order mediation in CPS cases, which is now a routine practice in most Texas courts.
• The first court in Texas to rule that a child witness to a sexual assault could testify by remote video using a procedure specified for certain child victims. (Marx v. Texas, No. 98—9183. Decided November 29, 1999 – U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, implicitly approving the decision.)
• Ruled and affirmed on two significant cases of first impression in Texas, one involving ownership of the “Horseshoebay.com” domain name (Horseshoe Bay Resort Sales Co. v. Lake Lyndon B. Johnson Imp. Corp., 53 S.W.3d 799 (Tex.App. —Austin 2001)) and another declaring granite to be a “mineral” for purposes of Texas mineral law (Wilderness Cove, Ltd. v. Cold Spring Granite Co., 62 S.W.3d 844 (Tex.App. —Austin 2001)).
• Conducted a guilty plea in the Burnet High School auditorium involving an intoxication manslaughter case with several highly emotional victim impact statements, producing a significant impact on the students and parents present regarding drunk driving.
• Created (personally) the first website for the 33^rd (now including the 424^th) district court which contains forms, procedures and information for attorneys and the public, at no cost to taxpayers.
• Encouraged and implemented extensive use of email by court staff and attorneys, resulting in substantial savings of time and savings of public funds by reduction of telephone, postage, paper and related supplies.
• Collaborated with Bell County to obtain a Child Protection Court allowing an associate judge to specialize in hearing all cases involving children in State care in the “CPS” system.
• Developed and implemented a radically different procedure for moving criminal cases, working closely with both the District Attorney’s office and the criminal defense bar, resulting in fewer pretrial hearings being necessary.
• Encouraged “best practices” by the State and Defense Bar in the plea-bargain process and trial readiness.
• Personally wrote the Indigent Defense Plan for the district and county courts of the four counties and enhanced the public defender’s office to provide what is one of the few contract “PD” offices, and arguably the highest quality such office in the State.
• Created an analysis of Juvenile processing law and procedures and implemented a “best practices” protocol for the four counties.
• 2004, created the first multi-county Drug Court in Texas using grant funds. The Drug Court in Burnet County has been well over 50% effective in graduating drug-free citizens, with a near-zero recidivism rate among those who successfully completed the rigid program.
• 2005, wrote the legislation for creation of the 424^th District Court.
• Worked closely with the Burnet County District Clerk to implement eFiling of cases and the iJury qualification processes, each of which have resulted in efficiencies and savings to taxpayers.
• Fostered creation of a mentoring program for children in Juvenile Court.
• Encouraged development of the Parent Project (parent education course) and implemented required attendance by parents of children in Juvenile Court.
• Supervised, as the referring court, associate judges for child protection and for the U.S. Title IV-D “child support” courts.
• Developed modern office procedures including use of email, maintenance of and reference to online databases, advanced use of computer software including WordPerfect, Word, and Excel.

The District Court is now housed in a modern courthouse annex with two courtrooms that stay busy much of the time with district court, CPS or Child Support court, Justice of the Peace trials, and occasionally the Burnet County Court-at-law. We have a professional staff of two coordinators plus an assistant to them, and two fantastic court reporters.

The future

What does the future hold for the judicial districts? Some of the things we need to be discussing include:

• Growth will continue, especially in Burnet and Blanco Counties and court infrastructure must keep pace.
• Caseloads will steadily increase and court resources will have to grow, especially in Burnet County.
• Burnet County needs to become a judicial district by itself in order for judges and court staff to more efficiently manage caseloads.
• A county auditor should be added to Blanco County this coming fiscal year.
• Llano County needs to move Commissioners Court to another location to accommodate the inevitable increase in caseloads and use of the courtroom. Plans should be laid for a separate county courtroom.
• The counties of the district should supplement the salary of the district judge by at least $5-10,000 annually.
• The counties must increase funding for prosecution staff – including an increase in attorney compensation, adding positions for certified paralegals, and increasing investigative staff.
• Certified interpreters are needed in the counties.
• Security needs to be enhanced in all of the counties so that in the courthouses both the public and county employees are safe – not just in the courtrooms, but throughout.

Where are we now?

It has been the goal of this judge to create a “user-friendly” environment for lawyers and litigants while still maintaining the decorum and dignity of the proceedings. The adversary system is essential in preserving our rule of law but that does not necessitate hostility either among lawyers or between the bar and the bench. My view has always been that I was not “The” Court, but merely the caretaker thereof and that such was and is a great privilege. It is my hope that in my caretaking role I have helped to define this court, and not to be defined by it.

I have never been afraid to make the hard, and sometimes politically unpopular decisions. The judiciary must remain independent not only from the other two branches of government, but from popular or political pressure as well. A judge must at all times be intellectually honest and strive simply to be fair and impartial, basing decisions on the correct law applied properly to the facts presented in court. I am satisfied that so far in these 14 years I have never made a decision otherwise.

This is wonderful work – some would say it is God’s work, and I agree. I don’t know many ways you can serve your community as deeply, within your chosen profession, and get paid for it! I go to work every day excited and challenged about what the day will hold. For those of you who read my blog you know that my motto is “leave the world better than you found it … really” and that is how I approach each day. I feel as if I could do this forever.

But I shouldn’t. It is best to stop before I become a crotchety old judge like some of those we all know. I hope I have been known – in addition to being fair and impartial – as having a good judicial temperament and I don’t want to risk spoiling that reputation, if indeed that is the case.

Therefore, I will not seek re-election in 2012.

With great fondness for the people and officials of the several counties of the district,

/s/ Guilford L. Jones, III, Judge, 33rd Judicial District Court of Texas

Newspaper article from The River Cities Tribune, 20 Feb 2011.

Jones Retirement Tribune page 1 Jones Retirement Tribune – 2

Image via Wikipedia

As you may know, it did not work out that way. But it was not due to a lack of trying on my part. I think subconsciously that since my dad was a lawyer, I wanted to “do my own thing.”  I had taken a passing interest in electronics and my maternal grandfather, Ernest A. Moritz, was a rather famous engineer so, therefore, I set off to the University of Texas in 1962 to become an electrical engineer. Made sense, right?

Then one day sitting in engineering mechanics class, I suddenly realized that this was not what I wanted to do. It truly was one of those “eureka” moments. Since my major was about to change, the opportunity presented itself to switch to a major appropriate for pre-law. But instead, after talking to some fraternity brothers and counselors, and having taken into account the fact that I was pretty handy with numbers, I suddenly was majoring in accounting.

I made good grades and was fortunate to be able to interview with any of the “Big 8″ accounting firms and went to work in 1966 for Arthur Andersen & Co. in Houston. Within months I was in the Navy, then came back to AA&Co, and earned my CPA certificate.

So far, so good, in avoiding becoming a lawyer. Then it started.

One Sunday I was reading the Houston Chronicle newspaper, cover to cover, as was my habit then. Buried in a page deep inside that huge Sunday edition, and jam against the fold, there it was:  a notice that the LSAT, the Law School Admissions Test, was soon to be given in Houston. I bought a review book (and distinctly recall that it cost $5.95), went through it, took the test, made a good score on it, and before long had acceptances coming in from a number of fine law schools.

Thus it became clear that someone was trying to tell me something. I left Aa&Co. in May 1971 to attend the University of Texas School of law.

Thus my quest to avoid being a lawyer had failed.

Have I mentioned that I never had a burning desire to be a judge, either? Many lawyers aspire to the bench from early in their career, but that was not me. I was rocking along, “fat, dumb and happy” as they say, when I was recruited to run for the office of 33rd District Court Judge. At the time of this writing I’ve been on the bench for 14 years (having been elected in Nov 1996) and feel that it was something I was meant to do.

Serendipity is a good thing!

This from a former law school lecturer in constitutional law:

“You can imagine, if you are a Hispanic American in Arizona …” the president said Tuesday at a campaign-style appearance in Iowa, “suddenly, if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to be harassed.” On the same day, Attorney General Eric Holder said he was considering a court challenge.

(emphasis added)  via How Obama could lose Arizona immigration battle | Washington Examiner.

That is a scare tactic, class warfare engendering statement and one that is totally irresponsible.  Is it possible that the President simply misspoke?  It’s hard to imagine that by late April when this statement was made that both he and the Attorney General (see YouTube link below) did not know the language and meaning of the AZ law.  If not, then both of their statements were tantamount to gross negligence.  If they DID, then those statements were made purely for political scare tactic purposes, and tantamount to a fraudulent misrepresentation.

Look at my analysis and tell me if the President and Attorney General could justify the “ice cream” statement based on that law.  No way.  It’s quite clear that there first must be a lawful contact with the citizen.  So, if you and your kid just robbed the ice cream store, then upon police contact you might be asked for ID — no matter where it appears you might be from.

(edit 5/15/2010) Just discovered this video where AG Holder acknowledges that he has not read the AZ immigration law, but still has an opinion on it. It thus becomes indelibly clear that his remarks about the bill are simply politically motivated.  The United States Attorney General is not a position where you want politics to motivate. He is the top law enforcement official in the country and there is no room for politics in the types of decisions the AG has to make.

Why you should be nice to your relatives, especially the older ones …

WILL OF HERMAN OBELWEISS
I am writing of my will
mineselluf that dam lawyer want
he should have too much money,
he asked to many answers about
family. first thing i want i dont
want my brother oscar have a
dam ting what i got. he done me
out of forty dollars fourteen years
since.

I want it that hilda my sister
she gets the north sixtie akers of
at where i am homing it now. i bet
she dont get that loafer husband
of hers to broke twenty akers next
plowing time. she cant have it if
she lets oscar live on it i want it i
should have it back if she does.

Tell mamma that six hundred
dollars she been looking for for
twenty years is berried from the
backhouse behind about ten feet
down. she better let little frederick
do the digging and count it
when he comes up.

Pastor lucknitz can have three
hundred dollars ifhe kiss the book
he wont preach no more dumhead
polotics. he should have a roof put
on the meetinghouse with (it) and
the elders should the bills look at.

Momma the rest should get but i
want it that adolph shud tell her
what not she do so no more slick
irishers sell her vokum cleaners
dy noise like hell and a broom dont
cost so much.

I want it that mine brother
adolph should be my execter and i
want it that the jedge make
adolph plenty bond put up and
watch him like hell.

Adolph is a good business man
but only a dumkoph would trust
him with a busted pfenning. i
want dam sure that schlemic
oscar dont nothing get. tell adolph
he can have a hundred dollars if
he prove to jedje oscar dont get
nothing. that dam sure fix oscar.

(signed) Herman Obelweiss.

I’ve had this piece for my entire legal career and have used it many times in speeches. It’s cute, and is reported to be an actual Will filed in Anderson County, Texas.  Don’t let it be said that the law is totally dry.

This day, Maundy Thursday 2009, may be an interesting point in the Christian calendar to remember not only the facts of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, but to analyze the extensive perversion of the legal system that was required to put him to death. The linked file is an analysis of those events from the viewpoint of a lawyer and judge and may give you a different perspective of this Easter season. The preamble in the paper:

About 2,000 years ago, there occurred the central events of Christian history which we observe and celebrate during the Easter season, events which principally exist in our minds as the cornerstone of our Christian faith:  the death and resurrection of a man called Jesus.  For a trial lawyer or judge however, these events are foreshadowed, though not overshadowed, by the trial that took place before his execution.

We talk about the trial of Christ — in fact, he was tried within both the Roman and Hebrew judicial systems and scholars debate whether there were in fact two full trials. I believe that there were no full trials because of the subversion of all the rules, and that there were seven trials in all.

I hope that you find this paper to be interesting whether your faith is Christian, Jewish or otherwise.

PDF file:  Trial of Christ from a Judge’s Point of View

As a Christian and a judge of 12 years and lawyer licensed since 1973 (gee, that sounds like a long time ago), it is no surprise that, as with many lawyers, I have an interest in the influence of religious principles and history on the law.  I was asked to talk in our adult forum at church tomorrow about religion and the law and put together a written piece to guide the discussion. Besides, everyone likes a party favor. The PDF of the document is in my shared files and you’re welcome to read it and I invite your comments here.

I briefly discuss what is undoubtedly the earliest recorded roots of our modern jurisprudence, the Code of Hammurabi — an early king of Babylonia. The Ten Commandments are briefly compared. There then follows an outline of some of the principles of our modern procedural rules that existed during the trials of Christ — all of which were broken in order to ensure his conviction and crucifixion.

Enjoy.

Just today I heard a commentator talking about “BlogoGate” where Governor Blogojevich had appointed Mr. Burris to the Illinois senate seat. The comment was in essence that since “Blogo” was such a despicable person he had no right to appoint someone to that seat.

Let’s be clear: if Blogojevich is guilty of what is alleged, then he is despicable. It’s easy to assume that the allegations are in large part true. But he is still the Governor of the State of Illinois and until removed, he has every legal right to make the appointment. Should he? Politically or morally, should he? I think not, but that’s not the test.

We have laws which we all should follow. Just because one believes that Gov. Blogojevich has broken the law and should be impeached does not justify ignoring what he apparently has the legal right to do. Impeachment is for the Illinois legislative body and until impeached and convicted, or indicted and convicted, he is still the Governor with all the powers attendant to that office.

This is a constitutional matter, not just a choice or matter of preference.  The issue is fundamental to our personal liberties.  It’s all too easy to blast a now-unpopular politician, but the same principle applies to the ordinary citizen accused of a wrong-doing.

Again, to be clear, I in no way condone or defend his alleged actions but I wish we could defend the notion and knowledge of the rule of law.

I found this on a blog that looks interesting, if deep. It’s Punishment Theory which is touted as a group blog on criminal law and philosophy. Leans left, which means it should at a minimum be thought-provoking. Below are  links to online versions of philosophical works, some blogs, and then a lexicon from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  If this isn’t enough reading for a long winter then nothing is.

Here is a list of links to various philosophical works, mostly (I think) listed for its relationship to the law: