Hazel Brown Law Firm, PLLC Legal Articles
U.S. Supreme Court Same Sex Marriage Summary
The Supreme Court's Ruling On Same-Sex Marriage: Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio, Dept. of Health On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the controversial decision requiring States to allow the marriage of same-sex couples and...
Police Now Need Warrants to Search Cell-Phone Data: June 2014
The Supreme Court has ruled that police must obtain a search warrant to view information stored on a suspects or an arrestee's cell phone. The ruling is from a California case where an officer arrested a person for a traffic violation. The officer searched their cell...
New Texas Criminal Discovery Rules
On January 1, 2014, the Michael Morton Act goes into effect in the state of Texas. This historic change in the law is the result of Morton being wrongfully convicted of his wife's murder back in 1987. In that case, the prosecutor deliberately withheld from defense...
Texas Raises the Child Support Cap beginning September 1, 2013
Texas Raises the Child Support Cap Guidelines are used in Texas to help courts determine what a parent's child support obligation will be. There may be reasons for varying from the guidelines, but most family cases end up using these guidelines to establish the...
The Texas Castle Doctrine: An Affirmative Defense
New laws have been passed and are now in effect in the State of Texas, which have a major effect on the evidence you receive, as the Defendant, in your case. The Texas Castle Doctrine: An Affirmative Defense The George Zimmerman case in Florida, where 17-year old...
Significant Decision Report: Supreme Court
Significant Decision Report: Supreme Court Summarized from Voice for the Defense; May 2013, Volume 42, No. 4 Bailey v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1031 (2013) Usually detaining someone requires a showing of probable cause. Under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), there...
The Community Caretaking Function
Summarized from A Short Memo on the Community Caretaking Function by Tip Hargrove III; Voice for the Defense; June 2012; Volume 41, No 5. Police officers have many functions in our community. To perform a traffic stop, there must be reasonable suspicion that a crime...
Legislative Update 2011 – Family Law (October)
Fraud on the "Community Estate": A spouse commits "fraud on the community estate" when they act with misconduct and waste assets without the other spouse's permission. Examples of this misconduct include: draining bank accounts and going on spending sprees to deprive...
Legislative Update 2011 – Family Law (September)
Legislative Update 2011 - Family Law New Family Suit and Divorce Laws Spousal Maintenance (Spousal Support) Eligibility: The Family Code now provides that the court may order spousal maintenance if the spouse needing support lacks sufficient property at the time of...
Legislative Update 2011 – Criminal Law
The following is a summary of many of the legislative changes that took effect in September of 2011 that relate to criminal offenses. New Offenses: Prohibition of Glass on State-Owned Rivers A person commits an offense if the person knowingly possesses a glass...