I am feeling a little bit older and a little more mortal today. I was in court this morning when someone told me that my first boss as a lawyer, Jim Mattox, died overnight at the age of 65.
When I got my law license back in the day, my first job was to serve as an assistant Texas attorney general in the habeas corpus section of the AG's office during the Mattox administration. I cannot claim to have been a close person friend of General Mattox. I was only a lowly newbie appellate lawyer, and I met him maybe half a dozen times while at the AG and had dinner with him once at a campaign function. But I can attest to his having an excellent politician's memory.
A few years ago, while I was sitting in the lobby of the Comal County Jail waiting for visitation with a client, I saw him there trying to bail out one of his ranch hands, who had apparently partied a little too enthusiastically the night before. He saw me, walked over to me, and although he didn't remember my name, he asked me how I was doing and thanked me for working in his office fifteen years previously.
Anyone who was privileged to work in the AG's Office at time remembers it as a place with full of bright, creative lawyers and remembers Jim Mattox as a boss who wasn't afraid to take on big companies or special interests in order to stand up for ordinary people.
During the past week, we have been retained by two new clients who each have Driving While Intoxicated cases and who both suffer from bipolar disorder. Over the course of my practice, one of the things that has surprised me the most is the high percentage of DWI clients who have a bipolar diagnosis.
This goes under the category of games that courts play.
If you have a misdemeanor case in Comal County, here's the lowdown on the infamous $250.00 mentioned in those pink pieces of paper mailed out by the court: In every first court date notice sent out by the Comal County Court-at-Law, there is a sentence that mentions that court costs are due at the time of sentencing and that court costs usually run $250.00. No other explanation is given. This notice creates a huge amount of confusion.