Core principles of our law firm - By Katherine Van Wagner

For those of you unfamiliar with our law firm, our core principles are anchored in championing for equal respect and dignity for all human beings, particularly those in the LGBTIQ community.  (If you ever stop by our office you will discover we also have a lot of love for our four-legged friends.)

On September 16^th and 17^th, I had the privilege of attending my first Gender Infinity Conference and Unity Banquet.  The Gender Infinity Conference brought together transgender individuals, their families, educators, providers, and advocates in furtherance of learning about and helping the transgender community.  One of our partners, Phyllis Frye, spoke at the conference about the legal history and current legal climate of transgender law and her own experiences as a transgender individual.  She is the first openly transgender judge in the nation and possibly the world.

The Unity Banquet was held at a local Houston hotel and focused on celebrating and recognizing all those who have made a positive impact in Houston’s transgender community.  Since Frye, Oaks, Benavidez & O’Neil, PLLC, participated as a featured vendor at both the Gender Infinity Conference and Unity Banquet, members of our firm were able to connect with many members of the transgender community, their families, and advocates.

At both the Gender Infinity Conference and Unity Banquet, I met lovely individuals and learned a lot more about the plight of the transgender community.  I want to thank the brave and beautiful souls who took the time to share their stories and enlighten and educate me.   They helped me better understand issues related to being transgender.  Before attending the Gender Infinity Conference and Unity Banquet, I did not fully consider and comprehend all the obstacles facing transgender individuals and the psychological impact those obstacles can have.  Things that many of us take for granted, like the sex on our driver’s license or the choice of restroom to use, serve as daily reminders to transgender individual of the battles they still face.

While I have in no way personally experienced the struggles of the transgender community and do not want to diminish their particular difficulties, most of us have experienced times in our lives where we struggled to feel accepted and included.  I think we can all empathize with the basic desire to feel loved and accepted for who we are.  With coverage of the seemingly endless tragedies bombarding us on social media these days, isn’t it time we all learn to reconnect with our humanity and show some compassion and understanding?  Despite all of our differences, one thing will always bind us; we are all human beings. 

If you are a human being with a legal matter that needs attention, I hope you will consider contacting us.  We have a team of attorneys ready to assist you with a wide variety of legal needs.  We strive to make our office a welcoming environment for people of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and sexual identifications. We promise to reserve our judgment and discrimination for the sports teams you support (just kidding!).

713 227-1717

Debt Collection - by Chris M. Ervin

It can happen to anyone: you suffer a financial set-back like the loss of a job, and you are unable to make timely payments on a debt. What can you do?

Validate

                If a debt collector contacts you request information such as the amount owed and date of last payment.

Challenge it

You can write the creditor to say you’re disputing the debt. Be as specific as possible in your letter. Say why the debt collection attempt is not valid, including information about payment history or why the debt may not be yours and any other relevant information.

Pay it off?

Although you may think paying at least a little bit will get the creditor off your back, it can make things much worse. Making even a single payment on time-barred debt can bring it back from the dead and reset the statute of limitations.

Harassment and Fraud

State law prohibits the use of harassment and abusive collection tactics. It is illegal for any debt collector to:

threaten violence or other criminal acts;

use profane or obscene language;

falsely accuse the consumer of fraud or other crimes;

threaten arrest of the consumer, or repossession or other seizure of property without proper court proceedings;

use the telephone to harass debtors by calling anonymously or making repeated or continuous calls;

make collect telephone calls without disclosing the true name of the caller before the charges are accepted.

The use of fraudulent or deceptive practices is also prohibited, including:

using a false name or identification;

misrepresenting the amount of the debt or its judicial status;

sending documents to a debtor that falsely appear to be from a court or other official agency;

failing to identify who holds the debt;

misrepresenting the nature of the services rendered by the collection agency or the collector;

falsely representing that the collector has information or something of value in order to discover information about the consumer.

If you believe that your rights have been violated by a Debt Collector, I have the professionalism and experience to be a vigorous advocate for your issue, large or small.  Call to schedule a consultation today.

Frye, Oaks, Benavidez, and O’Neil

713 227-1717

Jury Trial In Family Law - Angela Oaks

Some clients would like a jury to make the decisions in their family law trial. But jury trials are not always an option family law cases, and generally, a judge decides the issues.  This is because the Texas Family Code limits the issues that a jury can hear.

A jury may hear:

·         * Whether a common-law marriage exists

·         * Fault in the breakup of the marriage

·         * Attorney’s fees

·         * Which parent will be appointed sole managing conservator, joint managing conservator, or possessory conservator

·         * Which joint managing conservator has the exclusive right to designate a child’s primary residence

·         geographic restriction

·         * Termination of parental rights

·         * Whether property is separate property or community property

·         * The value of property

·         reimbursement claims

A jury may not decide the following issues:

·         * Visitation schedule

·        *  Child support

·         * Parental rights and duties

·         * Division of community property

·         * Spousal maintenance

·        *  Adoption

·        *  Paternity

·         * Enforcement of a prior order

A family lawyer can help you decide if a jury trial is right – or even an option - for your case.

713 227-1717

FAQ # 12 About Social Security Disability - by Salvador Benavidez

Is there a program or assistance when people need help managing their money?  Yes, Social Security’s Representative Payment Program provides a program for the Social Security and SSI payments for those beneficiaries who are not capable of managing their funds.

 

I have participated as a Representative Payee for a client in order to gain insight about the process.  Generally, Social Security will turn to family/friends of the beneficiary; otherwise, Social Security will authorize other qualified persons or organizations.

Keep in mind, the person taking on the roll as a Representative Payee is acting as a fiduciary and has to report to the Social Security Administration.

Unintended consequences of charitable giving to universities: new football scoreboard - by Daniel L. O’Neil

Note: This occurred in a non-Texas state so we can only speak generally about the concepts, nothing even remotely substantive about the other jurisdiction’s laws. Clearly he was not one of our clients, just to point that out as well.

You may have heard about Silas Marner-like long-serving University of New Hampshire (UNH) librarian Robert Morin’s passing and the large (approximately $4,000,000) charitable gift he left to his Alma mater and former employer. The substantiality of the gift surprised a lot of people. He had no family members he felt were suitable to leave money to – like many Americans he felt his best option was a charitable gift then. He had amassed this surprising sum of money from living extremely frugally and saving everything he could. He never “went out,” he ate microwave dinners at home, and drove a modest 1992 car. It was a life of quiet sacrifices and missed opportunities in favor of socking away more money; not because librarians are paid as well as professional football players.

We can generalize a few things from these facts related by his financial advisor. Robert Morin worked for 50 years in the library and probably had some good memories there. Robert Morin saved every penny he could to maximize the amount (hence the power) of the final gift he could leave behind to honor his life and memory. Robert Morin, likely through his financial advisor, was at least somewhat familiar with the concept of estate planning. His financial advisor has been quoted in the USA Today as saying of Morin, “His whole life was the library.”

So how then does this college educated, well heeled millionaire, and somewhat savvy consumer of legal services make such a bad gift? Out of approximately $4,000,000 only $100,000 (approximately 1/40^th) was restricted for use in the library – the remaining 39/40ths of $4 million was an unrestricted gift meaning the university could basically use it for pretty much anything they wanted. And what did they want? For starters, a $1 million brand new scoreboard for the football team. Which obviously has nothing to do with the library – or other topics du jour affecting university campuses such as the spiraling debt load as well as all of the social justice issues.

One twitter commenter had an apt observation for UNH: “Do you want people to stop donating to your school? Because this is exactly how you stop donations.” The point being a very insulting use of donations – taking money from the library and improvements around campus that will actually help students obtain education and future employment opportunities (or at least help defray a small portion of spiraling student debt loads) in favor of another expensive trinket for the sportsball team.

While we would like to think Robert Morin’s ghost is standing in the UNH quad ringing the Game of Thrones “shame” bell for eternity, we have no idea what he really wanted with his gift. We just know how this sits with us – it doesn’t sit right. And we have a past history of carefully drafting Will provisions to make sure that universities (and other entities we would have a concern about) can’t do things like this contrary to the vision, spirit, and life of the client that accumulated the wealth and wanted to make a nice charitable gift of it to further support the legacy of the vision, spirit, and life they left behind.

An important part of estate planning is discussing the desires you have and the outcomes you are trying to achieve with your comprehensive estate plan. In Texas this would have been a more serious conversation about why this was such a bad gift – and how American universities, which have plenty of their own public relations problems right now related to financial mismanagement, diversity, inclusion, safe spaces, university administrations protecting football players from rape allegations made by non-football players, and more – have their own ideas about how every unrestricted gift coming in to their coffers should be earmarked for the sportsball team rather to actually assist students in any conceivable way such as research grants, student meal plans, scholarships for students, or literally anything besides an inconsequential trinket for an already highly funded and well protected by administration athletic department.

In Texas a serious discussion with the client about the unintended consequences could have saved this gift and aligned it more with what we think Robert Morin would have had in mind for his life’s frugality and lost opportunities to simply acquire money so he could make what was a powerful gift in his mind. In Texas careful drafting of the Will provision could have saved this gift. In Texas we need more libraries. In Texas we need more diversity, inclusion, safe spaces, and initiatives to keep college affordable and manageable for everyone.

If you need help making an appropriate charitable gift that will be used for important things on college campuses (like libraries) give us a call and let’s help you make the right kind of gift, rather than you accidentally subsidizing the football team.

Frye, Oaks, Benavidez & O’Neil, PLLC: over 105 years of Texas legal experience now under one roof.

713-227-1717

The Digital Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony - by Daniel L. O'Neil

The digital ribbon-cutting ceremony - by Daniel L. O’Neil

Dear readers:

As our firm continues to grow, expanding our services and support offered to the community, we are excited to begin a new chapter in the life of our firm’s legal blogging – welcome to our brand new law blog now as an independent publication!

Our historical blogs can still be accessed back on our main website but all of our new blogs will be posted here in the future. This is a decision we deliberated over for some time but decided that this was the best path forward for a firm that has doubled in size recently and added a wealth of new experience in practice areas the firm has not traditionally handled before, such as Mike Dominguez’s business immigration practice group.

Our law blog is our firm’s brand: through it we make every effort to educate, entertain, and engage with our readers on the legal issues that are on their minds and in the news. Sometimes this is about pop culture celebrities dealing with tax problems; other times it examines the pop culture representation of certain legal issues such as the more recent in television history It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia posts on business succession planning and Texas property tax or the television history vintage aged My Name Is Earl post on estate planning(generally).

The kind of law blog we want to read shares experience and knowledge – for the sake of knowledge and helping the community – so that is the type of law blog we endeavor to publish. We blog with a purpose to empower our friends, neighbors, and family in the GLBTI community and their supportive allies.

According to Kevin O’Keefe at abovethelaw “good blogging” is fun, rewarding, and a door to meeting countless people. We agree!

From the time our law blog was hosted only on our website we received some interesting questions from readers and provided answers. And we hope we can continue to engage with our readers as we launch this expanded independent publication now. We certainly look forward to trying!

Frye, Oaks, Benavidez & O’Neil, PLLC: over 105 years of legal experience now under one roof.

713-227-1717