Introducing the Digital Education Nook!

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Harris County Law Library’s newest learning opportunity brings on-demand video content to all within steps of the Harris County courthouses in downtown Houston.

A Digital Content Access Point for Everyone

The Digital Access Nook is an access point for digital collections from the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute, the Harris County Attorney’s Office, and the Texas Office of Court Administration. Content covers a variety of topics, from self-help videos to help you work with your attorney or represent yourself in court, to legal technology videos on cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Bring your headphone or use ours and immerse yourself in one of more than 40 videos focused on legal topics. With a variety of content in a fully accessible space, there is something for everyone in the Digital Education Nook!

Visit the Digital Education Nook webpage for details.

UELMA? Why, Yes, We Do!

On May 25, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 402 into law, making Texas the 22nd state to adopt the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act or UELMA. The record of this hard-won achievement is forever documented in the House Journal as seen here.

The Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act or UELMA has been adopted in Texas! On Friday, May 25, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 402 into law, adding Texas to the list of 21 other states that have officially committed to the preservation and authentication of public legal information. Further, by adopting UELMA, Texas has made clear its intention to provide trustworthy, reliable access to online legal content that is permanently available in unaltered form and offered to the public free of charge whenever possible.

Navigating the legislative process over several Congressional sessions to finally secure the necessary votes and the signature of Gov. Abbott was long and difficult, and Texans, especially those who championed UELMA throughout this process, deserve a chance to celebrate. Passage of UELMA in Texas would not have been possible without the determination and perseverance of government relations advocates, especially the indefatigable Barbara Bintliff, Director of the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, who began her UELMA journey nearly 10 years ago when the Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials Act, as it was originally called, was drafted at the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

There are many next steps to work out in the implementation of UELMA in Texas — the law does not take effect until September 1, 2019 — but once fully realized, this legislation will introduce changes to the ways we all access legal information, the ease with which we find that information, and the confidence we have in knowing that the information is official, reliable, and authentic. This is definitely a win for the people of Texas and for those who champion open and equal access to justice for all.

2019 UNT Open Access Symposium: Is Open Access an Answer for Access to Justice?

This year’s topic for the University of North Texas Open Access Symposium was Is Open Access an Answer for Access to Justice?  Held this past weekend at the UNT Dallas College of Law, the symposium drew speakers and attendees from a variety of backgrounds including academia, legal aid, law librarianship, and the judiciary. Joe Lawson, Deputy Director, and Heather Holmes, Assistant Law Librarian at the Harris County Law Library, were fortunate to be in attendance and also to appear as speakers on a panel called Engaging the Public.

For their contribution, Joe and Heather presented a program called Minding the Gaps, an exploration of the barriers to access that self represented litigants, especially those of low and modest means, encounter when interacting with the justice system. Joe and Heather also discussed the important role that trusted intermediaries, such as legal aid attorneys and public librarians, play in mitigating the impact of barriers to justice. Citing the work of others in the field who have written on the limitations of techno-optimism and over-reliance on digital resources, Joe and Heather presented a model for providing access — supplemented by support and guidance from trusted information professionals — to reliable, authoritative sources of legal information that pro se litigants can use to effectively engage with the courts and achieve just outcomes for their civil legal needs.

Concluding the two-day symposium was an interactive workshop called A2J By Design: Prototyping Innovative Legal Solutions with Open Legal Information. The workshop was conducted by Kelli Raker and Casandra Laskowski, librarians at Duke University School of Law. For the activity, two teams used design thinking principles to devise creative solutions for providing access to justice. Pictured here, Joe Lawson and his teammate, Jason Sowards, Law Librarian at the Nevada Supreme Court Law Library, explain their team’s project idea, an interactive kiosk for legal aid services at senior centers.

Landlord Tenant Information

This blog post was originally published on May 2, 2019, and was last updated on May 3, 2024.

“I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green. The room is blood red and dark yellow with a green billiard table in the middle; there are four lemon-yellow lamps with a glow of orange and green. Everywhere there is a clash and contrast of the most alien reds and greens, in the figures of little sleeping hooligans, in the empty dreary room, in violet and blue. The blood-red and the yellow-green of the billiard table, for instance, contrast with the soft tender Louis XV green of the counter, on which there is a rose nosegay. The white clothes of the landlord, watchful in a corner of that furnace, turn lemon-yellow, or pale luminous green.” Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo, September 8, 1888.

Some of the most frequent questions our reference librarians field here at the Harris County Hainsworth Law Library are about landlord/tenant disputes. Renters can face challenging situations made even more murky by a cacophony of unreliable information available on the Internet regarding their rights and responsibilities.

Every day, we encourage our patrons to utilize TexasLawHelp.org, an exceptional resource on Texas law for self-represented litigants, including tenants. Material available on the website covers a wide variety of topics and comes from excellent, trustworthy partners across the state. One such partner is Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which has provided TexasLawHelp.org with a wealth of information, including about landlord/tenant issues. Anyone interested in learning more about tenant rights and responsibilities should check out these informative and easy to understand guides, some in English and some in Spanish, prepared by the folks at TRLA and presented by TexasLawHelp.org:

Spanish

• Right to Repairs

• Eviction

• Desalojos

• Appealing an Eviction

• Cómo apelar un deslojo

• Contract for Deed

• Contrato para escrituración

• Security Deposits

• Bedbugs

• Lockouts

• Impedimentos de entrada

• Manufactured Housing and Mobile Homes

• Vivienda manufacturada

• Rental Application Fee

• Manufactured Homes - Owner’s Rights

• Roommates

English

• Right to Repairs

• Eviction

• Desalojos

• Appealing an Eviction

• Cómo apelar un deslojo

• Contract for Deed

• Contrato para escrituración

• Security Deposits

• Bed Bugs: Tenant's Rights

• Lockouts

• Impedimentos de entrada

• Manufactured Housing and Mobile Homes

• Vivienda manufacturada

• Rental Application Fee

• Manufactured Homes - Owner’s Rights

• Roommates

Law Day 2019 - Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society

Today, we celebrate the rule of law.

Today is Law Day. Law Day was established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 and subsequently codified by Congress in 1961 (see 36 U.S.C. §113) as a day for celebration of the rule of law. Each year, the American Bar Association establishes a theme to help focus our attention on an area of law that is timely and pertinent. This year, the theme is “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society.”

Free Speech: A view from the bench

To honor this year’s theme, the Harris County Law Library has created an online exhibit entitled Free Speech: A view from the bench. Visit the exhibit to learn about different factors judges take into account when reviewing issues concerning freedom of speech under the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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Houston Bar Association Law Week Poster Contest

Each year the Houston Bar Association holds a poster contest and encourages area K-12 students to express the meaning of Law Day artistically. The Harris County Law Library is proud to partner with the HBA to display award-winning entries throughout this week-long celebration of the rule of law.