Lucky me, I just received a civil commitment referral on a sexually violent predator. I've read the pertinent statutes and the articles detailing what to do, time limits, etc. Question: DOES ANYONE HAVE A SAMPLE PETITION FOR CIVIL COMMITMENT OF A SEXUALLY VIOLENT PREDATOR? We are a very small office and have no experience with this. If someone has one, could you email it to me at mburns@palopintoda.com?

Michael Burns
(940) 659-1251 (Office)

Michael: Good news for you; the SPU has done a good job of helping out on these cases, as it is a new duty of our office. Your first call should be to them... email Jack Choate at jchoate@sputexas.org. Good Luck!

Mike:

I just emailed you some documents. We ended up working with SPU to do our first one earlier this year.

I highly recommend getting them involved.

Robert DuBoise

Michael - I tried dozens of sexually violent predator cases before leaving the Special Prosecution Unit. Your first call should definitely be to SPU if they haven't already contacted you, they are a fantastic resource in SVP cases. The cases are highly specialized and labor intensive and SPU has a great deal of knowledge in how to try them. Here's a recent article by the SPU civil commitment section chief about the process.

http://www.tdcaa.com/journal/c...ly-violent-predators