Quick overview: this refers to Article 55.02, section 2a, CCP, which is the 2003 unfunded mandate directing "the attorney representing the state in the prosecution of felonies in the county in which the person resides" to accept and process applications for expunction from identity theft victims.

I'm just checking to see how is everyone doing with this docket. Is it working for you as an unfunded mandate, or should we make a push in 2007 for either more resources from the state, or a reassignment of these responsibilities to non-prosecutorial agencies?

This has been a growing docket for us in Dallas, especially since some other jurisdictions refuse to take care of it and the defendants seem to be able to ask us to take care of those matters as well. Larissa Roeder in our appellate division oversees this area and can give you more details. 214-653-3625.

I tried to plant the idea that this would be better handled by appointed counsel last session, and the senator responsible for it had a great laugh at our expense. As an example of other unfunded mandates we get, we are also the lawyers for the gorillas at the Dallas zoo.

[This message was edited by John Rolater on 01-08-06 at .]

OK, I gotta know why gorillas need attorneys !

Well, I guess they need lawyers to sue the people responsible when they escape and are killed. Sad story.

I handle all of these for our county, and probably only around ten cases have come my way so far here. So I guess that while they can definitely be a pain to deal with, aside from one notable exception, they really haven't been too bad for us (but I know that's certainly not the case for y'all--tell Julie I said hi!). I mostly just have this fear that there are still lots of others out there waiting to avalanche, because at least here, there still doesn't seem to have been much publicity about misidentification expunctions being available. According to one of the ladies at DPS Criminal Records that handles these, there are actually very few counties (it seems unlikely, but I want to say she said something like five?) that have ever filed ANY of these cases. Fear of the unknown, maybe? If anyone needs them, by the way, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be happy to share the forms I came up with.

Elizabeth Foley
Ass't D.A., Galveston County
(Elizabeth.Foley@co.galveston.tx.us)

In a county of 20,000 I have filed two of these in two years.

Although we handle a good number of expunctions and non-disclosures, I am unaware of any misidentification expunctions filed in this county. Let them remain non-existent or rare!