I know several counties use carbon copy forms wherein if on docket day someone wants to plea all one has to do is pick up a form write in the terms and check some boxes. I am trying to bring my county out of the stoneage and at the same time take some work off my secretary who right now has to type up every judgment for each case which as you can imagine is time consuming. For the counties who use the carbon copy forms where do you order them from and how much do they cost and it would also be nice to see a form that some other counties are using. Thanks.

We don't use carbons; we have blank forms that the defense attorneys fill in for their clients (and we, of course, double check their work). Our judges just got together and made some changes to the forms this summer so they're really up to date. Of course, we get teased by other jurisdictions' attorneys because we have 3-4 forms for each misdemeanor plea, whereas they usually only have 1-2. Hey, we're thorough.

TDCAA's book The Perfect Plea provides forms for a guilty plea. They fit on the front and back of a single page. You should be getting a free copy of the updated 2006 edition very soon.

In addition, the Office of Court Administration has felony judgment forms available for download from their website. Although they have not done misdemeanor forms, it wouldn't be too hard to convert the felony to misdemeanor forms.

Lots of counties already have fill-in-the blank forms. We have our support staff complete the judgments in their office after sentencing is complete. But that is for felony offenses.

Chad, I have e-mailed you some forms I developed for Colorado County.

Back in the late 90's early 00's, Mark Hocker and I developed some for Lubbock County that are still in use today. Judge Ladd in County Court at Law No. 1 and Judge Farmer in County Court at Law No. 2 should be able to get you the information on where they purchase them and all the other particulars. There is one form for straight probation, and a different one for deferred adjudication. There are enough copies for court, defendant, state, probation, and I think one also for collections department.