Texas People's Court: The Fascinating World of the Justice of the Peace

by Mark Dunn

Overview

From 1983 to 1987, author Mark Dunn worked as a court clerk for a justice of the peace in Travis County, Texas, where, he says, “I learned more about human nature . . . than I could have learned in any other job I might have taken up as a bushy-tailed kid from Tennessee.” Based on interviews with 200 justices of the peace from all parts of Texas, Texas People’s Court promises to take readers on a tour of what it means to be a Texas justice of the peace: an experience that is by turns hilarious, sobering, heart-wrenching, and, from one end to the other, fascinating.

Here in the Texas justice court, wrongs can be righted and lives changed in profound ways. A priceless family necklace might finally be restored to the rightful owner; an occupational driver’s license fortuitously granted. A death inquest may become an opportunity for family reflection and valediction, with the attending judge as sympathetic witness.

In each of its chapters, Texas People’s Court takes up a different aspect, duty, or area of thought related to the profession of justice of the peace taken from conversations with JPs throughout the state of Texas—from those who serve in its most populous municipalities to rural county JPs—putting a human face on the responsibilities, attitudes, and perspectives that motivate their judgments. The result is a thoroughly entertaining, sympathetic view of what Dunn calls “the day-to-day observation of human conflict in microcosm.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623499792
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Series:	The Texas Experience, Books made possible by Sarah '84 and Mark '77 Philpy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	310
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

MARK DUNN is a playwright, novelist, and freelance writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His published works include the full-length plays Belles, Five Tellers, Dancing in the Rain, and Judge and Jury, the novel Ella Minnow Pea—winner of the 2001 Borders Original Voices Award for Fiction—and Quizzing America: Television Game Shows and Popular Culture in the 1950s.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xv

1 Human Drama, Texas-Style. 1

The Texas justice court: a showcase for human emotion and drama.

2 Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, Uber Driver. 9

What Texas JPs did for a living before they became JPs and what some of them still do.

3 Sue Me, Sue Me, What Can You Do Me? 32

"The People's Court," with a Texas twang.

4 Bag and Baggage. 46

Arguably, the second hardest part of the job: evictions.

5 A Jury of Their Peers. 58

The role of the six-person jury in the Texas justice court.

6 Dead Reckoning. 69

The nuts and bolts of being a county coroner.

7 I'm Blessed That I Don't Dream about Them. 93

Inquests and their emotional impact on the JPs who perform them.

8 What's Happening in JP Court Is Downright Criminal! 106

Class C misdemeanors, traffic court, magistration duties; where things stop being civil and become criminal.

9 Juvenile Justice. 123

Truancy and other forms of juvenile misbehavior.

10 Gettin' Hitched. 134

Dearly beloved: we are gathered here today for the purpose of trying to keep a straight face.

11 To Hitch or Not to Hitch. 152

Shifting perspectives on the justice court's role in facilitating marital union in the wake of the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling.

12 Four-footed Constituents. 162

The bovines, equines, and canines of Texas thank you.

13 Forward and in Sensible Shoes (Sometimes Boots). 170

With spangles.

14 In God Some of Us Trust. 180

Religious faith and its strong impact on the Texas Justice Court bench.

15 Brain, Heart, and Nerve. 188

The three components of being a good JP.

16 In the Opinion of the Court. 204

When justices of the peace disagree … with each other.

17 Disrespecting the Robe. 220

All the folks who drive them nuts.

18 Goin' Rogue. 234

For good reason and bad. But mostly bad.

19 Just a Member of the Community. 246

And just a regular guy … or gal.

20 And in Conclusion, Your Honor. 262

Let's wrap this up. The judge has a wedding waiting outside.

Notes 273

Index 279