Opinion
No. 05-12-00135-CV
05-19-2014
IN THE INTEREST OF B.A.J. AND K.S.J., CHILDREN
AFFIRMED; Opinion Filed May 19, 2014
On Appeal from the 301st Judicial District Court
Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. DF-07-03409
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Before Justices FitzGerald, Fillmore, and Evans
Opinion by Justice Evans
Shelley James appeals from the trial court's Order in Suit to Modify the Parent-Child Relationship. Having concluded that appellant has failed to present and brief her complaint in accordance with the rules of appellate procedure, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Representing herself without an attorney, appellant filed her original brief on August 6, 2013. We hold pro se litigants to the same standards as licensed attorneys and require them to comply with applicable laws and rules of procedure. See Bolling v. Farmers Branch Indep. Sch. Dist., 315 S.W.3d 893, 895 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2010, no pet.). Our appellate rules have specific briefing provisions that require appellant to state concisely her complaint, provide an understandable, succinct, and clear argument to support her contentions, and cite and apply relevant law together with appropriate record references. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.1(f), (h), and (i); Bolling, 315 S.W.3d at 895.
We granted appellant's attorney's motion to withdraw as counsel on June 11, 2012.
On August 19, 2013 we informed appellant by letter that her original brief was deficient in numerous respects. Those deficiencies included, but were not limited to the absence of: (1) a concise statement of the case, (2) a concise statement of all issues or points presented for review, (3) a concise statement of the facts supported by record references, (4) a succinct, clear, and accurate statement of the arguments made in the body of the brief with appropriate citations to legal authority and the record, and (5) a short conclusion clearly stating the nature of the relief sought. Appellant filed a subsequent brief on August 29, 2013.
Our review of appellant's August 29 brief reveals that it does not identify any issues or points of error and contains no statement of facts or identifiable argument. In her "Summary of the Argument," appellant complains she is indigent, lost the income from her job, lost child support, and is unable to secure legal counsel to prepare an appellate brief. She also complains about the attorney who represented her in the trial court. She does not, however, identify any error in connection with the trial court's twenty-two page order signed on January 27, 2012 which is the subject of this appeal.
There is no finding or affidavit of appellant's indigency in the record.
On pages seven through twenty-six of her brief, under the heading "Statement of the Case," appellant has copied information from the "Case Summary" on pages 197 through 210 in the clerk's record. Finally, in an unidentified section of the brief on pages twenty-seven and twenty-eight, appellant generally concludes she should have been awarded full custody of the children. She also complains, without any legal analysis, citation to legal authority or record references, that the trial court disregarded various recommendations made by the children, their counselor, their attorney, and a social study. She concludes with a prayer that this court should reverse a district court's denial of a motion to compel arbitration.
Some of the later entries in appellant's brief are not on the "Case Summary" in our record.
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We are not required to sort through the record to find facts or research relevant law that might support appellant's position. See Valadez v. Avitia, 238 S.W.3d 843, 845 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2007, no pet.). Because appellant has failed to identify an issue for our review or adequately brief her position in accordance with the rules of appellate procedure, we affirm the trial court's order. 120135F.P05
__________
DAVID EVANS
JUSTICE
JUDGMENT
IN THE INTEREST OF B.A.J. AND K.S.J., No. 05-12-00135-CV
On Appeal from the 301st Judicial District
Court, Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. DF-07-03409.
Opinion delivered by Justice Evans,
Justices FitzGerald and Fillmore
participating.
In accordance with this Court's opinion of this date, the judgment of the trial court is AFFIRMED.
It is ORDERED that appellees Phillips James and the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Child Support Division, recover their costs of this appeal, if any, from appellant Shelley James.
__________
DAVID EVANS
JUSTICE