Of course, the case isn't styled "Houston SPCA v. Joe" but maybe it should be...
Sadly, we appear to have only 1 news outlet attempting to provide information on the massive seizure of animals last week. Our local Fox affiliate reports the hearing will be at 2:00 P.M. today before J.P. Dale Gorczynski. Joe's side of this story. My apologies to Joe for not finding and posting that earlier.
For those who might be interested in attending the hearing, it's likely to be held in J.P. Gorczynski's usual court at 7300 N. Shepherd, Houston, TX 77091, Room 138. For those readers who aren't in Texas, you should know that our J.P.s, our Justices of the Peace, are not required to have ever gone to law school, let alone be licensed attorneys. These are political offices and are elected. Judge Gorczynki is one of the exceptions, having obtained his degree and become a licensed attorney about 5 years after taking the bench.
Another little quirk is that our J.P. courts have specific jurisdictions. If you file a suit for dollar damages, it can't exceed a question involving $10,000. But they have other, non-monetary, types of jurisdictions - like this case. For the purposes of these types of seizures, the animals are valued at... ZERO, nothing, nada. It really should frighten every single person who resides in Texas or does business here that they could have a case that could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars heard by a judge who may not even have attended a single day of law school. One is generally entitled to de novo review (basically, a do-over) before the County Courts BUT the J.P. gets to set the mandatory bond that must be filed in a short period of time in order for one to get before a "real" judge.
Reminder to self: Blog on Pauper's Affidavits (even if our J.P.s NEVER think anyone should be granted pauper status no matter what the law says).