Your Legal Questions: October 29, 2026

We're ready to answer some of your legal questions right now. At least our Fox 26 Senior Legal Analyst, Chris Trinico, is. How are you? Good. Ready to help out these viewers. I love they take time to reach out and be able to get your help. It is so awesome. All right, our first question coming in. Here we go. This one comes in from Mary Ann. We want a default judgment and have an abstract of judgment against a jewelry store that never returned my wife's jewelry, but our lawyer had to withdraw. What type of attorney do we need to collect on this judgment, and where do we find one? All right, Mary Ann, so you're going to need an attorney who handles collections, is what you're looking for. And to find a person like that, just contact the Houston Bar Association's Lawyer Referral Service, and they'll help you find several lawyers you can talk to who can help you with that. You didn't tell me how much this judgment is for, and you may. Just want to ask the court to appoint a receiver, and a receiver is a lawyer who will go and collect that judgment and get the money for you, and that may be the easiest road to get this done, but I don't know what court it's in, I don't know how much it was, and so I can't tell you exactly how that's going to help you with that, but a receiver may be the best road to get this money for you. Good luck. All right. You're always helping out. Thank you for that. Next viewer wants to remain anonymous, and we will certainly respect that. So here is your question. Is it legally valid service of process in Texas for court papers to simply be taped to my front door, especially if the court clerk stated their records don't show that I've even been served yet? Well, yes, it's called alternative service. And if they've tried to serve you several times and they haven't been able to get you, then the court can sign an order for alternative service. And one of those means is to tape it on the door of your home where you live. It's not their preferred method, but yes, it can happen that way. And the server will sign an affidavit that they taped it on your door, and that will be... A method of service. So it is a valid way to do it. So good luck. You've been served. Wow, that's good to know because it would be easy to say, nope, didn't get it. Somebody must have untaped it off the door. Yeah, that's right. They'll do an affidavit and then you'll get a default judgment against you. Oh, got to be careful with it then. You better take it seriously. All right, you've been served. This next one coming in from Jennifer. Why does ICE rely on aggressive tactics like vehicle ramming with unmarked cars rather than standard safer methods such as using emergency lights and sirens Firemen to initiate traffic stops or apprehending suspects. Suspects when they naturally come to a halt. And what is the legal justification for using these vehicle ramming maneuvers? Well, Jennifer, I wish I could answer that question. There's a whole lot of people around the country that are asking that exact same question. And the federal government, the United States government, has allowed ICE to use these tactics as opposed to the more traditional methods that we have become accustomed to in our country. And I don't know, is the answer to that. Thank you for that. ICE has their regulations that they use for detaining people, and they have modified those when the Trump administration came into office this time. And they're the ones who set those policies. And when a new president comes in, we'll see if the policies change with a new president or a new administration. They change with administrations, and this is the way it's being done right now. Thank you for the question. Good luck. All right. Thank you, Chris. And if you want to send us your legal questions, hop on our website, fox26houston.com. You can find Chris's segments under the Morning News tab. As always, for specific info and advice, you can always contact an attorney of your choice. It's 7.