It is with great sadness that we announce the tragic news that our founding member, John Palter, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on April 2nd, 2022.

John was full of life. He had a youthful exuberance and passion for the law. He enjoyed giving back to the community and served faithfully in his congregation. He loved his children, raved about their successes, and wanted nothing but happiness and joy for them. He loved his wife Kathy with all his heart. And he gave so much to his clients and friends.

The world is a little dimmer without his light.

We are all still trying to process the loss of a great man. His partners Kimberly Sims and Nathanial Martinez have a lot to do in terms of continuing to honor his legacy at the firm that bears his name.

We know he would want us to follow in his footsteps and do our level best for all our clients. Rest assured, we won’t let him down.

We will keep everyone updated as we learn more about services for John. In the meantime, please keep his wife and children in your thoughts and prayers.

Palter Law founding partner Kimberly Sims will be the featured presenting attorney at the Apartment Association of Tarrant County (AATC) Legal Summit, to be held on August 26-27, 2021. Please click this link for more information and to register: https://www.aatcnet.org/events/aatc-legal-summit

Attendees will learn more about:

– General principles of real estate contract validity

– Terms and conditions of the TAA Apartment Lease Contract

– Importance of rental applications and proper screening

– Tools for use in the resident selection process

– Major differences between apartment, single-family dwelling, condominium, and student housing lease contracts

– Important aspects of a written rental agreement

– Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

– Situations when lease addenda are legally necessary

– Commonly used forms for residential real property managers

– The importance of using up-to-date forms

Kimberly Sims’ practice focuses on the prevention and resolution of landlord/tenant, real estate, construction, contract and employee disputes. Kimberly is experienced in guiding businesses through government investigations and actions, including the resolution of fair housing and discrimination complaints.

Effective September 1, 2021, in actions commenced on or after that date, Texas litigants may seek to recover attorneys’ fees from their Limited Liability Company opponents under Section 38.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Previously, because the statute permitted recovery of attorneys’ fees from “an individual” or “corporation,” Section 38.001 had been interpreted to exempt Limited Liability Companies, partnerships and other entities from attorneys’ fees claims under its provisions. By deleting the word “corporation” and replacing it with:

“individual or organization [as defined in Section 1.002 of the Tex. Bus. Org. Code] other than a quasi-governmental entity authorized to perform a function by state law, a religious organization, a charitable organization, or a charitable trust,”

the Texas Legislature appears to have closed the “loophole” that has previously blocked attorneys’ fees claims against certain business organizations. Read the full text of the new Section 38.001 here.

On February 10, 2021, PalterLaw partner Nathanial Martinez and associate Joshua “Jay” Minton secured a favorable verdict on behalf of their client Four Corners Development, LLC against Alsal Construction, Inc. Four Corners is a subcontractor that worked on an assisted living facility in Mansfield, Texas under a $1.4M subcontract with the general contractor Alsal. Four Corners filed its lawsuit in 2019 against Alsal alleging that Alsal had failed to make full payment under a subcontract agreement between the parties. After a two-day bench trial conducted via Zoom before Judge Martin Hoffman, the Court found that Alsal had breached its contract with Four Corners. Judge Hoffman entered a Final Judgment on February 22, 2021, awarding Four Corners damages in the amount of $445,159.60 plus attorneys’ fees in the amount of $40,000.

“This was my first Zoom trial in Dallas County which made the victory all the more exciting,” said Martinez. “The client is very happy with this result.”

The case, styled Four Corners Development, LLC v. Parwaiz Alam and Alsal Construction, Inc., was tried in the 68th Judicial District of Dallas County, Texas, Honorable Martin Hoffman, presiding.

On November 1st, the firm welcomed Jerry L. Carlton to our expanding Multifamily Property Management practice area. With over 40 years of experience in the field, Jerry advocates for and advises clients on a multitude of topics, including evictions,  landlord-tenant disputes, fair housing and employment discrimination claims, COVID-19 compliance, employment, construction, vendor/customer, bankruptcy and mold claims.

Growing up on a dairy farm in West Texas and co-founding a business with his daughter that grew to 40 employees in only four years, Jerry applies deeply personal business insight to every case he handles, and truly understands his clients’ challenges. He speaks regularly to North Texas professional apartment associations and serves as one of only five members of the Legal Counsel Advisory Council of the Texas Apartment Association.

Jerry and his wife, Sally, who is an attorney and insurance company executive, enjoy entertaining friends with creative cooking and cocktails, love to travel, and treasure their children and grandchildren. 

Palter Sims Martinez PLLC is proud to announce that members John Palter, Kimberly Sims and Nathanial Martinez have once again been designated “Super Lawyers,”  as announced in the new edition of Super Lawyers magazine. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations obtained and tabulated by research firm Thomson Reuters. Mr. Martinez received the special designation “Rising Star.” While up to 5 percent of the lawyers in Texas are named to Super Lawyers, no more than 2.5 percent are named to Rising Stars. To be eligible for Rising Stars, a lawyer must be 40 years old or younger, or in practice for 10 years or less.

All employers should be aware of a new fraudulent unemployment benefit scheme. The Texas Workforce Commission (“TWC”) is actively working to address a scam involving fraudulent applications for unemployment benefits. Generally, the “claimants” who appear to be seeking benefits are innocent victims of identity theft. A typical attack involves a third party improperly obtaining a password or routing number through a hacking or phishing attack.

You can read more about the TWC’s action to prevent this scam here.

To avoid this scam and protect yourself or your company from being at risk, we suggest taking the following actions:

1. Create a centralized system for reviewing all unemployment claims and screening for potential fraud, and assign it to an individual or a department for monitoring.
2. Train, or otherwise inform, all employees on the necessity for informational security to safeguard personal information which may be subject to a breach by a third party leading to identity theft. Such information includes, e.g., social security numbers, passwords, and routing numbers.
3. Submit any known or suspected cases of unemployment fraud to the TWC via the fraud reporting portal on their homepage. A link to the portal can be found here. 

We agree with the TWC’s executive director that “all fraud is a betrayal of the taxpayers and a shameless exploitation of the suffering of others for the fraudster’s personal gain.” Make sure you and your company are protected against these attacks by taking these preventive measures.

If you have any questions, or desire assistance in these and other employment matters, please contact John Palter at jpalter@palterlaw.com or Greg Eyster at geyster@palterlaw.com.

This article is posted for informational purposes only, is not intended as legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Links to external resources are provided as a convenience only; external information may change, become outdated or be removed.