Declaratory Judgment

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phillip67

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I am trying to figure out what a declaratory judgment looks like - i.e. perhaps examples of explaratory judgments issued by actual courts.

This involves a civil case in which I am the plaintiff against a defendant who moved into a house I own in Austin Texas, claiming to be the owner. So far all court decisions have been favorable to me. I have obtained - with help of counsel - a Temporary Injunction requiring her to vacate the property. When she failed to move out I had her cited in contempt of court. She was forcibly removed from the property by the police and informed she would be arrested if she tried to break into it again.

Because of the high costs of lawsuits I would like to represent myself on the final hearing, where I will be petitioning the court to issue a Declaratory judgment establishing: 1/ that Plaintiff is the legal owner of the property; 2/ that Defendant has no legal right to ownership or occupancy of said property.

The state of Texas does not allow paralegals to work with individuals and I was not able to locate actual court orders issuing declaratory judgments. If I had samples of declaratory judgments (not the original petition, actual judgments), I would be able to use them as prototypes or models to type the orders I hope the judge will agree to sign. Can anyone here help or provide links or references?

In short, I am trying to learn how to do the paperwork!
 
Well, you do not have to, and it is really not required of a petitioner to actually write an Order for the judge to merely sign, because his or her honor will actually write the final order in their own words save the opening of paragraphs.

Also, a request for Declaratory Judgment is made in instances where a case is already pending before the judge or one party asks the court to clarify the legal relationship between the parties before one has damaged the other in any way and to avoid any future litigation. Your case seems to have been settled already and I cannot see how such a petition might help you or even be heard. Nonetheless, the following links show very good actual final declaratory judgments which hopefully will serve your purpose.

1- http://bellalu0.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/17370/
2- http://www.layman.org/Files/pascagoula-final-declaratory-judgment.pdf

Let me know if you need other information such as an actual Declaratory Judgment Complaint.

fredrikklaw
 
This is very helpful, thank you.

Prayer for a Declaratory Judgment was included in the Original Petition (drafted by an attorney), at the beginning of the law-suit. I believe I am fine on that point, therefore.
 
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