Before you call.

Most of the civil rights calls I get are about a stop that felt wrong, and most of those are not cases a federal court will let through. That is not a judgment about what happened to you. It is the law, and I would rather you read it here than hear it after a week of waiting for a call back.

An officer stopped me, was rude or dishonest, searched me, and let me go. Nobody was hurt.

This is the majority of the calls. It is real and it stays with people. But a federal civil rights suit needs a constitutional violation that caused an injury a court can compensate, and qualified immunity ends most stop-only claims before a jury hears them.

Claims are brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, and an official is immune unless the right was clearly established by a prior decision on closely similar facts. Rudeness is not a constitutional violation. A search or a stop without cause can be, but with no injury and no arrest the damages are small and the immunity fight is the whole case.

Usually not a case I can take. A complaint is the right tool, and it builds a record for the next person.

File with Houston Police Department, Internal Affairs (complaints must be sworn and notarized), the City of Houston Office of Policing Reform and Accountability, or the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, complaint against an employee. Statewide licensing questions go to Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, complaint procedures. Read the screener on the civil rights page.

An officer used force and I was hurt. I needed medical care.

This is the case the civil rights practice exists for. Force is judged under the Fourth Amendment by what a reasonable officer would have done facing the same facts, and the video usually decides it.

Body camera and dashcam footage is kept for a limited time, and the two-year limitations period that Section 1983 borrows from Texas runs from the incident. A preservation demand has to go out early.

A case, and the medical record and the video are what make it one.

Read Excessive Force and Totality, then use the email button on the civil rights page; I read every one.

I was arrested, the charges were dismissed, and I spent a night in jail.

Dismissal is not the same as an arrest without probable cause. Prosecutors dismiss for many reasons. The claim exists when the officer had no facts that would lead a reasonable officer to believe a crime was committed, and it is strongest when the detention was long or the case was pushed forward on a fabricated account.

The Fourth Amendment allows an arrest only on probable cause, and the same immunity analysis applies. A night in jail on an arrest that had probable cause at the time is not a claim, even if the case fell apart later.

Sometimes a case. It turns on what the officer knew at the moment of the arrest, not on how the criminal case ended.

Read Wrongful Arrest. Get the police report and the dismissal order before you write me; both matter.

A family member died, or was seriously hurt, in a jail or in custody.

These are the hardest and most important cases in this practice, and they depend on records the institution holds: medical logs, video, staffing, policies.

The standard is deliberate indifference, meaning an official knew of a serious risk to the person and ignored it. A city or county can be liable for its own policy or failure to train. Deadlines can be short: claims against a governmental unit under state law require notice within six months under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.101, and some city charters are shorter.

A case I want to hear about, and quickly.

Read Jail and In-Custody Death. The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation program may help with expenses in the meantime.

I want the officer punished, not money.

A civil suit cannot fire, discipline, or prosecute anyone. It can make a city pay, and sometimes that changes policy, but discipline and prosecution belong to other doors.

Discipline is the department’s internal process and the state licensing commission. Prosecution belongs to the district attorney and, for federal civil rights crimes, to the United States Attorney.

Not a lawsuit. A complaint, and possibly a referral.

Houston Police Department, Internal Affairs, the City of Houston Office of Policing Reform and Accountability, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, complaint procedures. For help understanding the complaint process, TexasLawHelp.org.