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There is always the possibility of a "bad" judge. But I believe I have an outstanding JP. The issues are legal and the burden is on the state to prove I should not be issued. Not the otherway around. Nor would a decision for the DPS have any negative effects, as they are already delaying and a JP decision does not set any precident. Regarding Mr. Cotton's strategy; I don't really know where Mr. Cotton is with his action(s). I am doing exactly what Mr. Cotton proposed to do, only individually.

The results so far(series of two cases) seem pretty clear: Force the issue with DPS by demanding a hearing and your license gets issued. My only regret is I listened to folks on this board and wasted time calling my legislators rather than demanding a hearing at the earliest time under the statute. Clearly DPS doesn't want to defend itself in these cases. It has no defense. My recommendation to everyone who has been denied by default is to demand a hearing, (in writing, certified- return receipt) NOW. It cost a couple of dollars, all in.

infoman wrote:I hate to beat a dead horse again.. but you will never get a denial hearing, unless you are officially denied by dps. so far, no one has had a hearing and no one ever will. Now, it will make them hurry up and expidite the license. It will help speed up things and put more attention on it, but again- You will never get a "denial hearing" in front of a "judge", until you are officially denied by them by their definition of denied. I deal in "REALITY", not what "ought to be".

Infoman- I guess my intentions were not clear to you. As noted in the title of this thread, my purpose was to force the issue--get them to act. If everyone did so they would not hold onto applications for almost 6 months. As in crimson's case above, I have now received an email that my license is approved and being printed However, my petition for a writ of mandamus is complete and will be filed on the 30th day if I don't have the license. If we all wait passively and do nothing, then we have no right to expect anything to change.

So far that has not happened in my case. On line system still shows processing and I have not had any additional telephone calls. They received my request for a hearing on the 11th so I have a few more days before the scheduling of the hearing is also beyond the statute. I don't mind being the test case.

For those of you following the saga, I received a nice email from TDPS customer service assuring me they had not denied my application and that they were still in the background check. I politely responded that by statute I had been denied and that I looked forward to my hearing.

As I have contemplated the statue further, I am wondering whether sending the application to counties other than your current residence is within the perogaties of the DPS. ( i live in Ft. Bend but lived in Harris 4 years ago where my BG check goes on..)

Quite frankly, I'm expecting to have to go to court to force them to have the hearing.

I'll keep you all informed

Crimson,
please let me know when you receive some response. They must respond within a "reasonable" time and the hearing should ocurr within 30-60 days. I would say 10 days is reasonable given the other constraints.

Mike1951 wrote:

Cowboyrob wrote:I have had enough mismanagement by DPS. My legilators have been ineffective at getting DPS to get it's act together. If they refuse to administer this program appropriately, I am going to do my best to make them look bad and force them to put some effort into my case. Sent electronically and by certified mail a demand for a hearing on the "denial" of my license. I am now in th 5th month of waiting. We'll see what my justice of the peace has to say.

Have you read Charles Cotton's post where he is preparing to hit DPS with thousands of such cases?

While he won't ask individuals not to pursue this individually, he does caution that establishing case law in these individual cases may well do more harm than good.

I thought I responded to this.

I did not see Mr. Cotton's post before sending my hearing demand; but, the initial hearing in JP court is an administrative hearing only and does not set precedent. DPS must show by a preponderance of the evidence that I am not qualified to be issued the license: something they can not do. There are no other issues to be considered.

I think it is very unlikely TDPS would appeal a loss from JP court.

I have had enough mismanagement by DPS. My legislators have been ineffective at getting DPS to get it's act together. If they refuse to administer this program appropriately, I am going to do my best to make them look bad and force them to put some effort into my case. Sent electronically and by certified mail a demand for a hearing on the "denial" of my license. I am now in th 5th month of waiting. We'll see what my justice of the peace has to say.

Anyone thought about demanding a hearing after 60 days of waiting? My read of the statute says that failure to issue or provide a reason for delay at 60 days is a denial and a denied applicant can demand a judicial review in jp court which must occur 30-60 days after a request