After waiting for more than an hour in a small courtroom packed with 100 people on July 12, a woman with a cane slowly walked up to Harris County family court Judge Judy Warne’s bench to make an emotional request: She wanted a divorce from the husband who allegedly shot her last year.
The woman’s attorney, Houston solo Chris Spofford, explained to Warne that his client’s personal-injury suit against her husband — who is incarcerated and awaiting a criminal trial — is pending in another civil court. The November 2009 shooting left the woman disabled and cost her $600,000 in medical bills, Spofford said. But because her civil suit is part of her community property in the divorce proceeding, Warne explained to the woman that she cannot grant the divorce until the personal-injury case is resolved. Warne reset the woman’s divorce case for another month so Spofford can try to resolve his client’s civil suit.
