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Tex. Penal Code § 38.122

FALSELY HOLDING ONESELF OUT AS A LAWYER

Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Ex Parte Lemke (2000)

Most recently applied in Rodriguez v. State (January 2018)

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 723, Sec. 5, eff

How often courts cite this section

199720002010201830
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to obtain an economic benefit for himself or herself, the person holds himself or herself out as a lawyer, unless he or she is currently licensed to practice law in this state, another state, or a foreign country and is in good standing with the State Bar of Texas and the state bar or licensing authority of any and all other states and foreign countries where licensed.

(b) An offense under Subsection (a) of this section is a felony of the third degree.

(c) Final conviction of falsely holding oneself out to be a lawyer is a serious crime for all purposes and acts, specifically including the State Bar Rules.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.