Ware Jackson partners secure a historic victory

Ware Jackson partners K. Knox Nunnally and Michelle Meriam secured a historic victory for both their client and the LGBTQ Houston community on Friday, June 7, 2019. They obtained a signed court order granting their transgender client the legal authority necessary to correct the gender marker on her Texas driver’s license and Texas birth certificate to conform with her true identity.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of State Health Services both currently require a certified court order to change a requestee’s gender marker on a driver’s license or birth certificate. Before June 7, 2019, transgender individuals in Texas applying for the court orders could only obtain them from a few counties, not including Harris County.

This ruling is significant because, without identification that matches their appearance, transgender individuals may and do encounter enormous difficulties voting, traveling, and even purchasing guns. Further, it can make them targets for violence. Now, transgender individuals in Houston will have an avenue to obtain the same rights as those in other jurisdictions where approval of these types of orders is commonplace.

Ware, Jackson, Lee, O’Neill, Smith & Barrow, LLP or “Ware Jackson,” is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true trial and appellate lawyers with a 25 year track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy and construction, intellectual property, and business dispute cases. When trials are in your future look to Ware Jackson.