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The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) consists of three sections: Legal Affairs, Litigation Support, and Program Administration. Attorneys oversee the Legal Affairs and Litigation Support sections while a Program Supervisor manages the Program Administration department.
The Legal Affairs section prepares internal legal opinions and external advisory opinions and provides advice and counsel to the agency in areas of employment law, purchasing and contract legal support, real estate matters, offender management, offender time calculation, parole, community supervision, and information technology. Legal Affairs provides advice with respect to the Public Information Act and seeks opinions from the Office of the Attorney General as appropriate; provides legal support regarding subpoena requests where the agency is not a party; and provides legal support regarding expunctions and renditions. This section also routinely reviews Major Use of Force Reports, offender disciplinary reports, and provides assistance to the Office of the Attorney General in obtaining documentation needed for federal habeas litigation and assistance to criminal district judges in obtaining affidavits needed for state habeas litigation.
The Litigation Support section acts as liaison between TDCJ and the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Activities include records production, trial and expert witness coordination, processing payments for litigation costs, and participation in mediations and settlements. This section also reviews claims from private citizens, employees and offenders for torts and civil rights which may lead to litigation.
Program Administration is responsible for the overall administrative support and improvement of the OGC. The responsibilities of this section include fiscal management, Divisional Human Resource administration and personnel allocation issues. This department if also responsible for managing reports, writing and maintaining OCG policies and procedures, case management tracking, Records Retention and storage, as well as scheduling video teleconferencing events.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Office of the General Counsel
Melinda Bozarth, General Counsel
209 W. 14th Street, Ste. 500
Austin, TX 78711
512-463-9899
March 18, 2009
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