Steph Stradley

Stephanie Stradley Blog Cookbook – Your Best Recipes

October 9, 2023 by Steph Stradley 1 Comment

FEAST!

The best eating I’ve ever done was at a party where everybody was supposed to bring the best thing they cook. You know, the food that everybody begs you for the recipe.

So everybody brought the food that they were famous for and feasted.

When we gather a bunch of food and call our buds to come over last second, we call it “FEAST.” Which makes sense.

Blog posts so you don’t have to repeat yourself.

One thing you can do with blog posts is to create a repository of things. Like a place to share recipes.

Blog posts can also be a spot to do a crowdsourced collection of things. Sort of a public service that helps me too.

I use to have an Irish Whiskey Cake recipe in a blog post at FanHouse, but AOL nuked those old links. That used to be the place I would send friends who were looking for that recipe. Since I have control over this site, this link won’t go away without me knowing it.

What I want to do in this post is:

1. Share my recipes. I’m going to share three recipes I often get people asking me how to make. They are super easy and taste really good.

2. Asking you to share YOUR famous recipe(s) in this format. Leave a short comment about the recipe, what makes it special, why someone should try it. After that, please leave the recipe or a link to the recipe if you found it online. I want a solid blog post that has only good stuff in it, and I won’t approve blog comments that are a joke or are spam.

3. Also if you try the recipes, leave a comment, and any suggestions if you have them.
If you have more than one recipe you want to share, put them in separate comments please. And thank you, because you likely are sending me good recipes if you have more than one people know you for.

How to find this later?

If you can’t remember how to find this direct link, try googling an assortment of “Stephanie Stradley blog cookbook best recipes” and this should end up being the first link if the googles are doing their job.

This is my mom's handwritten index card of the Brendan's Irish Whiskey Cake recipe. Great handwriting. Glad I still had this because AOL nuked the blog link I put the recipe on. — This is my mom’s handwritten index card of the Brendan’s Irish Whiskey Cake recipe. Great handwriting. Glad I still had this because AOL nuked the blog link I put the recipe on.

Brendan’s Irish Whisky Cake

The Story of the Cake. My buddy Brendan gave this recipe to my mom, who then wrote it down on an index card and gave it to me. It is easy to make, looks fancy and is wonderful. The smells delicious and tastes better. This recipe I get asked for all the time.
I’ve been known to eat this cake for breakfast too. It is irresistable.

Brendan’s Irish Whiskey Cake Recipe.
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
2. Mix:
1 package of Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix
1 package vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup Irish Whiskey
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs
3. Pour into greased, floured bundt pan.
4. Drop into the batter avoiding edges:
1/4 cup chocolate morsels (chips)
1/4 cup butterscotch morsels
(Note: You might want to lightly dust morsels with a small amount of flour before putting in batter. If you mix the morsels in the batter before putting it in the pan, they will all sink to the bottom and stick on the pan. You can poke some of the morsels down, but not too much.)
5. Bake:
Bake 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an 1 hour depending on how dark your bundt pan are, how hot your oven tends. If the top starts over browning, put a piece of tin foil over it. Test for doneness with a toothpick.
6. Finish:
After cooling for 10 minutes, put a plate on top of the bundt pan, and carefully turn it over. The cake should fall right out if you greased the pan properly, and didn’t put the morsels too close to the edge of the pan.

If you are taking this tailgating, it is great to cut slices and then wrap them in tinfoil like a breakfast taco. I get the precut foil from Costco as I go to Costco on the reg. This is not an ad for Costco, just saying I like them.

Sometimes we'll put four salmon on the smoker. If you are heating up the wood, you might as well cook a bunch. It gets eaten. Salmon salad sandwiches the next day are heavenly too. — Sometimes we’ll put four salmon on the smoker at one time. If you are heating up the wood, you might as well cook a bunch. It gets eaten. Salmon salad sandwiches the next day are heavenly too.

George’s Smoked Salmon

The Story of the Salmon. One thing that Texas is known for their smoked meats, which is a delicious thing to be known for and reason number 84,589,725 to never move away.

My husband Bill bought a custom smoker at Pitts By JJ many years ago and has been very happy with it.

Though we love cooking a ton of different stuff on it, my buddy George’s smoked salmon is the best. Even people who don’t typically like salmon, like this. Kids will even eat it straight off the grill.

I published the cooking instructions before on the previous version of my Houston Chronicle blog:

George’s Smoke Salmon Recipe.
1. Buy salmon. We buy ours from Costco. Don’t buy the steelhead salmon, buy the other kind.
2. Heat yer smoker. Get your smoker to about 200 to 250 degrees. They like using hickory wood. Do not use mesquite.
3. Moisten cedar planks. You can get cedar planks at most stores. Soak them in water for around 30 minutes.
4. Tin foil boats. Make a boat of heavy duty tinfoil to put salmon in.
5. Lemon juice and season. Use the juice of one to two lemons and squeeze it all over the salmon. Put lots of pepper on top of the salmon to the point that it almost looks like too much. Put sea salt on top, not as much as the pepper.
6. Put salmon on cedar plank then in smoker. First you lift it off of the tin foil and onto the cedar plank. Discard the tin foil boat. Put the thicker part of the fish (the side where they head would have been) toward the smoke source.
7. Cook for 40 minutes to a little over an hour depending on temp, whatever doneness you prefer. Eat it warm or cold, with romaine lettuce boats, pita chips, maybe some herb mayo or plain.

Steph’s Everything Muffins

The Story of the Muffins. I like muffins, but I don’t like the kind they sell at the store or bakeries that are so sugary they might as well be cake. These are great to have when you are busy.

I like packing some in my carry on stuff on the planes because if I don’t, the plane will certainly be delayed to the point of desperation hunger.

These muffins basically have all the ingredients I love in one place. I adopted the recipe from a few I saw otherwise, and made many variations of these since at least 2001.

I make them a lot while I’m watching sports and tweet pictures of them. Which means I get a lot of people asking me how to make them, so here’s how:

This is the oven at my house. It's an old Frigidaire that we call "The DeLorean" because the doors open upward. It cooks very true to temperature, likely because it was built when quality mattered. — This is the oven at my house. It’s an old Frigidaire that we call “The DeLorean” because the doors open upward. These sort of gullwing doors are nice on an oven because you don’t have to reach over hot doors to get the food in and out. It cooks very true to temperature, likely because it was built when quality mattered.

Steph’s Everything Muffins
1. Prep. Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin tins. When I say to stir stuff in recipe, use a fork. Try to use minimum stirs to mix because over-mixing results in gummy texture when you make muffins.
2. Bowl 1. Put 1 1/4 cup roughcut oatmeal in bowl. Pour 1 1/4 cup milk in bowl with it. Let it soak while you prepare the rest.
3. Bigger Bowl 2. In a bigger bowl, put 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil (though I like using walnut oil), 1 egg. Stir. If you like things more sugary, add more sugar. I prefer the sugar to come from the mix ins.
4. This is the everything part. Then add the everything you want to taste:
I like combos of:
Dark choc + organic coconut + walnuts, or
Dark choc + organic coconut + raspberries + walnuts, or
Diced apple + pecans, or
Diced banana + walnuts.
With some fruits, I put a little vanilla and cinnamon in too. Basically whatever you like, whatever you happen to have in the house.
I’ve never made this recipe with savories like bacon, but I bet that could be good too. Experiment!
Stir those items in.
5. Combine. Then dump oatmeal, milk mixture into the larger bowl and stir.
In a measuring cup put 1 1/4 cups flour. Put 1 teaspoon baking powder in flour and just sort of mix that in the flour measuring cup.
Then slowly dump flour into the big bowl that has the other stuff and mix (VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO OVERMIX THIS STEP). Stop pouring flour when it looks the consistency of raw muffin batter–not too runny, not too thick–I’d rather have it slightly too wet than too thick–the oatmeal is fairly dense. This step isn’t exact because of the quantity of mixins or whether you are using a more moist mix in like bananas. Sometimes I use all the flour. Sometimes I use about a cup.

If you are feeling fancy, you can put a crumble of cinnamon sugar nuts on top.

6. Cook for 20 minutes. My oven cooks these perfectly in 20 minutes. Your oven may be different. You just want them to look brownish on top. If you use moist ingredients like raspberries or blueberries, they may bubble a lot and may take a little extra time to cook.
7. You will eat one more muffin than you planned. Let the cool for a bit and then pop out. Sometimes you need to run a knife around the edges if they are sticking.

Please Add to My Blog Cookbook.

If you try the recipes, please let me know in the comments and provide any questions or suggestions.
And please, add your best recipe to this post, or a link to your go to recipe. Bonus points if it is easy to make but doesn’t look that way.

Published original on May 19, 2014, Updated October 9, 2023, just in time for tailgate season.

Why Your Social Media Sucks

April 20, 2021 by Steph Stradley Leave a Comment

“Why Your Social Media Sucks” is an overly provocative title intended to grab negative attention. It begs for an argument.

“No, it doesn’t.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Yours is worse.”
“You didn’t prove this and oversold your headline.”
“Sure it does. I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Whatev.”

Personally, I don’t enjoy this headline technique at attention-getting.

It does not suit me. I don’t enjoy when others use it. I don’t think it engenders respect or trust.

Today, I’m being a part of an online Trinity Talk called “Why Your Social Media Sucks: How to Improve Your Online Presence,” with Trinity University faculty members Dr. Jacob Tingle and Dr. Dominic Morais.

We talked about this as a title and agreed on it as more of a discussion point.

My focus in the talk is answering the following question: In the negative-attention begging world, how can you conduct your online presence in a way you feel good about and works for you as a person or your business?

First, how’s your website?

When working at their best for society, search engines should be connecting people to the businesses they are looking for without undue expense or time. If someone is searching your business or you, they should be able to find a fair and helpful representation of you if you want that.

So before overthinking the latest in social media, a business should have a functional, useful website that if someone is searching for your business specifically, they can find you and know what you do.

This seems basic but so many businesses cannot be easily found even when people are searching.

Often marketing directories that want individuals to pay them for better placement dominate the top spots in search engines. Someday, maybe today, we are all working for tech companies that end up being an expense without justifying the time and money using them. (The Skynetting of the web is a different topic altogether).

Whatever your job is, you may be forced to learn about marketing because if you don’t, you may not be as effective as you can be at your primary job. The difficulty is that it can be hard to figure out who to trust and who provides value to you and your business.

My website is fine. Should I be on social media, and how?

Some questions to ask:

Purpose.

Why are you doing it? What is your intention? Does it work with who you are now and where you see yourself in the future? Does your online self fairly represent who you are in reality?

Money and Time.

What resources do you have to spend on it? Is this something you can maintain? Does it distract you from other things that are better uses of time? Is something that worked for you in the past no longer working for you?

Medium.

There are different types of online interaction, and the different technologies evolve over time. Some businesses are more well suited to some kinds of social media versus others.

Necessity.

For many businesses, some level of online interaction is necessary or useful. This can change quickly, and you need to adapt in smart ways that work for you and your work.

Marketing.

Sometimes it feels like everything is marketing over everything. That the quality of the product or service is less important than how it is sold to people. That the new world is old products marketed in more friendly to consumer ways.

To me, the best marketing is just connecting people with the right thing without spamming, imposing, and harming others in the process. Making people’s lives better. On the internet, marketing can feel broken due to impositions on businesses and customers and the disconnect and distrust between the two.

Creating authentic, positive communities online that are a net benefit to society is beyond marketing. How are you serving your real world communities and using your talents to make your life and others’ better?

Sometimes, this can be difficult to navigate as a consumer of online content, finding what is actually beneficial versus those who market well, but do not have quality goods and services that they are sharing.

For better and worse, the costs and barriers to communication have come down, and the challenge for all of us is to figure out how this can benefit ourselves and society without creating harm.

“Any attention is good attention” is a popular ethos, and it works for some people, but it can be hard to maintain over time and can cause unnecessary problems.

Social media is just another way of interacting with people.

The web allows you to travel all over the world all at once. Have you given thought to how you want to interact with friends and strangers? Humans, not too long ago, had very limited interactions with other people. Those interactions can be good but they can also end up in unintended, sometimes unpredictable negative ways.

“Influencer” culture can be helpful to people, but also, like in non-online interactions, influences can be bad too, and sometimes it is easier to see when that is happening to other people than when it is happening to yourself.

As the last link notes, we should all take care who, where, how long you hang out online.

Reality programming on TV does not fully reflect reality but it edited in ways to make it more engaging. With social media and online interactions, we are all creating our own reality programming daily with no editor or producer filtering what is shown, and media companies doing some but little moderation.

Is this something you want for yourself or your business?

How to communicate online?

What are your values and goals? We all communicate in different ways, enjoy and value different things, have different goals.

For me, I have put together guidelines that have evolved over many years, have been learned from smart experts, happy and sad accidents, practical experience. These usually work for me, but my values, talents, and goals may not be yours:

Avoid unnecessary drama.

People have different life experiences. It is easy to get sideways with people you don’t know, particularly online, when you do not see facial expressions, hear tone, don’t know someone personally, or know if someone you are talking to is a put-on. I have enough issues living without manufactured drama, and often the best way to win an argument is often not to get into them.

Keep good energy.

I’ve found that I receive the respect and energy that I tend to give. And that if someone’s behavior towards me is hostile, I do not need to return that energy. I can acknowledge it and defuse it. Maybe it is a misunderstanding. Maybe that is just the online interaction they are used to or enjoy.

Maybe it is just a put-on or someone seeking negative attention. Sometimes, I can choose to ignore it. I can also understand that sometimes the hostile energy often says more about the person making it than it does me. I’d rather pay attention to people who interact in conventional ways than reward people with my attention after they try to get it in negative ways.

Dealing with people who seek negative attention for their ends is difficult to navigate, particularly when the things they are promoting hurt you and other people. However you interact with people behaving in difficult ways, make it an intentional choice.

Keep humanity at the center of interactions.

You never know what is going on in someone’s life.

Sometimes seeing the humanity in other people in both in-person and online interactions can create a positive situation out of something that started off negatively.

People feel as they do always.

Often, people will feel a certain way, and share reasons to justify their feelings. And then various people argue about those reasons, even though the argument is really about feelings, and you can’t really argue someone’s feelings away.

Telling people how they are supposed to feel usually ends up poorly.

For me, a better way is to invite people to a way of looking at something, or framing a topic, and trying to make that a place that suits people of different experiences and backgrounds, without engendering unnecessary fear, anger, unhappiness. That can be a hard thing to do without shared trust, but it is great when it happens.

Ultimately, people like what and who they like. If we all liked the same things, life likely would be expensive and boring.

It’s okay for us to like different things. The main disputes between people happen when some people’s likes make other people’s lives worse.

Attack arguments, not people.

The best online forums have that as a basic moderation guideline which feels good based on what I value. Some days this feels more difficult than others, particularly when people are being intentionally provocative about things that are core values to you.

Time and place and audience.

Whether online or not, communication is respectful of time and place and audience. What works in some situations does not work in others.

Look for shared understanding.

Often words and phrases people use do not have shared meaning. Avoid jargon and work from shared understanding when you can, particularly among strangers with different experiences.

Take care on difficult topics.

Relatedly, complex topics are often that way because stakeholders do not have shared interests and understandings, no easy answers, and that there are hard truths from different perspectives. On topics like that, I try to take extra care in my words, say them with good intent but knowing that good intentions may not be enough for highly emotional topics.

You don’t have to have an opinion on everything.

Really, it’s fine to just not. Wisdom comes from knowing what you don’t know.

Avoid words and behaviors you can’t easily take back.

If you say enough words, offer enough opinions, some you may regret.

You don’t have to fight online or anywhere if that isn’t your job. Some mediums are more combative by nature but you do not need to engage in that.

Figure out a way to make online a net positive.

If your online presence isn’t working for you, figure out how it can if you are able. It is a tool. It should not be your boss. Boundaries. Times. Influences. Deleting or taking a break temporarily or permanently.

Sometimes you can’t make online work for you, and you need to step away.

Listen to the people who care about you. The people closest to you. If the people you value express concern about how your online behavior affects you and them, consider it.

Online interactions with the entire world at once is a human experiment. One where no one can really be In Charge of the ethics of it but socially, we can encourage positive interactions.

Be intentional.

Some people get a new medium of communication and jabber away without thinking of the consequences of what they are saying, who the audience is, or how it fits within the medium. However you communicate, make it an intentional choice.

Just keep living.

A lot of this likely may sound more serious than I intend. I enjoy the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the disagreements sometimes come from the details.

We have a life. Many good ways to live it. Makes me sad when people’s lives never really have a chance or go astray. Hope that your online life makes your life better and not worse.

You be you.

You be you because you don’t really have an alternative. You, as a person, may change over time. And my wish for you is to be kind to yourself, and your future self.

These are just my own guidelines that I have embraced over years that make it easier to engage with friends and strangers online. Guidelines, not rules, because I can intentionally choose to do something different. Other people with other talents and values and purposes, may choose to do things differently.

Some things I wished I learned a long time ago but really, I am part of the first generation who has lived through this from its beginnings. I thank all the brilliant people who I have learned from and still learn from, and just passing this along to return the favor.

As always, take what works for you and leave the rest.

Also, please do not spam the comments because that is not a positive online experience for anyone, particularly me.

The Deshaun Watson Lawsuits: Frequently Asked Questions

March 26, 2021 by Steph Stradley 15 Comments

A plaintiff’s attorney filed numerous civil lawsuits by women against Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. The cases state Watson assaulted, sexually assaulted, and harassed women after contacting them with the pretense of seeking a traditional massage.

Watson’s lawyer has acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations, shared his view the allegations are false, an account of a “blackmail scheme” by one plaintiff, derided the tactics of the plaintiff’s lawyer, and wants to get the names of the petitioners to investigate the allegations confidentially.

The plaintiffs’ attorney has objected to that implication and said he would provide additional information about non-disclosure agreement he states Watson wanted signed.

When I get repeated questions about a topic involving sports and law, I sometimes do explainers to share my opinions about a situation.

My background is that I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years for businesses and individuals, have practical legal experience in many areas of the law, including this topic, and have written about the Houston Texans and also NFL discipline issues since 2006.

The Deshaun Watson lawsuits FAQ includes:

Thoughts on emotional and high-profile legal topics.
General questions about the lawsuits against Deshaun Watson.
Civil Lawsuit Topics.
Potential Criminal Cases.
Potential NFL Discipline.
NFL Trade Implications.

My goal is to discuss this in a clinical, practical, accurate way in a way where it can be helpful to both lawyers and non-lawyers who have questions about this case.

There are headers for different sections, and you can skip to the parts that interest you.

The Criminalization of Your Online Life

June 11, 2020 by Steph Stradley Leave a Comment

Computers, cell phones, the internet, and social media have transformed the practice of law and criminal law specifically. My legal career is now long enough that I remember what it like before these things were in wide use.

I sometimes wonder what percentage of criminal cases and other trouble would not exist but for this technology.

Life is precious, and I want everyone to live their best lives. Sometimes the best way to prevent problems to share information that everyone should know, perhaps don’t, or maybe need a reminder.

Here are some thoughts that are not legal advice but should be common sense but sometimes isn’t:

Assume nothing is anonymous.

You should always assume that what you say and do online can be discovered even if you intend for it not to be.

There are many ways this is done. Intercepted. Found by others. Found during legal discovery after a dispute. Employers discovering it. Governmental entities creating or taking over websites and monitoring those communications. You shared it with someone. They share it with someone else.

Most of what you do online leaves digital traces. The sites you visit often know a lot about you.

I once worked at a media site where we could read everything that a person said when they forwarded an article. When I helped moderate a popular website, I could see users’ IP addresses (a numerical label assigned to devices). If someone created a trolling account, we could often see who else had that same IP address.

Your physical location can be discovered when you take your cell phone places.

You might be saying, yeah, but I am cautious about my privacy and know ways to keep my computer and online life secret. Good luck with that. No matter how careful you are, motivated people and governments can usually find it.

The First Amendment speech protections do not apply to everything you say.

You should always assume though you may be able to say what you want in America, you may not be protected from the consequences of your speech. Other people can use their own speech to say something about it.

Some laws, like defamation laws, punish you for certain types of speech.

And though the government should not punish you for speech protected under the Constitution, they sometimes try to through unconstitutional laws and enforcement of them. It is not easy to fight for your rights.

And the First Amendment applies to the government trying to control speech, not usually private entities who limit speech.

The short takeaway? First Amendment law is a specialized area, and just because you have a right to do or say something, does not mean it will be consequence-free, respected, or easily defended.

The web makes it easier to get in trouble.

People establish laws to arrange how people get along in society. Computers, cell phones, the web, and social media make it easier to get in contact with others, which also makes it easier to get in trouble with others.

There are huge lists of cybercrimes that did not exist when I started practicing law, and each year more actions are turned into crimes that did not use to be crimes.

But even beyond that, pretty much every area of the law has ways where people are their own worst enemies by what they post online or where they visit.

Strangers can misinterpret what you post online and use it to punish you.

Criminal trials are a bad way to find out the full life of a person. It is an adversarial process, with rules that restrict what evidence is seen by the jury.

In an adversarial process, the prosecutor may be able to see everything in your digital life and give it the worst interpretation in retrospect even if it has an innocent explanation.

You may know who you are as a person and what is in your heart. But outsiders may just judge the entirety of you by what words and acts they can see, and sometimes that is stuff on your computer, cell phone, and what you post online.

The first impression that people have of you is often the one that sticks with people, and that can be difficult to change. The “presumption of innocence” is given lip service when “everybody knows they’re guilty” is what reflects human nature.

For example, if you post pictures of yourself with guns, and then later use lawful self-defense, a prosecutor may try to use that to tell the jury you are an aggressive gun nut.

If you post a lot of outrageous statements that you mean as a joke, others may not read it the same way.

In the Anglo-American system of justice, historically, people were only supposed to be convicted based on what they did, not who they are as a person. That said, the legislative trend is to create more criminal exceptions to that general rule, with some statutes that likely are unconstitutional. But just because I think something is unconstitutional, does not mean that it would be easy to defend or that a judge would agree with me.

Also, social media can be used as circumstantial evidence to show elements of a crime, like whether someone intended to do an action.

The web never forgets.

If you delete digital information or social media posts after you get into trouble, it can be considered destroying evidence in some legal contexts. Often it still can be found if someone is looking for it.

That said, it may not be a bad idea every once in a while to consciously consider what you have posted in the past and whether you still think it reflects who you are as a person. If not, maybe delete your post, delete that social app.

Even then, for some things, the web never forgets, and it may be difficult to leave no digital trace.

Take care where you hang out on the web.

The best and worst part of the internet is that no matter your interests, you likely can find people to share those interests. Sometimes that leads people into trouble they would have never faced if they did not hang out in those places.

Website algorithms that are trying to keep you using their site will suggest more content to you: If you like this person or content, you will like this person or content.

This can be helpful or hurtful. These algorithms can direct you to extreme and outrageous people and content, ones intended to get people’s attention for various reasons, some recommending actions that can get you into legal trouble.

I think of this like my experience with a bad cheesecake. If you store cheesecake in the fridge next to bacon, it can take the bacon’s flavor and become bacon-flavored cheesecake. Maybe you are good with that. Maybe that is not what you want.

Sometimes you should reflect on whether the people and places you give the most attention to in both real life and on the web actually benefit your life and are a net positive.

Please live your life with informed intention.

I am not suggesting censorship. Or self-censorship. I am just reminding you how the world is, both good and bad.

What I am suggesting is that when you do and say things online, you make it an intentional, informed choice, and know the potential consequences. Some times that is an obvious choice, and sometimes it is not.

The web can be a manipulative place, and it can be easy to slowly and accidentally get caught up in bad things.

Practical Tips to Win Your Property Tax Protest in Houston

April 2, 2020 by Steph Stradley 42 Comments

This post was originally published on April 26, 2014 and was updated most recently June 17, 2020.

Thinking of filing a property tax protest in Houston, Harris County? The deadline for filing your property protest appeal is May 15th, unless that day is a holiday or weekend then the next business day, or 30 days after the date your notice of appraised value was mailed, whichever is the later date. There can be circumstances where you can file your appeal later than that too.

COVID-19 Property Tax Protest Update

(UPDATE April 2, 2020: The tax appeal process discussed below does not assume a COVID-19 global pandemic. Both the informal appraisal hearing and the Appraisal Review Board are usually things that happen in person at the Harris County Appraisal District. Those offices are currently closed to the public.

I spoke to an HCAD spokesperson and as of this date, this is what they know:

1. Appeal date is still May 15th because this is set by Texas law;

2. They are strongly encouraging people to use iFile online/use iSettle versus mailing it in;

3. They have not currently determined how the informal process and ARB is going to work if people will not be meeting in person. When they know, they will let us know.

4. The valuation of your property is set by state law and is the value as of January 1. Even if the economic conditions of Houston and the globe have drastically changed. Those changes would be reflected in the next year’s property valuation.)

(UPDATE June 17, 2020: This year, I protested my taxes because they are substantially over the market value. I tried to use iSettle, and my claim could not be resolved this way. The notice I received said I should wait for meeting date for an appraiser.

Today, I received a notice showing the meeting date with an appraiser at the beginning of July. It notes if “I choose not to attend, or if the protest cannot be resolved, the Appraisal Review Board of Harris County will schedule your protest for a formal hearing.”

Remarkably, nothing in the notice mentions that we are in a global pandemic and that meeting with strangers in an indoor setting is discouraged by medical professionals and the government. Not one bit.

To know how to protect yourself and get a fair assessment of your property, you need to look at the HCAD website for further guidance. If you want a remote informal hearing and then formal ARB hearing if that is necessary, instead of an in-person hearing, you have to call them.

And most importantly know to call them. Here is the HCAD website link.

Please read that page for details.

Interestingly, the website notes, “Property owners will be able to submit evidence documents for either the remote or in person meetings no later than 3 days before the scheduled meeting, or they can bring evidence with them for an on-site meeting.”

So that means if you have a remote meeting scheduled, you have to make sure to submit the evidence to them no later than 3 days before the scheduled meeting? I don’t know. But if you are going to schedule a remote meeting, I would try to find this out for sure).

I am not a property tax protest expert. Just a homeowner who believes the computerized tax assessments on my home value are always off-base. Over the years, I’ve found the most helpful information in protesting my taxes was talking to friends about what has worked for them.

Blog posts are often used as resources, and I wanted to use this blog post as a forum to share my (non-legal advice) experiences, and ask for you to add any practical, helpful advice that you have in the comments below.

(UPDATE July 18, 2016: I do not handle tax protests as a part of my practice, so please do not email me to help you or ask my advice. I put this together because I can and to be a generally helpful person in my community).

Practical help to win your property tax protest.

First some basics.

1. File your protest.
On the list of things that you might forget, this can be an expensive one. You can use the HCAD website to file it, so you don’t even need a stamp. This is a particularly important year not to forget this given the rise in values.
It’s not enough just to file your protest. You need to remember to show up to the hearing as well unless you get a i-Settle resolution. This is obvious but is a pain to do every year to say the same thing to get the same result.
2. Should you get professional help to protest?
Personally, no. Easy for me to say because I’m a lawyer.
But many people have positive results without getting tax agent help. At least one study suggests individuals get better results than experts. For residential properties 41% better.
Why is that so?
Tax agent companies might suggest they tend to have harder cases than the people who feel like they can protest it on their own.
Perhaps it is a matter of motivation and familiarity. A homeowner is very motivated to reduce their tax valuation. They can focus their time on only one property, and knows its problems better than anyone.
I don’t want to pay anybody for things that I’m capable of doing myself and likely do better. Have that view regarding restaurant food too, which is why I often order the fish and skip things easier to cook at home.
3. Spend some time exploring the HCAD website.
The HCAD website contains the logistical procedures of what to expect, what information they consider. They go into a lot more detail than I can reasonably do here.
After you file your protest tax protest and receive an informal hearing date, the website will show you what properties their computerized models are using to compare to yours.
That information won’t be on the site until 15-20 days before your hearing date. It will give a list of comparable properties with basic information about them.
You have to log-in and click around a bit to find this information. (UPDATE July 18, 2016: Commenters/emailers have been asking where to find that info. I always end up forgetting where I found it the last time and have to look for it. HCAD currently doesn’t make it obvious that it exists or where to find it. In fairness to them, there’s a lot of stuff on their site. Fortunately, commenter “Kbum” was helpful and answered this below: “Once you log in here https://owners.hcad.org (and set up a user name/password) Navigate to the “Manage Your Property Accounts” page. You will find it at the bottom left of this page under “View HCAD Hearing Evidence.””)
You may want to actually see those properties in person and photograph the outside to distinguish them from your property. It’s been my experience that the properties that their computerized system used to compare to mine weren’t terribly similar.
4. Should you do i-Settle?
If you don’t use i-Settle, then your filing goes to an informal hearing appraiser and then if isn’t resolved then, to the entire appraisal review board. If you use HCAD i-Settle process, you may get a reduction in your home value such that you feel fine taking it without going to HCAD.
For me, though I asked to use i-Settle in the past, I’ve always received this email back after they considered it:

Thank you for signing up for our iSettle™ program. Unfortunately, after reviewing the information we have available, we cannot propose an online settlement for your 2012 protest. Since sales disclosure is not mandatory in Texas, we acknowledge that our market information may not be complete and that you may have evidence unique to your property that may support a reduction in your property’s market value. To be sure you have an adequate opportunity to have it reviewed, we will be setting you up for appointments with one of our appraisers and for a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. The Appraisal Review Board will set a hearing for your protest and notify you of the time, date and place of the hearing by standard USPS mail.

Perhaps it works better for smaller reductions than what I requested. I ended up getting a informal appraisal hearing and approving their offer after i-Settle gave me no offer.
This detailed property tax protest Examiner blog post from a few years ago called “Appealing Houston Property Taxes 101: Taking on HCAD and winning” advises not using i-Settle at all.
5. What to expect from the informal appraisal hearing?
You show up at the HCAD building and wait for your name to be called. An appraiser brings you to his cubical.
When you go to this, bring all the documentation that supports your view of the market value of your home. Lots of quality pictures of defects with your home that adversely affect market value are crucial.
One year, the detailed info that I brought to the appraiser demonstrated that some of the information they had in their computer about my home was inaccurate, and he changed it in their system.
At one meeting I had with an appraiser, he told me that the most that they have authority to reduce with homeowners is $100,000. I do not know if it is true or not.
In my limited dealings with the informal process, they were reasonable and gave me what I thought was a fair offer worth not going the next step to the appraisal review board.
6. What to expect from the appraisal review board (ARB) hearing?
The panel is comprised of three citizens not employed by HCAD to hear your case.
There is also an HCAD employee who represents HCAD that argues against your point view.
When I did this, I put together a packet of material for me, each of the representatives, and the HCAD employee.
One section was reasons why house should have lower value than what the computerized system suggested due to problems with the property. This section had many clear color pictures of problems with the house.
Another section was details on the properties HCAD in its online materials said were the comparables, and why my property was worth substantially less. To do that, I looked both online with the information contained there, but also went to those properties and took pictures.
Then I flipped through the packet of materials, using it as a visual aid to discuss with the ARB panel. It was fancy looking packet with a cover sheet, good quality color photos to try to show I gave the proceeding some thought, respect and time.
Having everything in a packet is also helpful if you feel shy about talking in front of a group of people. You can just walk them through the packet.
The HCAD employee makes her response mostly based on the comparables. So if you give specifics of why those comparables are inaccurate and perhaps show better ones, it is hard for an HCAD employee who just picked up the file to refute you.
You just killed all her evidence and she doesn’t have any additional evidence beyond the comparables to refute your point.
They consider the information, and you get a final determination from them at the end of the hearing.
7. Be nice, be prepared. Get them to want to help you.
Remember, this process is not really about doing a “property tax protest” and more about discussing the information that justifies what the market value for your house is. Market value being what it would sell on the open market.
The informal appraiser and the appraiser review board folks are human beings. Ones who have a lot of control. So you want to politely and logically state your position, with so much support and in such a friendly way they want to help you.
Under no circumstances should you complain about the tax burden to the informal appraiser or to the ARB panel. Because it ain’t their doing. In fact, one of the first things on the HCAD site is this statement:
“If you’re concerned about tax levels, you should take those concerns to local government officials.”
I am certain they know what you think about the rising taxes. They have heard it a million times. Likely from bat-bleep crazy people who said it in bat-bleep crazy ways.
But if you want the human beings who control your tax appraisal to help you, you help them by providing good reasons supported by data.
And being the nice sort of person they feel good about helping.
(This is good advice in dealing with most service providers who have control over something you want them to do–making them feel good to want to go the extra mile for you. They just want to do their job, get paid, get off work, maybe go to Applebees, get some beers. You can try to bulldoze service providers into doing good stuff for you, but that is not a high percentage situation when they have more power and control in the situation).
If you win on the ARB level, you’ve beaten HCAD until next year, when the computer spits out the same old wrong valuation and you make many of the same arguments year after year. (So save your documents).
If you don’t get a reduction at the ARB level, then your next choice is district court, which for most homeowners won’t be worth the time and money. There is no guarantee you and the ARB panel will agree with your assessment, so sometimes it may be worth it to take the informal appraisal reduction for the certainty involved.
7. Talk to your neighbors.
You know your property. Your neighbors know your neighborhood. Sometimes they may know gossip that can help you gather helpful valuation information.
One year, one of my neighbors put a spreadsheet in local mailboxes demonstrating the rise of land values on our street relative to nearby streets, showing an improper valuation issue. That connection wouldn’t have occurred to me until I saw that flyer.
Talking to your neighbors can sometimes give you a sense of what works and doesn’t work in doing their property tax protest.

Also, I’ve found that my Realtor friends can also provide helpful information and ideas, assuming you already have a good relationship with one.

8. Storm Damage.

Hurricane Harvey damage and other storm damage can radically change the value of your property. Even a property that was fixed after the storm can have a downward assessment. The Harris County Appraisal District offered an app, email and phone line to provide damage information right after the storm. [pdf link] If you failed to report damage, you can still do so in your appeal this year, showing pictures of what the property looks like as of January 1st of the taxing year. Even if you repaired the damage, you can still provide information on what damaged houses are now selling for in your neighborhood.

9. Leave a comment here.
As I said, I am no expert in this. What I’d like to do is to start a dialogue about this topic. Where people share their ideas of what works and what they have experienced.
As a Houston homeowner who knows I will be doing this fight every year, I’d like to receive whatever help I can get.

Does Business Insurance Cover Coronavirus Losses?

March 31, 2020 by Steph Stradley Leave a Comment

People running businesses are scrambling to figure out how to deal with their financial losses and expenses from coronavirus COVID-19 business interruptions. Including me.

I like sharing explainer Q&As with people who know more about subjects than I do and am using this blog post to share with others what I learned about what types of business insurance cover coronavirus COVID-19 losses.

This is a basic explainer and not legal advice, and I tried to ask questions that would be helpful to both non-lawyers and lawyers.

The following is a Q&A with Daniel P. Barton of the Barton Law Group. Law is a very specialized field like many, and lawyers often ask each other questions. I’ve been friends with Dan for almost my entire legal career, and he is the first person I call when I have questions about insurance coverage issues and specifically, business interruption claims.

Dan Barton is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Personal Injury Trial Law and Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He has vast experience in understanding insurance coverage issues in unusual events, and as a part of his practice, consults with policyholders’ about their insurance coverage and rights.

Q&A with Dan Barton on Coronavirus COVID-19 Business Insurance Claims

What types of businesses may have insurance that helps pay for money lost when their businesses shut down due to coronavirus COVID-19?

Any business that carries commercial property insurance or business owner’s insurance policy coverage.

According to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), American small businesses may lose $220-383 billion per month during the COVID-19 outbreak, creating around 30 million coronavirus insurance loss claims.

They believe that these small business insurance claims would be ten times the number of claims that they have ever handled in one year.

Remarkably, this estimate of coronavirus business interruption losses does not take into account COVID-19 global losses, large and medium businesses, and event cancellations.

Generally, how do you determine whether a loss is covered by business insurance?

Typically, an event must occur that is a named peril that you can find in your policy, or if an “all risk” policy caused by a peril that is not excluded.

Most policies require that there has been direct physical loss caused by the peril. This is where things get very fact and policy specific. There may be a few ways to obtain coverage without a direct physical loss.

There are some situations that appear promising for coronavirus-related coverage under property policies, general liability insurance, D&O liability insurance, and event cancellation insurance

Here are some examples where direct physical loss may not be necessary. A careful analysis of the law and policies under each is required and technical beyond our Q&A scope:

1. First-Party Property/Time Element Claim Under Policy with Express Communicable Disease Coverage Grant

2. Event Cancellation Insurance Claim

3. First-Party Property/Time Element Claim

4. Ingress/Egress Claim Under First-Party Property/Time Element Insurance Policy

5. Civil Authority Claim Under First-Party Property/Time Element Insurance Policy – For example, your supply chain was interrupted when a supplier shut down plant operations due to a coronavirus-related quarantine ordered by the government.

6. Claim Under Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Policy

How do businesses know if they have the right type of insurance to pay for these coronavirus COVID-19 losses?

Normally, I would suggest consulting your agent first. A modern global pandemic is uncharted territory with few risk managers savvy enough to have purchased specific coverage for a named virus. Read your policy and contact your agent or professional with questions.

As a part of my practice, I review policies and determine whether businesses have business interruption coverage that covers their losses, including now, coronavirus COVID-19 losses.

What is an “All Risk” policy? Does that cover coronavirus COVID-19 losses?

Simply stated, an all risk policy covers all risks (perils) that are not specifically excluded.

Voila, coronavirus or COVID-19 is not specifically excluded in my all risk policy, so I have coverage. Not so fast, first, it may be excluded under an exclusion expressly naming bacteria, biological agents, or virus. Some policies exclude contaminants. Contaminants are usually defined in your policy. This definition may contain viruses.

If not, the direct physical loss requirement by a covered peril, as interpreted in some jurisdictions, may still kill your claim.

You still need a direct physical loss to your property or in some instances to an adjacent property, with some exceptions, namely, event cancellation coverage.

What is “Business Income Loss Coverage?” May that cover coronavirus COVID-19 business income losses?

Business income loss coverage covers your loss, profits, and expenses that you normally have but don’t because you are completely shut down. In some scenarios, it will cover the cost of cleanup or decontamination.

What is a “Pandemic Coverage Endorsement?” May that cover coronavirus COVID-19 losses?

This is an endorsement bundled or add on to your policy that may name the coronavirus or arguably a virus that is in the same family.

The Pandemic Coverage Endorsement is your clearest path to business interruption coverage for COVID-19 losses.

What is “Civil Authority Coverage?” May that cover coronavirus COVID-19 losses?

Civil authority is when the government causes your business to shut down completely. Depending on the specific wording of the coverage and what the governmental restrictions are will guide whether it covers losses or not.

Most policies require direct physical damage to your property or nearby property with some narrow exceptions.

So these declarations by local, state, and federal governmental authorities may affect the way that contracts and insurance works?

Yes. When the government makes these declarations, it does not just affect whether the government provides aid to areas. For insurance and other contracts, it can trigger claim events.

Your decision to voluntarily close without official government authority will not trigger coverage.

Do the insurance documents differ from business to business, state to state?

Insurance documents are different from policy to policy and can differ within the same state. So just because someone else’s business in your area has this insurance, does not mean you do.

With all insurance issues, you need to read the policy carefully.

If you have insurance where the policy looks like it will cover the losses, will the insurance company contact you to ask about your losses?

No. You must make a claim. The IRS is not going to notify you about tax deductions, and likewise, insurance companies are not going to advise you on how to take their money.

What is the best way to contact your insurance company about losses due to coronavirus COVID-19 shutdowns?

All policies state how to put them on notice to make a claim. You must follow their procedures and make a record.

IMPORTANT: The caveat, the way a claim is reported may trigger coverage or a denial.

It is critical you know all your rights and obligation under the policy and governing law before you give notice of your COVID-19 claim. To analogize, it is a bit like rubbing the bottle and saying the magic words before the genie will come out of the bottle.

How do you prove the amount of your loss for Coronavirus COVID-19 losses?

The policy will state your deductible, what is covered, and some will give examples on how to calculate damages. After that determination is made, it becomes a bookkeeping or CPA exercise.

Businesses should be keeping good records for business and IRS purposes, and the same applies for making COVID-19 business insurance claims.

How long do you have to make claims for your Coronavirus COVID-19 losses? Is it better to make an early claim, or does it matter?

In Texas, you generally have two years to make claims covered by the insurance code sections for consumers (541,542). You may have four years for breach of contract, but lose your statutory damages afforded to you in the insurance code.

There are commercial policies that require you to make a claim in one year and make it in New York (Where there is no bad faith insurance law). If your policy has this New York forum selection clause, do not sit on what rights you have left and consider changing insurance agents.

I have litigated the issue with mixed results. If you have a forum selection clause stating your disputes will be settled outside of Texas and have coverage, you may want to challenge the clause legally. For me, this made a million-dollar difference to a client.

What are the maximum losses that businesses can get these types of insurance?

The maximum losses generally are in your declarations page of your policy stated as an amount per occurrence. A deductible will be applied.

Most policies contain different deductibles for different types of losses. For example, you may have a $1,000 theft deductible and a 2% wind damage deductible. The same goes for business interruption. A careful reading of the entire policy is critical.

…..

I’d like to thank Dan for sharing knowledge on this topic. Please note, this is not something that my firm handles, so do not email me on this topic. You can contact Dan if you would like more information on the subject or believe you may have a business interruption loss claim.

In any event, please stay safe, and I am sorry we are all going through this.

Like with other blog posts here, if you have helpful information on this topic beyond what is in this blog post, you can put it in the comments below. Sometimes I update explainer blog posts based on topics discussed in the comments.

As some of you know, the comments are moderated by me when I get around to it. I am the sole judge of what is helpful and good, and zero spam comments will be published. Instead, they will be shot straight into the sun or perhaps mocked first, and then shot into the sun.