THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US

©2020 Roland Brown

This article falls into the category of “your lawyer doesn’t know everything!” I’m going to share something I learned from a Texas Standard radio interview recently. Before I do though, it provides a good opportunity to point out that if you hire a lawyer who is billing you by the hour, you may find itemized entries for “legal research” in your statement. Generally speaking, your ethical lawyer will not bill you for researching common legal or procedural issues that the lawyer should be familiar with in the fields of law in which she or he is practicing. However, the law is extensive and complex which means there are often issues that even the best lawyer must research in order to properly represent you. Unless you have the desire and/or capacity to audit legal billings you receive, you must trust the lawyer you hire to bill you fairly, which is why selecting a reputable lawyer or one suggested by someone you trust is important.

Now, here’s what I learned from the Texas Standard via KUT radio in Austin recently:

If you see purple paint on fenceposts or trees similar to that shown in the photo above, it is put there as a legal notice similar to a “no trespassing” sign, and it is specifically provided for by Section 30.05 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. There are some specific rules about the height at which the paint must be placed and how frequently it must appear around the perimeter of the tract that the notice applies to. The relevant portions of Section 30.03 are posted below. You can find the entire section at: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-30-05.html

You can find more info at https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/categories/ag/.

- Credit Tiffany Lashmet, Texas A&M ag law specialist.

Texas Code of Criminal Procedure

(a) A person commits an offense if the person enters or remains on or in property of another, including residential land, agricultural land, a recreational vehicle park, a building, or an aircraft or other vehicle, without effective consent and the person: (1) had notice that the entry was forbidden;  or (2) received notice to depart but failed to do so.

(b) For purposes of this section: (1) “Entry” means the intrusion of the entire body. (2) “Notice” means: ...... (D) the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are: (i) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width; (ii) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground;  and (iii) placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than: (a) 100 feet apart on forest land;  or (b) 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land;  or