John Michael Frick
Experienced North Texas civil litigation and appellate lawyer
John has been representing businesses and business people in the North Texas area for more than thirty years. He has tried numerous cases at various levels of the judicial system, including federal district court and state district court. He has presented appeals to the Supreme Court of Texas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and ten of the fourteen intermediate courts of appeal in Texas. He has arbitrated cases before the American Arbitration Association and JAMS, Inc. In addition to his trial practice, John is a trained mediator and summary jury trial judge. As a result of displaying a high degree of skill, competence, and professionalism, he has earned an AV-Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
John received his law degree from SMU School of Law in 1988, where he served as an Associate Editor for the Southwestern Law Journal. While still in law school, he successfully presented an appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas through the school’s civil clinic program, resulting in a published opinion reversing the lower court. He also completed his first jury trial through the school’s clinic program.
After graduating from law school, John served a judicial clerkship as briefing attorney for the Honorable Gordon H. Rowe, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas. There, John had the pleasure of working with future Supreme Court of Texas Justices Nathan Hecht, Craig Enoch, and James Baker.
As a seasoned trial lawyer, John continues to maintain a high level of practice. He has represented clients in cases reported in the Wall Street Journal and Dallas Morning News, as well as ones featured on local news broadcasts and the national news program, Nightline. His civil trial practice includes representation in both state and federal court and encompasses a wide range of areas.
- Construction Law
- Construction Defects, Construction Litigation
- Business Law
- Business Litigation, Partnership & Shareholder Disputes
- Appeals & Appellate
- Civil Appeals, Federal Appeals
- Employment Law
- Arbitration & Mediation
- Business Arbitration, Family Arbitration
- Family Law
- Collections
- Personal Injury
- Construction Accidents, Truck Accidents, Wrongful Death
- Civil Litigation
- Contract Litigation
- Commercial Litigation
- Real Estate Litigation
- Professional Liability
- Credit Cards Accepted
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Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
Provides 90-minute initial consultation for a flat fee of $500.
- Texas
- State Bar of Texas
- ID Number: 07455200
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- 5th Circuit
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- Partner
- Reid, Dennis & Frick, PC
- - Current
- Member
- Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC
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- Partner
- Bennett, Weston LaJone & Turner, P.C.
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- Senior Attorney
- Reid & Dennis, PC
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- Solo Practitioner
- Law Offices of John M. Frick
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- Partner
- Mills, Presby & Associates, L.L.P.
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- Associate
- Godwin & Carlton, P.C.
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- Briefing Attorney
- Court of Appeals, Fifth District of Texas at Dallas
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- SMU Dedman School of Law
- Doctor of Jurisprudence/Juris Doctor (J.D.)
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- Southern Methodist University
- B.S. (1985) | Political Science
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- Honors: Summa Cum Laude
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- Southern Methodist University
- B.A. (1985) | Psychology
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- Honors: Summa Cum Laude
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- AV-Preeminent
- Martindale-Hubbell
- For over 100 years, the Bar Register has been a unique guide to the legal community's most eminent professionals. It includes only those select law practices that have earned the highest rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and have been designated by their colleagues as preeminent in their field. The 2022 Bar Register contains over 14,000 member listings out of more than 1.3 million attorneys in the United States.
- Texas State Bar # 07455200
- Member
- - Current
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- Board-Certified, Civil Trial Law
- Texas Board of Legal Specialization
- Website
- Reid, Dennis & Frick, PC
- Q. Can I legally change the locks and get rid of junk after a tenant leaves?
- A: It depends upon the specific provisions of your lease agreement addressing personal property abandoned by the tenant and the nature of the personal property left behind. They say that one man's junk is another man's treasure. You should carefully inventory and photograph what the tenant left behind and very carefully follow the procedure outlined in your written lease agreement. If you made the mistake of not having a written lease agreement, or signing one that does not explicitly address this issue, take your inventory, photographs, and any lease agreement to an attorney. You may have to proceed with an eviction anyway, especially since the tenant has not returned the keys or garage remote. In the absence of a lease agreement addressing it, the tenant keeping the keys and remote is certainly some evidence that the tenant has not fully surrendered the premises or abandoned the personal property that has been left behind. The best solution may be to have the tenant sign a written document acknowledging that he has surrendered the premises and abandoned any personal property left behind when you refund the tenant's security deposit.
- Q. I have green card and I own a house in TX, value of 1 m $. Do my inherits will pay inheritance tax? how much?
- A: Texas has no inheritance tax and is highly unlikely to adopt one. Our federal government has vacillated between having no estate tax to imposing an estate tax with an exemption. This is not imposed on an asset by asset basis, but rather on the amount of your entire estate. In recent years. the exemption has been unlimited for a spouse and above $5 million for other heirs. But this could change at any time with each new Congress. Whatever the law is when you die will determine the amount of any applicable federal estate tax and the amount of any exemption. Some nations similarly impose estate taxes on their citizens. Some include assets held outside of their borders. So you probably should also consult an attorney in the nation of which you are a citizen to determine if it will tax property held in Texas if you die.
- Q. Landlord/tenant issues. Is a rental lease voided if the property is not available when the lease is signed?
- A: The lease isn’t “void” but as a landlord you may be fined for allowing tenants to move in before receiving a certificate of occupancy. Most municipalities, however, have relatively generous cure provisions and are unlikely to fine you unless a condition of the premises rendered it dangerous. In many cases, however, when it is a purely administrative delay or oversight, you can get any fine waived and it shouldn’t affect your tenant leases in any respect.
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