22 Sides

Making Local Courts Fair And Accessible With Judge Steve Duble

• Robin & Alexis • Season 1 • Episode 21

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A simple door knock turned into one of our most energizing conversations as Judge Steve Duble stepped inside and unpacked how a local court can make justice easier to reach. We go beyond slogans and get into the nuts and bolts: eviction diversion that starts before anyone steps into a courtroom, hybrid hearings that reduce missed appearances, and clear ability-to-pay policies that stop flat fines from crushing low-wage workers.

Steve walks us through the grants he’s secured—bringing dedicated eviction-diversion staff, funding a public resource center with computers and printers, and installing a legal service kiosk that connects people to a live lawyer, not a bot. We explore debt lawsuits too, where resold credit and payday claims now dominate civil dockets. His court hosts a pilot with South Texas College of Law to provide on-the-spot representation, plus a partnership with Houston Volunteer Lawyers that helps tenants and property managers craft practical, fair agreements. It’s real, measurable access to justice: fewer defaults, more solutions, and outcomes that fit the facts.

We also dig into inclusion and transparency. From forms available in English and Spanish, to interpreter planning and Vietnamese language toggles, the court meets people where they are. Steve’s team collaborates with national groups like the National Center for State Courts and Pew to test, measure, and publish what works, pushing for open data dashboards the public can trust. He shares ballot timing, precinct coverage, and why JP races—often near the bottom of your ballot—shape daily life more than you think. As the first openly gay JP in Harris County, Steve values representation, but he makes his case with results: accessible courts, fair fines, and practical help that protects jobs and homes.

If you care about eviction prevention, debt defense, court innovation, and equal access, this conversation is a blueprint you can use and share. Listen now, then subscribe, leave a review, and tell a friend who needs help navigating the courts. Your vote and your voice can turn these ideas into everyday justice.

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Alexis:

But we might have like three days of afterthoughts.

Robin:

That's true. Yeah.

Alexis:

Okay, we're recording. I think. Yep, we're recording.

Robin:

Okay.

Alexis:

And just the two of us.

Robin:

Okay.

Alexis:

And today's podcast was really cool, I think. I enjoyed it. I think we talked about a lot of topics and we had a surprise guest.

Robin:

You never know who's gonna ring the door. And I'm glad that we got a few uh unexpected takeaways from the person that just walked up, Steve Duble.

Alexis:

Steve Duble was doing door knocking and knocked on our door and we said, come on in. We're doing a podcast. You can join us.

Robin:

And for those of you who don't know him, he's running for Harris County Justice of the Peace, and he's already been in this.

Alexis:

Yeah, he he is Justice of the Peace, and there's done a lot of stuff. And my personal knowledge is Steve's a good guy.

Robin:

Yeah, Precinct One Place Two.

Alexis:

Yep. Precinct One has a lot of places. I think it has four or five, but I'm not sure.

Robin:

Sounds like it.

Alexis:

We need a lot of JPs in this area, which means he's downtown in that area. Um Alan Rosen is a constable for Precinct One, and they go with the JPs because the constables and JPs are the law enforcement slash uh judicial part for the districts.

Robin:

And Judge Steve Duble is trying to make quirks accessible to everyone, and he goes over some of the ways that he's doing that in the podcast.

Alexis:

And so that'll follow right after this. But we were sort of happy to have the unexpected presence of Judge Duble. I have trouble calling him Judge Duble because to me he's Steve. Yes, I do know him. Anything else you want to comment on?

Robin:

No, I think that's great.

Alexis:

Okay. That's good.

Robin:

Yeah.

Alexis:

Bye again.

Robin:

Only so much we can do to decompress. And another very special guest. The next the next horror from America. So this politician was walking around and he said his husband is running, and I said they could go back and do a commercial.

Mel:

Oh wow. There you go. Oh, great. We do have a special guest. Come on in.

Robin:

I'm not a match.

Mel:

Surprise. Hey, we didn't know we'd be doing an endorsement today.

Alexis:

We we are very flexible.

Mel:

Well, you know, I mean, you gotta be. Life is a you know, life is a box of chocolates filled with those ones you don't like, and then one that you are okay with.

Robin:

And we'll send it to you when we got it out.

Steve Duble:

And you said the last name's Mac?

Robin:

Mac, I mean, see, Robin, like our O B I M. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Alexis:

Hi, Cloudy.

Robin:

Yeah.

Alexis:

And see, our biggest thing is good to see you. Go ahead. Tell me your name again. Kuma. Kuma? Yeah. I'm Mel. And I think we've met. And I know you aren't greening committee. We have certainly met. Are you Alexis?

Steve Duble:

You want me to sit here?

Robin:

Sure. All right.

Steve Duble:

These are prescription, but I took them off.

Robin:

Oh one of water?

Steve Duble:

I'd love water.

Robin:

Yeah.

Steve Duble:

It's a little hot after that. With or without ice.

Alexis:

Oh no, I speed up a little bit. We're live.

Steve Duble:

Oh, we're alive right now? We're being recorded. Hi everybody.

Mel:

Yeah. We're recording a podcast. Yeah.

Alexis:

Yeah. And so basically the way we do this is uh we have conversations with friends about all sorts of weird things. Uh you walked into the middle of a conversation about ghost UFOs, horror movies. Oh, I'm sorry. I think it's sort of like politics.

Steve Duble:

Uh-huh. Let me get a tell. Oh yeah. Oh, nice. Good one.

Alexis:

Scoot up a little bit. Okay. Okay, that should be good enough.

Robin:

We just got done talking about the lingoliers.

Steve Duble:

I don't know the lingoliers. What's oh, Stephen King. Oh, oh, okay. I haven't seen that one.

Robin:

So we'll do a quick little commercial. Okay. And then it'll take a minute for us to edit it and get it out. And edit, I mean, we'll make the sound good and stuff, but we can if you mess up or anything, we can just take it out. It's not a big deal.

Alexis:

And if you mess up really bad, you're gonna get I'll send it to Maria. You know Maria Gonzalez. Yeah, I know. If you said no, I'd be like, okay, wait a minute.

Steve Duble:

Is this English teacher at uh English professor at UVR? Yes, yes.

Alexis:

Is this a clone of you?

Robin:

Okay, so let's start it like this. Welcome to 22 Sides. This is Robin Mack.

Alexis:

And I'm Alexis Melvin.

Robin:

And today we have a surprise, guess surprise. A surprise guest. Walking, going door to door, meeting people, a local politician that's running for Justice of the Peace.

Steve Duble:

Took office in 21 and a runner for re-election collecting signatures today to get on the ballot for re-election for 26.

Robin:

And what's your name?

Steve Duble:

Steve Duble, D U B L E.

Robin:

So when can we vote for you?

Steve Duble:

You can vote for me in February. Um I can't remember when early voting starts, but the election, I think it's March 3rd. It's on my it's on my thing, but it on my March 3rd.

Robin:

And we'll make we'll make sure to list the specific information.

Steve Duble:

We're all checking our notes.

Robin:

Yeah, yeah. So, Steve, if you were going door to door and our listeners got to actually meet you, shake your hand, and they were home when you got there, what would they hear that you're up to such that they would vote for you?

Steve Duble:

A lot of them, it's interesting. Once they were you know the word Democrat, they grab my clipboard and they sign it. Um want to know a little about me and they want to do a little research. I'm like, give me five minutes, I think I can convince you. And you can go check it later. But um I've done a lot of innovation since I came into office. Uh there are 16 JP courts in Harris County. Um so there's eight JP slash constable precincts with one constable for each and two JPs for each. They're spread out all over town. I'm the only one downtown. I'm urging the county to move it out of downtown because I think it's an access to justice issue. It's hard to park there. We're you blocking the ballpark. I'd love to be just a little bit out of downtown. No, the others are all have free parking. Anyway, I've brought in tons of innovation since I've come in. I immediately applied for a grant from the National Center for State Courts for an eviction-diversion grant. We got it. It's worth about a half million dollars to the county, and it placed a full-time eviction-diversion person in my court and a full-time one in Judge Lozano's court who took office the same time I did. We applied for it together. And we also have a national bank of experts that help us create our program, which is constantly evolving. Um, we also just got a grant from Fines and Fees Justice Center to do ability-to-pay determinations and create a video that can be used throughout courts all across Texas. The law is already there that somebody making minimum wage should not get the same fine as somebody making $100,000 a year. But there's few people that really robustly uh are doing uh these ability-to-pay determinations. They might put it in the fine print, but people don't really know to ask for them. So we've created a new form working with some national experts that's two pages, very simple. If they're on any public benefits, um uh that fine goes to zero or nothing. Um and if they are low income and we've got sort of a chart, if if it's lower than $35,000, um that fine is going to be zero less to nothing, because uh it's just fair. And the that's the law is already there on that. So um we're very aggressively working on that program. Uh let's see, we got a grant from the Texas Bar Foundation that I applied for, and that put a resource center in our um at 1302 Preston where my courthouse is on the first floor, and it's open to the public. There are five public use computers um with five printers, and I have a full-time uh resource manager, and we've got volunteers coming in and there out of there all the time. You can actually sit down at this Texas legal service kiosk that's in there, and for five hours a day, you can real-time live chat with a lawyer, not AI, a real lawyer. And um so we're doing all sorts of things like that. Uh I've only touched on some of them, um, but access to justice has been my big focus. And and one thing I'll I'll point out that we do, when we send out citations, say for an eviction case, I slide in a purple sheet of paper so it stands out with my uh letterhead on the top, and I've got a QR code that takes them to the intake for legal aid for evictions, which Harris County funds, and I've got a QR code that takes them to um our eviction diversion uh coordinator's um intake. So we try to do the interventions before they even come to the courthouse. I do all my hearings hybrid, uh, which means the notice goes out with a QR link. You don't have to ask for it. So we don't know uh the day of the hearing whether they're coming live by Zoom or at all. We just want them to come. And I also don't lock the doors as soon as a hearing starts. If they come in 30 minutes uh late, uh I usually have not gotten to it yet because I give a little cushion time and we're doing lots of interventions, especially on evictions, before they get there. Um the other thing I forgot to mention is we are hosting um a pilot program through South Texas College of Law. They got a moonshot grant grant for a million dollars from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, and it puts a live lawyer in our courtroom. Every debt docket, we have a ton of debt cases. Debt makes up half of all litigation in the U.S. And we're talking about credit card debt or payday loan type stuff that is sold to what I call vulture funds. So it might flip four or five times, and they're buying it for pennies on the dollar, getting super aggressive in courts like mine doing collection efforts. Um we have a lawyer there, and if they meet the poverty level, uh, I think it's 125 percent, um they get free representation. Uh, if they don't, they get some on-the-spot legal advice. I always steer them to texaslawhelp.org. It's the best place to go. If anybody asks you for the legal question, go there. They've got guides on all sorts of things.

Alexis:

What was that again?

Steve Duble:

Texaslawhelp.org. Um they do a l we work with them closely. In fact, uh when I see a need and I don't see a guide, I call them and I'm like, we really need a guide on this. Like for instance, people don't know how to sue a corporation and it's really hard to figure out. It's not easy. Um, so we're working with them now on creating such a guide that tells you how to go to the Secretary of State website, how to look up the registered agent, and what the importance is, because people just think, well, I dealt with this salesman and they'll put their name down, and I'm like, that's not two years later it comes to trial and they've wasted all that time. So we're trying to help people on the front end get it right. Giving legal information is never giving legal advice, and we're very proactive on giving that information.

Alexis:

What areas are we going to see you on the ballot?

Steve Duble:

Um at the bottom.

Alexis:

Well, I knew that. It's a it's a JP.

Steve Duble:

So oh, areas. So my area is precinct um one. So it goes all the way from downtown, it goes down to like West Hugh, um, that match almost the Constable Rosen.

Alexis:

Constable Precinct. Okay.

Steve Duble:

And it goes all the way up to Acres Home and River Oaks. So I've got the poorest and the richest. I've got Cashmere Gardens and So that would be Harris County, too.

Mel:

Yeah.

Steve Duble:

It's it's eight hundred thousand and something people. Um and I live in the bubble that was Kamala plus forty in the last election, so uh my contest will always be on the Democratic primary. Yeah. If I have a contest, nobody's filed yet, but I've heard rumor I might have a opponent.

Mel:

Um just a quick question about that. That's a lot of great information. How do you deal with like special populations in terms of language, um, access to law for for different languages as well as uh disabilities or uh communities like uh uh women have a lot of trouble accessing uh legal advice, uh trans communities, that sort of thing.

Steve Duble:

So um on language, um I'll point out that that Texas um law help kiosk that we have. Um and the they have these all over the state. I think our court in Dej Lazano is the only JP's court courts hosted them. They're looking for other locations that where there's the need. But um you can toggle to three languages. And you don't even need to go to the kiosk. You can pull up your laptop and go to texaslawhelp.org and you can go to English, um, Spanish, and Vietnamese. You just toggle at the top and it flips to that language. Um we do um uh most of our uh full access to justice forms we do in at least English and Spanish. Um we're trying to be more proactive about inviting people to call the court and ask for an interpreter so we don't find out the day of. Um a lot of times if it's a civil case, I have a lot of bilingual staff, and I offer to either reset and bring a official certified court reporter, or if you're comfortable with it, as clerk here will do it, or a family member can do it. Um and um as far as everything else, we work with all sorts of organizations, including um he's gonna not be happy with me. I've forgotten his name, who's in charge of the disability uh Texas rights uh org. Um and we work with a lot of organizations to do what we can to increase access justice. Again, some of the national orgs we work with that help us on these things, beyond the cutting edge or National Center for State Courts, Pew Charitable Trust. I found out, I didn't know about this, but before I took office, I had no idea there is a very large academic community across the country and data analysts that are actually studying courts like mine. And we're happy to partner with us and work with us because I've said this is all public information. You can have free access to all our data, we'll work with you. I actually have a full-time data, he was full-time, he's now in law school, part-time data guy. He started as a hobby intern with us, and we're scraping all sorts of information that I didn't know you could get. We're working with county leaders to try and make it transparent where you can go to a dashboard and see all this.

Alexis:

Okay. And so what's the final message? Vote for me.

Robin:

Good answer.

Alexis:

Okay, Steve.

Steve Duble:

Also, one one more thing.

Alexis:

Okay, Steve. Vote for who?

Steve Duble:

Oh, thank you. Steve Duble. I'm very bad about this. Um D-U-B-L-E. It's double without the O. Um It probably was Dublé somewhere before my ancestor got on off a boat in Galveston.

Mel:

Oh, I feel you. Got some Danish ancestry.

Alexis:

Can you tell us what that uh legal website is one more time?

Steve Duble:

Texaslawhelp.org. Um we have also I'm I'm a member of Stonewall Law and I know they do some clinics. Um I think we have it now, but I've told them I want the intake stuff there, that we can at least do referrals uh from our courthouse. Um and um uh if y'all have ideas, we're open to it. We also have a lot of volunteers that come down and work in our court. Right now we have a unique program with Houston Volunteer Lawyers that started in my court um where big firm lawyers will come to every eviction docket and I send the parties out to try and cut a deal. Because a lot of times tenants don't know they have leverage and they don't know how to play that leverage. And those lawyers can help them play that leverage, and they just sit down with the property manager and they're like, hey, if he agrees to move out by this date, will you waive back rent? You know, you just come up with something that's a soft landing and a win-win for everybody. And sometimes it's an agreed payout. Um and it's been a very successful program.

Robin:

So Steve Duble, the guy who will work for you to win-win, you're voting on. It's important. We want to know why to vote. We want to know who to vote for that's gonna really vote for us in the end, right? And how we can support you. So thanks for stopping in today. And if there's a politician at your door, I'm not saying answer it, but I am saying vote for Steve.

Steve Duble:

And I forgot to mention I'm the first gay JP, at least open gay JP, in Harris County history. That's not why you should vote for me, but I think it is important to have people at all levels.

Mel:

I mean, it's like everyone at this table would I think I would hope you would vote for me for all the great policy I'm doing.

Steve Duble:

That's it's just a bonus that I'm getting.

Alexis:

It's always a bonus, people it and one of the things, and I've added this to a couple of my talks. Uh, you got to remember we have a lot of people. And when I say we, I'm talking about everyone that actually are paid to work for us and support us. Um, all the way from the president, who, in my opinion, not done a good job of supporting us, down to the JP, which is pretty much the lowest level. That's why you're at the bottom of the ballot. But the JP is most more likely to be able to help with stuff right away than the president.

Mel:

Yeah. Right.

Alexis:

And I mean, we we had a situation during COVID when there was a problem with a lot of, or it was just before COVID, actually, a lot of transgender individuals being evicted because they were transgender individuals. And one of the JP said, you know what? I'm gonna think about this for a few months. And all of a sudden, the property owners are like, Well, what can we do? And they came to some agreements on how they would do it. And it was very simple, very straightforward, because you can sit on it, you know, if you want to. Sorta.

Steve Duble:

Yeah. Well, all I have discretion for is pushing things one week, and I sometimes use that discretion. Um, if I think it'll help or the person needs a little more time.

Robin:

Yeah. Well, thank you for coming in today, and we will uh put your contact information in the show notes. And sharing is caring, getting people out to the voting pools can make a difference because some of these seats only win by a few votes. And so look around for those signs out at the voting pools around February for voting for Steve Duval.

Steve Duble:

Thank y'all. Um thank you. Good door to knock on.

Robin:

Yeah.

Steve Duble:

All right.

Mel:

Stepped right into your endorsement.

Steve Duble:

And if you're looking for a videographer, oh uh yeah.

Mel:

I'm I teach video. I also am a videographer and tech person.

Robin:

So I will send you uh Mel's information when we send you the podcast.

Steve Duble:

And I'm gonna check out the podcast. It is what again, 2022 sides. 22 sides. All right.

Alexis:

22sides.com, but it's also almost any place that you would see a podcast. What's with these um number balls? 22 sides.

Steve Duble:

Oh, that's all right. I'm not uh not very good at math. All right.

Alexis:

We aren't either, it's only 20 sides originally. Okay, but no one ever.

Mel:

It was fine.

Steve Duble:

Oh, thank you. Did Evan drop this off? Okay, great seeing you.

Mel:

Great seeing you.

Steve Duble:

And that was fun.

Robin:

Yeah, awesome.

Steve Duble:

So when will it error? Did it dish air?

Mel:

I think we'll probably

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Robin Mack

Host
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Alexis Melvin

Co-host