Judge Follis Admonished Over Education Shortfall
On June 23, 2025, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly admonished Ed Follis, Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4 in O’Donnell, Lynn County, for failing to complete the 20 hours of judicial education Texas justices of the peace must obtain every year. Follis had sought a waiver to take his training online because of a knee condition, but the waiver was denied, he completed only 6.5 of the required hours, and his account of what he had done and when shifted as the Commission pressed for documentation. Below: what happened, and where Follis’s career stands now.
| CASE FILE AT A GLANCE | |
| Judge | Ed Follis |
| Court | Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 |
| County | Lynn County, Texas (O’Donnell) |
| CJC Number | 25-0188 |
| Sanction | Public Admonition |
| Date Issued | June 23, 2025 (Commission meeting: June 4 to 5, 2025) |
| Signed By | Gary Steel, Chair, State Commission on Judicial Conduct |
What Judge Follis Did
Ed Follis is the elected Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4 in Lynn County, a rural county in West Texas, and also serves as the municipal judge for the City of O’Donnell. Texas justices of the peace must complete 20 hours of judicial education each fiscal year, at least ten of them in person, with up to ten allowed online. Follis sought a waiver from the Justice of the Peace Education Committee to take all 20 hours online, citing a knee condition that limits how far he can walk, but the Committee did not grant it.
Follis went on to complete only 6.5 hours for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, according to the Texas Justice Court Training Center’s own records, and those hours were logged after the deadline had already passed. When the Commission first mailed and emailed him a formal Letter of Inquiry in February 2025, he did not respond by the deadline it set. A second letter followed in April; Follis replied by email the next day, saying he had completed 20 hours of training online in September and October 2024, attributing the discrepancy to an error in how some of the hours were submitted, and stating a waiver from his orthopedic doctor should already be on file with the training center.
The Commission told him that an informal email was not a substitute for a formal response to the Letter of Inquiry. When his written response arrived later in April, Follis said he had completed his hours on October 7 and 8, which matched the dates in the Training Center’s own records, but not the number of hours: the Center’s records showed 6.5 hours completed on those dates, not 20. He provided a letter from his orthopedic doctor about his knees, but did not include the education certificates he had said should be on file, and did not produce any record that the Committee had actually granted the waiver he believed applied to him.
The Discipline Ladder (Texas)
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct issues sanctions, in order of severity, as admonitions, warnings, reprimands, and censures, either privately (confidential) or publicly (on the record). A public admonition, the sanction here, is the least severe sanction the Commission can issue on the public record. Removal and involuntary suspension are a different track entirely, requiring a separate Review Tribunal or the Texas Supreme Court.
A Familiar Pattern, With a Difference
This is the third education-shortfall case in this series, after Crystal Duke’s File 26 and the pattern of similar admonitions the Commission has issued to municipal judges in recent years. The core violation is the same: falling short of required hours without a granted waiver, in violation of Canons 2A and 3B(2). What sets this one apart is the paper trail. Duke’s shortfall was explained in a single, consistent account from the start. Follis’s explanation changed as the Commission asked for more specifics, and the records he eventually provided did not match the hours he claimed to have completed, which the Commission had to sort out rather than simply accept at face value.
The Rules He Broke
| Rule | What It Requires |
| Canon 2A, Texas Code of Judicial Conduct | A judge shall comply with the law. |
| Canon 3B(2), Texas Code of Judicial Conduct | A judge shall maintain professional competence in the law. |
| Rules of Judicial Education, Rule 3a(2) | Each Justice of the Peace must complete 20 hours of approved instruction each fiscal year, at least 10 in person, up to 10 of which may be completed online. |
| Rules of Judicial Education, Rule 9b | The Training Center must report to the applicable education committee any judge who has not met the annual minimum hours. |
| Rules of Judicial Education, Rule 10a | A judge has 30 days after notice of a deficiency to explain it; absent a good-cause waiver, the committee reports the judge to the Commission. |
How It Played in the Press
This one stayed within official channels: it appears in the Commission’s own public sanctions list and the Texas Bar Journal’s routine disciplinary roundup for September 2025, without independent news coverage.
Where Is He Now?
Nothing in the public record indicates further Commission action against Follis. Lynn County’s own listings continue to show him as the sitting Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4.
Facing the System in Texas?Judges are bound by rules too, and there are systems (public sanctions and appeals) built to hold them to it. Deandra Grant Law handles federal and state criminal defense in Texas. Call (214) 225-7117 • texasdwisite.com |
Sources
PRIMARY SOURCE
- State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Public Admonition, In the Matter of the Hon. Ed Follis, CJC No. 25-0188, issued June 23, 2025. scjc.texas.gov
REFERENCE
- State Commission on Judicial Conduct: Public Sanctions, Fiscal Year 2025. scjc.texas.gov
- State Commission on Judicial Conduct: Failure to Obtain Judicial Education, sanction history. scjc.texas.gov
- Texas Bar Journal (September 2025): Disciplinary Actions, State Bar of Texas. texasbar.com
- Lynn County: Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. co.lynn.tx.us
This post summarizes public judicial-discipline records and news reporting for general informational purposes. It is not legal advice.
Which county your case is filed in changes how it is charged, who prosecutes it, and which court hears it.
Deandra M. Grant, JD, GC, MS, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist
She holds a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Science and a Graduate Certificate in Forensic Toxicology, both from the University of Florida. She is the author of The Texas DWI Manual and has defended Texas DWI cases since 1994.
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