Attorney directory + landlord tools: collaborating without conflicts

An eviction attorney directory is a browse-and-engage list of independent lawyers — not a staff of in-house counsel, and not a license for software to practice law. You keep the packet in a landlord dashboard, you remain the filer, and you hire a listed attorney directly when you want strategy, a completeness check, or an appearance. The company that hosts the directory does not employ those attorneys and does not become your lawyer because you opened a profile.

Eviction Wizard helps landlords organize eviction documents, submit through the court's e-filing system, request a process server, and track every deadline — in one dashboard. Eviction Wizard AI Partners, LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

Key takeaways

• An eviction attorney directory lists independent licensed professionals. They are not employees or agents. You engage them directly.
• Optional packet review checks completeness — missing exhibits, blank fields — not strategy or notice sufficiency.
• You review, confirm, and authorize filing. You remain the filer. Software does not appear at the hearing.
• Typical attorney fees are commonly reported at $1,500–$3,000, sometimes cited $1,500–$5,000. The Document Organizer fee is $149 per case. Court and third-party fees stay separate.
• Under the 2026 Texas rules, a sworn petition, precinct venue that is not cured by transfer, and citation by a sheriff or constable still apply. Texas SB 38 did not turn a listing into a law firm.
• Portfolio shops should standardize the packet, not treat listed lawyers as in-house counsel. Bulk filing and team seats are coming, not live.

Contents

• What an eviction attorney directory actually lists
• Why independence is the conflict rule
• How to prepare a packet before you book counsel
• Optional packet review versus representation
• How Eviction Wizard handles this
• Texas rules that stay with counsel in 2026
• Portfolio files: one dashboard, separate engagements
• Fees on each side of the split
• Frequently asked questions
• The honest bottom line

What an eviction attorney directory actually lists

Landlords search eviction attorney directory when they want a lawyer without pretending the dashboard is one. The useful product is a roster you browse by area, then hire on your own paper. The useless product implies the software company already has staff attorneys.

A directory, done honestly, shows independent attorneys who handle eviction cases. You view profiles, specialties, and available times. You select and engage the attorney directly. The listing is an introduction. The engagement letter is between you and that lawyer.

That is a different purchase from eviction wizard vs attorney. Representation is strategy, advice, and appearance. Organization is the packet, the e-file you authorize, and the calendar. A directory sits on the hinge. It makes the handoff cheaper because the file already has tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates.

Listing criteria on the public application are operational, not a warranty. The application asks for landlord-side eviction practice, activity in the counties the attorney lists, prompt responses, transparent pricing, and malpractice insurance. Those are filters for who may apply, not a finding that a given lawyer is the right hire.

Form-fillers, property-management (PM) software, and DIY guides do not become a directory because they mention “talk to a lawyer.” A PDF kit that dumps a state bar link is a footnote. A PM suite that stores an attorney’s email is a contact field. Neither keeps the working packet and the booking path in the same case file.

Listed attorneys are independent licensed professionals — not employees or agents. If a vendor cannot say that without hedging, you are looking at a conflict, not a directory.

Why independence is the conflict rule

Conflicts start when one company tries to be the clerk and the advocate. If the same firm formats your sworn petition and then employs the lawyer who tells you it is sufficient, you have one vendor marking its own homework. An honest eviction attorney directory is built to avoid that. The dashboard’s job is clerical continuity. The attorney’s job is judgment under uncertainty. Mixing those jobs inside one payroll creates three problems.

Who is the client? If the lawyer is an employee or agent of the software company, it is no longer obvious whether the advice is for you or for a filing the company wants to look complete. Independent counsel works for the person who signed the engagement.

Who is the filer? On the organizer path you review, confirm, and authorize submission. You remain the filer. If “our attorney” filed as counsel, the posture changed and nobody wrote it down. Independence keeps the invoices honest: you file, or that lawyer files as your counsel.

Who blessed the notice? An employee lawyer who “approves” the file looks like the vendor certifying legal sufficiency. An independent attorney who checks whether exhibits are attached is doing a completeness pass you paid for. Completeness is not a finding that in-person delivery, mail, posting, or electronic delivery was enough. Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney — the one you hired.

Portfolio files make the conflict louder. A PM shop that treats listed attorneys as “our legal department” mixes owners and entities under one implied retainer. One owner’s limited liability company (LLC) appearance question is not another owner’s unpaid-rent packet. The dashboard can be a shared file habit. The lawyer cannot.

Process servers follow the same rule. You browse independent process servers and track notice delivery from acceptance to proof of service. That request does not replace constable or sheriff citation service.

How to prepare a packet before you book counsel

Book the directory after you can name the file. Four fields decide whether you are handing a lawyer a case or a scavenger hunt: tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates.

1. Collect the source documents. Pull the signed lease, addenda that change occupants or rent, and the payment ledger. If a PM suite shows a different rent amount than the lease, stop.
2. Confirm tenant name. Use the name as it appears on the lease, including every adult tenant you intend to name.
3. Confirm property address. Street, unit, city, and county. In Texas, a precinct / Justice of the Peace (JP) helper may propose a court from that address — based on the information you provided, not as a guarantee. Wrong precinct is dismissed, not transferred. If two maps disagree, that is a directory call before a filing fee.
4. Confirm rent amount. Monthly rent and the unpaid period. If the only issue is unpaid rent and this is the first delinquency during the lease term, Texas Property Code section 24.005 describes a notice to pay rent or vacate before a standard notice to vacate. Whether that rule applies is a counsel question, not an extract.
5. Confirm lease dates. Start date, end date, and whether the tenancy continued month-to-month.
6. Upload the lease and treat the extract as a draft. A lease upload may pull tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates into the forms you selected. You review and edit. Extraction is a clerk. You are the reviewer.
7. Name the ground, then decide the hire. Commercial use, a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) tenancy, an LLC or trust that may not appear through a non-lawyer, unauthorized occupancy, or a tenant who already answered is representation. Summary disposition under the 2026 rules is for unauthorized occupancy and forcible entry, not routine nonpayment.
8. Only then browse and engage. View profiles and available times, hire the attorney directly, and send the reviewed four fields, the ledger, the notice, and the proof of delivery.

Preparing the packet first does not force a retainer. Many individual landlords still evict a tenant without a lawyer in JP court. It stops you from paying commonly reported $1,500–$3,000 fees for typing you already had.

Optional packet review versus representation

Optional attorney review is the feature landlords confuse with “I have a lawyer.” It is a completeness check before you authorize filing. A licensed attorney looks at whether the packet is assembled: names that match, exhibits that exist, pages that are not blank. It is not strategy, not an appearance, and not legal advice from the software.

Representation is the other product. Counsel reads the lease for legal meaning, tells you whether to file, appear, settle, or wait, and can stand up in court. Typical attorney fees are commonly reported at $1,500–$3,000, and some public comparisons cite $1,500–$5,000. Those figures are not a bid.

Job	Optional packet review	Representation	Dashboard only
Missing exhibit or blank field	Yes — completeness	Yes, if retained	You catch it on review
Legal advice on your facts	No	Yes	No
Hearing or appeal appearance	No	Yes, if retained	No
Notice-method sufficiency	No — check the lease; consult a Texas attorney	Yes	No
You remain the filer	Yes, unless you later retain the firm to file as counsel	Only if the engagement says the firm files	Yes
Employee or agent of the software company	No — independent	No — independent	Not a lawyer

Buy review when you want a second pair of eyes on the stack you already built. Buy representation when the next decision is legal. Buy neither when you will review, confirm, and authorize a routine residential unpaid-rent packet yourself — and you accept that the court will not be your lawyer.

“Looks complete” is not “your electronic delivery was authorized,” not “this is the correct JP precinct,” and not “accept the partial payment.” Those sentences belong to independent counsel you hired for advice, or they do not get said. You can review the packet, then retain the same attorney — or a different one — if the tenant answers. Independence means you can change counsel without changing software.

How Eviction Wizard handles this

Eviction Wizard is built for the organization lane and for a clean handoff into the representation lane. It is not built to employ lawyers or to replace them.

You build the case first. Build your case free — pay only when you file. The Document Organizer fee is $149 per case. Founding members lock $149 for life. Court fees and third-party fees are separate and should appear before you approve them. Directory engagements are a different invoice.

Upload the lease. The tool may extract tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates into the forms you selected. You review and edit. Extraction is not a finding that the notice is legally sufficient. For Texas properties, the precinct / JP helper proposes the court commonly associated with the address, framed as based on the information you provided. You confirm the court. The helper is not a guarantee.

When the packet is ready, you submit through the court's e-filing system. In Texas, that system is often eFileTexas. The organizer is not eFileTexas. You review the sworn petition, confirm the packet, and authorize transmission. You remain the filer.

Request a process server from the same place you keep proof of delivery. Browse independent process servers. Track notice delivery from acceptance to proof of service. That request does not replace citation service by a sheriff or constable.

If you want counsel, use the Attorney Directory. Browse independent attorneys in your area. View profiles, specialties, and available times. You select and engage the attorney directly. Those attorneys are not employees or agents of Eviction Wizard. Optional attorney review is a completeness check before you authorize filing, not representation.

Tracking stays on after the stamp: citation, hearing, judgment, appeal, and writ. Launch is Texas first, county by county. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada are next and are not live. Portfolio bulk filing and team seats are coming, not a current claim. You can hire the independent attorney and still keep the file — the eviction wizard vs attorney split as a collaboration rule.

Texas rules that stay with counsel in 2026

Senate Bill 38 (SB 38, 89th Legislature) applies to eviction suits filed on or after January 1, 2026. Rule 510 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure is the specialized procedural rule. Opening an eviction attorney directory does not rewrite the 2026 Texas eviction law changes. It gives you a person who can apply them.

As of 2026, Texas Property Code section 24.005 lists notice delivery methods: in-person delivery to an occupant 16 or older, mail, conspicuous posting, and electronic delivery only if the parties agreed in writing. This article does not say any method is sufficient. Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney.

If the only issue is unpaid rent and it is the tenant’s first delinquency during the lease term, section 24.005 requires a notice to pay rent or vacate before a standard notice to vacate. Whether that rule applies is fact-and-law work. The default notice period is still three days unless the lease sets another period. Covered properties may still need a 30-day notice under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Section 24.0042 excludes the trigger day; weekends and holidays count; a last day on a weekend or holiday rolls to the next business day.

The suit starts with a sworn petition (section 24.00505). You remain the reviewer if you use an organizer. File in the JP precinct where the property sits. A wrong-precinct filing is not cured by transfer. When confirmation is not obvious, hire before the filing fee is spent.

A sheriff or constable makes a diligent effort to serve the citation by the fifth business day after filing. Do not conflate landlord notice delivery with that citation. Trial is generally set 10 to 21 days after the petition is filed, hedged for county practice. Appeals still use a five-day window; SB 38 adds a sworn good-faith affirmation. Summary disposition is for unauthorized occupancy and forcible entry only, not routine nonpayment; the occupant has four days to respond. Only law enforcement executes a writ of possession. Self-help lockouts remain illegal.

Uncontested Texas evictions are commonly reported at about three weeks to about 75 days, depending on county and appeals — a range, not a schedule. No listing or organizer fee can guarantee a timeline or an outcome. For the start of the suit, use how to start an eviction in Texas.

Portfolio files: one dashboard, separate engagements

Portfolio landlords and PM shops need one case spine they can repeat, and a way to hire a real lawyer when a door leaves the routine row — not a house counsel logo on the software.

The spine does not change at forty doors: notice, deliver, notice period, file, citation, hearing, judgment, appeal, writ, possession. What changes is the temptation to appoint “the attorney we always use” as if that person were on payroll for every owner. An eviction attorney directory resists that habit. Each engagement is its own paper. One owner’s Section 8 file is not another owner’s unpaid-rent packet.

Standardize the clerk work. Tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates should be extracted and reviewed the same way on every unit. That is an eviction workflow for property managers you can defend without pretending bulk buttons already ship. Do not standardize the lawyer. County practice, entity appearance, and contested facts are not portfolio settings. Browse by area. Hire for the file in front of you.

Bulk filing, team seats, and portfolio guardrails are coming. They are not live. When they ship, they should authorize more packets, not hire employees and call them a directory. If the lease and deed name an LLC, do not treat the PM login as the plaintiff. Whether a non-lawyer may appear is a counsel question this article does not decide. The dashboard can hold the packet. The directory can introduce the lawyer. Neither one makes the manager the client.

Fees on each side of the split

Price confusion is how a directory turns into a fake bundle. An organizer fee, a completeness review, a representation retainer, and a court filing fee are different bills.

The Document Organizer fee is $149 per case. Founding members lock $149 for life. As of 2026, that is the waitlist price, not a bundled “eviction, including the lawyer.” It does not cover counsel.

Line item	Commonly reported figure	Inside the $149 fee?	Inside a directory engagement?
Document Organizer	$149 per case; founding members lock $149 for life	Yes	No
Optional packet review	Set by the independent attorney	No	Only if that engagement says so
Attorney representation	$1,500–$3,000; sometimes cited $1,500–$5,000	No	Yes — if you retained for it
JP filing fee (Texas)	Commonly reported in the tens of dollars	No — paid separately	Only if the engagement says so
Writ fee (Texas)	Commonly reported around $150–$200	No — paid separately	Only if the engagement says so

Ask the listed attorney for line items. Transparent pricing is a listing criterion, not a statewide fee schedule. Eviction-service companies are often cited around $475 — a different vendor. Build the case free. Pay the organizer fee when you file. Pay counsel when you hire counsel. For attorney eviction fees versus organizer work, keep the jobs on separate rows.

Frequently asked questions

Are directory attorneys employees of Eviction Wizard?

No. Attorneys listed in the directory are independent licensed professionals. They are not employees or agents of Eviction Wizard AI Partners, LLC. You select and engage the attorney directly. The software company is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

Is optional packet review the same as hiring a lawyer for the hearing?

No. Optional review is a completeness check before you authorize filing — missing pages, blank fields, exhibits that do not match. It is not strategy, not an appearance, and not a finding that notice or venue is sufficient. Representation is a separate engagement with that independent attorney.

Who is the filer if I use the dashboard and the directory?

You are, unless you later retain the attorney to file as counsel and the engagement says so. On the organizer path you review, confirm, and authorize submission to the court's e-filing system. Your name — not the vendor’s — is the filing party the court treats as the plaintiff.

Does the $149 Document Organizer fee include a directory lawyer?

No. $149 covers organizer work: notices populated for review, a filing packet from court templates, authorized e-filing, and tracking through writ. Court fees, process-server invoices, optional review, and attorney retainers are separate. Founding members lock $149 for life. You pay the organizer fee when you file.

When should a Texas landlord open the directory instead of filing alone?

Open it when possession will be contested, an appeal is likely, the tenancy is commercial or subsidized, an entity may not appear through a non-lawyer, or you doubt notice method or precinct. Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney. Many individual landlords still appear in JP court without counsel; that permission is not a finding that your file is safe.

Can a property manager treat one listed attorney as counsel for every owner?

Not as a software setting. Each engagement is between the client and that independent attorney. Owners, LLCs, and case facts differ. Standardize the packet — tenant name, property address, rent amount, lease dates — and hire per file. Bulk seats are coming, not live, and will not turn listed lawyers into employees.

The honest bottom line

An eviction attorney directory plus a landlord dashboard is a collaboration only if the lawyer stays independent and the software stays a clerk. Eviction Wizard organizes the packet, supports the e-file you authorize, and tracks notice through writ for $149 per case — you remain the filer, and listed attorneys are not employees or agents. Optional review checks completeness; representation is a separate hire. If you want that split, join the Eviction Wizard waitlist.