Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Seventy years ago, utility companies were routinely granted easements across private property of no fixed width. Those "general easements" have become a concern for landowners who fear they give the companies too much power over their private land. Last week, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled on such a case made by three North Texas landowners. Their ruling offered sympathy, but not a lot of help.
This week the First Court of Appeals in Austin rejected an appeal by Mikel Peter Eggert to reverse his 2008 disbarment after his conviction for conspiring to falsify evidence. Although his appeal failed, it stirs up a convoluted tale about a newly-minted lawyer in Erath County who briefly followed in his father's messy footsteps practicing law outside the law.
Regional law school enrollment experienced a decline of less than 1% between 2018 and 2019, according to the American Bar Association. However, two schools increased enrollment by more than 6% and neither of them was the University of Texas.
An Ohio bridal shop lost its claim against Dallas Presbyterian Hospital Friday for its handling of the 2014 Ebola scare in Dallas, when the Texas Supreme Court decided unanimously that the shop's claim failed to meet an essential requirement of the Texas Medical Liability Act. The court ruled, in effect, that when it comes to medical claims bridal shops are people, too.
The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy overnight in Delaware. The Irving-based nonprofit has reached out to a Chicago law firm to advise in the development of a trust to deal with the legal fallout from lawsuits claiming decades of sexual abuse.
A $15,000 dispute involving the ill-starred Podesta Group was properly tossed from a Houston court, the First Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The D.C. firm was accused of ignoring their client, a prominent Houston law firm, while the firm's co-founder, Tony Podesta, was under federal scrutiny in the Paul Manafort investigation.
Clearing out their report on disciplinary actions for 2019, the State Bar of Texas reported one disbarment, one resignation, nine suspensions and three public reprimands, including one for a South Texas county judge.
GALLERY ADDED With more than 100 nominations, 27 finalists and 13 separate categories, the DFW/ACC and The Texas Lawbook hosted more than 400 corporate lawyers at the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
The annual Bench Bar Conference for the Northern District of Texas last week was a non-stop crush of candid judicial observations and advice litigators ignore at their risk. Here's a sampling of what attendees heard.
In a sharply-worded decision, the appeals court tells a Chinese company it can’t avoid the consequences of an agreed-upon arbitration by simply ignoring it. The beneficiaries include Dallas-based alternative energy investors.
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