Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Krista Torralva covers pro bono, public service, and diversity matters in the Texas legal market.
Krista Torralva covers pro bono, public service, and diversity for the Texas Lawbook Foundation and The Texas Lawbook. Previously, she covered courts for The Dallas Morning News. Krista has spent the bulk of her decade-plus-long career covering criminal courts in Texas and Florida. Her reporting includes the high profile federal terrorism trial against the Pulse nightclub shooter’s widow in Orlando, which ended in a rare acquittal. Her civil courts coverage has included the long-winding Texas voter ID lawsuit, legal battles over local Covid-19 mandates and school board disputes. Krista's work has been recognized by the State Bar of Texas' Gavel Awards, the Texas Association Press Managing Editors, the National Headliner Awards program and various local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The daughter of a Naval officer, Krista grew up traveling every few years but calls Corpus Christi home and talks about the Texas Gulf Coast every chance she gets. She lives in Dallas’ North Oak Cliff with her husband, Fares Sabawi.
Krista graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Autonomous trucking company TuSimple Holdings Inc. is suing a new venture led by TuSimple’s co-founder and ex-CEO in one of the first Texas business court cases. Lawyers for TuSimple say the case is among the earliest and largest nationwide in which artificial intelligence technology is at the core.
Sherman Roberts, president and CEO of City Wide Community Development Corporation, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to commit bribery. Roberts is accused of bribing two former Dallas City Council members in exchange for their support of his real estate projects.
An Election Day “red wave” has left the Texas legal world scrutinizing incoming justices and trying to determine what changes may be coming to the intermediate appellate courts in the state’s most urban areas.
A federal jury in Marshall deliberated about an hour and a half Wednesday before returning its verdict for Nokia. Correct Transmission had sought to prove Nokia infringed on three of its patents and should pay about $35 million.
Correct Transmission, which offices in Allen, rested its case Friday after a damages expert testified that Nokia owes $35 million for its alleged infringement of three patents covering technology used in routers. Nokia denies it uses the patented technology and is challenging the validity of one of the patents.
Lawyers for a Dallas-area company that holds the patents told an East Texas jury tech giant Nokia of America Corporation used its technology to improve Nokia routers without paying royalties as trial began Wednesday. Nokia denies it uses the patented technology and alleges the marketplace wasn’t interested in the technology.
Dallas-area company Correct Transmission will try to persuade a federal East Texas jury that Finland-based tech giant Nokia infringed on five of its patents during a trial set to begin Wednesday in Marshall. Correct Transmission has sued other companies over the patents it inherited from a bankrupt Israel-based company.
Three bellwether plaintiffs were set to have their day in court Tuesday. But late last week, two bellwether plaintiffs were among nearly 100 parties who settled their claims with the performer and venue operator. The trial for a third bellwether plaintiff will be rescheduled.
Texas’ new Fifteenth Court of Appeals is set to hear its first oral arguments at the end of the month, but it will borrow space from the Court of Criminal Appeals to do so. Earlier this month, the first-ever business court hearing took place — a video conference in the Houston-based Eleventh Division.
Spencer Fane is bolstering its national insurance litigation practice with partners Scott L. Davis and David H. Timmins. The firm has been markedly expanding the practice group since 2021. The growth caught the attention of Davis and Timmins from where they worked at Husch Blackwell.
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