Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Michelle Casady is based in Houston and covers litigation and appeals — including trials, breaking news and industry trends — for The Texas Lawbook.
Michelle Casady has been a reporter in Texas since January 2009. She's covered crime at The Bryan-College Station Eagle, courts at the San Antonio Express-News and civil litigation for Law360. In July 2022, she joined The Texas Lawbook.
Her reporting has included covering arrests, trials, plea deals and settlements, executions, natural and manmade disasters, colorful characters and various oddities.
She lives in Houston with her husband Matt, a sweet dog Hurricane Harvey brought into their lives, and a confident cat who keeps everyone in line. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Tech University and was a 2018 fellow of the Loyola Marymount University Journalist Law School.
You can reach Michelle at michelle.casady@texaslawbook.net or (713) 614-7929.
SmartDisk, a deposition video and production company that started in Houston more than 20 years ago, was vindicated by a panel of Texas Business Court jurors Tuesday afternoon when they agreed a former business partner owes the company about $6.4 million in damages for breach of an agreement.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we offer details on two high-dollar disputes involving the leasing of railcars, the former chief financial officer of a Dallas nonprofit goes to prison for embezzling $2 million, and the parties that lost a patent case seeking more than $400 million in damages ask for a redo.
After two years in operation, the Texas Business Court has proven to be a nimble, sophisticated venue for resolving complex business litigation. But there’s one issue that represents an “existential” threat to the continued success and growth of the court, Administrative Presiding Judge Grant Dorfman recently told The Texas Lawbook: a shortage of permanent courtrooms.
A jury in Houston will decide whether deposition video and production company SmartDisk is owed about $6.4 million in breach of contract damages or if its former business partner, Lexitas, properly terminated the parties’ agreement and owes nothing.
Alan Albright was appointed to the federal bench in 2018 and quickly implemented local rules and procedures that turned his courtroom into a preferred venue for patent disputes. He stepped down from the role last month.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail a brawl that took place in the sixth-floor library of the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse in Houston, Deloitte agrees to pay $21.5 million to resolve an employment discrimination case in Dallas, and Texas reaches a settlement with Meta that will total about $1 billion.
A nine-year fight to recover a judgment that now exceeds $40 million from a Dallas private equity firm entered a new chapter Friday, when SunTx Capital Management was named in a lawsuit and accused of violating the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act.
Texas’ reputation as the nation’s top venue for patent disputes hasn’t faded, according to a new report from Lex Machina that shows a remarkable 40.4 percent of all patent litigation in the country from 2023 through 2025 was adjudicated in the state.
For more than four years, two competitors in the senior-citizen insurance space had battled through a $17 million trade secrets dispute in a Chicago federal court. This week, a judge held that Bankers Life and Casualty Co. was entitled to just $2 in damages.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas Instruments is dealt a blow by the Texas Business Court in its quest to get an injunction against a competitor and a half dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by parties in favor of preserving a Texas gun restriction penal code.
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