Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A Texas appellate court Friday slashed more than $43 million in exemplary damages awarded against Alex Jones, holding that the trial judge erred by letting the parents of a student murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to amend their petition post-verdict in order to avoid the state’s cap on exemplary damages.
The court concluded that the doctrine — which, in essence, bars civil courts from deciding cases that call into question a church’s doctrine, internal decisions and governance — applied to completely end Cindy Clemishire’s claims against Gateway Church and its elders.
In a breach of contract case where comments before the jury implied certain parties were racist, sexist or even akin to Nazi Joseph Goebbels, a new trial must take place, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals determined Tuesday.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a San Francisco-based research and data company gets two qui tam wins in the Northern District of Texas, and an Irving man settles insider trading allegations lodged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A Houston lawyer in Kelley Drye & Warren’s environmental law practice group served as lead trial counsel for the state of New Jersey, guiding historic $2.4 billion settlements in “forever chemical” litigation against DuPont and 3M that were finalized via consent orders by a federal judge last week. Jackson previously represented the state of Louisiana in Deepwater Horizon litigation.
In Round 4 of multidistrict litigation stemming from the fatal explosion at the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing facility on the Northwest Side of Houston, jurors determined 3M was 30 percent responsible. Most recently, in May, a different jury had returned a complete defense win for the company. The lawyers involved told The Texas Lawbook it was the first civil jury trial they had handled that required the jurors receive an Allen charge.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a hedge fund manager goes to prison for failing to report millions in income, and a bankruptcy law firm operating in Texas is pinged for filing cases with false financial information.
For most of a two-and-a-half-hour scheduling conference Tuesday in the Jackson Walker bankruptcy fee case, the parties sat in silence while Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez drafted and signed a pair of orders governing when the parties will be back for a hearing and when trial in the case will begin.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we highlight one plaintiff lawyer’s thoughts on Johnson & Johnson’s proposed $5.5 billion settlement of ovarian cancer cases, and detail Buc-ee’s latest court battle to protect its brand.
On Sunday, the U.S. Trustee and Jackson Walker told Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez they had agreed to a deal where the law firm will pay $15 million to end efforts to claw back millions in fees it earned in certain bankruptcy cases.
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