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.
Two new federal judges with connections to The Valley will be taking the bench in Texas soon, after the Senate Judiciary Committee gave approval to President Donald Trump’s nominees for the roles in the Southern District of Texas.
An error in the jury charge means Union Pacific Railroad Company will be getting a new trial in a lawsuit brought by a woman who drunkenly fell asleep on the tracks in a seated position and sued the company for her injuries.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth regional office gets a final judgment against a Mansfield man accused in a $2.9 million fraud, and a company that offers an array of services to fuel retailers turns to the Texas Business Court in pursuit of $21 million in damages.
A Dallas influencer who has cultivated an image for her 400,000 followers of a body-positive, health-conscious, family-friendly mother of three alleges an intimate apparel company “disempowered and humiliated” her by posting an AI-generated deepfake image appearing to show her partially nude body on Instagram. Tranchin’s lawyer, Brett Rosenthal of Reese Marketos, told The Texas Lawbook that EBY had not only disclaimed responsibility for the post, but at one point also threatened his client with a breach of contract claim after she declined to provide additional content to the company.
A Los Angeles jury hit Johnson & Johnson with a $32 million verdict in favor of the family of a woman who used the company’s baby powder for years and died of mesothelioma. Johnson & Johnson has vowed to "immediately appeal."
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Houston appellate court parses who owes a duty of care in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a crash allegedly caused by a driver who was engaging in phone sex, and investigators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth regional office reach a deal to end claims a Dallas-based real estate investment company president was lying to investors.
The Lanier Law Firm announced Tuesday it was opening an office in southwest Fort Worth, marking the firm’s fourth office nationwide. The Houston-based firm also has outposts in New York and Los Angeles.
The artist who freehand painted a massive mural of whales in downtown Dallas has filed a federal lawsuit against FIFA over its decision to paint over and “permanently destroy” the work of art.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, investigators with the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office accuse a Houston-area man of running a Ponzi-like scheme that defrauded about 150 investors out of $12.3 million, and the fight between Texas and Discord heats up.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas follows up on its state court lawsuit against proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services with a lawsuit against Glass, Lewis & Co. in Collin County, and Gray Reed secures a complete defense win for a homebuilder client in a Tarrant County jury trial.
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