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.
The justices fired off questions about olive oil, wine, banana bread and podiums in trying to suss out where the line should be drawn on what constitutes a product “made of tobacco or a tobacco substitute.” The decision on whether nicotine pouches can be taxed as a tobacco product could have wide implications as the popularity of the products continues to grow.
The lawyer representing the owners of a luxury home furnishings store in Conroe who argued the facility next door violated a restrictive covenant called the decision a “complete victory” for his clients. The 193-mile long Blackfin Pipeline is intended to ship gas from Colorado County, just west of Houston along Interstate 10, to Jasper County, just north of Beaumont.
The court-appointed litigation trustee overseeing the GWG Holdings bankruptcy has asked a federal judge to approve a settlement with its subsidiary Beneficient that would clear the way for the parties to jointly go after Beneficient’s former director and chief executive officer, Brad Heppner.
Dean Omar Branham Shirley, which has racked up numerous wins on behalf of clients who allege Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused their mesothelioma, has done it again.
In a verdict returned by a California jury Monday evening, jurors determined Mae Moore, who died in December 2021 of mesothelioma, was exposed to Johnson’s baby powder or Shower to Shower, a body powder product, that contained asbestos, that the company was negligent in selling the product and that it was a substantial cause of Moore contracting mesothelioma.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Jerry Jones takes an “L” in his latest bid to bring an early end to a sexual assault lawsuit, American Airlines is hit with a permanent injunction in an ESG-related investor suit, and a Houston-based furniture company secures a $2.1 million final judgment.
In four separate filings, GWG bondholders this week spoke out forcefully against requests from Jackson Walker, Porter Hedges, David Jones and Elizabeth Freeman to dismiss racketeering claims against them, doubling down on allegations that each party was enriched by keeping secret a “live-in, intimate relationship” between then-bankruptcy judge Jones and bankruptcy lawyer Freeman.
The case turned on whether Texas or Mexico law applied to the issue of res judicata, which precludes parties from relitigating disputes once there’s been a final judgment on the merits. The Eighth Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 opinion, determined the trial court gets to decide which law applies and it was not incorrect in determining the litigation of a related suit in Juarez, Mexico, barred this one in El Paso under Texas law.
A filing this week marked the second time the U.S. Trustee’s Office, referred to as the watchdog of the bankruptcy system, has urged the presiding judge to reject proposed settlements the Dallas-based law firm has reached with its former bankruptcy clients.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Dallas lawyer secures an important ruling in a case involving NCAA eligibility for an Indiana University football player from Mesquite, and the brother of the Houston Texans principal owner hires Tony Buzbee to bring a $100 million tortious interference lawsuit against the National Football League. There is also coverage of non-football-related cases.
Anonymous Media Research Holdings had filed suit against Samsung Electronics Co. and Samsung Electronics America in September 2023, alleging infringement of two patents covering technology used to measure media consumption. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap presided over the case that began with jury selection Monday and ended with Friday’s verdict. A related patent infringement case brought by Anonymous Media has been filed in the Northern District of California, and is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted Roku’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in that case on Sept. 12.
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