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.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas turns to the state’s Supreme Court in a bid to revive its lawsuit alleging Google violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a Haynes Boone team gets a $3.5 million jury award overturned on appeal, and a new lawsuit in Dallas alleges the illegal dumping of tons of dirt tainted with heavy metals has imperiled construction of an affordable housing project.
At an evidentiary hearing where the parties were supposed to fight to convince Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Eduardo V. Rodriguez, to strike the experts offered by the other side, a détente was reached shortly after lunch Thursday. But during the hearing, the U.S. Trustee revealed that the secret romantic relationship between former judge David Jones and former Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner Elizabeth Freeman began in 2010 or 2011 and said the firm learned about it in 2021.
Speaking to members of both chambers at the Texas Capitol Wednesday morning, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock launched his speech by asking that lawmakers approve an across-the-board 30 percent increase in pay for judges at all levels. That increase would take Texas from having the 48th lowest paid judiciary to the 31st out of 50 states, he said.
Bill Pedersen III joins Carter Arnett after serving one term as a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook, Pedersen called the firm a “go-to litigation boutique” and said he couldn’t pass up the chance to join its ranks.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we bring details of a defense win for Cisco in a jury trial in the Western District of Texas, Greyhound escapes a $15 million damages request in a wrongful death trial in Dallas County and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a pro se lawsuit against the American Bar Association.
Among the law firms involved in the litigation sprawling across state and federal courtrooms in California, Texas, Louisiana and New York are Gibson Dunn, Holland & Knight, Sheppard Mullin, Quinn Emanuel and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. It all began in December with the filing of a since-dismissed Jane Doe lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that accused Jay-Z and Sean Combs of “drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl” in 2000.
In the litigation initiated by self-described government watchdog group American Oversight, the Texas Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether trial courts have jurisdiction to order the governor and attorney general to release information under the Public Information Act. American Oversight turned to the courts to get access to communications surrounding two events: the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.
The Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday morning was told there isn’t enough evidence that the construction of a pipe manufacturing plant in rural Matagorda County was the cause of flooding that damaged several neighboring homes during Hurricane Harvey.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas Supreme Court answers two certified questions from the Fifth Circuit, and a plaintiff who saw her $222 million jury award canceled abandons her appeal.
A cap on damages agreed to by CPS Energy and Robert and Virginia Rymers in advance of trial means the utility will only owe $60 million. The Rymerses suffered burns, and lost two pet dogs as well as all possessions inside their rental home as a result of the blast.
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