Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Google gears up to defend against patent infringement claims in Midland, the battle between the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars won't be going to a jury trial, a $17 million Ponzi scheme architect from Houston goes to prison, and the Texas Supreme Court sides with a lawyer fending off claims from a dissatisfied client.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday dealt a blow to the maker of a nicotine pouch product, finding that the company’s VELO pouches are subject to the same duty levied on cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff. But the court did leave one door open for RJR Vapor.
In the third trial in multidistrict litigation stemming from the fatal 2020 explosion in West Houston, the jury unanimously cleared 3M of negligence. The first two trials ended in verdicts against 3M, totaling about $156 million for 12 plaintiffs.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Hunton Andrews Kurth scores a win for Oncor in an appeal of a National Labor Relations Board decision, and the former head of internal audits for a defunct electric vehicle company strikes a deal to settle insider trading allegations.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a lawsuit Mercuria Energy American filed against a former trader won’t be going to trial after all, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gets a $7 million final judgment in a case against a forex trader from Houston it alleged was operating a Ponzi scheme.
The group of 12 downstream property owners in this case have alleged their damages total $22 million. Their lawyer, Richard Mithoff, who represents an additional 502 of the thousands of downstream plaintiffs whose claims are still pending, said he’s hopeful a trial date for the damages portion of the case will be set soon.
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright is expected to announce Wednesday his plans to resign from the Western District of Texas bench he has held for nearly eight years and to step down in August.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Winston & Strawn is representing the NFL Players Association in a federal lawsuit in Houston over the handling of a grievance and AZA and Beck Redden prevail on appeal in a California trade secrets dispute over a penile implant.
For two hours Tuesday morning, 12 jurors and one alternate seated in a Harris County courtroom were told they would be determining who was responsible for a deadly explosion that rocked a West Houston neighborhood in 2020, claiming lives and damaging or destroying more than 450 businesses and homes. (2020 file photo by Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP)
In a tag-team closing argument Monday afternoon, two attorneys representing a client facing a $432.7 million damages request by Energy Transfer told Business Court Judge Grant Dorfman the amount being sought is both unfounded and a drastic overreach.
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