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 13 days, Arnold & Itkin has filed two motions to disqualify Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing from representing Transocean in the multidistrict litigation stemming from alleged injuries suffered by offshore workers during 2020’s Hurricane Zeta. The most recent motion alleges a former law clerk for Arnold & Itkin “improperly took confidential and proprietary information” with her when she went to work for her current employer, AZA.
Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who, prior to his appointment to the Texas Supreme Court in 2018, formerly served as the general counsel to Gov. Greg Abbott and before that as an attorney in the Office of the Attorney General, did not hold back on his view that briefing from Texas was insufficient to secure the relief that was sought. The five-page concurrence issued Thursday stands out both for its tone and because of its author.
In a one-sentence order issued Wednesday, the Texas Supreme Court denied a request from PlainsCapital Bank to move its appeal from the Fifth court of Appeals in Dallas to the newly created Fifteenth Court of Appeals in Austin. The bank had argued the state’s high court should grant the permissive transfer because the case is “extraordinarily important to the business community.”
BP Energy Company has filed a lawsuit in the Texas business courts accusing Dallas oilman Brad Cox of breaching a $270 million guaranty agreement related to a loan given to MLCJR LLC, a business owned by Cox.
It is one of less than a dozen cases filed in the business courts since they opened Sept. 1 and is by far seeking more damages than any of the other cases filed in those courts.
A brief, two-sentence order issued by the new appellate court on Tuesday afternoon dealt a blow to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempts to force the State Fair of Texas to allow firearms on premises during the 24 days the fair is open to the public.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas touts what could be a first-of-its-kind settlement with an artificial intelligence company accused of misleading customers about the reliability of the product, The Wall Street Journal secures a ruling upholding the strength of its subscription agreements, and the full Fifth Circuit agrees to rehear a case involving a Houston personal injury law firm and a former associate.
In the two-page order, Judge Marvin Isgur also recused himself from all disputes “between the United States Trustee and Jackson Walker that relate to alleged non-disclosure issues by Jackson Walker.” The order was issued in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Altera Infrastructure Project Services, in which former judge David Jones acted as a mediator and Jackson Walker represented a party.
The Fifteenth Court of Appeals, which opened and began accepting cases Sept. 1, will be tasked with determining whether Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky got it right when she rejected Texas’ request to halt a ban on guns at the State Fair. Texas has argued it pursued litigation to protect citizens’ gun rights. The defendants argue this case is actually about property rights.
A main point of contention in the briefing is whether the dispute centers on a bank loan — which would deprive the Fifteenth Court of Appeals of exclusive jurisdiction over the case under Texas Government Code section 25A.001(14) — or if it centers instead on a guaranty agreement. In the underlying case, parties on both sides of the dispute claim to have been the victims of a Ponzi scheme.
The jurisdiction of the state’s new Fifteenth Court of Appeals has been challenged by a party in a dispute that had been on appeal before the First Court of Appeals in Houston. A total of 88 cases have been transferred to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.
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