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 early June, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred to U.S. District Judge Ada Brown a group of proposed class action lawsuits brought by dozens of lawyers over the AT&T data breach. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs — who are among the 73 million current and former customers who had their personal information released on the dark web — are already jockeying for leadership positions in the sprawling litigation.
James Dondero had appealed to the Fifth Circuit in September 2022, arguing the bankruptcy judge wrongly found him in contempt of a temporary restraining order and awarded compensatory damages to Highland. Judge Leslie H. Southwick wrote that the “minor factual issues” Dondero raised on appeal weren’t enough to undo the sanction. “Undergirding our analysis of the sanctions award here is a recognition of the goal of such awards everywhere: ‘to do rough justice,’” he wrote.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we offer an update from the most recent hearing in the lawsuit stemming from the $788 million sale of Primexx Energy, a threatened lawsuit over the death of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson yields a settlement, and six officers and directors of a Houston-based clinic see an end to a $285 million breach claim.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Haynes Boone helps Fox News escape a defamation lawsuit stemming from the Allen Outlet Mall shooting, a Metroplex resident is sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud over his allegedly bogus $200 million offer to buy Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit and a former San Antonio-area city councilwoman is vindicated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
During oral arguments, much of the court’s questioning centered around whether Texas had proven scienter, or that Dr. Richard Malouf knew he was violating the statute when he submitted 1,842 claims for reimbursement, which is required for the judgment against Malouf to stand. But that was not the issue that carried the day for Malouf.
Paul, who argues that what happened to him in this case is “a stunning episode of Wild West justice,” filed his petition on June 13. The Mitte Foundation, which alleges Paul’s petition contains “many factual misstatements,” has until July 18 to file a response. The petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to answer two questions: 1. Whether a criminal-contempt prosecution by an interested private party violates the Due Process Clause. 2. Whether sentencing a criminal defendant to jail via email, in absentia and without the opportunity to address the judge, violates the Due Process Clause or the Sixth Amendment.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail two new changes in rules governing attorneys who practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a jury in Harris County issues a $17 million verdict in a seven-year-old lawsuit and Whataburger goes to court to defend its trademark.
Rounding out appointments to the newly created business courts, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Friday Sofia Androgué and Grant Dorfman will be the inaugural appointees to the Houston division.
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, writing for the unanimous court, explained that when the royalty provisions are read “together, not separately” and are considered in the context of the parties’ agreement, they are not ambiguous. But the ruling that sided with the University of Texas System Board of Regents did not give the university an outright win.
C. Gregory Shamoun of Shamoun & Norman, who represented 13MC in the trial, told The Texas Lawbook in a recent interview that from the beginning, he tried to “keep it simple” for the jury that was given what he said was “one of the most complex” charges he’s seen in 35 years of practicing law. It took the 12-person jury that heard a week of testimony about three hours on Monday to determine Megatel waived its right of first refusal to purchase the property from 13MC via a breach of contract.
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