2024 Houston Art Car Parade
Photos by Michelle Casady [metaslider id = “115138”]
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, split panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hit pause on the transfer of a lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s plan to cap credit card late fees and nix a nearly $240,000 sanction against the former CEO of Highland Capital Management. In lower courts, Texas reaches a $6.6 million settlement over a 2019 petrochemical fire and Charif Souki is found by a bankruptcy judge to owe at least $100 million to his creditors.
Just east of Austin, Martin Marietta Materials and TXI Operations operate a sand and gravel mine on the banks of the Colorado River. Their neighbor across the river, on the northern bank, is Good River Farms, a 377-acre pecan farm containing about 8,000 trees that has been owned and operated by the Wimberly family since 1959. This lawsuit was spawned from a major rain event — described as a 120-year flood — that hit the area on Oct. 30, 2015.
A doctrine intended to keep courts from second-guessing official actions of foreign governments was front-and-center during oral arguments Tuesday before a Fifth Circuit panel tasked with deciding whether to revive a lawsuit brought by a family that alleges a work of art sold under duress to a Nazi art dealer in the 1930s belongs to them and not the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a judge in Houston sides with a group of former BP employees in an ERISA suit, the Fifth Circuit expedites oral arguments in a dispute between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over plans to cap credit card late fees and Parkland Health prevails on appeal in an employment discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.
Dr. Azul Shirazali Jaffer is being sued by Michelle Maestas in Fort Bend County district court for allegedly sexually assaulting her as she woke up in the recovery room in October 2022 following a breast augmentation procedure. A Houston appellate court this week agreed with the Fort Bend County district judge who declined to dismiss the suit in July 2023.
In an opinion issued March 20, a three-justice panel of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio determined Barbara C. Barnett will not have to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit where insurer Texas Medical Liability Trust argues it should not have to cover the cost of defending a fraud lawsuit Barnett filed against her former oncologist, Dr. David J. Friedman. The ruling reversed a Bexar County district judge’s ruling that Barnett could be deposed.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifth Circuit issues a rare ruling reviving a covid-related coverage fight between SXSW and its insurer, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce takes steps
In a case that presented the court with an issue of first impression, the panel wrote that it would “decline to open that Pandora’s box of frivolous appeals” by exercising jurisdiction in the case. Christopher Novinger had unsuccessfully tried to undo the gag order provision he agreed to in July 2022, and failed again Tuesday.
The Texas Supreme Court must decide two things: Is the new protocol for setting prices in an electricity emergency a “competition rule” under the Public Utility Regulatory Act? And if it is, did the Public Utility Commission of Texas exceed its authority under either PURA or the Administrative Procedure Act in approving it?
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.