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, the University of Houston gets a retaliation lawsuit tossed on appeal, a group of investors in a Dallas-area chain of hot chicken restaurants settles its suit with a hospitality group and the Fifth Circuit sides with the National Labor Relations Board in a suit involving fired plant workers.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Southwest Airlines attorneys are denied a stay of a sanctions order that they undergo religious liberty training, the Texas Supreme Court rejects Jerry Jones’ request to end an assault suit brought by a woman he allegedly forcibly kissed at AT&T Stadium and the Fifth Circuit revives a suit against the Food and Drug Administration over tweets about ivermectin.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas wins an appeal to vacate the license of a company wanting to store spent nuclear fuel in the Permian Basin, a team of Haynes Boone attorneys in Dallas defended a $6.6 million award for Pizza Hut in a fight with a former franchisee, and a former general counsel and staff attorney for Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans get a second chance to bring a pay discrimination suit.
In a dissent from a denial of rehearing en banc, Judge James C. Ho pointed to two other recently decided cases to illustrate his argument that First Amendment protections are being eroded for those who live in the Fifth Circuit’s jurisdiction. He decried circuit precedent that has kept free speech cases from making it to trial.
After initially entering a not guilty plea last year, Christiane Kathleen Irwin on Tuesday pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud. The government accused her of inflating her $140,000 salary at Simon Greenstone Panatier when she submitted biweekly payroll, taking home an extra $1.48 million over three years.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Southwest Airlines’ attorneys get a temporary stay of an order that they undergo religious liberty training, the Texas Supreme Court declines to grant Harris County emergency relief in its lawsuit over a new law that abolishes the county’s office of election administration, and the full Fifth Circuit revived a lawsuit brought by female Dallas County jailers alleging sex discrimination.
A jury of 12 sat through six days of trial and deliberated for about eight hours before determining the Baehr family was entitled to $3.1 million in damages. The toxic mold that infested their Austin home also sickened the family of six and prompted Kristina Baehr to launch her own firm to help others in the same situation.
The defendants in a breach of contract dispute had argued that Dallas County District Court Judge Ashley Wysocki’s appointment of her campaign treasurer, James Stanton, as receiver in the case mandated her recusal. Judge Wysocki and Regional Presiding Judge Ray Wheless disagreed.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Houston jury awards a woman $1.2B in a revenge porn case she brought against her ex-boyfriend, the state of Texas is facing another lawsuit over a new law set to go into effect Sept. 1, and McCathern teams up with civil rights lawyer Ben Crump in a suit against Harris County over its treatment of jailed individuals.
A Dallas-area pain management clinic, American Pain and Wellness, argues that the arbitrator of a dispute with a former employee over payment and reimbursement “intentionally” failed to disclose details about his education and religious preferences that amount to evident partiality and dooms the award. Fort Worth lawyer John Chalk of Whitaker Chalk served as the arbitrator.
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