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, Jerry Jones hires a Jackson Walker First Amendment pro to defend him in a defamation suit, Texas reaches multimillion-dollar settlements with Audi, Volkswagen and Walgreens and a chemical company lost a bid on appeal to saddle an insurer with a $16 million bill after paying fraudulent invoices.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit has asked the state’s high court to answer two certified questions that will determine if two flight attendants, Marvin Sanders and Matthew Sodrok, can proceed with their suit against Boeing over the alleged malfunction of a smoke detector on one of the company’s planes.
In an “exceedingly rare” move, as a dissenting justice noted, the case was not first decided by a three-justice panel before the en banc court considered it. The court’s May 18 divided decision generated two dissents and likely set the stage for an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Kinder Morgan gets a win at the Texas Supreme Court in a tax fight with a school district, a jury sides with the widow of a NASA astronaut in a probate dispute involving space artifacts, and a Houston company is accused of monopolizing an ERCOT savings program.
The court unanimously determined that at this stage in proceedings USA Lending Group had presented enough evidence to avoid Winstead’s bid to have the lawsuit tossed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. Assuming without deciding that the state’s anti-SLAPP law applies to this case, the justices found that USA Lending should be allowed to proceed in the trial court with the suit accusing the firm of failing to request $1.2 million in damages in a motion for default judgment.
Opposing counsel already are plotting challenges and appeals in at least two of the cases, and Tom Melsheimer — a former law partner of Tillotson’s and best man at his wedding — views his win on liability for PlainsCapital Bank, which came with an award of $2.5 million in fees and expenses, as a loss for Tillotson. But Tillotson recently spoke to The Lawbook about the intense few weeks of litigation that resulted in what he said are favorable results for each of his clients.
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, the state of Texas turns to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher to defend it in a long-running lawsuit over the quality of foster care, minority investors in an energy company allege one of the world’s largest hedge funds breached its duties in a rushed $788 million sale, and the Texas Supreme Court clarifies the reach of arbitration provisions.
U.S. News & World Report had to delay its release of the 2024 rankings after some institutions raised questions about the data. The new list shows the University of Texas at Austin School of Law still leads the state, but Texas A&M University School of Law is rising rapidly.
Nick Kennedy, a partner in the firm’s Dallas office, recently argued his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He sat for an interview with The Lawbook about the experience, the preparation and the possible ramifications of the court’s decision.
The International Association of Defense Counsel, the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, Airlines for America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Lawyers for Civil Justice all filed amicus briefs in support of FedEx last week. FedEx is fighting a $366 million jury verdict in favor of former employee Jennifer Harris.
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