Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
An ad hoc committee of lawyers who represent about 55,000 talc claimants alleging Johnson & Johnson products caused their cancer have told a bankruptcy judge in New Jersey that they support the company’s plan to establish an $8.9 billion trust to pay out the claims. Many well-known plaintiffs firms from Texas have joined the committee, but one has stayed quiet: Mark Lanier.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a request from a handful of major oil companies seeking to move climate-related lawsuits filed in state court to federal court and a Dallas County jury recently found that Robert L. Winspear and his business colleague defrauded a finance lender.
A team of lawyers from McKool Smith and Irell & Manella secured a $303 million patent infringement verdict on Friday in U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s courtroom after convincing the jury that Samsung willfully infringed Netlist’s patents related to computer memory technology. The same day, in a trial before U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, a jury sided with Textron Innovations, finding that SZ DJI Technology owes $279 million for infringing two patents related to drones.
Oncor has maintained that James Stacey Taylor’s claims are barred because of his “contributory negligence” and that it enjoys statutory indemnity for any liability under state law. Taylor’s attorney, Sean Breen of Howry Breen & Herman, told The Lawbook he presented the case to the jury as a tragic accident that wouldn’t have happened but for Oncor’s practice of “putting profits over safety.”
The settlement brings an end to a federal lawsuit lodged by six former employees of the office in November. Additional terms of the settlement requires three plaintiffs who still were employed by the DA’s office to resign and bars all plaintiffs from seeking future employment with the county. Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis and First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye remain in their positions.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup: Uvalde police officers lawyer up in the suit over the Robb Elementary shooting; Fifth Circuit determines discussion of “The Texas Hammer,” during jury selection didn’t taint the outcome of a trial and Pappas Restaurants’ fight over losing a $470 million contract heats up.
A new five-part Showtime series about the criminal trial of the Branch Davidians who survived the siege in Waco 30 years ago begins streaming today. Houston defense attorney Dan Cogdell, who won an acquittal for his client Clive Doyle, is played by the actor Giovanni Ribisi. The Texas Lawbook had a chance to chat with Cogdell about both experiences,the real and the cinematic.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Citgo Petroleum hires defense attorneys in a $100 million Citgo 6 lawsuit, a litigation funder says a Philadelphia firm owes $13.4 million and a former county attorney gets indicted on public corruption charges.
Arun Agarwal and his company AAVN own 10 patents for a process that turns cotton and cotton-polyester blend materials into luxury, high-thread-count bedsheets. In the latest battle to protect his intellectual property, Winstead attorney Cory Johnson won dismissal of a federal suit in North Carolina where a competitor was trying to invalidate all 10 patents.
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht spoke for almost 40 minutes Wednesday, supporting a variety of proposals that he said would increase court efficiencies, the caliber of judges and access to justice. "If the justice system were a business, and its customers had any choice, it would be in bankruptcy," Hecht said.
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