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.
Rebecca Fike, formerly senior counsel with the SEC, officially made the move to Reed Smith July 1. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook after one week on the job, she said she knew joining Reed Smith was the right move for her after meeting lawyers in the firm’s Dallas office during the interview process.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Northern District of Texas sees a busy week prosecuting those who allegedly file false tax returns, a trade dress fight between competing carnicerias with ties to Texas moves forward in California, and the city of Dallas secures a favorable ruling at the Fifth Circuit in its fight to regulate short-term lenders like TitleMax.
When the relationship between Dr Pepper and Reyes — which dated back to the inking of an October 2017 exclusive licensing agreement — hit a snag, Dr Pepper filed a declaratory judgment action in Texas in April 2024, seeking a ruling it had a right to cancel the distribution deal, and two days later Reyes filed suit in California arguing Dr Pepper had breached the agreement.
The responses were filed July 2, after some families last month urged U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to deny the motion to dismiss the government’s criminal fraud case against Boeing and appoint a special prosecutor to take over. The government sued Boeing in January 2021 in the wake of two plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas Supreme Court determined SpaceX will not have to face a new trial in an auto crash case and the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a Texas law requiring visitors to pornographic websites verify their age.
A Dallas County district court judge has issued a standing order barring a Frisco attorney from handling cases in her courtroom — a move the judge said was necessary to ensure “the impartial and efficient administration of justice,” but the attorney says the order constitutes oppression.
A case that began 11 years ago with a fatal crash on an icy stretch of highway near Odessa was ended Friday by the Texas Supreme Court when the justices issued an opinion wiping out a more than $100 million verdict against trucking company Werner Enterprises and its driver.
After receiving some guidance from the Texas Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has determined that a former law professor at Southern Methodist University will get another chance to bring defamation claims against some of her former colleagues.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Federal Trade Commission sees a $37.5 million judgment in its favor trimmed down to $12.2 million by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth sides with a landowner in a condemnation dispute involving golf course operations.
The Texas Supreme Court delivered some bad news for The Boeing Company on Friday morning when it issued an opinion clearing the way for the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association to sue the company for damages caused by its alleged misrepresentations about the airworthiness of the 737 MAX. Even with the court’s ruling, the union could face an uphill climb to prove and collect any damages in the case.
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