Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
It started with a client-vendor deal. A nondisclosure agreement was signed. The deal took the back burner, and the parties went their separate ways. But now, they are reunited in the courtroom in the thick of a $49 million legal battle. Neither side is backing down. Natalie Posgate tells the story.
Judge Dale Tillery of the 134th District Court is easily the busiest civil trial judge in Dallas County. But it's not easy being the busiest. It involves relentless punctuality, the occasional 3 a.m. hearing and a willingness to eschew lunch. Natalie Posgate profiles the judge who presided over Reavis v. Toyota.
Dallas District Judge Dale Tillery on Friday ordered Toyota Motor Corp. to pay a Dallas family $213 million – the bulk of a $242 million jury verdict from August that found the automaker liable for a 2016 rear-end accident that left two small children with permanent brain damage. Toyota says it will ask for a new trial. The Lawbook has the details.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed a 2017 jury verdict that awarded $3 million to a member of the Saudi royal family in a breach of contract dispute. The ruling benefits Prince Mansour Bin Abdullah Al-Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Details here of the ruling.
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday dismissed its remaining claims against DIRECTV in the middle of a bench trial that once had $4 billion at stake. The dismissal is the denouement to an opinion issued by a federal judge in California in August that arguably killed the case for the FTC.
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and USPTO Director Andrei Iancu spoke at the SMU Dedman School of Law Friday during its Tsai Leadership Lecture series. The Texas Lawbook's Natalie Posgate had the opportunity to sit down with Director Iancu for a few minutes after the program. Check here to find out what he said.
A San Marcos manufacturing client of K&L Gates filed a legal malpractice suit Tuesday, alleging that the firm represented their lenders against them in a debt dispute. The suit identifies two former K&L Gates lawyers in the conflict, one of them now a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
A Houston jury has awarded a take-nothing defense verdict to three brothers who were accused by two of their other siblings of fraud, securities violations and breach of fiduciary duty of their family business. The case involved money – approximately $30 million – but defense lawyers say the dispute, like many family court battles, went deeper.
It was a defense counsel's dream. After the plaintiffs rested, defense lawyers presented a motion for judgment as a matter of law to U.S. District Judge Samuel Ray Cummings in Lubbock. And he granted it. But that was only one odd turn in a trial – now blessed by the Fifth Circuit – during which procedure really, really mattered.
The U.S. Senate has officially confirmed Dallas attorney Jeremy Kernodle as a judge in the Tyler division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, his law firm Haynes and Boone announced Friday. A qui tam and appellate expert, Kernodle fills the vacancy left by Michael H. Schneider, Sr., who retired from the bench in 2016.
© Copyright 2025 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.
