Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A decision issued Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of what can be appealed during an inter partes review of patent cases, providing some clarity to portions of the America Invents Act. The case originated in a Texas court and pitted two Dallas lawyers against each other at oral argument.
The Supreme Court of Texas took the unusual step of vacating a lower court decision in an already moot case involving the Texas Education Agency. In a per curiam decision, the court said it wanted to avoid future “gamesmanship” on issues of public importance. Janet Elliott has the details.
Patrick O'Connell is an Austin-based solo whose practice is almost exclusively qui tam cases. He chases fraud on behalf of clients in cases in which the State of Texas is on his side. But in a case now officially before the U.S. Supreme Court, O'Connell finds himself facing off against the Lone Star State in a challenge to its COVID-19 abortion restrictions. The Lawbook's Tony Mauro explains.
The Fifth Circuit recently confronted a classic “economic loss rule” problem under Texas law. While the case involved a dispute about the operation of a power turbine, the legal framework described by Golden Spread could easily set the ground rules for future business tort litigation arising from the COVID-19 crisis.
When the Texas Supreme Court convened for oral argument Wednesday, it wasn't in the familiar halls of the court, but in virtual space. Honoring COVID-19 stay-at-home directives, the court conducted oral arguments in three cases via teleconferencing, becoming only the second state supreme court in the nation to do so (Ohio apparently beat them by a day). Bottom line: The technology performed smoothly for the most part, appellants got their virtual day in court and some of the justices got to wear their robes at home. Janet Elliott describes the court's first argument in W&T Offshore v. Fredieu
The Texas Supreme Court issued a new emergency order Wednesday that officially stays or tolls “any statute-of-limitations deadlines for the filing or service of any civil case” between March 13 and June 1. The new order takes discretion away from trial judges.
A widely monitored and hotly contested patent dispute in the oil patch likely ended Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled that energy giant Schlumberger did not infringe on the intellectual property of legendary Houston energy inventor and lawyer, Dr. Claude Cooke.
Arbitrators in commercial civil disputes may change their minds and reverse their own final decisions without the worry of any review by federal judges, even in cases in which judges believe the arbitrator committed “grave error.” The Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of AT&T, which has been in a five-year-long labor dispute with one of its labor unions, the Communications Workers of America.
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday imposed a stiffer level of liability for energy companies involved in tanker ship oil spills and other marine accidents near ports. Amicus briefs filed in the case sounded the alarm, including a brief by Houston lawyer George Diaz-Arrastia who said his client, Houston-based Tricon Energy, could be severely affected if the high court adopted the lower court's interpretation.
The Dallas Court of Appeals, in an 8-5 decision issued Thursday, granted review of a personal injury case and reversed the trial court’s no-evidence summary judgment for the defendant.
Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins' name on behalf of Texas turns up on the Supreme Court’s online docket 50 times, many representing multi-state amicus briefs, others involving other cases brought for or against Texas. At age 39, he has waded into almost all of the headline-making cases the high court is handling these days. This is Tony Mauro's first article as a Texas Lawbook correspondent.
When a brown recluse spider bit Henry McCall, no one could have anticipated that the aftermath would shape the future of tort litigation. But that may well have happened in the recent Texas Supreme Court case of Hillis v. McCall. In addressing McCall’s spider bite, the court’s opinion sets legal rules that will likely control future cases involving novel coronavirus exposure.
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