Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Another jury trial stemming from the Watson Grinding explosion that killed three people and destroyed hundreds of homes in 2020 recently ended in Harris County. The plaintiffs were seven victims of the explosion. The two-week trial ended with a verdict against 3M Company.
The lawsuit over the franchises' shared venue space at American Airlines Center in Dallas that was filed Oct. 28 has been set for a jury trial to begin before Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill Jan. 26. Lawyers said that type of speed is what they hoped to see from the new, specialty court.
At a hearing in Fort Worth in early September, Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor heard testimony from some of the wives, parents, brothers and daughters of the 346 people killed in two Boeing 737 Max plane crashes who pleaded with him to reject the government’s request to dismiss the criminal case against the manufacturer. In Thursday’s order dismissing the case, the judge ruled that the government “has not acted with bad faith, has given more than mere conclusory reasons for its dismissal, and has satisfied its obligations under the [Crime Victim’s Rights Act].”
The flurry of activity in the GWG bankruptcy case comes just days after the former chief executive officer of the company’s subsidiary, Beneficient, Brad Heppner, was indicted by federal authorities in New York on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, falsification of records and making false statements to auditors. The bankruptcy case will be assigned to a different judge in the Southern District of Texas, Chief Judge Alia Moses has determined.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, Kirkland & Ellis partner Kasdin Mitchell talks about getting to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court, where she once clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as her time before law school, working in the White House for First Lady Laura Bush. Her mother’s pursuit of a law degree inspired her own path.
A new edition of On the Jury Trial aims to provide guidance to lawyers in a post-Covid pandemic world. Coauthors Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer and Fifth Court of Appeals Justice Craig Smith celebrated the second edition of the book with a signing event in Dallas Tuesday evening.
Two defamation lawsuits filed against critics of FBI Director Kash Patel are unfolding in federal court in Texas. In the Western District of Texas, Patel’s girlfriend has sued a former FBI special agent for allegedly defamatory statements made on a podcast, while in the Southern District of Texas, Patel himself has sued the former assistant director of counterintelligence for the FBI for comments he made during an MSNBC appearance. The defendants have enlisted Dorsey & Whitney, Dykema, Jackson Walker, Fletcher Held and First Amendment pros from SMU to fight the litigation. Binnall Law Group in Alexandria, Virginia, is representing the plaintiffs.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court files an amicus brief in the case where the governor is attempting to remove from office a Democrat who broke quorum in an attempt to block redistricting efforts, and a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals wades into a circuit split involving the National Labor Relations Board’s ability to award full compensatory damages.
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