Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, an attorney who cited made-up cases to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas gets sanctioned, American Airlines is sued by a former pilot who alleges he was shortchanged on disability benefits, and the Texas Supreme Court answers a certified question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in one of the final weeks of its term.
The nation’s largest and one of its oldest legal organizations has filed a federal lawsuit seeking a restraining order to prevent President Donald Trump and his cabinet members from implementing a policy of “intimidation and coercion” against law firms that has created a “chill of blizzard proportions [that] continues to grip most of the top law firms and lawyers in the country,” the complaint states. The American Bar Association accuses President Trump of using “the vast powers of the Executive Branch to coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, causes, and policy positions the President does not like.” Susman Godfrey, including Houston partners Justin Nelson, Neal Manne and Harry Susman and Dallas partner Barry Barnett, are leading the litigation for the ABA.
Five victims of the Houston Watson Grinding 2020 fatal explosion saw some relief from a Harris County jury earlier this month. Their attorneys discussed the details of the case with The Texas Lawbook and the five-year journey it has taken to obtain the $37.9 million verdict. Another trial in the case is expected at the end of this month. (2020 file photo by Godofredo A. Vásquez/Houston Chronicle via The Associated Press)
The widow of an Arlington firefighter who died while celebrating his 10th wedding anniversary at the all-inclusive Royalton Chic resort in Cancun, Mexico, was awarded $31.27 million by a jury this week that found the hotel liable for negligence. Elijah Snow, 35, died in July 2021 and his widow, Jamie, filed suit in June 2022, naming as defendants RCM Hotel, its parent company Blue Diamond Hotels and Resorts and a travel agency that was later dropped from the suit.
A former reporter with The Indiana Lawyer in Indianapolis, Alexa Shrake joins The Lawbook team as the publication expands its efforts to cover complex commercial litigation and the trial lawyer community in Texas. “Alexa was hired after a nationwide search that yielded more than 200 applicants,” said Texas Lawbook senior litigation reporter and editor Michelle Casady, who leads a team of five journalists who cover litigation full- or part-time. “She was clearly the best reporter for the job."
Imagine knowing what a jury is going to do — whether they will find liability, how they will apportion it and how much they will award in damages — before voir dire even begins. “The last five trials I’ve gone to I’ve been armed with the answer to those questions before the trial even starts,” Brent Walker of Brent Walker Law told The Texas Lawbook in a recent interview. “It’s sort of like playing poker and knowing what the cards are going to be.”
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a lawsuit is filed against the organizers of a cheer competition that took place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and ended in what plaintiffs call a chaotic stampede, and the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling that rescinded punishment doled out by the Commission for Lawyer Discipline.
While walking his dog at a hotel in Uptown Dallas, a man fell and suffered serious injuries. A Dallas County jury has awarded him more than $9 million for the incident.
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