Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
QUITMAN — After a nine-year legal battle, the city of Quitman has acknowledged the hardships faced by Terry Bevill, a former police captain who was fired and later arrested for aggravated perjury after signing a 2017 affidavit stating he didn’t believe a coworker could receive a fair trial in Wood County.
Two new federal judges with connections to The Valley will be taking the bench in Texas soon, after the Senate Judiciary Committee gave approval to President Donald Trump’s nominees for the roles in the Southern District of Texas.
An error in the jury charge means Union Pacific Railroad Company will be getting a new trial in a lawsuit brought by a woman who drunkenly fell asleep on the tracks in a seated position and sued the company for her injuries.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth regional office gets a final judgment against a Mansfield man accused in a $2.9 million fraud, and a company that offers an array of services to fuel retailers turns to the Texas Business Court in pursuit of $21 million in damages.
Mediation is intended to resolve disputes, not to check a procedural box or make a perfunctory settlement attempt. Too often, avoidable missteps derail that objective. Here are common mediation mistakes that make resolution harder to achieve.
In its recent decision in K&K Inez Properties v. Kolle, Texas Supreme Court clarifies the required showing for a “responsible third party” designation. This article examines the holding and its implications for practitioners.
A Dallas influencer who has cultivated an image for her 400,000 followers of a body-positive, health-conscious, family-friendly mother of three alleges an intimate apparel company “disempowered and humiliated” her by posting an AI-generated deepfake image appearing to show her partially nude body on Instagram. Tranchin’s lawyer, Brett Rosenthal of Reese Marketos, told The Texas Lawbook that EBY had not only disclaimed responsibility for the post, but at one point also threatened his client with a breach of contract claim after she declined to provide additional content to the company.
Following a weeklong trial, the 12-member jury awarded no damages Thursday morning after deliberating for nearly four and a half hours. A group of 13 investors had sued a Houston lawyer claiming he breached his fiduciary duty when he sold a property that formerly housed an LA Fitness for $8.5 million instead of a higher value.
Jerry Jones’ neighbor, reality TV show actor and Dallas developer Bill Hutchinson, has been sued by three anonymous plaintiffs claiming he sexually assaulted them. The women also sued Virgin Hotel Dallas, of which he used to be a minority owner, alleging it was negligent and aware of his behavior toward young women but failed to act. Counsel gave opening statements Thursday morning.
A Los Angeles jury hit Johnson & Johnson with a $32 million verdict in favor of the family of a woman who used the company’s baby powder for years and died of mesothelioma. Johnson & Johnson has vowed to "immediately appeal."
Shayne Henry, a commercial litigation partner, has joined Latham & Watkins in Austin after six years at Kirkland & Ellis across town. He will focus his practice on commercial and intellectual property disputes in state and federal courts, as well as domestic and international arbitration.
Earlier this year, a financial executive opened an AI chatbot to think through his legal exposure before calling his lawyers, then watched a federal judge hand all 31 of those documents to prosecutors.
The lesson looked clear. A Texas court has now complicated that lesson. Same conduct, two courts, opposite results. For Texas litigators, the gap between the two is worth understanding.
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