Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was published in 1966, which suggests that the 60th anniversary is good time to revisit it. The novel was a subject of discussion in our Legal Philosophy seminar at Texas A&M University School of Law earlier this semester, and we found some of the seminar participants’ observations worth sharing: such as whether there are important, inherent differences between urban and rural justice systems.
In a case where three Jane Does alleged Dallas developer Bill Hutchinson sexually assaulted them, a jury agreed with two of the women Thursday night after 11 hours of deliberation. The two women who prevailed alleged that Hutchinson raped them. The third plaintiff alleged Hutchinson groped her, a claim the jury rejected.
The jury awarded the prevailing women a combined $860,000 in damages, but the plaintiffs were seeking an award of $79.8 million.
The Texas Business Court’s second year is off to a faster start than its first, and the expansion of its jurisdictional reach through House Bill 40 appears to be contributing to the uptick in its caseload. This analysis takes a look at the numbers, with a focus on the Eleventh and Third Divisions.
In a major legal victory Wednesday for leaders of Gateway Church, a federal judge in Sherman dismissed a lawsuit brought by members of the church who claim its leaders misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of their tithes.
This month marks the 40th anniversary of Judge David Hittner’s appointment by President Ronald Reagan. That tenure places him well within the 10 longest-serving district judges in Texas history. The traits that have made Judge Hittner a great federal trial judge apply beyond the bench. They are ones that any lawyer can learn from.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher secures a big win on appeal for a major Brazilian mining company that was facing a $500 million lawsuit in Nueces County, and a team from King & Spalding beats back class certification in a 6,000-plaintiff antitrust case playing out in federal court in Illinois.
Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor heard opening statements from counsel Monday morning in Fort Worth on whether Maritime Research & Recovery should keep the treasure it recovered from a ship that sank off the coast of the Bahamas and if Allen Exploration committed defamation.
An Eastern District of Texas jury in Marshall swatted Verizon Wireless with a $190 million verdict for infringement of a patent owned by Aspen Networks, a California technology company. The case is one of three such cases alleging the unauthorized use of Aspen's system to connect cellular phone calls in-progress between cell and Wi-Fi systems. The other two cases involving AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA are still pending.
Dallas attorney Laura Benitez Geisler agreed to represent former police captain Terry Bevill after hearing his story. He had been fired, arrested and charged with a felony for signing an affidavit questioning whether a coworker could receive a fair trial in Wood County, putting him at odds with powerful rural officials.
Despite losing his job, health insurance and facing legal uncertainty for 16 months, Bevill said he would act the same way again because it was his duty to uphold the Constitution.
Moved by his conviction, Geisler felt a responsibility to take his case.
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.
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