The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Commercial Litigation

Taking Depositions for Effective Use at Trial

Depositions should never be treated as simply “the next step” in litigation. Instead, there should be a plan as to whether depositions will be used to explore unknown facts or at trial. Too often, lawyers default into a fact-finding mission at a deposition and neglect to solidify the deponent’s sworn testimony in a way that can be used during a cross-examination at trial. This article focuses on key issues attorneys should consider when taking depositions for effective use at trial.

Baylor Law Dean to Step Down After 31 Years

This summer, Bradley Toben will return to the faculty, where he first began teaching law courses in 1983, following his tenure as the longest-serving dean of any American Bar Association-accredited law school in the country.

Winter Storm Uri Litigation Heating Up at Two Year Mark

The massive legal battle pitting thousands of Texas residents and small business owners against hundreds of energy companies, such as NRG Power, Calpine, Oncor Electric and ExxonMobil, over damages incurred during Winter Storm Uri two years ago is finally heating up. This week’s two-year anniversary of the crippling winter storm also means that the statute of limitations for most Uri-related lawsuits takes effect this week.

Lawyers representing more than 1,500 Texans and businesses have filed more than 80 new wrongful death, personal injury and property damage lawsuits against more than 360 energy companies and ERCOT since last Thursday. Dozens more lawsuits are expected to be filed in Texas courts Wednesday and Thursday.

The Texas Lawbook wrongly reported earlier that CPS Energy had filed for Chapter 11.

Tuesday Morning Selects Munsch Hardt to Lead Second Bankruptcy

In the world of corporate bankruptcy, Dallas-based Tuesday Morning Corp. has entered what is known as Chapter 22. For the second time in three years, the discount retailer Tuesday Morning filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday in the Fort Worth Division of the Northern District of Texas citing liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

Power Companies: Winter Storm Uri Lawsuits ‘Ruinous’ to Industry if Not Dismissed

Scores of Texas electric generators and distributors — CenterPoint, Luminant and NRG, to name a few — asked a Houston appeals court Friday to dismiss more than 230 lawsuits brought against them by more than 1,500 plaintiffs stemming from Winter Storm Uri two years ago because the cases are without legal merit and “upend the state’s electricity markets.”

In two separate mandamus petitions filed with the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, lawyers for the power generators and electricity transmission and distribution utilities argue that Harris County District Judge Sylvia Matthews “clearly abused [her] discretion in allowing the cases to proceed.”

Banks Seek to Postpone Multibillion-Dollar Trial in Final Stanford Civil Case

One of the banks being sued for billions of dollars for allegedly aiding and abetting Houston financier R. Allen Stanford and his investment firm in a massive Ponzi scheme has asked a federal appeals court to stop the 13-year-old case from going to trial later this month. Lawyers for the four banks want the trial set for Feb. 27 in Houston to be postponed because they say the judge in the case has issued orders that are “rife with clear and indisputable errors.”

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