Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
While the court’s original order lifting the injunction, issued Monday, was signed by the three judges who issued it — Judges Carl E. Stewart, Catharina Haynes and Stephen A. Higginson — the subsequent order putting the nationwide injunction back in place, issued Thursday, was not signed, but entered instead by the clerk of the court at the direction of the court.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifth Circuit explains the limitations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in allowing a lawsuit against Salesforce to proceed, the Houston city council greenlights a settlement in a revenge porn case involving members of the fire department and a multimillion-dollar jury award in a case involving a contract to construct a natural gas plant is slashed.
In three orders issued Wednesday and Thursday, Harris County District Judge Rabeea Collier sanctioned Transocean and its former legal team for “egregious” conduct in the multidistrict litigation. The judge declined to disqualify the company’s new legal team, AZA, from continuing its representation of the drilling company.
One week into an August trial, the real estate developer and crane rental company reached a settlement agreement with plaintiffs over the crane collapse onto a Dallas apartment complex. Or so they thought. A conflict over the settlement terms has prompted the case to return to court, and another trial date has been set.
Recent developments in the dispute stemming from new Federal Bureau of Ocean Management bond rules targeting offshore energy companies include a question of whether the case belongs in federal court and if Vinson & Elkins should be allowed to represent two insurers after previously representing W&T for nearly a decade.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Whataburger hires Holland & Knight to defend a patent infringement lawsuit in East Texas, and DLA Piper turns to a team from Vinson & Elkins to defend it in a legal malpractice lawsuit in Harris County over its alleged employment of a “fake lawyer.”
A group of investors allege Rhodium Enterprises executives and Fort Worth-based Imperium Investments Holdings, LLC deceived investors to secure a $33 million investment. Rockdale-based Rhodium filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August.
A lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas Thursday by a family-owned logistics company accuses some of its biggest competitors of “illicitly” building a multibillion-dollar business by “systematically defrauding consumers and small business owners” in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.