Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Texas Lawbook is pleased to announce that former Dallas Morning News courts reporter Krista Torralva has joined The Lawbook team to work with Michelle Casady and Janet Elliott to cover complex commercial litigation being handled by Texas lawyers.
Austin Teng, who officially joined Winstead this week, talks about his career change from software engineer to attorney and the future impact of artificial intelligence.
The jury that was selected last Monday and began deliberating that Friday took about two and a half hours to side with construction staffing company Harris Ventures, which does business as Staff Zone, in its dispute with landlord JM-RB Properties. The panel’s 10-2 decision awarded Staff Zone about $1.3 million in lost profits incurred when it was “constructively evicted” from the building it leased in Plano, plus $450,000 in attorney fees and about $150,000 to cover expert witness costs.
Former software engineer Austin Teng was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Austin.
Trulock shares her predictions on the impact of the upcoming presidential election, how Texas employment law has changed and her advice for younger lawyers.
In this edition of litigation roundup, the Fifth Circuit has asked the Texas Supreme Court to answer a certified question in a dispute that pits a nonprofit group against the state’s environmental protection agency, the Texas Supreme Court grants review in two tax appraisal cases involving the value of Oncor’s transmission lines and the founder of a Call of Duty esports team take aim at Activision Blizzard’s business practices in a new suit.
A Dallas jury heard eight days of testimony and deliberated for two hours before deciding the owner of roughly 150 Popeyes restaurants, Guillermo Perales and his company Sun Holdings, owed former employee Jerry “Scott” Stockton about $15.6 million in compensatory damages and $15.1 million in punitive damages for failing to follow through on a promise to compensate him with 5 percent of the annual operating profits of the restaurants. Sun Holdings is the second largest franchisee organization in the country, with about 1,800 restaurants in its portfolio.
Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ruled an Austin transcription service violated Texas law governing the court reporting industry, even though the commission dismissed a complaint saying it lacked jurisdiction. Court reporters say Judge Ezra’s ruling is a profound decision that affirms their interpretation of the law.
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