Jury Awards Ex-Houston Firefighter $250K in Nude Video Lawsuit

Melinda Abbt was awarded about $130,000 in mental anguish and exemplary damages and about $120,000 in attorney fees Thursday by a Harris County jury that agreed her former direct supervisor at the Houston Fire Department had unlawfully shared an intimate video of her with a fellow firefighter in 2007. Abbt didn’t find out about the disclosure until 2017 and filed suit the next year. She was unable to return to work after learning the video she made for her husband had been circulated.

November 17, 2023 Michelle Casady

Texas Real Estate Groups Sued for Inflated Commissions ‘Conspiracy’

A new antitrust lawsuit filed in Texas names more than 30 real estate companies and associations across the state that home sellers QJ Team and Five Points Holdings allege have participated in a conspiracy developed by the National Association of Realtors that saddles home sellers with costs that should be borne by buyers. The proposed class action lawsuit alleges the practice results in inflated commissions and increased home prices. Last month in a similar lawsuit, a federal jury issued a $1.78 billion verdict to the sellers of about 260,000 homes in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.

November 15, 2023 Michelle Casady

Jury Says Berg & Androphy Owes Nothing to Ex-Associate

A jury that heard three days of testimony in a contentious lawsuit where attorney Justin Pfeiffer was seeking $32,000 in back wages from his former firm, Berg & Androphy, unanimously decided after about an hour of deliberations Monday that no employment contract agreement existed between the parties. The lawsuit pitted Pfeiffer, now a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, against Houston trial lawyer David Berg.

November 13, 2023 Michelle Casady

Litigation Roundup: Client Sues Winston; SCOTUS Clears Path for Environmental Suit; McKool Awarded $4.7M in Fees

Last week was business for lawyers and judges inside the courtroom and publicly. Texas voters by a nearly two-to-one margin rejected Proposition 13, which would have raised the mandatory retirement age for state judges from 75 to 79. In litigation, two energy companies sued Winston & Strawn for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty; The U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt an environmental trial set to start later this month in Louisiana against BP America, Shell Oil and Hilcorp Energy in which the plaintiffs seek $7 billion in damages; a Dallas jury awarded McKool Smith in $4.7 million in legal fees; and Akin scored a win for Elon Musk’s SpaceX in an immigration dispute.

November 13, 2023 Mark Curriden

Judge Twice Rebukes Ex-Associate Suing Berg & Androphy During Contentious Testimony

The unusual admonition from the bench came on the third and final day of testimony in Justin Pfeiffer’s breach-of-contract suit against Berg & Androphy, his former employer.

November 10, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Baker Botts, Murtha Cullina Score Defense Jury Win for Exxon Mobil

A Connecticut jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday before rejecting claims in a $40 million lawsuit brought by the wife of a former Exxon gas station owner that the Houston-based oil giant was responsible for the acute myelogenous leukemia that caused his death in 2018 at the age of 67. The defense legal team also included Exxon Mobil corporate counsel Ted Ray and Baker Botts partner Ty Buthod.

November 10, 2023 Mark Curriden

Yetter Coleman Nets $58.5 Million Settlement in Business Civil Rights Case

The settlement between a gravel mining company and Sacramento County, California, is one of the largest ever in a business civil rights case nationwide, the Houston-based firm said.

November 9, 2023 Krista Torralva

From the Courtroom to the Classroom to ADR: An Austin-Based Attorney’s Professional Journey

Now in my third "career" as a JAMS neutral, I've had a front row seat to the rise of alternative dispute resolution as a litigator and a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. The unknown of what the state business court will look like, an increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and a growing focus on ESG are a few reasons to be bullish on ADR.

November 8, 2023 Tracy Walters McCormack, Esq.