Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The court-appointed receiver in the R. Allen Stanford massive Ponzi scheme litigation scored another victory Tuesday when one of five banks accused of aiding and abetting the Houston financier agreed to settle claims against it for $157 million. The agreement comes just days before four banks are scheduled to go to trial in Houston.
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.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas Supreme Court revives a lawyer’s fight with a litigation funder and settles a “fuzzy math” problem in a $50 million royalty dispute.
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.
Retail electric provider Just Energy has asked the Austin Court of Appeals to allow it to join a lawsuit brought by a half-dozen other Texas power suppliers challenging the legality of Texas Public Utility Commission orders increasing the price of electricity during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 by 650 percent.
A Dallas federal judge granted summary judgment on Wednesday to Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources which had been sued by a California energy trader for breach of contract for failing to supply natural gas during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.
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.
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.
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