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Texas
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May 22, 2013
Texas Judge Indicted On Abuse Of Office Charges
A Texas judge on Wednesday was indicted in state court on criminal charges that he routinely abuses his authority to retaliate against attorneys with whom he has personal conflicts at the expense of litigants.
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May 22, 2013
Texas Lawmakers Advance Business Tax Cut Bill
Texas lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that will reduce state business tax liabilities by $600 million and impose a permanent exemption from the tax for companies with annual revenues below $1 million.
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May 22, 2013
Bank Software Developer Faces Suit Over Trade Secret Theft
Spear Marketing Inc. launched a Texas state court suit Monday alleging ARGO Data Resource Corp. used corporate espionage to steal its proprietary bank cash management system, following a federal judge's decision last week refusing to remand a related suit.
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May 22, 2013
Samsung, Xerox Among Cos. Caught In Monitoring Patent Blitz
Patent holding company Penovia LLC filed separate infringement suits against nine companies including Samsung Electronics America Inc., Ricoh USA and Xerox Corp. in Texas federal court Tuesday, accusing them of infringing the company's patented technology for remotely monitoring office machines.
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May 22, 2013
Texas Senate Clears Bill Allowing Contractors To Sue State
Texas lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation that will make it easier for construction companies to enforce government contracts by partially lifting a long-standing ban on litigation against the state while also imposing safeguards for litigants in contested state administrative hearings.
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May 22, 2013
Haynes And Boone Adds Veteran Patent Expert In Austin
Haynes and Boone LLP bolstered its intellectual property group in Austin, Texas, with an experienced patent prosecutor from boutique Zagorin O’Brien Graham LLP, the firm announced Tuesday.
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May 22, 2013
Patent Attys' USPTO Applications Protected By Fair Use
Winstead PC attorneys didn’t infringe copyrights for scientific articles owned by publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. and others by making copies of and reviewing the literature for use in patent applications without buying a license, a Texas federal judge held Wednesday.
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May 22, 2013
Ex-Texas High Court Clerk Nets Jail Time For Lifting Funds
A former Texas Supreme Court clerk has been sentenced to 10 years probation and 180 days in prison for stealing money from an account the State Bar of Texas used to reimburse attorneys who overpaid their annual dues, the agency announced Monday.
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May 22, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Carlyle, Saks, Sony
Carlyle is hoping to raise $2 billion more for Japan-focused investments that will cement its place as a private equity leader in the country, while Sony has opened itself to negotiations with an activist hedge fund that insists the sputtering company should consider an IPO.
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May 21, 2013
Marine Services Co. Hit With Human Trafficking Suits
More than 500 employees of Signal International LLC launched suits in Texas and Mississippi federal courts Tuesday, alleging the marine services company and its recruiters lured them from India with false promises of permanent resident status and forced them into slave labor.
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May 21, 2013
Texas Beach Access Bill Clears State Legislature
The Texas Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would temporarily allow residents to cross privately owned property when necessary to access the state’s beaches following a hurricane, in an effort to limit the impact of a Texas Supreme Court ruling that restricts public beach easements.
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May 21, 2013
Texas Bill Curbing Suits Over Ex-Offender Hiring Reaches Gov.
Texas employers can’t be sued for negligently hiring workers or independent contractors with certain past criminal convictions, under a bill sent to Gov. Rick Perry for approval Monday.
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May 21, 2013
Texas Passes Water Finance Plan, But Still Needs $2B Funding
The Texas Legislature on Monday signed off on a revised plan to create a potential $2 billion fund to provide loans and bonds for major water infrastructure projects, but lawmakers are still awaiting votes on two key measures that would actually allocate money for the fund.
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May 21, 2013
Thompson & Knight Dodges $2.5M Shareholder Fraud Appeal
A Texas appeals court declined Tuesday to revive a $2.5 million suit against Thompson & Knight LLP that alleged the firm helped a defunct home theater business transfer assets to a new venture and cut shareholders out of their investment in the company.
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May 21, 2013
BP, La. Fend Off Deepwater Berm Claims In 5th Circ.
A group of commercial oyster harvesters suing BP PLC, Louisiana and several contractors over alleged damages from berms built in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was dealt serious setbacks on Monday by the Fifth Circuit and a Louisiana federal court.
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May 21, 2013
Samsung Seeks Reversal Of $15M Verdict In Patent Row
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. on Monday asked a Texas federal judge to reverse a jury's $15 million verdict against it for allegedly infringing a patent held by technology licensing company Summit 6 LLC, arguing jurors ignored proof that the patent was invalid.
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May 21, 2013
5th Circ. Upholds Texas' Under-21 Concealed Gun Ban
The Fifth Circuit on Monday struck the National Rifle Association of America's challenge against a Texas law that bars 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying concealed handguns in public, saying it doesn't violate the Second Amendment because Texas has an important interest in maintaining public safety.
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May 21, 2013
Akin Gump Aids Laredo On $438M Asset Sale To EnerVest
Laredo Petroleum Holdings Inc. will sell all of its oil and gas assets in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma and Texas to EnerVest Ltd. for $438 million in cash, the Oklahoma-based independent energy company said Tuesday.
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May 20, 2013
Michaels Fights To Avoid Legal Fees In $550M Wyly Fraud
A Texas state judge on Monday said Michaels Stores Inc. has the right to limited information about what one of its former board of directors has disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about his role in an alleged fraud before ponying up more than $1 million for his legal defense.
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May 20, 2013
Dallas Brokerage Fends Off RICO Claim For Trade Fees
A Texas judge on Monday said two independent brokers at S&P Investors Inc. haven’t yet proven their allegations the principal of a Dallas brokerage firm intentionally stole from them by overcharging for a decade the fees charged against their trade commissions.
Expert Analysis
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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The Oil And Gas Operator's Texas Advantage
The interpretation by the Supreme Court of Texas in Reeder v. Wood County Energy LLC grants vast protection to oil and gas operators, but by doing so, it is perceived by some as muddling the differences between tort and contract law, says Michael Bolton and Kate Kalanick of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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Independent Contractors Strike Out — Lessons For Employers
A lesser-known risk among companies that use independent contractor models is the threat of Title VII litigation, which two recent appellate court decisions, Allen v. Radio One and Alam v. Miller Brewing Company, addressed. These cases remind employers of the ways to minimize such litigation risks, such as adopting a policy to not rehire former employees terminated for misconduct, says Douglas Darch of Baker & McKenzie.
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Calif. Chemical Safety Rules Push Constitutional Envelope
Impatience with the pace of Toxic Substances Control Act reform at the federal level is understandable, but substituting individual state action for a perceived lack of federal action may be the classic example of a cure which is worse than the disease. Many think California’s Safer Consumer Product Regulations now prove that, says Ward Benshoof of Alston & Bird LLP.
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A Wake-Up Call For Video Game Developers
The extraordinary relief granted in the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in TimeGate Studios Inc. v. Southpeak Interactive LLC demonstrates that video game developers and publishers should seriously consider what terms and conditions they will agree to, and must do their best to ultimately comply with the language in a development agreement, says Sean Kane of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
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How McBurney V. Young Will Impact State FOIAs
In McBurney v. Young, the U.S. Supreme Court has permitted the still-uncommon practice of state legislatures to restrict use of their freedom of information laws to citizens of the states. But states should not race to adopt citizens-only provisions in their freedom of information laws, say John Borger and Leita Walker of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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E-Commerce Taxation Bill Might Be Unconstitutional
Recent decisions from the federal courts suggest that the constitutionality of the proposed Marketplace Fairness Act, which would permit states to require out-of-state businesses to collect and remit sales taxes on goods sold over the Internet, is open to serious debate, says Michael Abate of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.
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Applying Absolute Priority Rule — Broad Vs. Narrow Views
Due to conflicting interpretations of Bankruptcy Code Section 1129, debtors in most jurisdictions currently lack a firm grasp on whether the court handling their cases will find that the absolute priority rule has been completely abrogated, or whether it still applies to an individual debtor's prepetition property. To further compound this uncertainly, some bankruptcy courts in the same district have ruled inconsistently on the issue, say Mikel Bistrow and Jennifer Pinder of Foley & Lardner LLP.
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5 Arbitration Assumptions That Aren't Always True
Arbitration is often thought to be preferable to litigating in court, and in some circumstances, it may be. Deciding to arbitrate, however, should be the result of a careful analysis of the benefits and disadvantages. That analysis requires examining some common perceptions, say Frank Emory and Rita Davis of Hunton & Williams LLP.
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Proposed Texas Dental Bill Indicates Greater Regulation
The dental practice management model has become an increasingly popular investment opportunity with management companies and private equity firms. While the DPM model grows in popularity, so does regulation and scrutiny around the industry, which is evidenced by recent investigations and the introduction of SB 151 in Texas, say attorneys with McGuireWoods LLP.