A grown man sat in my office last week and cried like a baby. He had buried his wife and their first child less than a month earlier, both the victims of medical negligence. He came to us for help, wanting answers to why his young, healthy wife and his unborn son are now gone. He struggled to simply…

Bills are being floated in Washington D.C. to address the growing disparity between consumers and businesses because of mandatory arbitration clauses which prevent consumers from taking disputes to a court of law. At issue is the fine print in many contracts for goods and services, such as credit cards and cellphones, requiring that disputes be submitted to arbitration by…

Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (that’s the highest court in the state for criminal matters), has been named in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the widow of Michael Wayne Richard. Richard was executed by the state on September 25th, after his lawyers tried unsuccessfully to file a last-minute appeal. Keller contends that…

Back in 2003, when the Texas Legislature bent over for the insurance lobby and capped damages on suits brought by victims of medical negligence, the justification for selling off our rights was typically some variant of a “crisis” facing doctors…too many “frivolous suits,” too many “runaway juries,” too high insurance premiums, too many doctors fleeing the state, etc., etc….

Interesting. President Bush endorses Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett by saying “he is a proven conservative who understands courts should interpret and apply law, not legislate from the bench.” Yet Justice Willett authors a recent opinion – joined by the other eight justices – that “offends not only the law, but also court precedent, legislative intent, reason, custom and…

Jurors just returned a sentence of life in prison rather than the death penalty for Lance Heard, who was convicted earlier this week of capital murder in the shooting death of Fort Worth police officer Hank Nava. I don’t practice criminal law and I don’t weigh in with opinions on most criminal trials because their courtrooms are not mine. But…

Good article in the FWST about the rise in lawsuits filed by debt collectors, a concern I expressed a few blog entries ago. Key points to remember: Don’t ignore debt collection efforts (especially letters and anything nailed to your door while you’re at work) and be ready to challenge the debt collector’s documentation of the debt. Often these groups…

Most Texas trial lawyers can attest that it’s harder and harder to get some plaintiffs’ cases to court these days. This is particularly true in cases involving victims of medical malpractice or homeowners who discover construction problems with their houses. These types of cases, among others, have been affected drastically by recent changes in the law which have the…