In the News

A panel of Texas’ Third District Court of Appeals judges will hear arguments Tuesday in a case pitting the State Bar of Texas’ Commission for Lawyer Discipline against an Austin lawyer fighting sanctions over allegedly abusive litigation tactics targeting businesses for Americans with Disabilities Act violations.

“When partisan politics is the driving force and the political climate is as harsh as ours has become, judicial elections make judges more political, and judicial independence is the casualty. Make no mistake: A judicial selection system that continues to sow the political wind will reap the whirlwind.”

The Trump Justice Department, following a tougher policy toward dubious False Claims Act lawsuits by private citizens, has moved to dismiss a pair of lawsuits by a former hedge-fund manager who shorted stock in pharmaceutical companies he accused of a wide-ranging price-fixing conspiracy.

“The conversation on tort reform is not just about money,” Warrick said. “These high-risk malpractice climates are driving physicians to diagnose thyroid cancer in people who really don’t benefit from the diagnosis and treatment. It’s hurting people not just financially but also medically.”

Litigation over pelvic mesh, also called transvaginal mesh, ranks as one of the biggest mass tort cases in United States history, in terms of claims filed, number of corporate defendants and settlement dollars. Seven medical device manufacturers, including Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, are paying nearly $8 billion to resolve the claims of more than 100,000 women.

In-house counsel from 30 major U.S. companies are backing a proposal that would require full disclosure of third-party funding in litigation.

Court records in Florida show how easy it is for people to get swept up in a figurative machine that generates lawsuits. In fact, it all started for one man with the push of a button.

Nearly half of the “most ridiculous” lawsuits in the world this year were filed in New York. The Empire State has the dubious distinction of landing four of the top 10 spots in an annual list compiled by the US Chamber ­Institute for Legal Reform.

Can you do exactly what the government tells you to do and still get sued?

Texas appeals court justices will soon decide if ExxonMobil can use Texas courts to pursue counter-litigation against the public officials and private lawyers who have teamed to sue the oil industry in California over the alleged effects of climate change.