In the News

Since 2011, lawyers have successfully won dismissal of a wide range of case types, then collected attorney fees, using a motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, the state’s anti-SLAPP law. This might change soon as the Texas House on Tuesday voted 143-1 to pass a bill that would narrow and limit the anti-SLAPP law only to legal actions that implicate free speech, free association and freedom to petition the government.

“It’s frustrating, to say the least, to think there’s an attorney who’s pleaded guilty to bribing a judge, and he’s been allowed to keep practicing law,” Nitsch said. “It’s a black-and-white issue, as far as I’m concerned.”

To get elected and reelected to office, many Texas judges seek campaign contributions from lawyers and law firms that might have business before their courts, undermining public confidence in their rulings and the goal of impartial justice. But while many denounce the situation — including judges and lawyers trapped in the political donation cycle — there is little consensus at the Texas Legislature about how to address it.

On Monday, Texas House members heard testimony on HB 765, which seeks to collapse the fixed cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and adjust it for inflation each year.

Television viewers in each of Texas’ four largest media markets were bombarded with an average $4.1 million in ads for lawyers, lawsuits and legal services in the final quarter of 2018, according to a new study released today by the American Tort Reform Association.

Texans have never been afraid of change, and that’s good since the state’s population has almost quadrupled in my lifetime and our once land-and- mineral-based economy has become more vibrant and diverse. But 21st-century Texas’s 19th-century judicial system increasingly fails to serve its people’s needs.

Texas is one of nine states that picks district court judges with a party ticket vote. And Texas is only one of six states that also selects the justices on its supreme courts and appellate courts with partisan elections. Is there a better way to pick a Texas judge? Some legislators may try to offer new ideas to address that old question.

On April 11, the Texas Senate passed SB 1189, which relates to deceptive advertising of legal services and seeks to bring transparency and accountability to such attorney-paid ads.

A bill winding its way through the Texas Senate would strictly regulate lawyer advertising for prescription medication and medical device litigation, and impose a civil penalty for violations under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Local governmental entities would have to follow a new procedure to hire contingent-fee plaintiffs law firms for cases involving engineering and architects under a bill that a Texas legislative committee passed Monday.