In the News

Since e-scooters suddenly appeared on sidewalks around the country in the summer of 2018, their companies have been the subject of at least five class action lawsuits in California and a handful of personal injury claims in Texas, variously alleging gross negligence and haphazard maintenance. Some suits accuse scooter companies of silencing whistleblowers and disregarding the safety of pedestrians, store owners and the disabled.

Class-action litigation targeting food companies is still a growth industry. That’s the conclusion reached by attorneys with Perkins Coie, a law firm that defends many food companies facing class-action lawsuits, in its annual report on class-action food litigation, published last month. The report, Food Litigation: 2018 Year in Review, notes 2018 was “one of the most active years on record” for food class actions (or “FCAs” as I’ve dubbed them).

Political party affiliation does not define an individual’s work ethic or professional dedication, but in the past couple of decades it is has been a judge’s party affiliation — not performance on the job — that has gotten them re-elected in Texas.

A pair of bills recently introduced in the Texas Legislature seek to cut the costs of civil litigation, expediting the process by reducing discovery time and restricting continuances. On March 6, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican out of Plano, introduced HB 3336. A companion bill, SB 2342, was filed two days later by Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from the Conroe area. Texans for Lawsuit Reform believes the bills, if enacted, will help increase access to the courts for all Lone Star residents.

Two Texas firms have opened offices in Waco this year, lured by a new federal district judge who was an IP litigator before he took the bench. The burning question is whether more law firms with intellectual property practices will flock there. Patterson + Sheridan, based in Houston, opened an office in Waco at the beginning of January, and Gray, Reed & McGraw announced its new Waco office not long after that.

Seeking to restructure and bring transparency to how local governments hire law firms, a sister bill to HB 2826 has followed in the Senate. Sen. Joan Huffman, a Republican out of Sugar Land, introduced SB 28 on March 8. The bill’s counterpart was filed a week earlier. Both pieces of legislation relate to the “procurement of a contingent fee contract for legal services by a state agency or political subdivision.” Texans for Lawsuit Reform believes the bills will bring transparency when local governments hire outside attorneys on contingency fee contracts.

State legislatures should limit or stop the burgeoning trend of cities and counties hiring outside counsel to litigate everything from opioid addiction costs to environmental contamination, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said March 6.

A critical mass of 36 state attorneys general have responded to the opioid crisis with investigations and litigation targeting manufacturers and distributors. But hundreds of private lawyers have also filed a barrage of opioid-related lawsuits on behalf of local governments, making it much harder for the state-led effort to convince the industry to agree to a comprehensive settlement. To resolve this logjam, attorneys general should structure state-centric deals under which localities can benefit if they drop their lawsuits.

Apple recently announced plans to close its stores in the Shops of Willow Bend and Stonebriar Centre in Collin County, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Officially, Apple says it is closing the stores to upgrade its NorthPark Center, Knox Street and Southlake Town Square stores, and to open a store in the Dallas Galleria. That may be true, but speculation circulating in technology circles is that Apple also is trying to elude patent trolls, the curse of innovation.

A recent study by the Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation found that the TCPA is being used to dismiss lawsuits that have nothing to do with protecting free speech. In fact, it’s being used in defense of things most Texans would agree shouldn’t be defended.