In the News

It will take a few years before we know the extent of the effectiveness of laws approved in 15 states, and executive actions in 23 more, shielding health care providers and businesses from Covid lawsuits, says Cary Silverman, partner with Shook, Hardy & Bacon, and expert in product liability and tort law, and civil justice reform.

Texas is again the place to file patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. Businesses and individuals filed 747 patent complaints in Texas during the first six months of 2020 — double the number from a year earlier and twice as many as any other state so far this year.

Settle, if possible. Don’t take shortcuts on safety.  Obviously, avoid truck accidents involving children by any means. And hope that somehow, some way, sensible tort reform is on its way into American courtrooms. Those are some of the suggestions from the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) new research that confirms that large verdicts against trucking fleets—so-called “nuclear verdicts”—are increasing dramatically, both in number and in size of awards.

Lawyers’ filings that accuse Texas judges of being biased for taking campaign contributions from opposing counsel rarely succeed. Quite the opposite: Sometimes the accusations anger the judges, who sanction or refer the accusing lawyer for attorney discipline. So why do lawyers keep filing these arguments?

Stores, restaurants and other businesses that serve the public are caught in a bind over rules requiring customers to wear masks as protection against COVID-19. They must enforce the rules to prevent employees and customers from getting sick, but the Americans with Disabilities Act and state equivalents could expose them to litigation by people who say they have health conditions that prevent them from wearing masks.

The next hot button issue in the second round of stimulus legislation isn’t about payroll or unemployment checks. Instead, the parameters of proposed liability protections for businesses have taken center stage in the latest draft of the bill currently under review at the White House.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Paul Green, who has served the court 15 years, will retire at the end of August. Now, Gov. Greg Abbott will get to appoint his successor to the court.

Plaintiff law firms that accepted federal aid under the Paycheck Protection Program appear to have recycled at least some of the money into advertising designed to recruit clients to sue other businesses over the COVID-19 crisis.

Liability waivers have long been used for risky endeavors such as downhill skiing or youth sports. But in the unchartered legal waters of the coronavirus pandemic, Minnesotans now find themselves signing such forms when they get their hair cut, nails painted and teeth cleaned.

Plaintiff lawyers availed themselves of more than $160 million in taxpayer-funded loans under the Paycheck Protection Program designed to protect jobs during the Covid-19 crisis, even though most such law firms operate on a contingency-fee model and are accustomed to financing themselves.