• What happened: Last week, a Galveston County judge issued a $114,519 penalty against storm-chasing Houston attorney Eric Dick for improperly handling an insurance case for a client. 
• This is the second time in three months Dick has been penalized for filing frivolous property damage cases. Last October, Dick was sanctioned $137,000 in Harris County Civil Court for mishandling a similar insurance lawsuit.
• Known Associates: Matt Morgan—a public adjuster who regularly works on Dick’s cases and is running in the Republican Primary for House District 26—was deposed in both of these cases.
• Morgan admitted to being hired by Dick as an expert witness, despite never actually providing any expert analysis in either case.
• Zoom in: The court found that Dick failed to prove the claimed damages in the lawsuit, and that the case was “groundless, brought in bad faith, and could only have been brought for the purpose of harassment.” 
• Add it to my tab: The prolific, storm-chasing lawyer is also under investigation by the state of Hawaii for soliciting plaintiffs after the Maui wildfire without a valid license to practice law in Hawaii.  
  • Dick is also facing a $40,000 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission stemming from campaign finance violations during his runs for Harris County treasurer in 2022 and City Council in 2019.
• What else? Dick claimed the first penalty was political persecution by a Democratic judge. But the Galveston County penalty was issued by a Republican
  
• TLR Thoughts: The fact that a known associate of Dick’s—who was involved in litigation so frivolous that two different judges deemed a six-figure punishment necessary—is running for the House should be a red flag for those interested in seeing common-sense lawsuit reforms passed in the Texas Legislature. 

Read the full article here.