John Council

January 01, 2007 | Texas Lawyer

Just as the justices were preparing to leave for the holidays, the Texas Supreme Court left a piece of candy and a lump of coal in the stockings of lawyers who handle underinsured/uninsured motorists (UIM) claims on behalf of policyholders.

By John Council

7 minute read

April 19, 2010 | Texas Lawyer

A Dallas County jury began hearing testimony in a suit in which a former Baron & Budd lawyer alleges Russell Budd, a founder of the well-known asbestos litigation firm, made negligent and fraudulent misrepresentations to induce him to join the firm in May 2006. Jim Hartnett Jr. (pictured, left) represents plaintiff Gary Cruciani.

By John Council and Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

11 minute read

August 25, 2008 | Law.com

In an opinion that addresses how far the federal government should go in warning a party in a civil immigration proceeding about a related criminal investigation, the 5th Circuit reversed the dismissal of a seven-count indictment against an infamous anti-Castro Cuban exile who allegedly has had a hand in several major events in modern Latin American history.

By John Council

10 minute read

July 12, 2002 | The Legal Intelligencer

Multimillion-dollar med-mal verdicts against nursing homes and hospitals in Texas are as common as a cold, but health maintenance organizations never have shared the pain.

By John Council

6 minute read

October 01, 2001 | Law.com

After spending four years and over $1 million challenging the punishment assessed by judicial superiors over his abusive behavior, U.S. District Judge John McBryde of the Northern District of Texas may take his battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Sept. 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected McBryde's attack on the constitutionality of the law used to punish him, the Judicial Misconduct and Disability Act of 1980.

By John Council

6 minute read

April 12, 2010 | Law.com

The 5th Circuit ventured into the "culture war" on Wednesday, hearing an interlocutory appeal by two public school principals who say they are immune from liability in a civil suit that alleges they prevented the distribution of religious gifts by students in public elementary schools. The suit involves an issue of first impression for the 5th Circuit: Does the free speech clause of the First Amendment protect student-to-student distribution of religious, noncurricular materials in public elementary schools?

By John Council

7 minute read

November 08, 2004 | Texas Lawyer

Three Democrats won state district court benches in Dallas, a county where the Republican Party has dominated the courthouse for two decades. The result was the most surprising outcome of all the judicial races across the state in which most GOP incumbents held onto their seats.

By John Council and Mary Alice Robbins

9 minute read

February 08, 2000 | Law.com

Their jobs are much like those of a district attorney or public defender in a medium-sized city. Except the ever-expanding steel metropolis where Gina DeBottis and David O'Neil make their living is populated by 150,000 of Texas' most dangerous citizens. DeBottis and O'Neil are lawyers in the insular and sometimes bizarre criminal law world inside Texas' prison system.

By John Council

11 minute read

March 24, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

The monstrous H.B. 4 tort reform bill hit the floor of the Texas House of Representatives with a giant thud on March 19, all 96 pages of it, including more than 300 amendments. Debate came to an abrupt halt on March 20, when Democrats alleged that the House Civil Practices Committee violated the Texas Open Meetings Law when members met privately on Feb. 26 to discuss merging H.B. 3, medical-malpractice reform, into H.B. 4.

By John Council

7 minute read

June 09, 2003 | Law.com

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment dismissal of a suit against a public school superintendent, which was filed by a public school teacher who alleged she was denied a promotion because she sent her own children to a private school. The opinion reaffirms two previous 5th Circuit decisions that found that public school employees have a constitutional right to send their children to private schools.

By John Council

5 minute read