Texas has long been one of the best locations to start a business, and a big reason for this is the liability protection afforded by the business-friendly Texas courts. Most business owners seek to limit their personal liability if something goes wrong with the business. This leads to one of the questions I get
Punitive Damages
Why do juries matter?
By Fox Rothschild LLP on
I have been writing on this blog about how Dallas County juries have shifted over the years from pro-defense to pro-plaintiff, or at least to a point where most prospective jurors in Dallas County don’t necessarily consider lawsuits a bad thing. In the era of tort reform, this attitude among prospective jurors in Dallas…
Dallas County Juries, part III
By Fox Rothschild LLP on
Previously I posted about Dallas County juries here and here. Last week a federal jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $1.041 billion to six plaintiffs who received defectively-designed hip implants. Of the total verdict, $32 million was for compensatory damages, and the rest was for punitive damages. The federal jury that ordered Johnson…
For once and for all, who are the beneficiaries under Texas’ Wrongful Death Statute?
By Fox Rothschild LLP on
I look this up every time it comes up. For once and for all, the beneficiaries under Texas’s Wrongful Death Statute are the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased. This includes adopted children and common law spouses, but does not include same-sex spouses (yet). The class of plaintiffs also includes so-called “illegitimate” biological…