Keys to the court house
The contingent-fee option enables a claimant who has a valuable claim but can't afford hourly fees to hire a lawyer. He pays with a promise to share his recovery with the lawyer in return for the lawyer's sharing the many risks of pursuing a claim — including the risk of
Big victory for big oil . . . and big gas
The Fifth Circuit handed a large win today to oil and gas lessees in the Lone Star State.
The dispute that the court addressed concerned computation of royalties, which an oil and gas producer pays to landowners and others in return for the right
A contract dispute over building a child-development center at Fort Hood, in central Texas, today spawned a ruling that will bring joy to firms that put forum-choice clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.
The agreement between Atlantic Marine Construction Company and J-Crew Management, Inc., stated that all disputes between the
You've heard of the term, "lawsuit within a lawsuit" or "case within a case", right? It refers to a dispute that requires you to prove Claim A in order to prevail on Claim B.
Examples abound. Think of a tortious interference with contract claim. You have to show not only that the Bad Guy did something to interfere
Yes, yes, the helicopter crash that killed people and hurt others happened in Hawaii. Lots of other stuff that may have led to the accident also took place in the Aloha State. Some relevant contacts had a nexus with France or Nevada. The defendant, though, had its main place of business in Grand Prairie, Texas
The Federal Circuit today ruled that the Eastern District of Texas has the wrong idea about whether Rule 20(a) lets plaintiffs sue a bunch of defendants in one patent infringement case simply because they all infringed the same patents.
You have to show something more, it held — such as that the defendants somehow acted
Do you think of Chicago as an oil and gas town? Dallas, yes; Houston, for sure; New Orleans, uh-huh; maybe Bismarck, North Dakota (for the shale gas); and perhaps even New York (because of trading oil futures on the NYMEX).
Chicago? Meh.
But wait up. Today Judge Richard Posner wrote about oil and gas leases.
The rule of "capture" has meant for a long time in Texas that the oil and gas lying beneath your land belong to you. Now it also means you own the subterranean water. The Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day, No. 08-0964 (Tex. Feb. 24, 2012).
The Court ruled, 9-0, that limiting landowners' right to
Today, Blawgletter has the pleasure of giving honor to an item by one of our firm's newest lawyers, David Shank, late from a clerkship with the estimable and Honorable Barbara M. Lynn.
Mr. Shank spotted a big issue in a new Texas law that aims to cut back on what our lawmakers and
You know that word choice matters. Twain's lightning versus lightning bug comes to mind.
What about spelling? Well, the tumult over a key part of a way to complete a sideways oil and gas well shows that spelling matters too.
The Supreme Court of Texas explains the process thus:
As in other shale formations, wells