Meet the chief judge of the nation’s most divisive, controversial and conservative appeals court

Feb 1, 2014 10:40 AM CST

5th Circuit nixes tax shelter used by 3 attorneys to keep more of $600M legal fee award

After winning a $600 million attorney fee award in 1998 for representing the state of Texas in litigation against big tobacco companies, three law firm partners sought to reduce the tax bite. But their efforts only made the situation worse: A federal appeals court last week ruled that the tax…

Jan 29, 2014 7:40 PM CST

BP oil-spill settlement is upheld by 5th Circuit

A federal appeals court has upheld the settlement in the 2010 Gulf oil spill over BP’s objections that a claims administrator’s interpretation of the deal was resulting in payments to businesses that suffered no injuries. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday, report the Wall…

Jan 13, 2014 5:48 PM CST

Plaintiff ‘titan’ files civil racketeering class action against rival PI lawyer in BP oil spill case

Both Danny Becnel and Mikal Watts are personal injury titans representing plaintiff fishermen in litigation against BP over the 2009 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But now the two top personal injury lawyers are squaring off against each other: Becnel, a Louisiana lawyer, filed a class action suit against Watts in…

Jan 8, 2014 10:30 PM CST

Inmate convicted in attempted murder-for-hire plot against federal judge

After less than an hour of deliberation, a federal jury in Fort Worth on Wednesday found a tax protester guilty of attempting to solicit the murder-for-hire of a federal judge in Texas. The defense said Phillip Monroe Ballard, 72, didn’t really intend to target District Judge John McBryde, who formerly…

Dec 11, 2013 10:55 PM CST

5th Circuit nominees may include a GOP judge

President Obama is considering three federal judges, one of them a Republican, to fill vacancies on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas Lawyer spoke with seven unnamed sources for its story naming the potential nominees: U.S. District Judges Xavier Rodriguez of San Antonio, Marina Garcia Marmolejo…

Dec 10, 2013 12:54 PM CST

Sexually suggestive sniffing may be sexual harassment, 5th Circuit says

A woman who was fired after complaining of sexually suggestive sniffing by two co-workers may pursue a retaliation suit, a federal appeals court has ruled. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Denise Royal in a Nov. 21 opinion (PDF), Texas Lawyer reports. Royal, a leasing…

Dec 5, 2013 2:18 PM CST

Lawyer gets 20 years in judicial bribery case, is ordered to pay $12M restitution

A Texas lawyer convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other charges in a Cameron County judicial bribery case was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution. During a two-day sentencing hearing in Brownsville, a federal judge reversed two mail fraud convictions against…

Dec 4, 2013 5:10 PM CST

Tax shelter misstatement due to legal error merits the max in IRS penalties, Supreme Court says

Resolving a circuit split, the U.S. Supreme court has sided with the Internal Revenue Service in a dispute over the maximum penalty that can be assessed when a taxpayer misstates the value of a tax shelter partnership due to incorrect legal analysis. In a unanimous opinion (PDF) Tuesday authored by…

Dec 4, 2013 2:20 PM CST

Travelers may sue airline for alleged sex-toy prank, 5th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit against an airline for allegedly taping a sex toy to the top of a checked bag should survive a motion to dismiss. The suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and negligence is not pre-empted by an airline…

Nov 12, 2013 11:50 AM CST

5th Circuit allows Texas abortion law to take effect; one-third of abortion clinics may close

Opponents of a Texas abortion law say one-third of the state’s 36 abortion providers may be forced to shut down as a result of a provision allowed to take effect by a federal appeals court on Thursday. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a provision that…

Nov 1, 2013 12:42 PM CDT

Texas lawyer guilty in conspiracy to launder up to $600M for Mexican drug cartel

A once-prominent Texas lawyer has been convicted of conspiring to launder up to $600 million for a Mexican drug cartel and faces a federal prison sentence of as much as 20 years. Marco Antonio Delgado testified Thursday that federal agents lied and took the facts of the El Paso case…

Oct 28, 2013 10:55 PM CDT

Trial begins for lawyer accused of conspiring to launder up to $600M for Mexican drug cartel

A prominent Texas lawyer met with the ex-wife of a former president of Mexico and discussed a scheme in which he would launder as much as $600 million for a drug cartel, a federal prosecutor said Monday as the case went to trial in El Paso. But a lawyer for…

Oct 23, 2013 3:55 PM CDT

Law firm sued over claimed use of competitor’s name as Google AdWords

A Florida law firm has sued a competing personal injury shop over its alleged use of the plaintiff firm’s name as Google Adwords to drive search-engine traffic. Filed in Miami, the federal lawsuit brought by high-profile plaintiffs firm Steinger, Iscoe & Greene against attorney Paul K. Schrier asserts claims for…

Oct 22, 2013 9:00 PM CDT

Billionaire Mark Cuban wins SEC insider-trading case, calls lead trial lawyer for agency ‘a bully’

A high-profile insider-trading case against the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has ended badly for the government. A federal jury in Dallas deliberated for less than a day before finding Mark Cuban not liable in the civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reports. He had…

Oct 16, 2013 9:45 PM CDT