Photo of Helen Hutton

Helen Hutton practices in Cowles & Thompson's appellate practice group.  She is a former briefing attorney for the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas.

Practice Areas:

  • Civil Appeals
  • Commercial Litigation

Professional Associations:

  • State Bar of Texas, Appellate Section and Litigation Section
  • Dallas Bar Association
  • Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, Judicial Intern Committee Co-Chair & Trial Skills Committee Member
  • American Bar Association
  • William "Mac" Taylor American Inn of Court, Associate

Education:

  • J.D., cum laude, SMU Dedman School of Law, 2014
  • B.A., magna cum laude, Business Administration, Saint Louis University, 2011

Bar Admissions:

  • State Bar of Texas

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41.0105 limits recoveries of medical care expenses by an injured claimant to those expenses actually paid or incurred by or on behalf of the claimant.  A number of appellate decisions have addressed what this paid-or-incurred language means in different contexts.  The opinion in Katy Springs Manufacturing, Inc.

Appellate courts in Texas have seen an influx of defamation, business disparagement, and other similar actions since 2011 when the Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”), Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 27.001-27.011 (2015), was signed into law.  The TCPA is an anti-SLAPP statute; SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, which

The Texas Supreme Court’s holding in In re Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 148 S.W.3d 124, 135-36 (Tex. 2004) (orig. proceeding)—that determining whether an appellate remedy is “adequate” requires a balancing of the benefits and detriments of mandamus review and is not an abstract or formulaic determination—seems to have caused a split among the