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            This term the Texas Supreme Court issued a succession of rulings favoring arbitration agreements and refusing to recognize various defenses.  It rejected a claim of unconscionability due to excessive costs, held a nonsignatory bound to arbitrate by direct-benefits estoppel, and held that incorporation of AAA Commercial Rules into a contract constitutes a clear and…

The Fifth Circuit and the Texas Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the high bar that must be met to find that the plain language of a statute violates the absurdity doctrine.

Under the absurdity doctrine a court will construe a statute by applying the plain meaning of the words used unless it would lead to absurd…

In a decision that upends decades of open meetings law, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the provision of the Texas Open Meetings Act prohibiting a government official from circumventing the Act through a “walking quorum” or “daisy chain” discussion outside of a public meeting is unconstitutionally vague.
Continue Reading Statute Making it a Crime for a Public Official to Circumvent the Open Meetings Act Held Unconstitutional

The Fifth Circuit has affirmed a denial of all attorney fees under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act based on the “outrageous facts” and the conduct of the plaintiff’s attorneys.
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Denies Attorney Fees Where Attorneys Created Claim for Purpose of Generating Excessive Fee Request

The Federal Circuit has held that “virtual” business operations are insufficient to establish patent venue.  And it rejected the widely discussed four-factor approach to patent venue adopted by the Eastern District of Texas, which until recently was the nation’s busiest patent venue.
Continue Reading “Virtual” Business Operations Don’t Establish Venue for Patent Cases

The Supreme Court has held that class action tolling under American Pipe does not toll the time within which a suit must be filed under a statute of repose.

In American Pipe the Court held that “the commencement of a class action suspends the applicable statute of limitations as to all asserted members of the…