Lawmakers Worry Meritless Lawsuits Threaten Free Speech
When Dallas developer H. Walker Royall found out about an impending book digging into one of his projects, he went on a lawsuit bender.
He sued the author, Carla Main, and her publisher, Encounter Books. He sued Richard Epstein — the prominent libertarian academic — for a blurb he wrote praising the book. He sued Mark Lardas, who reviewed the book, and the Galveston County Daily News for publishing the review. His suit against Main and her publisher — the lower court dropped Epstein as a defendant on jurisdictional grounds, and Lardas and his newspaper settled with Royall out of court — has since ...
Comments (8)
Julia Cabrera via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas needs to revise Tort reform and no fault divorce because it affects the pockets of taxpayers.
Ed Rankin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas Family Law code is aweful.
Donald Dickson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Not sure I understand Julia's comment. In Texas you can already get divorced on the ground that a "conflict of personalities" exists. If Julia is suggesting that divorce litigants should be precluded from offering proof of abuse, neglect, or adultery, I'd oppose such a measure. Even if we had only the option of a "no fault" divorce, courts are still going to take such things into account in dividing parties' assets and liabilities. I wouldn't favor rewarding spousal abusers and adulterers by disregarding such conduct in the division of a community estate.
Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We must use the courts to punish Adulterers? A red A tattooed on their forehead maybe?
Donald Dickson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
At the risk of hijacking this discussion of anti-SLAPP proposals for a discussion of the Texas Family Code....no, it's not awful. Not hardly. In fact it already precludes a lot of the things that people typically want to fight about. There is a PRESUMPTION that parties will be named joint managing conservators of their children. There is a PRESUMPTION that a non-custodial parent will pay a certain percentage of his or her statutory net resources for the support of the children. There is a PRESUMPTION that all property acquired during marriage is community property. There is a heightened burden of proof for overcoming these presumptions in the Code.
It is not the Code that is awful. Frankly, it is the Bar, and I say that as a member of the Bar. Lawyers make a lot more money fighting than they do negotiating and settling divorce cases, and so they encourage their clients to fight in many, many instances when it is truly not in the clients' or their children's best interests to fight. I see this almost every day in my practice.
Ed Rankin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
OK then. It's lawyers encouraging the fighting. No one told me mediation was mandatory if requested until tens of thousands of dollars had been wasted. I know a woman who spent $250,000 on a divorce, another who spent $500,000. What a waste.
Versel Diane Wall Rush via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ed, they needed to get different lawyers.
Jonathan Gal via Texas Tribune on Facebook
One thing we need to sue the State of Texas about is putting militant, religious extremist, John Calvin, into the public school curriculum.
This is a clear violation of the Texas Constitution, which draws very clear lines against the use of public funds and public assets to promote religion.
If I had the money, I might sue myself. But, I don't. So, I cannot.