Courts & Lawsuits

A national civil rights nonprofit sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and four Texas Department of Public Safety officials Wednesday in an effort to kill a controversial Texas program that the group says has caused the suspension of 1.4 million Texans’ driver’s licenses. Texas’ Driver Responsibility Program imposes surcharges on those…

The Dallas County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a $120,000 payment to settle a lawsuit brought against the former head of Dallas County Health and Human Services. The vote came 11 months after the county fired longtime health department chief Zach Thompson following sexual harassment allegations by a subordinate employee…

It turns out the nearly decade-long fight over Texas’ legislative districts didn’t actually end with the Supreme Court’s ruling against the plaintiffs in June. Late Friday afternoon, the coalition of voting rights groups that have fought the state for fairer legislative districts since the last round of redistricting in 2010…

Monday, a Dallas County grand jury heard evidence in the case against Amber Guyger, the former Dallas Police Department officer who shot and killed Botham Jean. What the grand jury heard or who they heard it from isn’t known — grand jury proceedings are secret — but attorneys for Jean’s…

The Republican majority that Texas’ 5th Court of Appeals held for almost 20 years came to end after last week’s elections in what is probably the real local upset of the midterms. Overnight, the court of 13 Republican judges became majority Democrat with eight winning seats, including a new Democratic…

The Motel 6 hotel chain has agreed to a $7.6 million settlement with a group of individuals who sued the company earlier this year for disclosing their personal information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while they stayed at the hotel. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued…

District Attorney Faith Johnson’s silence on her decision to try six teens charged for armed robbery as adults is drawing criticism from organizers working to end mass incarceration. The six teens, all between the ages of 13 and 16, allegedly stole a black Chevy Malibu at gunpoint in the early…

Mary Jane preferred animals to people “10 out of 10 times,” she says. She grew up in southern Louisiana, a place of winding swampland roads where family ties run deep. She studied wildlife management with a focus in aquaculture at Louisiana State University. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents…

Texas’ system of electing judges has long drawn criticism about the potential influence of campaign donations in the outcome of cases. Plaintiffs’ lawyer John McCraw  took those critiques one step further last month when he filed a motion asking two justices on Texas’ 5th Court of Appeals to remove themselves from…

Political donations are behind an appellate court ruling that overturned a jury’s verdict requiring an apartment company to pay $1 million to two women raped by a man who entered their Garland home through a window with a broken latch, the women’s attorney claims in a motion filed this week…

After eight hours of deliberation, a Dallas County jury said Thursday afternoon they could not reach a verdict in the case against former Mesquite Police Department Officer Derick Wiley, charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for shooting an unarmed man who was trying to quiet the alarm on his…

Over the last two decades, the Dallas Mavericks organization has suffered from a culture of sexual harassment, misconduct and intimidation, according to the results of an independent investigation into team culture released Wednesday. Team owner Mark Cuban will donate $10 million to women’s groups because of what the NBA calls…

While investigators are still collecting facts for the manslaughter case filed against Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger and the outcome is unknowable, one thing is almost certain: Someone will be called upon to pay for the death of Botham Jean, if not in criminal court, then in a civil case…

Sunday night’s protests before and during the Cowboys’ home opener in Arlington against the Giants and the demonstrations’ aftermath are like a Rorschach test for how one feels about the current state of policing in North Texas. If one is inclined to take the side of those protesting the recent…

Texas’ fetal burial law is out, pending appeal, but, oh boy, will there be appeals. U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled Wednesday afternoon that the Texas Legislature’s requirement that all tissue resulting from an abortion, miscarriage, still birth or ectopic pregnancy be buried or cremated, rather than disposed of as…

Last Friday morning, volunteers arrived at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, prepared to hand over cashier’s checks to post bail for 16 low-income prisoners. They have done this every Friday in August,  lending a hand to inmates accused of minor offenses who can’t afford cash bail or bondsmen’s fees. This…

Former Balch Springs cop Roy Oliver’s murder trial began, finally, on Thursday. Oliver’s trial, the most anticipated of a Dallas County police officer in decades, will close the loop on more than a year of investigations, protests and delays. On April 29, 2017, Oliver shot and killed Jordan Edwards as…

After allegedly attacking his wife with a hammer after a night out, Dallas venture capitalist Stephen Hays might land him in prison for 20 years.