Judge Orders Dallas County Clerk's Deposition in Suit Over $17.5 Million No-Bid Contract

Must be a legal matter Friday, a legal matter from now on. Because next up on the docket is that suit against Dallas County we've told you about a couple of times before -- the one involving that $17.5 million contract with a Virginia-based company called GTSI, which the commissioners hired to preserve Your Mostest Important County Documents.

Last we looked in early Februrary, Business Resources -- the Dallas-based company that brought the suit against the county in December, claiming the commissioners never sought other bids for the contract -- asked Judge Bruce Priddy to put the deal on hold while it took the deposition of Dallas County Clerk John Warren and other county officials. Yesterday, Priddy ordered Warren and a GTSI exec to sit for depositions within the next 30 days, while attorneys for Business Resources conduct their discovery. He'll also hear Business Resources' request for a temporary injunction on April 9.

Says Mike Hurst, the attorney for Business Resources, in a statement, "From the start, the county and GTSI have done nothing to make this an open and transparent process. In fact, they've done the opposite. We're pleased with the court's ruling because we believe it means we're finally going to see some of what went on behind the scenes. In the interest of open government and cost savings for the county, the county could resolve this matter by canceling the contract and seeking a competitive bid, as should have happened in the beginning."