Directorship magazine has put out a defense-oriented guide ranking the states by current and future liability risks in light of political, legislative, and judicial dynamics. According to the guide (which has backing from the American Justice Partnership), Texas ranks 18th, but is likely to move up if "fairness and predictability return to the Judicial Hellholes in the Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast."
Hat tip to PointofLaw.com.
A lawyer acquaintance called today to ask whether his client (which had suffered a significant money judgment) could mitigate accrual of interest by paying the judgment without rendering its anticipated appeal moot. The Texas Supreme Court laid out the basic procedure for addressing this situation in Marshall v. Housing Authority of City of San Antonio, 198 S.W.3d 782, 787 (Tex. 2006):
Usually, when a judgment debtor voluntarily satisfies the judgment, the case becomes moot and the debtor waives any right to appeal. The rule is intended to prevent a party who voluntarily satisfies a judgment from later changing his or her mind and appealing. We have held, however, that payment of a judgment will not moot an appeal from that judgment if the judgment debtor timely and clearly expresses an intent to exercise the right of appeal and if appellate relief is not futile (citations omitted).
Study this decision and the cases it cites closely if you are facing a situation in which your client would like to pay a judgment to stop the interest clock from running, yet wants to pursue an appeal from that judgment. If handled properly in the right case, you may be able to do both without giving up your client's appellate rights.
The Austin American-Statesman is reporting the death of former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill, the only Texan to have served in that capacity, as attorney general, and as secretary of state. Chief Justice Hill was a giant in Texas jurisprudence and continued working on causes he believed in—most recently, judicial election reform—to the end.
I've never been great at tooting my own horn, but it was nice to see the Texas Appellate Law Blog mentioned by Susan Cartier Liebel in today's Build a Solo Practice, LLC post, "If You Are A New (or Not So New) Solo, Here Are Examples of Blogs That Bring In Business." I must admit, I consider the time I spend here as part of my business development efforts. No doubt, blogging on an area of legal practice is a great way to let people know who you are and what you do.
A judgment-collection outfit called the National Judgment Network has a free online interest calculator that may come in handy when you need to calculate interest for purposes of preparing a final judgment, supersedeas bond, etc. I wouldn't rely on it exclusively, but it looks like it might be a good place to start. The calculator now appears in the "Useful Links" section on the upper right portion of this blog's home page.
Update: On closer inspection, this calculator seems to figure compound interest (which is inconsistent with Texas law) and the rate is also outdated. See the next post for what looks like a better alternative.
The Texas Supreme Court issued no opinions with this week's orders, signaling the beginning of the Court's "summer recess." From what I understand, the Court will not issue regular orders again until late August.
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