By Rick Freeman In a recent article herein, Karl and Rob discussed the recent opinion by the Texas Supreme Court – In re Weekley Homes, L.P. In that decision the Texas Supreme Court compelled a non-signatory to a contract to submit her personal injury claim to arbitration pursuant to the home purchase contract. Basically, the Court says that if you gain benefits from the contract, you are subject to the contract’s arbitration clause. To quo

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The Texas Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion this morning reversing the Fourteenth Court of Appeals and a trial court, both of which had previously denied a special appearance in a suit involving the alleged wrongful denial of insurance claims. The Court held that the district court could not properly exercise specific personal jurisdiction over Commonwealth General Corporation (“CNC”) just because CNC was the sole shareholder

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Rick Freeman Commentary One argument that is regularly made by lawyers who are attempting to compel arbitration is to ask the Court to reform the arbitration clause in some way, if the Court feels that the arbitration clause is so unfair or one-sided that it could be unconscionable. This is generally a difficult argument to rebut if you are the lawyer arguing the effect of the unfairness or one-sidedness of an arbitration provision. You argue: Ju

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Today, a divided panel of the Third Court of Appeals issued an opinion in a case involving the deregulation of Texas’ retail electricity market. Justice Pemberton wrote for the majority, he and Justice Patterson; Justice Smith issued a dissenting opinion. Rather than try to summarize a detailed pair of opinions on a complex regulatory issue, I will simply quote Justice Pemberton’s summary of the case and the majority’s position:

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