The Austin trial court has issued a Docket Control Order (DCO) in the Texas Lottery Fun 5’s lawsuit. The DCO sets deadlines and the trial date for the first bellwether lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by approximately 1,000 lottery players whose scratch-off tickets indicated they should win a prize. GTECH (now known as IGT) is […]
What happens if you order a product and the invoice/packing slip includes an arbitration agreement? Have you lost your right to a jury trial if there is a dispute about the product? According to the Houston 1st Court of Appeals, the answer is probably no. The case involves a consumer who purchased coins during a […]
Hundreds of Texas lottery players sued GTECH Corporation, (n/k/a IGT Global Solutions Corporation), the operator of the Texas Lottery, for fraud. GTECH’s representations led the players to believe that if their Fun 5’s scratch-off ticket revealed a Money Bag symbol, they would win five times the amount shown in the Prize Box. In fact, GTECH […]
LaGarde Law Firm won a $690,000 award for a client in a Florida arbitration action. Our client was an individual financial consultant. On the other side was a publicly traded financial technology (“FinTech”) company. Our client had a consulting contract with the company. The contract called for him to receive a stock warrant entitling him […]
What happens if a company files a lawsuit and pursues litigation for an extended period only to decide later that it wants to invoke the arbitration provision in its contract? Does the court need to find that the other side has been prejudiced before it will find a waiver of the arbitration agreement? That question […]
One of the side effects of the Covid pandemic is that attorneys have been forced to rely on remote depositions. In a normal deposition, both sides’ attorneys, the court reporter, and the witness are located in the same room. That makes it difficult for a third party to coach the witness or provide the witness […]
A Texas federal judge ruled that a nursing home that refused to follow recommended Covid prevention measures may be held liable for the death of a resident. The nursing home claimed it was immune from suit because of a statute that grants immunity to companies that respond to a national public health emergency. The federal […]
A Texas federal judge granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a suit against two oil and gas promoters. The two were found to have set up a Ponzi scheme over the course of two years which bilked 70 investors out of millions of dollars. The two were […]
The families of servicemembers killed in a helicopter crash during Navy exercises sued the private contractor responsible for maintaining the helicopter under the Death on the High Seas Act and general maritime law. A state court trial judge in Texas dismissed the suit and ruled that the lawsuit must be dismissed under the political question […]
The Plaintiffs in Steele et al v. GTECH, have filed a response to the motion for summary judgment filed by GTECH (n/k/a IGT) in the Fun 5’s lottery lawsuit pending in Austin, TX. GTECH is asking the trial court to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims based on the argument that the game’s parameters were outlined in […]