The following are summaries of opinions issued by the Fifth Circuit in February 2024. The summaries are overviews of particular aspects of the opinions; please review the entire opinions. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS: Contractual limitations provision barred federal employment discrimination claim. Harris v. FedEx Corp. Servs., Inc., 92 F.4th 286 (5th Cir. 2024). FedEx hired Harris as an account executive in

The following are summaries of selected civil opinions issued by the Third Court of Appeals during February 2024. The summaries are overviews; please review the entire opinions. Subsequent histories are current as of March 11, 2024. ATTORNEY’S FEES: Court reverses order denying attorney’s fees.  Abira Med. Laboratories, LLV v. OMH-Healthedge Holdings, Inc., No. 03-22-00176-CV (Tex. App.—Austin Feb. 13, 2024, no

The following are summaries of selected criminal opinions issued by the Third Court of Appeals from August 2023. The summaries are overviews; please review the entire opinions. Subsequent histories are current as of March 1, 2024. DEFENSIVE INSTRUCTIONS – CONSENT: Trial court did not err in failing to include additional factual detail in defensive instructions.  Poncio v. State, No. 03-22-00292-CR

During the 88th Texas Legislature, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice received $85 million to install air conditioning in its units. Currently, 31 of TDCJ’s units are fully air-conditioned and 55 are partially air-conditioned for a total of 43,572 ‘cool beds,’ according to TDCJ statistics. Since 2018, 6,948 cool beds have been built, while another 3,437 are currently under construction.

The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) recently released a report, “Solitary Confinement in Texas: A Crisis with No End,”1 in which the nonprofit calls for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to open an investigation into solitary confinement practices in Texas. An investigation is called for, the report reads, due to alleged violations of the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized

The opinions expressed in The Serious and The Salty are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Austin Bar Association membership or the Austin Bar Association board of directors. The Serious Have you heard of The Caselaw Access Project? I had not. The Caselaw Access Project (CAP) was founded at Harvard in 2015. On

Since the beginning of Western civilization, wills have been the primary tool for individuals to disperse their assets to loved ones at their death. Even the Bible includes several references to wills.  Now, seemingly all of a sudden, trusts, particularly revocable living trusts, rather than wills, are the preferred method of many estate planning lawyers. Why? Two reasons stand out:

More than $730 million was recovered in fiscal year 2023 as a result of several state agencies’ coordinated efforts to audit and investigate complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse in the Texas Medicaid program. The recently released Joint Annual Interagency Coordination Report for fiscal year 20231 details the efforts of the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General

With spring coming, we are reminded of the many projects that we have unfinished, both personally and professionally. Everything from closet organization to writing that CLE article looms before you. But how do you tackle it? Here are some tips that I have found motivating to spring myself out of a funk and into action: Break Things Into Time Chunks

Halfway into February, most of us who made resolutions regarding health and fitness have fallen off the wagon. As attorneys, we are constantly told that the level of stress we are under is not good for our minds or bodies. We are told that we can call TLAP to speak to a counselor if needed. But, as we all know,