Stories by The Record on Southeast Texas Record

“Oh my gosh! I'd file a suit too!! Or free phones for life lol” “What the hell, file a lawsuit haha” Above are two of the comments friends of Luke Schilhab of Lake Jackson made on his Facebook page when he posted a photograph of the cell phone-shaped, second-degree burn he received on the right side of his abdomen after rolling over on the iPhone 6 he'd left lying on the bed next to him when he went to sleep one night last April.

When did some judges become comedians, albeit mediocre ones who have to laugh at their own jokes? You can almost hear these jurists chuckling at their assumed cleverness when you read their opinions and come across another witless witticism, often a lame pun on a litigant's name or marketing slogans. Here's a recent example: FedEx moved to dismiss a patent infringement case against it on the grounds that the Eastern District of Texas is not a convenient forum for it. Does the judge approve the motion based on the obvious merits and recent high court decisions? No, he snarkily denies it and tries to conceal the wrong thinking with a limp joke on the company's slogan.

Now she knows how his ex-wife feels. Houston lawyer Diane St. Yves began an attorney-client relationship with David Lancaster in 2011 and lived to regret it, eventually having to go to court to dissolve that relationship and move on.

Three years ago, while affirming an appeals court decision overturning a multimillion-dollar judgment against Georgia Pacific in a mesothelioma case, the Texas State Supreme Court made the following assertions: that “proof of ‘any exposure’ to a defendant’s product will not suffice” to establish liability, that “the dose must be quantified,” and that “the plaintiff must establish that the defendant’s product was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s disease.”

Galveston attorney Tony Buzbee is notorious for treating a judge to lunch after a favorable ruling, touting Starr County as a choice venue thanks to generous juries and judges, suing FEMA on behalf of hurricane victims dissatisfied with the free housing provided to them, and swooning after the Gulf Oil Spill at the thought of what he predicted would be “the largest case in the history of the United States.”

“I recently went through a very bad breakup where my husband put me out of his home and kept everything I owned,” Carmelite Lofton said on the GoFundMe page she established in the summer of 2015.

You may have seen their pictures in promotional materials for Houston strip clubs, but Lina Posada, Tiffany Toth, Gemma Lee Farrell, and Jamillette Gaxiola are not strippers, don't live or work in Texas, and have never been to the clubs in question.

There are people who've grown up in Port Arthur, Beaumont, or Corpus Christi and never been outside of southeast Texas, but most of us have traveled more widely, venturing into Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, if not all across the continental United States and beyond.

Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967, just 50 years ago. Today, heart transplants are commonplace procedures, and artificial hearts and pacemakers also extend lives in ways medically impossible just a few decades ago. Transplants of other organs are now routine, too, as are the attachment of prosthetic limbs and the implantation of artificial joints.

If a mechanic or a contractor handed you an invoice for several hundred or several thousand dollars, with no breakdown of the specific work done on your car or home and the time it took, you'd hand it back and ask for an itemized bill.

A trial court’s order denying a motion from the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative (SHEC) to compel arbitration in a putative class action lawsuit has been reversed by the Ninth Court of Appeals.

More than 600,000 Texas veterans support U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold's Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency (FACT) Act, a bill designed to promote fairness and honesty in asbestos litigation and to increase transparency in asbestos trusts.

“A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” The origin of that proverb is unclear, but may have been first uttered by an attorney. It may be true in complex cases, but in simple matters there's no reason a person of average intelligence can't prosecute his own case or defend himself if he can compile the evidence, present a persuasive argument, and follow the basic protocols of court procedure.

DORA ELIZABETH ROSIAK V. ALLSTATE FIRE AND CASUALTY INSURANCE CO. (P) TERRELL, B ADAM -(D)OUBRE, DAVID A

You walk past a BBQ joint, look in the window, and see a happy guy with some sauce on the front of his shirt devouring a rack of ribs, and it makes you feel good. There might be a tinge of envy, but you can tell he's enjoying those juicy ribs and you can't help smiling. That’s called vicarious pleasure.

When the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence held a hearing seven years ago to discuss barratry in our state, Steve Mostyn agreed with those present that it was a problem and recommended prosecution of “swindlers.” What a kidder!

LARRY DON BEAL V. ABDUL MEHMOOD