business disputes Archives | Brad Jackson Law Office

Trial Lawyer Brad Jackson Named One of Dallas’ Best for Business Disputes

April 21, 2023 by Brad Jackson

DALLAS – Attorneys across the Dallas/Fort Worth area and the publishers of D Magazine once again are recognizing Brad Jackson of The Law Offices of Brad Jackson as one of the Best Lawyers in Dallas.

Mr. Jackson has earned a spot on the exclusive list of Dallas’ leading attorneys for over a decade by successfully representing individuals and businesses in cases involving complex business disputes, civil law violations, and corporate liability for dangerous products. In addition, he has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization for nearly 20 years.

Earlier this year, Mr. Jackson and fellow firm attorneys Cheryl Mann and Patrick Fang were recognized for their roles in winning last year’s $7.3 billion verdict in Dallas County Court at Law in one of the country’s highest-profile wrongful death cases. The jury’s award represents the largest verdict in a U.S. courtroom during the past year, and it was named the “Most Impressive Plaintiffs Verdict of 2022” by the Courtroom View Network.

Six-Figure Judgment for Client in Real Estate Dispute

Shortly before that honor, Mr. Jackson, Ms. Mann, and Mr. Fang helped their client win a judgment totaling more than $650,000 against the City of Dallas in an “illegal takings” lawsuit. Mr. Jackson’s clients were awarded the full judgment amount, including attorney’s and expert witness fees, after the court ruled that the city wrongfully tried to commandeer a strip of their valuable property on the well-traveled Mockingbird Lane.

In addition to the D Magazine recognition, Mr. Jackson is repeatedly recognized in the annual edition of The Best Lawyers in America alongside Ms. Mann, as well as the annual Texas Super Lawyers list recognizing the state’s leading civil trial lawyers.

The Law Offices of Brad Jackson Adds Attorney Patrick Fang in Dallas

October 14, 2021 by Brad Jackson

Experienced attorney with expertise in civil litigation and construction law joins firm

DALLAS – The Law Offices of Brad Jackson is proud to announce the addition of experienced lawyer Patrick Fang in the firm’s Dallas office.

Mr. Fang brings years of experience representing individuals and companies in a variety of business disputes and professional-liability claims. He has extensive experience in civil litigation and arbitration, including pre-trial discovery and motion practice, e-discovery, and mediation.

Mr. Fang is well-versed in the construction industry having represented owners, design professionals, and contractors during his prior work with a boutique construction-law firm in Austin.

“I have known Patrick for several years, and he brings a strong work ethic and attention to detail that will benefit our clients and our entire firm,” says firm founder Brad Jackson, who is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Patrick Fang Background

Mr. Fang is admitted to practice in Texas State courts and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. He is a member of the Austin Bar Association, Dallas Bar Association, and Austin Young Lawyer’s Association.

A proud graduate of Baylor Law School, Mr. Fang previously served as a Technical Editor and Associate Editor of the Baylor Law Review. He also earned the Dean’s Academic Excellence Scholarship and was a member of the Dean’s List. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, he was a John Marshall Pre-Law Society member and a UT Dallas Community Gardener.

Firm Provides Expertise in Business Disputes

For more than three decades, established companies and businesspeople have called on The Law Offices of Brad Jackson for a wide variety of business disputes and commercial litigation. The firm provides extensive expertise in contract disputes, fiduciary litigation, denial of commercial insurance claims, probate and trust litigation, professional malpractice cases, serious personal injury cases, wrongful death claims, and other areas.

Based in Dallas, The Law Offices of Brad Jackson provides decades of experience representing clients in Texas and across the nation. Brad Jackson is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. The firm handles practically every type of business dispute, as well as cases involving high-stakes divorce litigation, serious personal injury, and wrongful death.

Thanks from The Law Offices of Brad Jackson for a Wonderful 2019!

December 19, 2019 by Brad Jackson

The Law Offices of Brad Jackson would like to thank all of our friends for a memorable 2019 as we recap some of the firm’s more notable events before welcoming in the New Year.

Firm founder Brad Jackson started off the year by helping our clients defeat a $100,000 fraudulent transfer claim in a business dispute heard in Dallas district court. In an interesting twist, the case’s most important documents were written in Hebrew before being translated to English. We also had to rely on a translator because the people who unsuccessfully sued our clients spoke only Vietnamese.

Less than a week later, The Law Offices of Brad Jackson secured a summary judgment in another Dallas district court as part of a $2 million dispute over a business contract. In addition to ruling completely in our favor, the judge ordered our clients’ former business partner to pay their court costs.

We also had success in the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas after the court ruled in favor of our clients in a real estate dispute with the City of Dallas over $300,000 in contested property. In a completely different type of case, Brad also helped a homeowner couple win a $1 million arbitration award after the roof of their multimillion-dollar home failed and caused extensive damage.

Law Offices of Brad Jackson 2019 Professional Honors

We couldn’t wrap up the year without noting that The Law Offices of Brad Jackson once again was named to the annual Best Law Firms list based on our work for clients in business disputes. Brad also earned repeat honors as one of the Best Lawyers in Dallas in D Magazine in addition to being named one of the state’s best in the annual Texas Super Lawyers list and one of the tops in the nation in the latest edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Thanks again to all our friends, family and clients for making the past year so memorable for everyone here at The Law Offices of Brad Jackson. We look forward to continuing our work during 2020 and keeping everyone up to date on the latest news here at the firm. Happy New Year!

Brad Jackson Helps Client Defeat $100K Fraudulent Transfer Claim

January 25, 2019January 25, 2019 by Brad Jackson

Brad Jackson recently secured a complete victory in a contentious business dispute heard in Dallas district court after one of our clients was wrongly accused of being a party to an alleged fraudulent transfer of $100,000.

The case was tried over several days last year before Judge Dale Tillery of the 134^th District Court in Dallas. In an interesting twist, one of the most important documents in the case was originally written in Hebrew and had to be translated into English. During the trial, we also relied on a translator since the people who sued our client spoke Vietnamese.

Beauty Salon Bought with Family Loan

The controversy began in 2013, when our client, a local businessman, loaned his nephew $190,000 at 6 percent interest to buy a beauty salon. Under the terms of the agreement, which was written in Hebrew, our client also was first in line to be repaid if the salon was sold before the loan was paid off.

When the nephew eventually sold the salon, he repaid our client the remaining $100,000 that was owed on the loan. Our client then deposited that money in his bank account to repay a separate loan he had taken out to help his nephew buy the salon.

In 2016, our client’s nephew was sued by two business associates in a dispute over money tied to the already sold salon. A year later, the same two business associates sued our client based on claims they were entitled to the $100,000 that he was repaid more than a year earlier, as well as additional money damages.

Defending Fraudulent Transfer Claim

Relying on his years of legal experience and knowledge of the Texas Business and Commerce Code and the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, Brad argued that for a transfer to be fraudulent, it must be made “without receiving a reasonably equivalent value and the debtor (in this case, our client’s nephew) was insolvent at that time or the debtor became insolvent as a result of the transfer or obligation.”

Brad persuaded the Court that our client should not be found in violation of the Fraudulent Transfer Act since extinguishing the obligation to repay the loan was something of value and there was no evidence that the nephew was insolvent when the loan was repaid; that our client believed his nephew was insolvent; or that repaying the loan made the nephew insolvent.

Court Rules in Our Client’s Favor

Earlier this week, we received a final judgment and permanent injunction where the Court dismissed all the claims against our client. We are thankful for the well-reasoned ruling.

This case is a perfect example of how a person or company can become involved in a business dispute through no fault of their own. Our client thought he was simply helping his nephew by loaning him $100,000 only to find out a year later that he was being sued himself for significantly more than the original loan amount. Thankfully, we’ve seen these types of strongarm tactics before and we knew the law was on our client’s side.

Law Offices of Brad Jackson Wins Appeal in $1M Partnership Dispute

January 28, 2019August 30, 2018 by Brad Jackson

Last week, the 5^th District Court of Appeals in Dallas affirmed an earlier summary judgment won by The Law Offices of Brad Jackson in a $1 million dispute partnership dispute.

While Brad Jackson and Cheryl Mann are best known for their work helping plaintiffs and defendants at the trial level, this case demonstrates their ability to make those results stand up if the case reaches the court of appeals.

Partnership Turns Into Lawsuits

The dispute began in 2012 when our clients voted to remove their business partner (who was a fellow shareholder) as president of a Dallas-based company that manufactures printed labeling for various products.

The business partner responded by filing a lawsuit, which he later dismissed, nonsuiting all his claims. He continued to threaten our clients and sent a letter indicating that he intended to file a new lawsuit. We responded by filing our own lawsuit for declaratory judgment seeking a court declaration that our clients had acted appropriately in dealing with the terminated partner, who then launched a series of counterclaims seeking more than $1 million in damages from our clients.

In addition to asking the court to appoint a receiver to oversee the company, the business partner also accused our clients of breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, and misappropriation and conversion of corporate funds, allegations that our clients denied.

We also prevailed in a mid-case appeal after the trial court refused to dismiss an out-of-state client (one of our clients’ relatives), who was also sued. The appellate court agreed with us and dismissed the relative from the lawsuit.

After contentious litigation in the partnership dispute (including a series of depositions, court motions and hearings) the trial court issued a summary judgment in our clients’ favor in late 2016. The court’s ruling dismissed all claims against our clients and granted a declaratory judgment that helped them avoid a costly trial. In the final judgment, the court concluded that our clients were within their rights to terminate the partner as president of the company.

We Know How to Handle Legal Appeals

After losing in the trial court, the terminated partner went on to file an appeal at the 5^th District Court of Appeals based on 13 different areas where he claimed the trial court had erred.

In oral arguments before the appeals court, Brad Jackson defended the trial court judge’s reasoning and successfully argued that none of the terminated business partner’s claims should withstand legal scrutiny.

The 5^th District Court of Appeals agreed in a 15-page opinion that affirmed the trial court in full and ordered the terminated business partner to pay for the costs of the appeal.

Good Companies Not Immune from Lawsuits

Lawsuits like this one shouldn’t happen to honest people who are trying to operate a successful business, but a partnership dispute is more common than you might think. Even though they were in the right from day one, our clients still faced the potential of over $1 million in damages.

Thankfully, they were protected by the law and we were able to prove it at both the trial and appellate level based on the facts and our many years of work in similar cases.

In the end, our clients are grateful they can now continue to operate their company without the distractions that caused them to remove their former partner as president in the first place.

14 Dallas Gas Stations to Pay for Hurricane Harvey Price Gouging

August 1, 2018 by Brad Jackson

Last year’s catastrophic Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the Houston area and claimed more than 80 lives. Many people stepped up to help their neighbors in the aftermath, but there were others who turned the community’s shared distress into a moneymaking enterprise through price gouging.

Immediately following the worst of the storm, both the Texas governor and attorney general warned businesses against price gouging. However, there were numerous reports of hurricane victims being charged ridiculous amounts for everything from bottled water to hotel rooms to gasoline.

The fears over supply shortages hit hard in Dallas, where hundreds of gas stations ran out of fuel and thousands of customers waited in line for hours.

Texas AG Files Price Gouging Claims

The AG’s office responded to reports of price gouging by asking those who believed they had been overcharged to provide copies of their receipts. In the months that followed, the AG filed a series of lawsuits and issued more than 125 notices of violations.

Now, several of those businesses have agreed to a legal settlement that includes more than $160,000 in refunds for customers. According to published reports, 48 Texas gas stations signed off on the agreement, including 14 in Dallas. Overall, 42 of the stations are in North Texas.

The AG says all the stations in the settlement charged gas prices of at least $3.99 per gallon after Harvey. Some stations reportedly charged as much as $8.99 per gallon. Gas prices in Texas averaged roughly $2.20 per gallon at the time.

The two biggest payouts reportedly are coming from the Old Town Store in Garland, which agreed to refund $14,870, and Bob’s Exxon in Dallas, which will pay $12,000. In an odd twist, the Old Town Store recently was in the news for selling a $1 million winning scratch-off lottery ticket. Based on the Texas Lottery’s bonus program, that means the owners of Old Town are in line for a $10,000 bonus, which should help offset their settlement payment.

Protecting Clients’ Money

Although the legal actions above were filed by the state, the facts are not that different from what I regularly see in cases involving fiduciary litigation and business disputes.

The gas stations that agreed to the price gouging settlement saw an opportunity to grab some extra cash and thought they could get away with it. Fortunately, the state was there to help.

At the Law Offices of Brad Jackson, we have spent decades helping individuals and companies who similarly have been ripped off through no fault of their own. The unfortunate truth is that there are people in all walks of life who are looking for the chance to line their pockets even if it means violating the law. That’s why we are here to protect clients’ interests and make sure that responsible parties are held accountable under the law.

Brad Jackson Once Again Named Among Best Lawyers in Dallas

April 26, 2018 by Brad Jackson

DALLAS – Dallas attorney Brad Jackson of the Law Offices of Brad Jackson once again has been named among the city’s top legal counsel in the 2018 listing of the Best Lawyers in Dallas published by D Magazine.

The exclusive roster of Dallas’ leading lawyers is based on nominations submitted by local attorneys who were asked: “Which Dallas lawyers, of those whose work you have witnessed firsthand, would you rank among the current best?” After the nominations are tallied, D Magazine’s editors determine the final selections with feedback from an anonymous panel of leading Dallas attorneys.

Honored for Dallas Business Litigation Work

Mr. Jackson, who is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, earned his eighth consecutive appearance on the list for his work in business litigation and medical liability litigation.

“It is an honor to be ranked alongside so many excellent attorneys,” says Mr. Jackson. “Our firm’s mission is to always put our clients first, and recognition like this tells me we’re doing things the right way.”

Mr. Jackson has represented clients in state and federal courts for more than 25 years. Along with fellow firm attorney Cheryl L. Mann, he handles a variety of cases for people from all walks of life. The firm’s expertise includes business disputes and commercial litigation, contract disputes, fiduciary litigation, denial of commercial insurance claims, probate and trust litigation, professional malpractice cases, serious personal injuries and wrongful death, and other areas.

Successful Legal Defense for Clients

In a recent case heard in Dallas state district court, Mr. Jackson and Ms. Mann successfully defended a group of seller and business broker clients in a $3 million lawsuit over the sale of an insurance agency. Although the plaintiffs sought millions, they decided to dismiss the case after only three days of trial and agreed to pay $200,000 to one of the firm’s clients.

Law Offices of Brad Jackson Helps Clients Defeat $3 Million Lawsuit

March 22, 2018March 21, 2018 by Brad Jackson

Our team recently obtained a great result for a group of seller and business broker clients in a lawsuit over the sale of an insurance agency. Our clients were facing nearly $3 million in damages after being accused of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims.

This case provides a good example of our work in business disputes and fiduciary litigation, as well as our representation of local and out-of-state clients.

The lawsuit was filed by Frisco, Texas-based CLA USA Property and Casualty Group against our clients from Dallas-based CapRock Services, which provides financing for small businesses, and Sarasota, Florida-based General Insurance Brokerage, LLC, which specializes in brokering the sale of insurance agencies.

Business Lawsuit Background

The dispute arose after General Insurance Brokerage identified Irving, Texas-based Innovative National Risk, LLC, as a potential CLA acquisition target. CLA bought the company from CapRock in 2014.

Shortly after the sale, CLA claimed, among other things, that Innovate National Risk’s operations failed to comply with state and federal laws. CLA argued that it was left holding the bag, accusing our clients of conspiring to make the sale happen so that CapRock could divest itself of the insurance agency and General Insurance Brokerage could collect commission payments.

How We Won

We were brought into the case late to represent CapRock and General Insurance Brokerage, which previously had been defended by separate lawyers.

Together, Brad Jackson and Cheryl Mann began an aggressive defense that resulted in the court striking the testimony of CLA’s expert witnesses, including an attorney, an actuary and a certified fraud examiner. We also convinced the court to enforce a jury trial waiver because we believed that our defense of CLA’s complicated and convoluted claims would be best understood by an experienced trial judge.

By the third day of trial before the Honorable Tonya Parker of the 116^th Judicial District Court of Dallas County, we had clearly proven that General Insurance Brokerage, CapRock, and their principals, who CLA had sued personally as well, had done nothing wrong. That same day, CLA voluntarily dismissed all its claims and agreed to pay $200,000 to our client CapRock.

Cases like these are why we come to work every day. Our clients had their backs against the wall, facing millions of dollars in potential damages. We were able to devise an aggressive and effective defense that resulted in the complete vindication of our clients.