lawsuit

Law Offices of Brad Jackson Recognized for Top Plaintiff Verdict of 2022

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Banner announcing Law Offices of Brad Jackson being honored for the Top Verdict of 2022.

The Law Offices of Brad Jackson in Dallas is being recognized for the firm’s role in a wrongful death trial that produced the “Most Impressive Plaintiffs Verdict of 2022” against one of the country’s largest telecommunications companies.

The $7.3 billion verdict handed down last July by a jury in Dallas County Court at Law No. 5 is the largest jury award in the U.S. during the past year, leading the Courtroom View Network’s compilation of its top trials in 2022.

Firm founder Brad Jackson represented the family of Betty Thomas along with lawyers from Dallas’ Mullen & Mullen in the lawsuit against Charter Communications. Chris Hamilton and Ray Khirallah of Dallas-based Hamilton Wingo lead the trial team in the multi-week trial.

Punitive Damages Verdict Follows Forged Document Evidence

Jurors in Dallas County Court at Law No. 5 awarded Mr. Jackson’s clients $7.3 billion in damages after finding Charter 90 percent liable for the death of Ms. Thomas, 83, who was killed in 2019 by one of the company’s repair technicians who stole her credit cards before going on a spending spree. The technician, Roy Holden, pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison in April 2021.

Evidence in the trial showed that Charter officials failed to conduct a proper background check, which would have revealed a series of troubling actions by Mr. Holden at prior jobs. The company also ignored Mr. Holden’s multiple pleas to supervisors about his worsening financial problems and personal issues.

Prior to awarding the multibillion-dollar punitive damages award, the jury was presented with evidence that Charter attempted to use forged documents to prevent the case from being tried in public.

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 many types of business disputes, as well as cases involving serious personal injury and wrongful death.

 

Brad Jackson Wins Second Favorable Judgment in a Week

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business litigation

The Law Offices of Brad Jackson recently scored our second big business litigation victory in less than a week by winning a summary judgment for two clients in a multimillion-dollar contract dispute. The decision issued in Dallas district court followed our successful defense of another client in a $100,000 fraudulent transfer claim.

The most recent ruling stems from a lawsuit that was filed against our clients by their former business partner, who claimed he was wrongly fired. Brad won that case in a summary judgment that protected our clients from more than $1 million in alleged damages.

The former partner responded by filing an appeal with Dallas’ 5th District Court of Appeals. Brad won the appeal last year when the court confirmed that our clients’ former partner was owed nothing and ordered him to pay for the costs of the appeal.

Despite the clear loss, the business partner and his attorneys were not done trying to force our clients to pay him something.

Fired Partner Argues for Stock Buyback

After he was fired, the former partner claimed that a contract among the owners obligated our clients to purchase his company stock, which he claimed was worth roughly $2 million. The Court initially denied summary judgment motions from both sides before scheduling a jury trial for last October to decide the contract dispute.

Prior to the trial, Brad helped convince the Court that an interpretation of the partners’ agreement should be determined by the Judge as a matter of law. The trial was postponed so both sides could brief the Court on the disputed issues.

Court Agrees with Brad Jackson in Ruling

In his brief, Brad argued that the contested contract did not include an obligation for our clients to buy back their former partner’s stock. Instead, Brad told the Court that the contract created an option for them to buy the stock if they chose to do so.

After considering arguments from both sides, the Court agreed with Brad and issued a final judgment representing a complete victory for our clients.

In the decision, Presiding Judge Maricela Moore of Dallas’ 162nd District Court ruled in our clients’ favor by granting both our previous and current summary judgment motions. In addition to awarding the business partner zero damages, the ruling also requires him to pay our clients’ court costs.

Although the former partner has lost multiple summary judgment decisions and appeals court rulings, he already has indicated that he intends to appeal this latest loss as well. Of course, we will continue to defend our business litigation clients and protect their legal rights through the appellate process.

Brad Jackson Helps Client Defeat $100K Fraudulent Transfer Claim

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fraudulent transfer

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 134th 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.

Brad Jackson Once Again Named Among Best Lawyers in Dallas

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Dallas

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.

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 serious personal injury and wrongful death.

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

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lawsuit

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 116th 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.