Our Constitutional Rights Slipping Away...

The latest from the Dallas Morning News confirms what most attorneys already know--in Texas, civil jury trials are disappearing.  Walk into the Harris County Civil Courthouse and wander around the empty floors--it feels like an abandoned building.  The Seventh Amendment is being eroded by many things: the high costs of litigation, tort "reform," arbitration and people who distrust ordinary Texans to serve on a jury.  A sad state of affairs.  

“The Texas appellate courts have all but told trial judges that they need to grant more motions for summary judgment and let fewer cases go to trial,” said Steve McConnico, an Austin lawyer.
“We write motions for summary judgment today for our corporate clients that we would have laughed at only a few years ago,” said McConnico, whose clients include large energy and pharmaceutical companies. “The Texas Supreme Court has made proving causation and damages in all kinds of cases much more difficult.
“It is sad that this valuable and effective constitutional right is going away and people are not more outraged,” he said.

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