Welcome to your daily briefing on legal developments in Texas. Today we're covering 7 key stories including updates on texas legal headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
4 stories
The Texas Secretary of State provides the Comptroller's Office with public information reports to enable database searches for specific business names among taxable Texas entities.
Legal professionals conducting due diligence, transactional work, or tax-related research can verify entity status and taxable standing through this coordinated state resource.
The Texas Supreme Court has ended the state's reliance on the American Bar Association for law school accreditation.
This shift affects how Texas legal professionals evaluate law school credentials and may alter hiring and bar admission pathways within the state.
The Texas State Law Library has published a guide explaining where to find Texas and federal court records.
Legal professionals in TX need reliable access to both state and federal court records for case preparation, due diligence, and client service.
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Reach professionals in this market
3 stories
A preservation (litigation hold) letter is appropriate as soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated, not just after a complaint is filed. The letter should identify the matter, the document categories at issue, and the recipient's preservation duty. Failure to send one is the leading evidence of spoliation in subsequent motion practice.
Sanctions for spoliation can include adverse-inference instructions, monetary fines, and in severe cases default judgment. The cost of issuing a hold letter is one paralegal hour.
A clear scope-of-work paragraph — naming the specific matter, what is included, and what is explicitly excluded — eliminates roughly 70% of fee disputes by attorneys who track them. Generic "represent client in connection with X matter" language invites assumption-based conflict when adjacent issues surface mid-engagement.
Fee disputes are the leading bar-complaint trigger and are nearly always preventable at contract formation. The cost of a 30-minute scope conversation is trivial against the cost of a fee-arbitration filing.
Enforceability of employee non-competes varies dramatically by state and is trending toward narrower enforcement nationally. Common defects include geographic scope broader than the employer's actual market, duration longer than necessary to protect a legitimate interest, and lack of consideration beyond continued employment.
An overbroad non-compete is often unenforceable in its entirety, not just blue-penciled down — meaning the employer gets no protection at all. A narrower, defensible clause protects more than an aspirational one.
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