Plaintiff-hungry lawyers Gobble Up Eastern District of Texas Patent Cases
As we’ve talked about, there are a few significant reasons why cases
are so often taken to Marshall, such as plaintiff-friendly juries, the
“rocket docket” and plaintiff-hungry lawyers. As a conclusion to this
series, today we’ll just focus on why Marshall is so attractive to
plaintiff-hungry lawyers.
P.I to I.P. – A Quick Marshall History Lesson
Marshall’s booming legal community reaches back far. In the late 1800s,
Marshall was an active transportation portal to the North, which linked
the Texas and Pacific Railway. During the building of the railroad,
many personal-injury lawyers came to Marshall to represent injured
workers. In the 20th century, toxic torts and consumer class actions
became litigation fodder. Marshall evolved in time, however, as the
New York Times pointed out:
“By the late
1990’s, though, it looked as if the good times were ending for
Marshall’s lawyers. Broad tort reform in the state had limited
punitive damages and later capped damages on medical malpractice
lawsuits, effectively limiting the fees that lawyers could make.
“In Marshall, an
oft-told joke is that the passage of tort reform was when many local
lawyers made the trip from P.I. to I.P. — that is, they moved out of
personal injury and into intellectual property.”
According to the Boston Globe,
the Eastern District’s plaintiff friendly juries have led to “higher
than average financial awards” – which has consequently attracted the
attention of plaintiff attorneys seeking to cash in on this windfall.
This would allow many plaintiff attorneys taking cases on a contingency
basis to maximize the potential financial reward for the risk
involved.
Note: Data culled from Administrative Office of US Courts.
Eastern District of Texas Today
As our charted research shows above, although the Eastern District of
Texas saw a tremendous increase in filings (see Intellectual Property
Case Filings from 2003-2008 Chart above) from 38 in 2003 to more than
300 in 2007-08, no other district saw such an increase. However, that
all changed in 2009. From 2009 to date, the number of cases in the
Eastern District of Texas has dropped by nearly 25 percent. This drop
may be the result of recent court decisions limiting the ability of
parties (and therefore patent trolls) to file in this district where
there is no other reason for filing. In other words, recent decisions
requiring more concrete connections to the particular district may be
helping to stem the forum shopping. However, at least
one commentator has argued that the practical effect of these court decisions is much ado about nothing.
