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Laurie Ann McRay, et al. v. Dow Golub Remels & Gilbreath PLLC

Paid petition · Court of Appeals of Texas, First District, No. 01-21-00032-CV · judgment December 29, 2022


Certiorari denied · April 1, 2024
Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

When a law firm sues its own clients, demanding an award for both alleged past-due attorney’s fees and then attorney’s fees for prosecuting the lawsuit against its clients, are the clients’ Due Process rights violated when the sued clients:

  1. were denied the ability to retain substitute counsel, as well as adequate time for newlyretained counsel to prepare for the upcoming trial;

  2. were denied the ability to present evidence, including expert testimony, defending against the law firm’s accusations and in support of the clients’ counterclaims; and

  3. were ultimately ordered to compensate the law firm for “prosecutorial attorney’s fees” that were never paid by the law firm but were instead complimentarily provided by the law firm’s legal malpractice carrier, resulting in a windfall to the suing law firm?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Kimberly S. Keller
Keller Stolarczyk, PLLC

For respondent
Robert Paul Debelak
McDowell Hetherington LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Jun 03 2024
    Rehearing DENIED.
  2. May 14 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/30/2024.
  3. Apr 24 2024
  4. Apr 01 2024
    Petition DENIED.
  5. Mar 12 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/28/2024.
  6. Feb 29 2024
    Waiver of right of respondent Dow Golub Remels & Gilbreath PLLC to respond filed.
  7. Jan 24 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 29, 2024)