Taylor Law Firm

07/12/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bwrCWTFyY/

What say y'all?

Y'all, they say a handshake and a written promise are supposed to mean something in Texas, but one small town is fighting to prove that is still true! 🇺🇸📉🛑

If you want to understand why so many local communities are frustrated with the massive tech boom, just look at what is happening in Taylor, Texas. Back in 1999, a local farmer known as Mr. Bland saw that the neighborhood kids didn't have anywhere safe to play. So, out of the goodness of his heart, his family deeded nearly 88 acres of land for just $10. The official deed came with one very clear, legally binding catch: the land must "be held in trust for future use as parkland." 🌳

Fast forward a few decades. Through a series of quiet municipal transfers, the City of Taylor ended up passing the land to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation. In 2025, they shocked the community by selling that exact same "parkland" to a massive commercial developer for a staggering $10 million! 💰

Instead of baseball fields and swing sets for the kids, the land is now slated to become a massive 135,000-square-foot, windowless industrial data center. Not only are the neighbors terrified about the noise, massive water usage, and dropping property values, but they are heartbroken over the betrayal of Mr. Bland's original gift.

The community isn't going down without a fight, though. The descendants and neighbors have taken the fight all the way to the Third Court of Appeals in Austin to demand that the original deed be honored. Do you think a city should be allowed to override a decades-old charitable land deed if a massive corporation offers them enough money? Let us know in the comments below! 👇 Let's stand with the locals!

01/30/2026

I'm pleased to announce the launching of my new website: taylorlawfirmtexas.com

I handle whistleblower and other retaliation cases for nurses and other professionals, as well as other worker-side employment law, complex personal injury and commercial litigation. Follow the link below and you'll find the intake forms online:

When the bad don’t do right, the good shine the light. Employment rules, policies and procedures aren’t always what they seem. While many of the violations Walt pursues are in the workplace, he also seeks justice in other cases where a jury’s verdict compensating severe injuries will render ou...

06/05/2025

It was an honor to speak in Austin this morning on Texas state law updates at the University of Texas School of Law Continuing Legal Education's 32nd Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference!

04/15/2025

Honored to be in Austin testifying before the Texas House of Representatives State Affairs Committee in support of legislation proposed by Representative Chris Turner to amend the Texas Whistleblower Act to ensure public employees are protected when in good faith they report violations of law by elected officials. This is hardly a partisan issue, and hopefully the House and Senate will do the right thing and pass it! Proud to be seen in this picture with Representative Turner, Tanner Franklin of East Texas, and two brave heros I admire from Denton - Michael Grim and Jim Maynard.

01/22/2024

It was a bad idea then; it's a worse idea now. Do you believe the quality of your health care and medical decision making is better today than it was 20-25 years ago? You may be in for a rude awakening, and this 20+ year-old law isn't helping. Please read this story!

The death of former Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson — and news that her family intends to sue a rehabilitation center alleging negligent care resulted in...

08/26/2023

I was honored to speak this weekend at the 33rd Annual Labor & Employment Law Institute, helping trial lawyers in employment cases remember how to preserve arguments for appeal, including Batson violations (unlawful peremptory striking of potential jurors based on race, national origin, s*x, s*xual orientation, etc.). Our 7th Amendment right to jury trial and the right of all citizens to serve are critical to our democracy and must remain inviolate.

06/06/2023

https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2023/06/utsw-settles-discrimination-lawsuit-with-renowned-scientist-dr-ellen-vitetta/

Other late-career female UTSW professors recount being gaslit into leaving their positions.

01/31/2023

A little lawyer humor: I mentioned in a recent post having the privilege of making some good law last year in the Fifth Circuit on the sham affidavit doctrine in Seigler v. Walmart. On the main issue in the case - whether the substance had been on the floor long enough for a jury to say Walmart had constructive notice of the dangerous condition under Texas law and therefore a duty to warn or make safe, David Hart and Daniel Hart had developed great evidence that Walmart's own policies required its employees to be "zoning" or "cleaning as you go," meaning they should have spotted the chicken grease before it caused Ms. Seigler a brutal injury. Walmart employees said other items that often hit Walmart's floor included salsa and popcorn chicken.

Surprisingly, in its brief Walmart took the position that "our employees are looking for salsa and popcorn chicken, they're not looking for chicken grease," claiming "zoning" was therefore no evidence Walmart's employees should have seen the chicken grease in time to spare Ms. Seigler serious injury. This led to a little fun in my Reply Brief:

"In its Brief of Appellee, Walmart complains its employees experienced more types of spills than merely chicken grease, and that some of its employees’ deposition testimony related to salsa or 'popcorn chicken,' rather than the hot grease that caused Ms. Seigler’s injury. See Brief of Appellee, pp. 3-4. With apologies to Bob Marley and Eric Clapton, Walmart’s “I shot the sheriff, but I didn’t shoot the deputy” [Footnote] argument (that is, its contention that 'our employees look for salsa, not hot grease') fails. If anything, when all reasonable inferences are drawn and all doubts resolved in favor of Seigler – the non-movant – Walmart’s 'other foreign substances' argument actually increases (rather than decreases) the potential range of harms for which Walmart’s employees were fully aware they should have been looking diligently."

Instead of citing to a statute or case, here was my footnote on this point: FN: “I Shot the Sheriff,” 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton© RSO Records, 1974 (composed by Bob Marley); see also “I Shot the Sheriff,” Burnin’; The Wailers© Island/Tuff Gong, 1973.