West Short & Howell, PLLC

03/06/2025

Celebrating 189 years of Texas Independence at the firm today!

02/24/2022

Our firm was very proud to argue another case before the Texas Supreme Court yesterday in the case of Josh Shroeder in his Capacity as Chair of the City of Georgetown Planning and Zoning Commission v. Escalera Ranch Owners' Association. It's an interesting case involving whether persons negatively affected by a decision to approve an admittedly flawed plat have any recourse to challenge that decision. See the argument here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStSdVxlDGc

Attorneys and Counselors at Law

05/21/2018

This is a very important decision. For many years courts have held that employers who were sued by employees could not enforce arbitration agreements that the employer had forced the employee to sign, particularly in wage & hour (overtime, etc.) cases. The reasoning has been that although courts generally favor arbitration as a private means of resolving disputes, another federal law, the National Labor Relations Act, allowed employees the right to join unions or work together to bring a class action suit, and because employees are generally at a disadvantage in a dispute with their employer, employees should not be forced to bring suits individually - suits they seldom lack the funds to bring. Now, this seeming disagreement between two different bodies of law has been resolved in favor of the employer, who can now force employees to sign arbitration agreements and keep employees from working together to bring actions to remedy violations of the law. This effectively means that most employees' only real remedy is to quit and get another job. A significant victory for employers.

Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion -- a demonstration of how the move to keep Merrick Garland from being confirmed has helped cement a conservative court

01/30/2018

A great presentation by Mike Howell!

Today we heard from Mike Howell at West Short & Howell, PLLC. West Short and Associates is a civil litigation law firm located in Georgetown, Texas, serving its clients in all nature of civil disputes using the highest standards of quality, professionalism and ethics.

09/27/2017

There is a simple word change that you can use to help resolve conflict, whether that is personal, business, or political conflict. That change is using "how" instead of "why." When we use "why," we are inviting someone to come up with a story that involves blame for "why" this or that happened. "Why" therefore not a useful question to ask in the midst of a conflict. When we use "how," however, we look at the process rather than the story, the practical issue of "how" something happens, in a series of steps, rather than a story about why it happened.

For example, If someone is upset at you, asking them "why" they are upset just invites them to come up with a story about all the things that you did that "made them" upset. In turn, you will likely feel obligated to defend your actions with your own story about "why" you did what you did, which will likely cause the other person to defend their story. This perpetuates and escalates the conflict, with each person defending their story, taking you farther and farther away from a resolution.

Instead, if someone is upset, and you ask them "how" they got upset, in a series of events, it invites them to look at their part in the process of them getting upset. Asking them "how" you can help them to feel better also invites them to discuss what, as a practical matter, they want you to do to help. This de-escalates the conflict, and invites resolution.

Try it for yourself and see "how" it works!

09/18/2017

There are 8 words that can lead to and escalate conflict in relationships, whether those are personal relationships, business relationships, or political relationships. In my practice I have found it very helpful to watch for these words, to become aware of how I use them, and the conflict that results when they are used. These words are:

Should
Ought to
Have to
Must
Need to
Supposed to
Got to
Better

I have found that if I avoid these words I can avoid "triggering" other people, and if I notice when someone else is using them I can avoid being "triggered" myself. In short, being aware of these words helps me keep things "civil" in discussions with people with whom I disagree.

Try it and see for yourself.

-N West Short

08/29/2017

This is VERY important. If you have any claim at all relating to Harvey, go ahead and file it BEFORE 9/1 even if you don't have all the details yet. If you don't, and you fall under the new law, the penalty for insurance companies delaying payment to you is significantly less (10% versus 18% interest). Make no mistake, this isn't about "frivolous lawsuits," this is about insurance companies minimizing the consequences of mistreating their customers.

06/29/2015

The 5th Circuit just decided on June 22, 2015, a very interesting case filed in the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision last year. In East Texas Baptist University v. Burwell, Case No. 14-20112, a group of religious organizations filed suit because they said the paperwork that they needed to fill out to exempt themselves from providing contraceptive coverage for women, itself, interfered with their religious practices because it would trigger the ability of the affected women to obtain that coverage through separate government insurance payments (at no cost to the employer). In essence, these religious organizations objected to women actually getting the coverage, whether the employer had to pay for it or not. The 5th Circuit rejected that argument, holding that filling out paperwork to exempt yourself from providing contraceptive coverage for your employees was not a substantial burden on the employer's religious exercise. This underscores that the Hobby Lobby opinion will not actually allow religious-based organizations to deprive women of access to contraceptive coverage, as they are entitled to receive that coverage elsewhere. The opinion can be found on the 5th Circuit's website at: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/electronic-case-filing/case-information/current-opinions

02/27/2015

We just found out that our 5th Circuit victory in SouthPeak v. TimeGate is being taught in continuing legal education (CLE) courses on arbitration. Wow!

02/06/2015

Here's the audio recording of our argument before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/14/14-50374_2-6-2015.mp3

07/09/2014

We just WON a complex business dispute for one of our clients! The plaintiff sued our client for breach of a commercial lease and sought damages of $682k. We counter-sued for breach, and not only defeated the plaintiff but won a judgment against the plaintiff and its owners for almost $1 million. A copy of the judgment is here:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44875341/SummaryJudgment.pdf