Law Office of Ernest C. Garcia

When people use social media such as MySpace, Twitter and Facebook they often do not consider that their audience may very well end up being someone other than their close friends and family.  They also don’t consider that every time they use these sites, they leave a “permanent” electronic trail (even if they think they deleted it).  These days in both civil and criminal court cases, the social media sites of civil litigants, witnesses and criminal defendants are being evaluated or investigated and a person’s words, photos, video, etc.

In the past many things were documented in hard paper form.  With the electronic digital age, today many communications, transactions or evidence may never be documented in hard paper form.  Thus as a friendly reminder, business entities and individuals at a minimum have a common law duty to preserve relevant electronically stored information (“ESI”) or electronic and magnetic data when litigation is pending, imminent or reasonably foreseeable.

In a continuing effort to provide the firm's clients with the best legal representation possible in May of 2010, lawyer Ernest C. Garcia will be taking a 40 hour / 5 day intensive mediation training course, sponsored by the University of Texas School of Law Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution.  Completion of the course will serve to enhance the firm's ability to assist clients to resolve disputes prior to litigation, and will also benefit clients involved in negotiating the settlement of their lawsuits prior to trial or appeal. 

In state court litigation concerning engineering fees which plaintiff W.O.H. Enterprises, LLC paid to defendants HDR Engineering, Inc. and Shiner Moseley and Associates, Inc.  Attorney Ernest C. Garcia was successful on December 1, 2009 in defending against a motion to dismiss filed by the defendant engineering firms.  The engineering firms have now filed an accelerated interlocutory appeal with the Thirteenth Court of Appeals and on January 6, 2010 Ernest C. Garcia was designated as the lead appellate attorney for W.O.H. Enterprises, LLC.  

The State Bar of Texas (which regulates attorneys) is trying to decide if attorneys should be required to disclose to the public if they have professional liability (legal malpractice) insurance coverage or not.  If you would like more information or if you would like to register a public comment (before Jan. 1, 2010) please go to: http://www.texasbar.com/   The Law Office of Ernest C. Garcia maintains professional liability insurance coverage.

On October 20, 2009 the Texas Supreme Court approved of proposed amendments to the attorney Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.  To view the link to the amendments you may click on:  http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/MiscDocket/09/09917500.pdf or you may contact the Law Office of Ernest C. Garcia for a copy.

In August of 2009 Ernest C. Garcia was selected to serve a co-counsel for the bankrupt debtor Wade Offshore, LLC (which filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization petition).  Wade Offshore, LLC has a multi-million dollar participating interest in several oil and gas rigs located in the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas coast.

In Case No. 2:09-CV-00038 PDVSA Petroleo, SA vs. Trigeant, Ltd. and BTB Refining, LLC pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas - Corpus Christi Division before Chief Judge Hayden Head, on June 29, 2009 BTB Refining, LLC designated Ernest C. Garcia to serve as its lead "attorney-in-charge."  PDVSA Petroleo, SA exists under the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.  Information on BTB Refining, LLC can be found at http://www.btbrefining.com/