Garnett E. “Brit” Hendrix, Jr. was a speaker at the Dallas Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Monthly Section meeting held on January 14, 2013 at the Dallas Bar Association’s headquarters at the Belo Mansion & Pavilion in Dallas.
He spoke on a panel consisting of five attorneys who discussed a proposed change in the law that would prevent trial courts in Texas from ordering cases with a value of less than $100,000.00 to participate in mediation, meaning a pre-trial settlement meeting where the parties in a lawsuit are required to meet and negotiate in good faith in an effort to settle a lawsuit by agreement. The discussion concerned all types of cases, and Mr. Hendrix spoke as an expert on behalf of Fears | Nachawati Law Firm regarding the potential adverse effect of that proposed legal change on injured persons who bring lawsuits to recover money damages from the parties who negligently caused their injuries.
Mr. Hendrix pointed out that while many of the lawsuits which Fears | Nachawati Law Firm handles for injured persons have a possible value of more than $100,000.00 at trial, some of them have a probable value at trial of less than $100,000.00. Mr. Hendrix stated that injured persons with cases probably worth less than $100,000.00 at trial still deserve the opportunity to settle their cases that mediation provides, by having a setting where the injured person’s case is the only case being considered for settlement by the parties to the lawsuit and their attorneys at a single time and place. According to Mr. Hendrix, a personal injury lawsuit is important to the injured person bringing it, no matter how small the case may be.