THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Insurance -- Homeowners -- Discovery -- Work product -- Claims files -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- Trial court did not depart from essential requirements of the law by compelling insurer to produce documents from its claims and underwriting files -- Documents in claims and underwriting files are not automatically work product -- Insurer's assertion of work-product privilege was overly broad, and insurer did not argue or prove that the requested documents were prepared in anticipation of litigation
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Labor relations -- Fair Labor Standards Act -- Overtime -- Liquidated damages -- Costs -- Attorney's fees -- Prevailing party -- Trial court did not abuse its discretion by awarding only a portion of plaintiff's costs -- Court rejects argument that plaintiff was entitled to all his costs under section 57.041 because he obtained judgment against defendant -- Award of costs in instant action was controlled by 28 U.S.C. § 1920 because plaintiff prevailed on a federal FLSA claim -- Applying correct cost statute, there was no showing of an abuse of discretion in ultimate award of costs to plaintiff -- Trial court erred by denying liquidated damages based on finding that defendant had acted in good faith, despite fact that defendant failed to pay plaintiff some overtime wages -- Even if defendant demonstrated an honest intention sufficient to meet the subjective component of good faith, defendant was still required to show that it had reasonable grounds for believing that its conduct comported with the FLSA, which defendant failed to do -- Trial court erred by denying plaintiff's request for attorney's fees based on conclusion that plaintiff was not a prevailing party -- FLSA mandates that a plaintiff who recovers a judgment in his favor shall be allowed reasonable attorney's fees
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Torts -- Negligent hiring -- Punitive damages -- Trial court departed from essential requirements of law in granting motion to amend complaint to add claim for punitive damages against employer of driver who crashed company car into plaintiff's vehicle -- Proffered evidence was not sufficient to establish reasonable basis for finding that defendant was grossly negligent when it allegedly hired employee without conducting adequate pre-employment screening, obtaining a driving and criminal history, and confirming that employee held valid driver's license -- Proffered evidence was either not directly related to allegation that employer was grossly negligent or sufficiently refuted by defendant
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Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
To see others not presented here, log in for more comprehensive weekly listings.

Criminal law -- Jury instructions -- Duress -- No error in failing to give duress jury instruction -- There was insufficient evidence to support duress instruction where, although defendant stated in investigative interview that he feared what co-defendant might do if defendant did not participate in underlying robbery, there was no evidence of threatened harm that was real, imminent, and impending
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Criminal law -- Petit theft -- Unanimous verdict -- Trial court did not deprive defendant of unanimous verdict by failing to require jury to unanimously determine whether defendant stole victim's purse, her wallet, or both -- When single offense, such as petit theft, may be committed by alternative acts, such as stealing purse or wallet, juror unanimity is not required as to which of those acts served as basis for verdict
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Rules of Criminal Procedure -- Amendment -- Competence to proceed -- Scope of examination and report -- Hearing and disposition -- Criminal Punishment Code -- Sentencing hearing for capital cases -- Scoresheet -- Amendments reflecting 2023 legislative changes
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