Dispute Resolution
A dispute is a business decision.
We treat it like one.
A business dispute is a business decision before it's a legal one, and the question is rarely whether you can sue but whether the recovery justifies the cost. Hank has litigated more than 600 matters over 29 years, for companies enforcing contracts, defending claims, and recovering money they're owed, so you get counsel who can assess early what a case is worth and whether to fight it.
Hank handles contract and partnership disputes, business torts, noncompete and trade-secret claims, real estate and construction disputes, intellectual property litigation, and commercial collections. He carries each case from the first demand letter through pleadings, discovery, hearings, trial or arbitration, and appeal, and evaluates settlement at every stage where resolution may cost less than continued litigation.
Whether a dispute ends up in court or in arbitration depends on what the contract requires. When an arbitration clause governs, the dispute goes to a private arbitrator under the rules the parties agreed to. Everything else goes to court, where Hank pursues injunctions, temporary restraining orders, and other emergency relief to prevent harm while the case proceeds. He tries cases and argues appeals, but most resolve before a verdict, because the demonstrated willingness to go to trial is what produces a settlement worth accepting.
A judgment is only worth what you collect. Hank carries cases past the verdict into post-judgment recovery, converting a paper win into money through abstracts of judgment, writs of execution, garnishment, and turnover proceedings. Across industries from energy and software to construction and entertainment, every engagement works toward the same result, a dispute resolved on terms you can accept and a recovery you can deposit.
Services Include
- Litigation and arbitration
- Business litigation
- Construction litigation
- Commercial collections
- IP litigation
- Post-judgment collections
- Settlement strategy
- Injunctions and enforcement
Dispute Resolution Insights
Commercial Litigation
Breach of Contract in Texas From Notice Through Damages
Texas breach cases often turn on notice, materiality, accrual, and proof of damages. The contract and the records created during performance usually control the result.
Read articleBusiness Fraud and Misrepresentation in Texas: When a Deal Goes Beyond Breach of Contract
A breach of contract means someone didn't do what the agreement required. Fraud means someone lied to get the agreement signed in the first place. Both can produce financial harm, but the legal claims, the burdens of proof, the available defenses, and the recoverable damages are different.
Read articleBreach of Fiduciary Duty: When Partners, Officers, or Managers Violate Their Obligations
A fiduciary duty is the highest obligation the law imposes on one person's conduct toward another. When a partner, corporate officer, LLC manager, or director owes fiduciary duties and violates them, the remedies go beyond what contract law provides.
Read articleTortious Interference in Texas: When a Competitor or Third Party Disrupts Your Business
Texas encourages vigorous competition. Offering a better price, a superior product, or a more attractive deal to win a customer away from a competitor is lawful, even if the competitor loses revenue as a result. But when a third party goes beyond competition and intentionally disrupts an existing contract or prevents a prospective business relationship from forming through wrongful conduct, the injured party has a cause of action for tortious interference.
Read articleTemporary Restraining Orders and Injunctions: When Your Business Needs the Court to Act Before Trial
Some business disputes can't wait for trial. A departing employee who's downloading your customer database while packing their desk. A former partner who's soliciting your clients in violation of a noncompete. A vendor who's about to liquidate assets that secure your receivable.
Read articlePartnership and Ownership Disputes: Deadlock, Buyouts, and Dissolution Under Texas Law
When business co-owners can't agree, the business can't function. A 50/50 LLC where the two members disagree on every decision is paralyzed. A closely held corporation where the majority shareholder diverts profits to personal compensation while the minority receives nothing is oppressive.
Read articleThe Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for Businesses and Consumers
Texas businesses can encounter the Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act on either side of a dispute. A qualifying consumer may recover economic damages, mandatory attorney's fees after prevailing, and additional damages for knowing or intentional conduct.
Read articleCalculating Damages in Texas Business Disputes
Proving liability doesn't establish the amount of a Texas business judgment. Recovery also requires a legally available measure of damages, evidence connecting the loss to the defendant's conduct, and a calculation grounded in facts rather than assumption.
Read articleArbitration or Litigation for Texas Business Disputes
A forum clause in a business contract governs more than the address of the hearing. It can determine who resolves the dispute, how the parties obtain evidence, whether related claims can proceed together, how much of the record becomes public, and how a losing party can challenge the result.
Read articleCommercial Collections
Collection Demand Letters for Texas Business Debts
A collection demand letter should establish the debt, preserve the creditor's remedies, and give the debtor a credible reason to respond. An inflated balance, unsupported threat, or missed notice provision can damage a valid claim.
Read articleTexas Sworn Account Claims Under Rule 185
Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 185 can reduce the proof required to collect a qualifying commercial account. A timely written denial under oath removes that evidentiary advantage and requires the creditor to prove its contract claim.
Read articleTexas Prejudgment Attachment, Garnishment, and Sequestration
Texas attachment, garnishment, and sequestration secure different property before judgment. Each requires a statutory ground, sworn evidence, a court order, and a bond.
Read articleTexas Collection Settlements and Structured Payment Agreements
When you settle a business debt, you exchange litigation and collection risk for the debtor's promise to perform. The documents determine whether you received certainty.
Read articleCollecting a Defaulted Promissory Note in Texas
A missed payment doesn't establish the amount a creditor can collect or the procedure required to collect it. You must determine who can enforce the note, what became due, which notices your loan documents require, and which limitations period governs.
Read articleDefending a Texas Business Collection Lawsuit
When a creditor sues your business, you face two separate questions. You must determine what the creditor can prove, and you must protect the company from a default judgment while you investigate the claim.
Read articleConstruction
Texas Mechanic's and Materialman's Liens for Private Construction Payment Disputes
When an owner or contractor stops paying on a Texas private construction project, you need the lien calendar before you need the lawsuit. Chapter 53 provides lien rights for covered claimants only when the claimant follows the statute's notice, filing, and delivery rules.
Read articlePayment Bond Claims on Texas Public Projects
A payment bond is the payment remedy on a Texas public construction project because a mechanic's lien doesn't attach to public property. Chapter 2253 protects covered claimants only when the notices, sworn statement, mailing proof, and suit deadline line up with the statute.
Read articleConstruction Contracts: What Every Contractor and Subcontractor Should Negotiate Before Starting Work
A construction contract allocates risk. Every provision in it determines who bears the cost when something goes wrong, who gets paid and when, who's responsible for delays, who carries insurance, and who indemnifies whom. Contractors and subcontractors who sign contracts without negotiating these provisions accept the drafter's allocation of risk, and in most cases the drafter is the owner or the general contractor, which means the risk flows downhill.
Read articlePay-When-Paid and Pay-If-Paid Clauses in Texas Construction Contracts
Owner nonpayment can mean payment timing or a full transfer of risk. Texas courts and Chapter 56 treat those clauses differently.
Read articleTexas Construction Retainage Release Rules
Retainage turns the last piece of the job into payment pressure. Texas law separates private reserved funds, contractual retainage, public project caps, and release deadlines.
Read articleTexas Prompt Payment Act: Deadlines, Penalties, and Interest When an Owner or Contractor Pays Late
Texas has two prompt payment statutes for construction, and project ownership determines which one governs. Texas Property Code Chapter 28 governs private projects. Texas Government Code Chapter 2251 governs public projects, including projects owned by state agencies, counties, cities, school districts, and other governmental entities.
Read articleConstruction Trust Fund Claims Under Texas Property Code Chapter 162
Texas construction trust funds belong to the people whose labor and materials generated the payment, and control of those funds can create personal civil liability and criminal exposure.
Read articleTexas Construction Defect Claims Under the RCLA
A construction defect claim starts with the building, but it rarely ends there. A cracked slab, a leaking window system, or a failed balcony detail quickly becomes a calendar problem.
Read articleConstitutional Liens Versus Statutory Liens in Texas: Two Lien Rights and Why Both Exist
Texas is one of the only states where a mechanic's lien right is written into the state constitution. Article XVI, § 37 of the Texas Constitution provides that "mechanics, artisans, and material men, of every class, shall have a lien upon the buildings and articles made or repaired by them for the value of their labor done thereon, or material furnished therefor." It then instructs the legislature to provide for the enforcement of those liens, which the legislature did through Chapter 53 of the Texas Property Code.
Read articleIP Litigation
Unfair Competition Under the Lanham Act and Texas Law
Section 43(a) provides separate federal causes of action for false association and false advertising. Texas law supplements those claims through trademark infringement, unfair competition, business disparagement, contract claims, and other causes of action supported by the conduct at issue.
Read articleDamages and Remedies in Intellectual Property Litigation
Copyright, Lanham Act, patent, trade secret, cybersquatting, and state rights of publicity claims follow different rules for damages, attorney fees, injunctions, and enhanced relief.
Read articleCopyright Infringement Litigation and the Proof Required
Copyright protects original expression once an author fixes it in a tangible medium. A lawsuit requires more. A copyright owner must prove ownership of a valid copyright and copying of protectable expression, then connect the requested remedy to admissible evidence and the Copyright Act.
Read articleTrademark Infringement and Likelihood of Confusion
Trademark infringement occurs when someone uses a mark in commerce in a way that's likely to confuse consumers about the source, sponsorship, approval, or affiliation of goods or services. The dispute concerns the commercial impression created by the challenged use, with isolated similarities supplying only part of the evidence.
Read articleTrade Dress Protection for Product Design, Packaging, and Business Interiors
Trade dress protects the visual appearance of a product, its packaging, or a business environment when that appearance identifies source. A protectable claim can concern a bottle configuration, a product line, a restaurant interior, packaging graphics, or a combination of visual elements that consumers associate with one business.
Read articleTrade Secret Protection Starts Before the Lawsuit
Texas law protects trade secrets, but only when the owner protects them first. Courts decide many misappropriation cases on that requirement alone. Companies that ignore it find out in litigation that a court will refuse to protect information the company itself treated as casual, no matter how valuable that information was to the business.
Read articleAnatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Defenses to Allegations of Copyright Infringement
Below is the third excerpt from a presentation I gave at the State Bar of Texas' 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute entitled "Legal & Business Aspects of Music, Film and Digital Entertainment" in October 2006. Again, this was written for a court in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and other circuits treat some of these defenses differently.
Read articleAnatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Theories of Secondary Liability
Below is the second excerpt from a presentation I gave at the State Bar of Texas' 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute entitled "Legal & Business Aspects of Music, Film and Digital Entertainment" in October 2006 on the topic of copyright infringement. This was written for a court in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and other circuits may treat some of these issues differently.
Read articleAnatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Elements of a Copyright Infringement Claim
I thought I'd post some excerpts from a paper that I co-wrote for a presentation I gave with a friend of mine, Buck McKinney, at the State Bar of Texas' 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute entitled "Legal & Business Aspects of Music, Film and Digital Entertainment" in October 2006. The first excerpt is entitled "Elements of a Copyright Infringement Claim" and is one of my contributions to the paper.
Read articlePost-Judgment Collections
Domesticating and Enforcing Out-of-State Judgments in Texas
A judgment entered outside Texas doesn't authorize a Texas sheriff, constable, bank, or receiver to enforce it. Before using Texas collection remedies, a judgment creditor must establish an enforceable judgment in the Texas court system or register a qualifying federal judgment in a Texas federal court.
Read articleFraudulent Transfers Under the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act
A debtor can't defeat a creditor by transferring property to a relative, affiliated company, or cooperative business partner while keeping the benefit of the property. Chapter 24 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code allows a creditor to challenge specified transfers and obligations that hinder collection or leave the debtor without adequate value.
Read articlePost-Judgment Enforcement in Texas: Turning a Judgment Into Payment
A Texas money judgment establishes the debtor's liability and the amount owed. Collection requires a separate enforcement strategy based on the debtor's assets, available exemptions, pending appellate proceedings, and the remedy that applies to each asset.
Read articlePost-Judgment Discovery: How to Find the Debtor's Assets Before You Can Seize Them
Before a creditor can garnish a bank account, levy on personal property, or appoint a receiver, the creditor needs to know what the debtor owns and where it's located. A writ of execution served on a constable who can't find non-exempt property produces a nulla bona return and a wasted filing fee.
Read articleWrits of Execution, Abstracts of Judgment, and Turnover Orders: The Three Core Enforcement Tools
Post-judgment enforcement in Texas uses three primary tools, each designed to reach a different category of assets. An abstract of judgment creates a lien on real property. A writ of execution directs law enforcement to seize and sell personal property.
Read articleTexas Property Exemptions for Judgment Creditors: Homesteads, Wages, and Protected Accounts
A Texas judgment creditor may collect from property that belongs to the debtor and is subject to seizure. Exemptions remove specified property from that collection process, even when the judgment is final and the debt remains unpaid.
Read articleRelated Work
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