Tom Melsheimer Co-Authors Commentary on Preserving the Value of Juries

Noted Dallas trial lawyer Thomas M. Melsheimer, the managing principal for the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C., has co-authored an opinion column for The Dallas Morning News on the erosion of the jury system in the face of corporate fraud and wrongdoing.

[USPRwire, Sat May 30 2009] Noted Dallas trial lawyer Thomas M. Melsheimer, the managing principal for the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C., has co-authored an opinion column for The Dallas Morning News on the erosion of the jury system in the face of corporate fraud and wrongdoing.

Entitled “The Economic Verdict: Time to Reinvest in the Jury Trial,” Melsheimer and co-author Craig Smith, Judge for the 192nd District Court in Dallas County, argue that the jury system can be an important regulatory tool in exposing and deterring wrongdoing. However, they find that this system “has slowly withered to the point of unprecedented weakness.”

Melsheimer and Judge Smith note that only two percent of lawsuits reach trial, due to lengthy delays, confidential agreements and other procedural strategies that effectively shield civil and criminal wrongdoing from the public eye. “A jury’s verdict can be shameful enough to change behavior, but a closed door settlement exposures nothing and carries no…moral incentive,” they write. The authors call on governmental regulators and investigators to encourage jury trials in the course of their prosecutions.

Mr. Melsheimer, who D Magazine described as one of the city's top "courtroom fighters," has several times been named in the magazine's annual round-up of "The Best Lawyers in Dallas." In 2008 he was named one of the best defense attorneys in North Texas by the Dallas Business Journal and the legal publication LawDragon has previously named him to their list of the nation’s Top 500 lawyers.

Mr. Melsheimer’s trial practice includes complex civil and criminal litigation in state and federal courts, emphasizing intellectual property, antitrust, and False Claims Act litigation. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1990 to 1993, and during his tenure was honored by the Justice Department as one of the nation’s top prosecutors