A Big Thank You for Everyone Who Attended.
The leadership team of Irvine & Conner PLLC and Burns Charest LLP hosted a three-hour town hall meeting to a packed room. Upstream flood victims came from neighborhoods across both Addicks and Barker reservoirs to learn about the case, ask questions, and meet the lawyers responsible for seeking relief from the Government for all the upstream flood victims.
The lawyers stayed and spoke with attendees until every question had been answered. And, after that, the lawyers spent the next day visiting flood victims in their home and hearing their stories.
Evaluating ‘Representative’ Properties in the Litigation.
As we noted in our prior email, the Court expects the attorneys and the government to streamline the litigation. To do so, the leadership will use ‘representative properties’ (sometimes called ‘test properties’) which will be the properties that go to trial on the merits. At the appropriate time, our legal team will ask the Court to treat the representative cases as a ‘class’ so that, if the test cases are successful, then all upstream flood victims benefit from a liability finding against the government. For those clients who are not a ‘representative property,’ your case will be filed with the Court, with your basic information submitted. Each client still has damages to calculate and work up. We will work on the individualized damages for each client while the test cases proceed. All flood victims that are not a ‘representative property’ will be on this same track.
We would like to identify additional representative properties for evaluation in the following categories:
- commercial interests (such as a restaurant or a store);
2. investment properties;
3. two-story homes in which the owner lives upstairs after Harvey;
4. completely rebuilt/repaired structures;
5. properties sold since the flood or for sale now.
If you fit into one of these categories (or you know someone who does), please contact us and tell us which category best fits. We expect there will be between 10 to 20 properties that serve as test properties to represent the homeowners and business that are upstream of, or behind, Addicks and Barker Dams. We will evaluate these various options for the representative cases.
At our meeting on Thursday of this week, we will explain in detail the process of using representative properties.
NEXT Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, January 11 at 6:00 PM.
We had standing room only at our meeting last weekend, so we want to open the doors again to accommodate additional questions. We will hold another information session for upstream flood victims who want to learn about the status of the case, the ‘representative property’ process, and the plans for recovery of individual damages.
The meeting will be on January 11, starting at 6:00 PM, at the Four Points by Sheraton Houston Energy Corridor, located at 18861 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77094. Here is a link to the location.
In addition, we have set up different places to get information and/or send us questions. Please feel free to access these resources and/or pass them (or even this email) along to your neighbors. Getting the word out about the case and our meetings will be a big help to us and the affected upstream flood victims.
As always, please feel free to call 713-533-1704 or 888-248-5215, or email addicksbarker@irvineconner.com or harvey@burnscharest.com with any questions.
