Takeaways From the MV3 v. Roku Trial

MV3 Partners LLC and Roku Inc. kicked off a jury trial last week in Judge Albright’s courtroom in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Winston & Strawn attorneys Danielle Williams and DaWanna McCray have been covering Judge Albright’s trial on Winston’s WacoWatch series. Mike, who is covering the trial on the ground, recently spoke with Bloomberg Law to offer takeaways from the courtroom.

He Wants Straight Answers

During the opening day of testimony, the judge several times politely interjected and reminded witnesses that they had been asked a “yes or no” question, according to Mike. “I think the judge’s position is, if you have a fair question, you’re going to get a straight answer,” he said.

Expert witnesses, in particular, tend to know when an answer might be harmful to their case and sometimes try to dance around a topic, avoiding a direct answer. Albright’s direct approach can cut through some of that and speed things up. “I think a lot of lawyers will probably be grateful to be in a courtroom where the witnesses, especially the expert witnesses, are going to be required to answer direct questions,” he said.

Remember the Texas Connections

Last year Roku asked Albright to transfer the case to the Northern District of California, arguing that it was “a clearly more convenient venue.” During the trial, Roku’s first witness was an executive based in Austin. He talked, in part, about how important West Texas is to the company. This wasn’t lost on Albright. The judge suggested he might revisit Roku’s motion requesting the transfer to see if there were inconsistencies, Mike explained.

Companies will need to be careful about trying to distance themselves from West Texas, then later touting their Texas bona fides for jurors. “I would view it as something that people ought to be thinking about,” Mike said. “If you’re going to be going to trial here, you should be thinking about whether you’re saying something right now that you’ll wish you hadn’t said.”

Read the full article here.

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