The Mazingo Firm, P.C.

06/27/2025

Judge Bass lived a fascinating life. A Texan and a patriot in every sense of those words and a fine coffee drinking companion. He could regale with tales for hours--and did--about his time in the Texas legislature, the friends he met there and enemies he made there, and his adventures with Congressman Charlie Wilson. Judge will be greatly missed.

Celebrate the life of Bill Bass, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Eubank Funeral Home.

04/01/2025

The older I've gotten, the less political I am because I realized a long time ago that politicians don't give a damn about us and most of what politicians do is a side show to district us. The culture war side shows are designed to ditract us and coerce us to fight amongst ourselves so their donors can fleece us. Senate Bill 30 would seriously harm Texans' ability to be made whole if they are catastrophically injured. And what's most perverse is the Governor, who pushes every tort reform bill he can find, was catastrophically injured BEFORE all of his tort reform. In other words, he had rights to compensation that helped him to live a full and productive life that he and Big Insurance want to make sure you don't have.

If you're from East Texas you may know Jack Walker. And you know he's a good and honorable man. If you don't know that, hopefully you can trust my vouch for him. Listen to Jack's testimony in front of the State Affairs Committee about SB 30. And then go and read more about what it would do.

09/19/2024

Got hit with a “War Eagle!” on my way out of the courtroom this morning. Can’t even escape these Barners in deep East Texas!

09/16/2024

Shane is one of my closest friends and has been for a long time. He is how I got to know Uncle Keith and this 5 or so minutes is really worth the time. Shane also told me last night that he told Keith we referred to him as Uncle Keith. I’m glad he had some idea who people felt about him when he passed.

09/10/2024

Use AI to generate briefs at your own peril.

Also, if your opponent sends you an email that says, "I think you may have some problems with your cites," it would be best to respond to that and try to work the issue out rather than ignoring the email while simultaneously attempting to amend your brief to correct the cites AND add new arguments about how bad your opponent is. But if you are going to do the above, at least come to Court and be contrite so you can keep your fine to $1,000.

Again, DON'T USE AI to generate briefs.

05/26/2024

Reading cases before church because I really know how to party and stumbled across this quote that summed up nearly 18 years of law practice: "As necessity is the mother of invention, so is ambiguity the father of multiple reasonable constructions, and where lawyers are involved, one never lacks an eager parent of either gender." Ideal Mut. Ins. Co. v. Last Days Evangelical Assoc., Inc., 783 F.2d 1234, 1238 (5th Cir. 1986). Henceforth I will quote this in every brief and motion I draft and point out the suspect parentage of my opponent's arguments.

05/09/2024

I was reminded again today while in a pretrial against a friend that this business is about resolving disputes and not creating them where they need not exist. And the business is actually a ton of fun when you are litigating against lawyers you trust. But litigating against dishonest tool bags is what makes lawyering needlessly stressful. It turns out fighting over every exhibit and deposition excerpt does not advance the interests of the client, but sure pads bills and feeds egos. But it's a terrible way to operate.

The old saw that is harder to litigate against a bad lawyer than a good lawyer also still holds.

04/08/2024

These glasses from the City of Tyler, and Totality Tyler are really great for eclipse viewing. But so far they seem really subpar for driving.

01/26/2024

This is the experience every lawyer has at their first deposition: “She was expecting tension, maybe harsh words, an atmosphere pervaded by competition and distrust. What she saw, however, was a bunch of white men shaking hands, swapping friendly insults, poking fun, laughing, and having a good time as they drank their coffee and waited on 9:00 a.m. If there was any edginess as they were about to begin their war over a fortune, it was not evident. ‘It’s just depositions,' Jake had said. 'You'll be bored out of your mind. Death by deposition.'" John Grisham, Sycamore Row

12/01/2023

Love The Mayfair, Love Dolly, and Love Don. It would be awesome if we could make this happen.