We mentioned a while ago that Judge Barker, visiting from Texas, had filed orders in at least 17 of his cases asking if the parties consented to holding hearings and/or trial in the Eastern District of Texas.
At the time, most of the plaintiffs agreed to hearings and trials in Texas, while most defendants did not. There was no case where both parties assented to trial in Texas, but there were a few where the parties agreed to pretrial hearings there.
Just last week, Judge Barker entered a new order in several cases with pending motions that gave the parties a few more venue options:
Now before the court is a motion to dismiss for failure …
