| Announcements | | 
| | 
| | Upcoming Seminars & Events. | |
| | Road Rules: A CRASH Course: March 29, Houston and April 6, San Antonio.******The Persuasive Edge: The Art of Communication and Influence, with Eric Oliver. April 29-30, Houston.******TTLA Annual Conference (formerly Midyear). June 1-3, Austin. Learn more at www.TTLA.com | | Share with your FB friends! | |
| | Injured patients discover hospitals seeking a piece of their accident settlements By Mary Ann Roser, Austin American Statesman, 3-28-11. Liens often are much higher than what hospital would normally be paid for services, lawyers charge. Personal injury lawyers and some patient advocates say hospital liens — which have been permitted by Texas law since the 1930s — by themselves are not bad. It makes sense for hospitals to try to get paid, they said. But they see hospitals abusing liens by seeking drastically higher payments from accident victims than they would otherwise get. Click on headline to read more. | | TEXAS SUPREME COURT ELECTRONIC-FILING EFFECTIVE | |
| | Effective March 28th, you may electronically file documents with the Texas Supreme Court, pay your fees, and serve opposing counsel using the Texas.gov electronic-filing system. To use the electronic-filing system you must first choose an electronic-filing service provider and register. You must send two paper copies of your filing to the Court when you use the electronic-filing system. | | Laws/Cases | |
| |
| | Settlement in Works in Fraternity Lawsuit | |
| | A settlement is reportedly in the works over a lawsuit filed against a University of Kansas fraternity after a pledge's death in 2009. The boy was found dead in his bed one morning in March 2009 and autopsy reports showed he had alcohol poisoning. The boy had allegedly been drinking all night with fraternity brothers. Staff and Wire Report, Kansas City Star 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Kansas City Star | | Alabama HIV Inmate Policy Discriminatory, Suit Says | |
| | A group of HIV-positive Alabama inmates have filed a lawsuit against the state claiming policies regarding HIV-positive inmates are discriminatory. The suit claims state prisons segregate inmates with HIV and make it impossible to keep their illness private. HIV-positive prisoners are limited to certain prisons, the suit also claims, keeping them from seeking transfers to prisons with certain work programs. Kent Faulk, The Birmingham News 03/28/2011 | | Read Article: The Birmingham News | | Suit Over Digital Music May Increase Income for Older Artists | |
| | The Supreme Court has sided with a lower court's ruling in a lawsuit over the worth of music sold on iTunes, saying that digital music should be treated as a license, not a sale, which could potentially entitle artists to higher royalties. Experts say this decision will have a huge affect on older artists whose contracts pre-dated digital sales. For decades, artists have been getting 10-15 percent in royalty rates off sales; however, the licensing of music usually entitles an artist to a 50 percent share, because there is no packaging to be done by the record label. Ben Sisario, The New York Times 03/27/2011 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Family of Boy Who Hanged Himself Sues Joshua District | |
| | A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Dallas accuses the Joshua school district and several school officials of violating the civil rights of 13-year-old Jon Carmichael by ignoring repeated acts of bullying against him along with his pleas for help in the days leading up to his suicide. Carmichael was a student at Joshua's Loflin Middle School, where the suit states that he was repeatedly bullied. School employees failed to intervene, the lawsuit alleges. Bill Hanna, Ft. Worth Star Telegram 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Ft. Worth Star Telegram | | Issues | |
| |
| | BP Is Said to Face U.S. Review for Manslaughter Charges | |
| | Federal prosecutors are considering whether to pursue manslaughter charges against BP managers for decisions made before the Gulf of Mexico oil well explosion, according to three people familiar with the matter. U.S. investigators also are examining statements made by leaders of the companies involved in the spill -- including former BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward -- during congressional hearings last year to determine whether their testimony was at odds with what they knew, one of the people said. All three spoke on condition they not be named because they weren’t authorized to discuss the case publicly. Charging individuals would be significant to environmental- safety cases because it might change behavior, said Jane Barrett, a law professor at the University of Maryland. Justin Blum & Alison Fitzgerald , Bloomberg 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | Healthcare | |
| |
| | Study Cites Cardiology Conflicts | |
| | Most doctors writing U.S. medical-practice guidelines for cardiology have financial ties to drug and device makers, and many own stock in such companies and give paid speeches for them, according to a study published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine. The peer-reviewed study contends such ties create potential conflicts of interest, even though they were disclosed, and could lead to bias. "Improper bias in the clinical practice guidelines can have a potentially more widespread adverse effect on patient care than individual practitioners' conflicts of interest," the study said. Thomas M. Burton, Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | | Medicare Records Reveal Troubling Trail of Surgeries | |
| | For the past year, the WSJ has been mining Medicare's claims databases to expose how some doctors potentially defraud the taxpayer-funded health program for the elderly and disabled and game its reimbursement system. The databases contain a computerized record of every bill submitted to, and paid out by, Medicare. Analysis of the data suggests that it also could be used as a tool to help screen for potentially bad or negligent doctors by identifying suspicious patterns of care. JOHN CARREYROU & TOM MCGINTY, Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | | Editorials/Columns/Letters | |
| |
| | Lisa Falkenberg: Does Texas Share Blame in Tragic Fire? | |
| | Does the state of Texas have blood on its hands in the day care fire? A lawsuit filed Wednesday suggests that it does. The lawsuit, by Tiffany Dickerson, the mother of two fire victims, claims the state was grossly negligent in licensing Jackie's Child Care. It blames the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for not thoroughly investigating operator Jessica Tata's criminal background before giving a child care license to a 22-year-old with a history of felony arson. And for not adequately regulating child care facilities, in general. The lawsuit claims the agency encourages parents to use licensed child care and then misleads them about the steps it's taking to ensure the licensed operations' safety. Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle 03/29/2011 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | |
| | |