| Announcements | | 
| | 
| | TTLA Annual Conference has moved to June 1-3 in Austin | |
| | We’ll be hosting all the events you’ve come to expect from our December conference. Between the 2-day CLE, parties, meetings, legislative update & special events, you’ll leave the live music capital of the world feeling energized, connected, and bad to the bone! Check out the CLE program agendas for Wednesday and Thursday, which include a live video presentation with David Ball plus family friendly events to make this a true vacation opportunity. Click on the headline to register! | | Share with your FB friends: Editorial - Tort deform, Houston Chronicle 5-15-11 | |
| | House Bill 274 further stacks the legal deck in favor of big-money defendants. The campaign by so-called tort reformers in Texas has long since moved beyond its avowed goal of preventing frivolous lawsuits and massive damage judgments. With the passage of HB 274 by the Texas House last weekend, it has graduated to an all-out assault on the ability of consumers and small business owners to seek legal redress in civil courts against powerful business interests. You might call the latest iteration "stealth tort reform." The primary damage isn't in what the bill adds to current law. The injustice is in what it eliminates. Click on the headline to read more. | | Laws/Cases | |
| |
| | Cardiologists Accuse Hospital of Discrimination | |
| | The emails and memos written by administrators and doctors at Citizens Medical Center about three of their colleagues of Indian descent are, at best, derogatory. An operating room chief wrote of trying to force “the Indians off the reservation.” But whether racial animus led Citizens Medical, a county-owned hospital, to close its cardiology unit to non-staff doctors — effectively revoking the privileges of Drs. Harish Chandna, Ajay Gaalla and Dakshesh Kumar Parikh to practice there — is the subject of fierce debate and a discrimination lawsuit filed by the three doctors in federal district court in the Southern District of Texas. The dispute has divided Victoria’s close-knit medical community, where many longtime doctors and hospital officials say that it is not about race — the city has long been home to doctors of all ethnicities and nationalities — but a struggle over egos and influence gone awry. Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Texas Tribune | | Blackberry Tablet Recalled over Faulty Software | |
| | Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) has announced a recall of 1,000 Blackberry tablets due to a glitch in the product's software. The company announced today that the glitch may cause the tablet's software to load incorrectly. The company said most of the affected products have not been sold to customers, but those with malfunctioning tablets should contact RIM. Hugo Miller, Bloomberg 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | Death of Detainee Prompts Lawsuit | |
| | A lawsuit has been filed over the death of an immigrant detainee in a Suffolk County jail. The man died in 2009 from a heart attack caused by a sepsis infection which the lawsuit claims went ignored and untreated by jail officials. The lawsuit states "Suffolk officials waited too long to take [the plaintiff] to the hospital, allowing the infection to spread." The suit is seeking unspecified damages. Maria Sacchetti, Boston Globe 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Boston Globe | | Judge Rules for Kodak in Infringement Suit | |
| | The International Trade Commission judge ruled in favor of Kodak last week in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Apple against the camera company. Apple's lawsuit claimed Kodak had copied the company's "patented technology for digital cameras." The full commission will decide whether to uphold or reject the judge's ruling by Sept. 9. Staff Report, Reuters 05/12/2011 | | Read Article: Reuters | | Former College Baseball Player Files Lawsuit | |
| | A former Mississippi State University baseball player has filed a lawsuit against MSU baseball coach John Cohen, alleging he was forced to play and practice while injured and that the coach knowingly broke NCAA rules. The plaintiff claims Cohen forced him to pitch during practice and games while injured, forcing him to need surgery on his shoulder. The lawsuit also alleges Cohen forced his team to practice more during the week that what was allowed by NCAA regulations. Brandon Marcello, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger 05/14/2011 | | Read Article: The Jackson Clarion-Ledger | | Suit Settled over Groping at Epcot Center | |
| | Disney has settled a lawsuit filed over alleged inappropriate conduct by an employee dressed as Donald Duck at Florida's Epcot Center. The lawsuit claimed the employee "groped" a woman at the park and caused her "physical injuries and emotional trauma." The amount of the settlement was undisclosed. Staff Report, United Press International 05/14/2011 | | Read Article: United Press International | | Issues | |
| |
| | Few Bars Punished in DWI Cases | |
| | Article outlines the difficulties of imposing penalties on businesses that serve drunken customers, even in the most extreme instances when they imperiled lives. A review of TABC data for 2008 to 2010 shows that bars and restaurants rarely lose their licenses in such cases, and 18 businesses in Texas have avoided penalties as a result of the law. State laws also pose hurdles for families seeking financial damages from businesses that sold alcohol to drunken drivers. Plaintiffs must prove that bars served "obviously intoxicated" patrons who posed a "clear danger" to themselves or others. KARISA KING, Houston Chronicle 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Company Lawyers Sniff Out Revenue | |
| | Companies are warming to a new way of generating revenue: suing for it. Ford Motor Co., Tyco and Michelin SCA, among others, say their lawyers are devoting more time and effort to bringing in extra cash by thinking like plaintiffs. Following in the footsteps of several big drug and technology companies, which have aggressively pursued alleged patent infringers, companies in a range of industries have stepped up legal action. The sums they win from these "plaintiff recovery" lawsuits usually aren't big enough to be singled out in earnings statements. Nor do individual cases typically have a material impact on the bottom line. But, taken together, they can produce hundreds of millions of dollars in added revenue for a company in a single year. The recent enthusiasm for litigation—or threats of litigation—as a revenue-raising tool comes as companies move toward trimming their overall legal spending and asking their in-house legal staffs to do more. The trend also coincides with a big push by business lobbyists for caps on damage awards in certain types of lawsuits and steps to make it tougher for consumers to band together to sue companies. VANESSA O'CONNELL , Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | | TEXAS LAWYER CASE SUMMARIES | |
| |
| | Dallas Court of Appeals: Torts - premises liability | |
| | In this premises liability suit, the trial court entered a take-nothing judgment in favor of Brookshire Food Stores. Javier L. Beltran appeals. If the court improperly harmonizes or reconciles the jury's findings, a party can raise that issue on appeal without objecting to the jury's verdict before the jury is discharged. There is no fatal conflict when, as in this case, the jury finds a party is not negligent but then apportions to it a percentage of fault. The trial court's judgment is reversed and remanded. Beltran v. Brookshire Grocery Co., Dallas Court of Appeals, No. 05-09-01548-CV, 05-10-2011. , Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) 05/16/2011 | | Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) | |
| | |