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May 18, 2011

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Death During Plastic Surgery

City of Houston Alleges 2 Decades of Overbilling by CenterPoint

Volvo Settles Class-Action Suit over Heath Benefits

USAA Sued Anew Over Medical Payouts in Crashes

Another Suit Filed over Pipeline Explosion

Suit: San Diego School Stifled Student Free Speech

Death of Ole Miss Football Player Prompts Lawsuit

Texas Supreme Court: Health Law

 

 

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Announcements

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TTLA Annual Conference has moved to June 1-3 in Austin

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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

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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

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Death During Plastic Surgery

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Lisa Martinez, 32, went in for a procedure with Dr. Robert Young, a popular San Antonio plastic surgeon. Lisa was getting what's called a "Brazilian Butt Lift." According to documents, Dr. Young was collecting fatty tissue from the hips and lower and mid back, and then injecting it back into her buttocks. During the surgery, according to the medical examiner, Lisa suffered intra-abdominal hemorrhaging due to a perforated aorta. The vein supplying blood to the rest of the body was punctured. The family ordered an autopsy and obtained an attorney, who says a punctured aorta is considered an accidental death. The family is filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.  Jozannah Quintanilla, WOAI News  05/18/2011

Read Article: WOAI News    

 

City of Houston Alleges 2 Decades of Overbilling by CenterPoint

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CenterPoint Energy has overbilled Houston for street lighting for 20 years, the city alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday. A City Attorney said the claim could be for "tens of millions of dollars," noting that New Orleans settled a similar lawsuit for $12 million. A spokesman for CenterPoint, said the company isn't aware of any complaints about the issue but declined to comment because he hadn't seen the lawsuit. Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7569411.html#ixzz1MiOIUh00  Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle  05/18/2011

Read Article: Houston Chronicle    

 

Volvo Settles Class-Action Suit over Heath Benefits

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Volvo AB has agreed to a $525 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed by more than 9,300 retirees against the company's Mack Truck Inc. unit. The suit claimed the company "illegally reduced [the retirees] lifetime health benefits." The $525 million settlement will be paid to a trust to fund a new health care plan in five annual payments, Reuters reported.  Jonathan Stempel, Reuters  05/17/2011

Read Article: Reuters    

 

USAA Sued Anew Over Medical Payouts in Crashes

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USAA again is defending itself against charges it utilizes a "cost containment program" to improperly reduce or deny medical payouts to insurance customers injured in auto accidents. The latest claims against the San Antonio financial and insurance company were made in a federal lawsuit filed this week in Oregon. The lawsuit, which seeks national class-action certification, charges that USAA uses an outside auditor to assess claims and to "uniformly conclude that medical treatment was not needed."  Patrick Danner, Houston Chronicle  05/18/2011

Read Article: Houston Chronicle    

 

Another Suit Filed over Pipeline Explosion

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Another lawsuit has been filed against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. over a deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno last year. The suit was filed by a representative of one of the men killed in the blast, and claims that "poor maintenance and construction resulted in an 'inevitable explosion' of the gas line." The suit is seeking unspecified damages. The blast occurred on Sept. 9, killing eight people.  Wire Report, San Francisco Chronicle  05/16/2011

Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle    

 

Suit: San Diego School Stifled Student Free Speech

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A lawsuit has been filed against La Jolla High School in San Diego, claiming school officials "illegally blotted out political messages painted by Iranian-American students on 'senior benches' that have long served as an open forum on campus." Several Iranian students painted messages on the benches supporting freedom in Iran in February, but the messages were covered up because they were not "positive messages of school spirit," school officials said. The lawsuit claims the officials used vague requirements to stifle the students' freedom of speech.  Maureen Magee, San Diego Union Tribune  05/16/2011

Read Article: San Diego Union Tribune    

 

Death of Ole Miss Football Player Prompts Lawsuit

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The death of a walk-on football player at Ole Miss has prompted a lawsuit from the family against the school and a host of other defendants. The lawsuit alleges the school did not make Bennie Abram aware that he had sickle cell trait after his initial blood tests; an autopsy after Abram's death found that sickle cell contributed to the boy's death. The suit also claims the Feb. 19 workout at which the boy died was "careless and recklessly excessive." The suit is seeking unspecified damages.  Kyle Veazey, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger  05/17/2011

Read Article: The Jackson Clarion-Ledger    

 

TEXAS LAWYER CASE SUMMARIES

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Texas Supreme Court: Health Law

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Jo Fawn Ollie underwent knee replacement surgery at Harris Methodist Hospital. She alleges that during her post-surgery hospitalization she took a bath, slipped on the wet floor while getting out of the bathtub, and injured her right shoulder. She sued the hospital, alleging both a negligence theory and a medical malpractice theory. She subsequently amended her petition and omitted the allegations that had been labeled as a medical malpractice claim. The trial court denied the hospital's motion to dismiss. A divided court of appeals affirmed, concluding that Ollie's claim was for a breach of ordinary care and thus was not a health care liability claim. Ollie's claim is a health care liability claim and she was required to serve an expert report. The court of appeals' judgment is reversed and remanded with instructions to consider the hospital's attorneys' fees and costs. Harris Methodist Fort Worth v. Ollie, Texas Supreme Court, No. 09-0025, 05-13-2011.  , Texas Lawyer  05/18/2011

Read Article: Texas Lawyer    


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