2016 Midyear Conference & CLE: Have you registered? | TTLA Midyear Conference, May 5-6, San Antonio Hilton Palacio del Rio, 200 South Alamo Street. San Antonio on the River Walk . . . CLE Seminar with Pat Malone plus 5 hours on Reptile, and Med Mal breakout . . . Wednesday Board of Directors Reception . . . amazing Thursday night party at the Briscoe Museum . . . what are you waiting for? Click on the headline to learn more and register. | Texas Tribune Daily Brief | | Study: Oil Activity May Be Cause of East Texas Quakes | | In a peer-reviewed study made public Wednesday, University of Texas at Austin researchers call it 'plausible' that underground injections of oil and gas waste triggered a series of temblors ' including one of the strongest ever recorded in the area at 4.8 ' that rattled Timpson residents in 2012. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, adds to the growing body of research linking wastewater disposal wells to earthquakes in drilling communities nationwide. Texas, home to thousands of such wells, is the third-most at-risk state for man-made earthquakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, behind only Oklahoma and Kansas. Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune 04/14/2016 | Read Article: Texas Tribune | Employees' Lawsuit Challenges BP's Pensions | | Two BP employeesfiled suit Wednesday in federal court in Houston, alleging that the energy giant misled its workers when it converted its pension program in 1989 from a traditional defined benefit plan to a cash balance plan. The lawsuit is seeking class action status. L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle 04/14/2016 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | Dallas Jury Awards Domestic Violence Survivor $40M | | A Dallas County jury on Wednesday awarded Maria Escamilla $40.5 million in a civil suit against Jose Arreola. Arreola, 37, assaulted Escamilla with his hands, a lamp, a knife and an unknown object at her Lancaster home in March 2011. He tortured her for five hours and left her for dead. A jury sent the Arreola to prison in 2013 for the attack. He has no assets and probably will never have the means to pay. Jennifer Emily , The Dallas Morning News 04/14/2016 | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | Woman Awarded $51M in New Orleans East 18-Wheeler Suit | | A jury returned a $51.5 million judgment Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by the family of Connie Jones Marable who was severely injured by a tractor-trailer truck in New Orleans East. Marable was injured in 2012 in a Lowe's Home Improvement parking lot on Read Boulevard after her husband's 2007 Freightliner truck moved despite having its emergency brake on, according to the suit. Freightliner Trucks is a division of Daimler Trucks North America LLC. The truck pinned her under its wheels and dragged her for some time, leaving her with "crushing physical injuries and a severe brain injury". Court filings indicate that her husband, Wayne, left the vehicle with the brake on. When it started moving forward anyway, she tried to help him stop it. The jury found Daimler Trucks to be 90 percent at fault in the accident. Wilborn P. Nobles III, New Orleans Times-Picayune 04/14/2016 | Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune | NCAA to Face Lawsuit Over Death of Frostburg State Football Player | | A judge in Maryland has stated that the NCAA will face a lawsuit over the death of a football player from Frostburg State University. The player died of head injuries he suffered in 2011 during football practice. The parents of the player filed the wrongful death lawsuit and contend that NCAA downplayed the risks of repeated head injuries and did not stress the risks of suffering a head injury before a previous one had healed. The NCAA alleges that the player knew the risks prior to the incident. Montgomery County Circuit Judge David Boynton denied the motion for a summary judgment and set a trial date for June 20. Staff Report, The Baltimore Sun 04/08/2016 | Read Article: The Baltimore Sun | | |