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Texas Trial Lawyers Association


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  January 22, 2014

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Upcoming Online CLE

22
Jan

Supplemental Security Income Basics

30
Jan

Developing Nursing Home Rules to Frame Your Case

13
Feb

The Ethics of Medicare Secondary Payer: How Present Practices Pose Practical Problems for Plaintiff Practitioners

18
Feb

Dealing with Protective Orders – Another View

19
Feb

New Strategies for Hospital Acquired Infections

20
Feb

From First Consult to Complaint: Basic Tips for Representing a Client With a Sexual Harassment Claim

Announcements


 

 

TTLA President's Report - January 2014

Click on the headline to access TTLA President Mike Guajardo's January Report to the membership (requires login).  

 

TTLA Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Seminar | April 3-4 | Royal Sonesta, Houston

In April 2014, something BIG is coming to TTLA! Planning is underway, and the 2nd Annual TTLA Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Seminar will be bigger and better than ever. You won’t want to miss this sell-out seminar with its lineup of in-demand topics, storied speakers and unparalleled insight. Watch your e-mail for more information coming soon and save the date: April 3-4 in Houston. Think BIG. Think TTLA PMD.  

 

Laws/Cases


 

 

BP Snipes Away at Oil Spill Settlement

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Despite a resounding recent setback before an appeals court, BP PLC remains unbowed in its campaign to rewrite its $9.6 billion settlement in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The company continues to chip away at the deal both in the courts of law and of public opinion. Even hard-bitten plaintiffs attorneys who have taken on big oil companies in the past are finding it remarkable for a company to challenge its own settlement.
Amanda Bronstad, The National Law Journal - $$ Subscription Required 01/22/2014   Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn Icon

Read Article: The National Law Journal - $$ Subscription Required($)    

 

Top 2013 Jury Awards

 

U.S. juries awarded three verdicts of $1 billion or more for the third straight year in 2013, topped by a $1.2 billion award against Dow Chemical Co., the largest ever in a price-fixing case. Second was $1.1 billion awarded by a Florida jury in July against Trans Healthcare Inc. to the estate of a woman who died following multiple falls — the largest-ever against a nursing home. Lennar Corp. won the third, $1 billion in a suit in which a California developer and his company were accused of defaming the homebuilder as part of an extortion scheme.
Margaret Cronin Fisk, Bloomberg  01/22/2014  Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn icon

Read Article: Bloomberg    

 

City Council to Purchase Home As Part of Settlement

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The Lafayette, La. city council has decided to purchase a home as part of a settlement in a lawsuit against the city over an ineffective city drainage coulee. A Louisiana couple filed the lawsuit after sink holes began forming around their property, causing damage to the foundation of their house. According to the suit, the sink holes on the property were so large that fences had to be built around them for safety and the erosion led to significant cracks in the home's slab, ceilings and walls. The $775,000 purchase of the home is only part of the settlement, but the additional monetary compensation has not yet been revealed.
Richard Burgess, The Advocate 01/22/2014   Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn Icon

Read Article: The Advocate    

 

Man Acquitted of Woman's Murder Settles Suit

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A U.S. Army reservist who was acquitted of the 2005 murder of a woman in a Home Depot parking lot has settled a lawsuit against the city of Altoona, Iowa, two police officials and a video production company. The man was charged twice with first-degree murder in the woman's death, one of the charges was dropped in 2007. A jury acquitted him of the second first-degree murder charge after a trial in 2010. The lawsuit accused the police department of focusing their whole investigation on the plaintiff while ignoring other potential suspects. It also targets the video production company who made a video that allegedly showed the plaintiff's vehicle in the parking lot during the murder. The lawsuit sought $14 million in damages, but the details of the settlement have not yet been revealed.
Grant Rodgers, DesMoines Register 01/20/2014   Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn Icon

Read Article: DesMoines Register    

 

Suit: Calif. Hospital Covered Up Negligence in Man's Death

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A federal lawsuit alleges that a California hospital caused the death of a 42-year-old patient and attempted to cover up their negligence by creating a false report. The man died after a surgery to have a disc in his cervical spine removed caused an expanding post-operative hematoma. Following the man's death, a report indicated he died of a fatty liver, allegedly "to placate [his wife] so she would believe the cause of death was natural." The lawsuit was filed by the man's wife and son and seeks punitive damages for malpractice, wrongful death, fraud, conspiracy and cover-up.
Patrick S. Pemberton, San Luis Obispo Tribune 01/21/2014   Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn Icon

Read Article: San Luis Obispo Tribune    

 

Issues


 

 

Sexual Orientation Is No Basis for Jury Exclusion, a Federal Appeals Court Rules

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Gay men and lesbians may not be excluded from juries based on their sexual orientation, the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled on Tuesday. During jury selection, lawyers are generally permitted to exclude — or strike — a fixed number of potential jurors without stating a reason. But in 1986, in Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court made an exception for race, requiring lawyers to provide a nondiscriminatory explanation if challenged. Eight years later the justices extended that requirement to gender.
ADAM LIPTAK, The New York Times 01/22/2014   Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn Icon

Read Article: The New York Times    

 

Healthcare


 

 

Report Card: Texas Ranks 38th in Support to Emergency Patients

 

Texas is again sinking to the bottom of the barrel on a national health care measure. The state ranks 38th in the nation – down from 29th five years ago – for failing to support emergency patients. That’s according to the latest report card from the Dallas-based American College of Emergency Physicians.
Miles Moffeit, The Dallas Morning News  01/22/2014  Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn icon

Read Article: The Dallas Morning News    

 

Studies/Reports


 

 

FDA’s ‘Safe and Effective’ Drug Approvals Based on Widely Varied Data, Study Finds

 

Researchers found broad differences in the data it took to get a thumbs up from FDA. For instance, the agency required that many new drugs prove themselves in large, high-quality clinical trials. But about a third won approval on the basis of a single clinical trial, and many other trials involved small groups of patients and shorter durations. Only about 40 percent of approvals included trials in which the new drug was compared with existing drugs on the market.
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post  01/22/2014  Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn icon

Read Article: The Washington Post    


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