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March 13, 2012

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Antipsychotic Drug Use for Patients Without Mental Illness Grows

Gerber Recalls Infant Formula

Metal Hips Prone To Early Failure

Jurors Award Lawyer and Husband Nearly 10 Times the Requested Amount

San Bruno OKs $70M Settlement from PG&E

Few Lawyers can Charge $1,000 an Hour, but the Number is Growing

Attorney and Community Activist Accused of Barratry

Mounting Evidence: Air Pollutants Pose Big Risk

Yahoo Files Patent Lawsuit Against Facebook

Dentist Pulled Teach Unnecessarily, Suit Says

Boy's Suicide in Cell Prompts Lawsuit

 

 

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Announcements

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Share on FB: “The Truth About Torts: Defensive Medicine and the Unsupported Case for Medical Malprac

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A new whitepaper from the Center for Progressive Reform says medical tort reform won’t provide significant savings, since the costs of malpractice insurance and paying injured patients amounts to only 0.3 percent of total healthcare costs each year. Instead, the authors take aim at insurance companies, saying the focus on tort reform and claims about the costs of “defensive medicine” is nothing more than “a politically expedient straw man, allowing policymakers and the insurance industry to ignore or obscure the real drivers of rising medical costs, including the high costs of prescription drugs; the high demand for, and increasing use of, state-of-the-art technology; the growing incidence of chronic diseases; and an aging population that lives longer and consumes more medical care.” Source: Healthcare Finance News by Chris Anderson, Senior Editor  

 

Volunteer to End Distracted Driving

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The American Association for Justice and the non-profit group End Distracted Driving (EndDD) have teamed up to engage plaintiff’s lawyers in helping to spread the message about the dangers of distracted driving, and to get attorneys involved in the movement to end this dangerous practice. As April has been designated National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, TTLA is encouraging our membership to get involved and become advocates for safer driving in our Texas communities. Please see the message below, and click on the links to find out how you can volunteer to help end distracted driving in Texas. Click on the headline to learn more.  

 

Products

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Antipsychotic Drug Use for Patients Without Mental Illness Grows

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Examines a trend that alarms medical experts, policymakers and patient advocates: the skyrocketing increase in the off-label use of an expensive class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics. Until the past decade these 11 drugs, most approved in the 1990s, had been reserved for the approximately 3 percent of Americans with the most disabling mental illnesses. But these days atypical antipsychotics — the most popular are Seroquel, Zyprexa and Abilify — are being prescribed by psychiatrists and primary-care doctors to treat a panoply of conditions for which they have not been approved.  Sandra G. Boodman, The Washington Post  03/13/2012

Read Article: The Washington Post    

 

Gerber Recalls Infant Formula

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Gerber Products Company has announced a recall of a single batch of Good Start Gentle powdered infant formula after customers reported a strange smell coming from the product. The affected product comes in 23.2 ounce plastic packages with an expiration date of March 5, 2013. The company said there are no health of safety risks association with the recalled food.  Deborah Kotz, Boston Globe  03/12/2012

Read Article: Boston Globe    

 

Metal Hips Prone To Early Failure

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To lower the failure rates of artificial hips, particularly in younger people, doctors have tried using metal-on-metal hip joints with larger heads. But those metal-on-metal hips, which were supposed to be more durable, have their own problems.Last year, the FDA told makers of the devices that they should monitor patients after surgery, after complaints about pain, infection and allergic reactions showed that some of the metal hips were failing much sooner than expected.  Nancy Shute, National Public Radio  03/13/2012

Read Article: National Public Radio    

 

Laws/Cases

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Jurors Award Lawyer and Husband Nearly 10 Times the Requested Amount

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Georgia jurors in an Internet defamation case last month ignored a request to award $48,000 each to a lawyer and her husband. Instead, they awarded a total of $900,000 in damages. The plaintiffs, lawyer Jana Tabor and construction company owner John Tabor, had alleged they were defamed through media and Internet posts, according to the Daily Report. The defendant, Robyn McKinney, was accused of claiming the Tabors were responsible for the actions of a convicted murderer who had at one time worked for John Tabor’s company. The $900,000 verdict in Gwinnett County is one of three six-figure Georgia verdicts awarded for Internet defamation in the last 15 months, the story says. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in all three cases say the verdicts are uncollectable because the defendants have no assets.  Debra Cassens Weiss, American Bar Association Journal  03/13/2012

Read Article: American Bar Association Journal    

 

San Bruno OKs $70M Settlement from PG&E

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he city of San Bruno agreed Monday to accept $70M from PG&E as a settlement for the suffering caused by the September 2010 explosion of a natural gas pipeline in a residential neighborhood. As part of the deal, a $50M cap will be placed on a separate PG&E fund that is paying for rebuilding streets and utilities, replanting a burned canyon and other direct costs from the blast, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.  Demian Bulwa, San Francisco Chronicle  03/13/2012

Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle    

 

Issues

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Few Lawyers can Charge $1,000 an Hour, but the Number is Growing

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Five years after the elusive $1,000-an-hourly bill rate barrier was breached by a group of New York firms and a couple of lawyers in Houston and Dallas, the four-figure mark remains an exclusive club in Texas. But that could change in the next year or so. Lawyers, clients and law firm consultants say that there are scores of partners at major corporate law firms in Dallas and Houston who raised their billable rate above $900 an hour during the past year. And a sizable percentage of those lawyers charge clients $950 or $975 an hour.  JANET ELLIOTT and MARK CURRIDEN, The Texas Law Book (http://texaslawbook.net), The Dallas Morning News  03/13/2012

Read Article: The Dallas Morning News    

 

Attorney and Community Activist Accused of Barratry

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The Rev. Johnny Jeremiah, a self-proclaimed community activist, is again a wanted man. The reverend, whose name is Johnny Binder, can regularly be found associating with attorneys and their clients outside Harris County courtrooms. However, prosecutors Monday said Binder, 58, is doing more than working with the downtrodden and their lawyers. He is accused of soliciting defendants for an attorney, a third-degree felony called barratry.  Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle  03/13/2012

Read Article: Houston Chronicle    

 

Studies/Reports

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Mounting Evidence: Air Pollutants Pose Big Risk

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The more medical researchers learn about the microscopic bits of soot, chemicals, pulverized dust and even liquids from vehicle exhaust and other sources — known collectively as fine particulate matter — the worse the risk appears to be. Threats become apparent even at levels the federal government now calls “moderate” — levels that people in urban North Texas encounter often during spring and summer, a Dallas Morning News analysis shows.  RANDY LEE LOFTIS , The Dallas Morning News  03/13/2012

Read Article: The Dallas Morning News    

 

Business Litigation

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Yahoo Files Patent Lawsuit Against Facebook

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Yahoo has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook this week, claiming the social media giant has violated at least 10 Yahoo patents. The lawsuit accuses Facebook of violating patents involving privacy policy, advertising methods, messaging system, customization options and social networking technology. Yahoo goes so far as to say in the lawsuit that "Facebook’s entire social model ... is based on Yahoo!’s patented social networking technology."  Hayley Tsukayama, The Washington Post  03/13/2012

Read Article: The Washington Post    

 

Malpractice

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Dentist Pulled Teach Unnecessarily, Suit Says

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A Maryland man has filed a lawsuit against a Chesapeake, Va., dentist who allegedly pulled eight of the man's teeth during a 2010 visit when he was only supposed to get a new dental crown. The suit also claims that after the teeth were extracted, the dentist was unable to fit the plaintiff with dentures, and it was almost two full years before a dentist could make dentures fit. The lawsuit is seeking $250,000 in damages.  Scott Daugherty, Virginian Pilot  03/13/2012

Read Article: Virginian Pilot    

 

Wrongful Death

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Boy's Suicide in Cell Prompts Lawsuit

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A Utah mother has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's department in Utah County over her son's suicide while on 72-hour hold in a county jail. The lawsuit states officers and medical employees at the prison were aware of the boy's dealings with depression and drug use and failed to put him on suicide watch. The boy hanged himself in his cell in March of last year.  Roxana Orellana, The Salt Lake Tribune  03/12/2012

Read Article: The Salt Lake Tribune    


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