| Announcements | | 
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| | Best Kept Trial Secrets: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas | |
| | Don't gamble with your cases. 48 hours in Vegas can change your practice forever! Join some of TTLA's battle-tested veterans and emerging superstars in Las Vegas for a CLE experience that'll change your luck in the courtroom. February 23-25, 2012, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, 8 hrs. MCLE w/ 1 hr. Ethics | | TTLA Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE December 1-2, Hotel ZaZa Houston | |
| | Formerly the TTLA Annual Conference, our December event is now the Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE! We've streamlined this event and we're now offering a one-day Advanced PI CLE, along with the Annual Membership & Board Meeting, President's Luncheon, and a spectacular Holiday Party at the home of Steve and Amber Mostyn. Topics include: Trucking, Immigration, Insurance Bad Faith, Discovery, Cross Examination And More! | | Laws/Cases | |
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| | Cook, Waitress Killing Prompts Wrongful Death Suit | |
| | A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a St. Louis Steak 'n Shake restaurant and the parent company over the murder of a cook in 2008. The cook and a waitress were killed during a robbery at the restaurant. The suit claims the restaurant owners were negligent in failing to provide the victims with a way to lock the doors and failing to install security cameras or hire a security guard. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages. Staff Report, St. Louis Post Dispatch 10/31/2011 | | Read Article: St. Louis Post Dispatch | | Lawyers Want Water for Pa. Town's Tainted Wells | |
| | A law firm has demanded that Pennsylvania environmental regulators force a natural-gas driller to continue delivering replacement water to residents of a town whose drinking water wells were tainted with methane and possibly hazardous chemicals. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has been delivering water to homes in the northeastern Pennsylvania village of Dimock since January 2009. The Houston-based energy company asserts Dimock's water is safe to drink and won regulatory permission last month to stop the water deliveries by the end of November. Attorneys for 11 Dimock families who are suing Cabot in federal court said that test results show their well water is still contaminated. Associated Press, The Washington Post 11/07/2011 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | Halliburton Sued Vver OK Cold War Missile Casing Site | |
| | Halliburton Co faces lawsuits over groundwater pollution near a now-closed facility in Oklahoma that cleaned missile casings for the U.S. Defense Department during the Cold War, the company said on Friday. The lawsuits, filed in Oklahoma state and federal courts starting late last month, claim the plaintiffs have suffered health problems such as hypothyroidism, which is associated with exposure to perchlorate over time, the company said. According to Halliburton, the lawsuits claim it knew about the releases into groundwater of ammonium perchlorate and, in a federal lawsuit, nuclear or radioactive waste as well, and that Halliburton did not take corrective actions. Reuters, Yahoo News 11/07/2011 | | Read Article: Yahoo News | | Judge Mulling Over $410M Settlement in Bank of America Overdraft Lawsuit | |
| | An attorney for Bank of America says 13.2 million customers may be eligible for a settlement in a lawsuit claiming the bank charged excessive overdraft fees. The final tabulation came Monday as a Miami judge considers whether to finalize a $410 million settlement during a hearing to consider any objections or other issues related to the deal reached in May. The class-action lawsuit contends the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank processed its debit card and check payments in a way that triggered more overdrafts and therefore more fees. Even though it agreed to the settlement, the bank insists the overdraft system was proper. The lawsuit covers people with Bank of America debit cards between January 2001 and May 2011. Associated Press, The Washington Post 11/07/2011 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | Final Wrongful Death Suits over Mine Disaster Settled | |
| | The final lawsuits over the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia in 2006 have been settled, the Charleston Gazette reports. The terms of the settlements were not disclosed, but the lawsuits were filed against the mining company by families of six of the miners that perished in the accident. A group of similar lawsuits filed by the families of five other miners that died were previously settled. Ken Ward Jr., The Charleston Gazette 11/04/2011 | | Read Article: The Charleston Gazette | | Issues | |
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| | Doctor in Nurse Retaliation Case Gives up License | |
| | Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr. accused of retaliating against two nurses who made an anonymous complaint about him to Texas medical regulators has agreed to give up his medical license. Arafiles signed an agreement Friday with the Texas Medical Board, saying he will stop practicing medicine. Prosecutor David Glickler has said he expects Arafiles to plead guilty Monday in Kermit the case. Arafiles has been charged with two counts of felony misuse of official information and retaliation. Shannon Dininny, Associated Press, Lubbock Avalanche Journal 11/07/2011 | | Read Article: Lubbock Avalanche Journal | | Insurance | |
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| | Farmers Insurance Leads in Consumer Claim Complaints | |
| | Farmers Insurance has received more complaints about its handling of homeowner claims than any other insurer in Texas, state records compiled by a watchdog group show. Farmers, whose various Texas units combine to make it the state's third-largest insurer, received 207 complaints from Oct. 1, 2010, to Sept. 30, 2011, according to Austin-based Texas Watch, which obtained complaint data from state regulators. That compares with 198 against State Farm, which has the largest market share in Texas, and 159 against Allstate, the second-largest home insurance company in the state. Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle 11/07/2011 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | |
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