| TTLA Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE Seminar December 2-4 | Mark your calendar and register today! TTLA Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE Seminar, December 2-4, Four Seasons Hotel, Houston. CLE speakers are confirmed and the program agenda is set. Registration is now open. Hotel room rate of $195 per night expires November 10. Reserve your room today using promo code CI1215LA or call 800-734-4114 and mention the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Click on the headline to learn more.
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| San Antonio Car Wrecks CLE Seminar, November 5, 2015 | Earn up to 7.25 hours MCLE credit including 1.0 hr ethics credit. TTLA's Car Wrecks CLE Seminar features practical, in-depth tips and strategies to help you WIN YOUR CASES. Come away with the tools you need to compete in the courtroom! Click on the headline to learn more and register.
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Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Fatal flow: Brine From Oil, Gas Drilling Fouls Land, Kills Wildlife at Alarming Rate |  | A side effect of oil and gas production that has worsened with the past decade's drilling boom: spills of wastewater that foul the land, kill wildlife and threaten freshwater supplies. An Associated Press analysis of data from leading oil- and gas-producing states found more than 180 million gallons of wastewater spilled from 2009 to 2014 in incidents involving ruptured pipes, overflowing storage tanks and even deliberate dumping. There were at least 21,651 individual spills. The numbers are incomplete because many releases go unreported.
Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News 10/27/2015    | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News |
| $15 Billion Privacy Lawsuit Against Facebook Dismissed | | A $15 billion lawsuit accusing Facebook Inc. of tracking user activity was dismissed last Friday by a judge in San Jose, California. The original complaint was over the site's use of tracking "cookies" which reported details of web browsing history back to Facebook. The judge's ruling, which took place over three years after arguments were heard in the case, determined that "subscribers didn't specify how they were harmed" in the lawsuit. Users will be eligible to file a revised suit with new claims.
Joel Rosenblatt, Robert Burnson, Bloomberg 10/24/2015 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
| TX Sup Crt to Decide if Autopsy Counts as Health Care | | Eleven years after a man's unexplained death in a Katy hospital sparked a lawsuit involving allegations of malpractice, deception and theft of a human heart, the bizarre case has made its way to the Texas Supreme Court, which will answer a simple yet macabre legal question: Does an autopsy fall under the definition of health care? If the high court says yes, critics say it would be the latest decision by conservative justices broadening a landmark state law that makes it tougher to sue doctors and hospitals for alleged wrongdoing. Supporters of the legal challenge - brought on an appeal by Christus Health, then owner of the Christus St. Catherine Hospital in Katy - say Texas voters approved sweeping tort reforms in 2003 to limit lawsuits against health care providers, and that autopsies on dead patients are a valid part of the medical care hospitals provide.
Edgar Walters, Texas Tribune 10/27/2015
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| Ruling Opens Hospitals to Lawsuits in SD | | Hospitals in South Dakota that grant doctors privileges to practice medicine can be sued if they acted in bad faith or were unreasonable in granting those privileges. The ruling by Judge Bruce Anderson also opens the door to lawsuits against the individual members of committees that granted those privileges. Anderson's ruling sets the stage for South Dakota becoming a state that allows lawsuits against health providers under a concept known as negligent credentialing. At least 30 other states recognize the tort that hospitals have an obligation not to allow health providers to practice.
Jonathan Ellis, The Argus 10/27/2015 | | Read Article: The Argus |
| GM to Recall 1.4M Cars Over Fire Risk | | GM will recall more than 1.41 million vehicles all more than a decade old to fix a defect that has caused about 1,200 engine fires and previously bedeviled the automaker. The issue affects several nameplates with model years ranging from 1997 to 2004, including 1 million cars that were fixed for the same issue in two recalls in 2007 and 2009. GM previously urged people to park those vehicles outside until they could get free repairs.
Nathan Bome, USA Today 10/27/2015 | | Read Article: USA Today |
| Texas Flunks in Health-Care Price Transparency | | For the second year in a row Texas has received an F rating for failing to implement laws that would mandate price transparency in health care, according to the third annual report card issued jointly by the advocacy and education organizations The Catalyst for Payment Reform and Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute. The grades are based on legislation enacted the previous years.
Jenny Deam, Houston Chronicle 10/27/2015 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle |
| Clash in the Name of Care | | Two patients, two operating rooms, moving back and forth from one to the other. In medicine it is called concurrent surgery, it is allowed in some form at many prestigious hospitals, limited or banned at many others. Hospitals that permit double-booking consider it an efficient way to deploy the talents of their most in-demand specialists while reducing wasted operating room time. For patients, however, it can come as an unsettling surprise especially when things go wrong.
Jenn Abelson, Jonathan Saltzman, Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe 10/27/2015 | | Read Article: Boston Globe |
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