| | | | | Announcements | | | 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 | Products | | | Federal Safety Regulators Fine BMW $3M | | BMW has agreed to pay $3 million for delays in reporting safety defects and recalls to the federal regulators, the NHTSA said Friday.An examination of 16 recalls issued by BMW of North America LLC in 2010 found a pattern in which the automaker failed to meet federal requirements that known defects be reported within five days, the safety agency said in a statement. As part of the settlement, BMW and its parent company, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, agreed to make internal changes to its recall process, NHTSA said Associated Press, The Washington Post 02/13/2012 | Read Article: The Washington Post | Laws/Cases | | | Lawyer for Sex Abuse Victim Asks to Dismiss Suit Against the Pope | | Lawyers for a man who was sexually abused decades ago by a priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf have withdrawn their lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants. The attorney filed the lawsuit in 2010, claiming former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his deputies knew about allegations of sexual abuse at the school and protected the priest from punishment. The attorney explains the action by saying he was seeking information and accountability, and he’s already received 30,000 pages of revealing documents through bankruptcy proceedings of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Associated Press, The Washington Post 02/13/2012 | Read Article: The Washington Post | Renegade Toyota Lawyer Loses Bid to Overturn Arbitration Loss | | Dimitrios Biller, the former in-house attorney for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. who accused the automaker of discovery violations in products-liability cases, lost his appeal to overturn a $2.5 million arbitration award against him. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the award on Feb. 3, ending a dispute that erupted before Toyota's 2010 recalls of millions of vehicles for apparent sudden acceleration defects. As former national managing counsel at Toyota Motor Sales, Biller's accusations caught the attention of plaintiffs' attorneys and members of Congress investigating whether Toyota's sudden acceleration problems extended beyond the recalls. Amanda Bronstad, National Law Journal, Texas Lawyer 02/13/2012 | Read Article: Texas Lawyer | Oklahoma DHS Settles Suit with Local Mother | | The state of Oklahoma has agreed to a $300,000 settlement in a lawsuit with a local woman who claimed state department of human services employees ignored her claims that her child had been sexually molested. The woman spent more than a year in prison for refusing to give up the location of her daughter in attempts to protect her from the woman's ex-husband, who allegedly molested the girl. The plaintiff said in her suit that one DHS covered up evidence of abuse "because the worker was friends with her ex-husband's influential family." Nolan Clay, NewsOK.com 02/13/2012 | Read Article: NewsOK.com | Former School Officer Files Wrongful Termination Suit | | A former school police chief in Galveston, Texas, has filed a pair of lawsuits seeking $10 million over claims of wrongful termination. The lawsuit accuses members of the school board of "being on a witch hunt" to get the plaintiff indicted on charges of falsifying documents - which were later dismissed - so that he could be terminated. A second lawsuit filed by the former officer claims the school board violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by failing to provide notice of a meeting scheduled to vote on his termination. Chris Paschenko, Galveston County - The Daily News 02/12/2012 | Read Article: Galveston County - The Daily News | Girl's Death Prompts Suit Against Apartment Complex | | A Georgia mother has filed a lawsuit against a Cherokee County apartment complex where her 7-year-old daughter was murdered by a maintenance man. The lawsuit claims the complex "failed to do an adequate background check" on the man, who had a history of crimes involving children. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages. Alexis Stevens , Atlanta Journal-Constitution 02/13/2012 | Read Article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Issues | | | DFW Investors Learn the Unspoken Risks of Betting on Death | | Brian Pardo was introduced at an alternative-investment forum in downtown Fort Worth last month. The 69-year-old CEO plodded through a detailed history of his company, Waco-based Life Partners, which has acted since 1991 as a specialized broker, buying and selling life insurance policies of old, often ailing people who were predicted to survive only a few years. The secondary life insurance market, once the preserve of big institutional investors, has been broadened by companies like Life Partners by selling to ordinary -- and critics would say, unsophisticated -- investors who sometimes rolled over their retirement savings. Barry Shlachter, Star Telegram 02/13/2012 | Read Article: Star Telegram | Defibrillator Patient Wants His Data From Manufacturer | | Hugo Campos has a small computer buried in his chest to help keep him alive. But he has no idea what it says about his faulty heart. All the raw data it collects, especially any erratic rhythms it controls with shocks, goes directly to the manufacturer. Later, some of it gets sent to his doctor. But Campos had to step onto a national stage in his fight to see the data his body produces. His David-and-Goliath campaign puts him on the leading edge of what's called the e-patient movement -- "engaged, equipped and enabled" -- that seeks to harness data so patients can learn more about their bodies. Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, Detroit Free Press 02/13/2012 | Read Article: Detroit Free Press | Healthcare | | | Report: Parkland Hospital Violated More Than 50 Safety Rules | | Federally installed safety monitors found that Parkland Memorial Hospital violated more than 50 government health-care standards in recent months, jeopardizing patients through botched surgical procedures, medication errors and dozens of other flawed practices. Those findings are contained in the 270-page report that Parkland leaders are refusing to release to the public, according to people with knowledge of the document. The public charity hospital also has recently distributed internal bulletins, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, alerting the staff to safety practices designed to prevent such failures. MILES MOFFEIT and BROOKS EGERTON , The Dallas Morning News 02/13/2012 | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | | | | | | Published by TRIALSMITH, Litigation Tools for Trial Lawyers 5113 Southwest Parkway, Suite 285, Austin, TX 78735 You received this email because you are subscribed to this service from your trial lawyers association. • Unsubscribe • Search National Litigation Bank • 800-443-1757 | |