| | | | | Announcements | | | Share with your FB friends! | | Injured patients discover hospitals seeking a piece of their accident settlements By Mary Ann Roser, Austin American Statesman, 3-28-11. Liens often are much higher than what hospital would normally be paid for services, lawyers charge. Personal injury lawyers and some patient advocates say hospital liens — which have been permitted by Texas law since the 1930s — by themselves are not bad. It makes sense for hospitals to try to get paid, they said. But they see hospitals abusing liens by seeking drastically higher payments from accident victims than they would otherwise get. Click on headline to read more. | TEXAS SUPREME COURT ELECTRONIC-FILING EFFECTIVE | | Effective March 28th, you may electronically file documents with the Texas Supreme Court, pay your fees, and serve opposing counsel using the Texas.gov electronic-filing system. To use the electronic-filing system you must first choose an electronic-filing service provider and register. You must send two paper copies of your filing to the Court when you use the electronic-filing system. | Products | | | Contaminated Supplement Kills Nine in Alabama | | Nine patients at six Alabama hospitals died and 10 others were sickened after being injected with the intravenous nutritional supplement Total Parenteral Nutrition. Federal officials believe the supplement may have been contaminated with the bacteria Serratia marcescens, which could have contributed to the patients' deaths. The supplements were mixed at the Meds IV Pharmacy in Birmingham, Ala. Kevin Sack and Timothy Willaims, The New York Times 03/31/2011 | Read Article: The New York Times | Laws/Cases | | | Suit Tossed Against Bank of America, Merrill Lynch | | A U.S. District judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed against Bank of America Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co. that accused them of "devising a [racially] discriminatory retention bonus plan after the bank announced a proposal to buy the securities firm in 2008." The judge ruled it not "plausible" that knowledge of past or present discrimination by the defendants meant the pension plan itself was discriminatory. The lawsuit was the second race-related suit filed against Merrill Lynch. Andrew Harris, Bloomberg 03/30/2011 | Read Article: Bloomberg | Suit Settled over Inmate Suicide in Miami Prison | | The Florida Department of Corrections has agreed to a $500,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed against them over the suicide of a female inmate in 2006. The suit, filed by the woman's family, claimed she was kept in solitary confinement for weeks despite her well-known history of mental illness. The suit also alleges prison officials knew she had previously attempted suicide, but they failed to adequately supervise her. Wire Report, Miami Herald 03/31/2011 | Read Article: Miami Herald | | | | | | Published by TRIALSMITH, Litigation Tools for Trial Lawyers You received this email because you are subscribed to this service from your trial lawyers association. • Unsubscribe • Search National Litigation Bank • 800-443-1757 | |