| | | | | Announcements | | | 2012 'Reel Justice' Fishing Tournament & Blast from the Past CLE | | Join the TTLA Advocates for our 2nd Annual 'Reel Justice' Fishing Tournament, and see who gets bragging rights as TTLA's fishing champion! This year, we've added a great CLE program, making it a 2-day TTLA coastal adventure! The CLE begins on Friday from 1:00 - 5:00. Tournament festivities begin at 6:30 with a classic TTLA Summer party, and Saturday at first light, it's ON! Click on the headline to learn more. | TTLA Facebook Page & Twitter Too! | | TTLA Facebook Page has a fresh new face! Click on the headline and like us - Twitter too has had a facelift, follow us at @ttla_. A big thank you to TTLA member Stacey Burke of Houston for updating our look! | Laws/Cases | | | Lawsuit Filed by New Jersey Mom over Educational Video Misuse | | A mother from New Jersey has been given permission by a federal judge to proceed with a lawsuit against media giant Meredith Corp. for fraud, negligence, and breach of contract. The mother had agreed, without compensation, to participate in an instructional video on breastfeeding but later found herself part of a YouTube video that had been manipulated “by combining it with pornographic footage.” The X-rated version of her instructional video had been viewed nearly 15,000 times before the production company had it removed. Lindsay Goldwert, New York Daily News 08/09/2012 | Read Article: New York Daily News | Lawsuit Over School District’s Inaction on Abuse to Proceed | | The Illinois Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit against school administrators for not properly informing a neighboring district of a former employee’s job history. The teacher had been forced to resign after complaints of sexual harassment and abuse; therefore, the lawsuit seeks to prove the school district should have reported the teacher to authorities and not have passed the teacher on to another district. Kurt Erickson, Quad-City Times 08/09/2012 | Read Article: Quad-City Times | Megabus Crash Suit Settled for $5.1 Million | | The family of a pedestrian who was fatally struck by a Megabus in 2010 has been awarded $5.1 million. The driver of the bus allegedly struck the man and dragged him 30 feet before coming to a stop. An investigation revealed that no failure in bus maintenance or driver training occurred, but the family’s attorney believes “there is a systematic problem which must be addressed [and these] can no longer be seen as isolated incidents.” Corboy & Demetrio, PR Newswire 08/09/2012 | Read Article: PR Newswire | Google Agrees to Pay Record-Setting Fine Over Privacy Violation | | Google has agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over a privacy breach with Apple’s Safari Internet browser. The FTC claimed that Google “deceived consumers and violated terms of a consent decree” when it began tracking Web surfers’ Internet browsing behavior. Sara Forden, San Francisco Chronicle 08/09/2012 | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | $20M Ruling Against Houston Port Overturned | | A state appeals court has reversed a lower court's ruling awarding Zachry Construction Corp. nearly $20 million in a contract dispute with the Port of Houston Authority. In January 2010, a Houston jury awarded San Antonio-based Zachry $18.6 million in a breach of contract lawsuit, which grew to $19.7 million because of an earlier ruling by the court that the port wrongly withheld payments to the contractor. The complex dispute centered on Zachry's contract to build a wharf at the port's Bayport Container Terminal, and a series of disagreements over change orders and payments due. The Houston-based 14th Court of Appeals held that a clause in the contract precluded the damages awarded. Kiah Collier, Houston Chronicle 08/10/2012 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | Appeals Court Doesn’t Back SEC in Case Against N. TX Executives | | Two former top executives at Plano-based Microtune Inc. won a major legal victory Wednesday that should end the Securities and Exchange Commission’s five-year effort to prosecute them for alleged involvement in a $22.5 million options backdating scheme. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a unanimous opinion, ruled that the SEC waited too long to bring charges against Microtune’s co-founder and former CEO, Douglas Bartek, and its former general counsel and CFO, Nancy Richardson. The three-judge panel also rejected the SEC’s efforts to have Bartek and Richardson banned for life from serving as officers or board members of a publicly traded corporation, a decision legal experts say is likely to receive a lot of attention in securities litigation circles. MARK CURRIDEN, The Texas Law Book (http://texaslawbook.net), The Dallas Morning News 08/10/2012 | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | Issues | | | Consumer Finance Agency Sets Mortgage Protections | | The government's consumer lending watchdog proposed new rules Friday aimed at protecting homeowners from unexpected costs and shoddy service by companies that collect their monthly mortgage payments. Mortgage servicing companies would be required to provide clear monthly billing statements, warn borrowers before interest rate hikes and actively help them avoid foreclosure under the proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rules also require companies to credit people's payments promptly, swiftly correct errors and keep better internal records. DANIEL WAGNER, AP, Austin American Statesman 08/10/2012 | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | Labor/Employment | | | Another Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against City of Rochester | | A long-time city employee in Rochester, N.Y., claims the public works department “harassed, ignored and criticized [her] as the only female division head in her section.” Her discrimination suit comes after two last month based on age and disability, as well as eight last year over an English-only policy. The attorney in this case, as well as the others, claims there has been a pattern of matters only getting worse after complaints are filed. Brian Sharp, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 08/08/2012 | Read Article: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle | | | | | | 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 | |