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| | Announcements | |
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| | TX Supreme Court Finalizes TX Rule of Judicial Administration 16 | |
| | Texas Supreme Court finalizes Texas Rule of Judicial Administration 16, which outlines how lawyers and judges can seek extra resources for highly complex cases. The court issued its final approval for a new judicial rule allowing trial courts presiding over highly complex cases to ask for extra resources like staff attorneys, a bigger courtroom or additional technology. (Texas Lawyer, Angela Morris) Click on headline to learn more. | | Volunteer to End Distracted Driving | |
| | The American Association for Justice and the non-profit group End Distracted Driving (EndDD) have teamed up to engage plaintiff’s lawyers in helping to spread the message about the dangers of distracted driving, and to get attorneys involved in the movement to end this dangerous practice. As April has been designated National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, TTLA is encouraging our membership to get involved and become advocates for safer driving in our Texas communities. Please see the message below, and click on the links to find out how you can volunteer to help end distracted driving in Texas. Click on the headline to learn more. | | Products | |
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| | CDC: Disease Outbreaks From Imported Foods Rise | |
| | Food-borne illnesses caused by fish, spices, produce and other edibles imported from other countries seems to be on the rise – but the countries of origin may be changing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the 39 outbreaks caused by foreign food (which caused 2,348 illnesses) from 2005 to 2010, 17 of them happened in 2009 and 2010, according to the report. Bad fish caused 17 outbreaks; spices were responsible for six. Tiffany Hsu, LA Times 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: LA Times | | Subaru to Recall More Than 275,000 Foresters | |
| | Subaru is recalling more than 275,000 Forester SUVs because a rear seat belt may not hold a child seat in place securely. Federal safety regulators said the recall affects certain Foresters from the 2009 to 2012 model years. The NHTSA said that the rear center belt doesn’t meet federal safety standards and Forester owners might not be able to install child seats properly, increasing the risk of injury in a crash. Associated Press, The Washington Post 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | Laws/Cases | |
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| | Juror Held in Contempt for Internet Research Leading to Mistrial | |
| | In the first known New Jersey case of a juror punished for doing his own internet research, a Bergen County judge has imposed a $500 criminal contempt sanction on a jury foreman whose actions led to a mistrial. Assignment Judge Peter Doyne found Daniel Kaminsky violated repeated instructions not to do independent research and that what he learned about the sentence for the crime, which he considered unjust, might have motivated his "not guilty" vote, leaving the jury hung. Mary Pat Gallagher, Law.com 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: Law.com | | Whistleblowers Prevail in U.S. Mortgage Suits | |
| | Whistleblowers who were instrumental in revealing epidemic mortgage abuses, some of whom risked their careers to do so, are getting multi-million-dollar payouts, court documents show. Victor Bibby and Brian Donnelly, two Georgia mortgage brokers, are among the handful of whistleblowers whose stories are coming into focus. Bibby and Donnelly said they started noticing in 2005 that lenders were charging veterans hidden fees on mortgage refinancing - a violation of the government's Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loans program. Rick Rothacker, Reuters 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: Reuters | | Parents Claim Their Sons Were Abused at Kansas Military School | |
| | Parents of four former cadets at a Kansas military school have filed a lawsuit claiming their sons were repeatedly beaten by older students who were in charge of handing out discipline to younger boys. The suit accuses St. John's Military School in Salina and the Episcopal Church of failing make sure students were safe at the residential boarding school, which serves boys in sixth through 12th grades. Associated Press, Kansas City Star 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: Kansas City Star | | Judge: Oil Spill Documents Must Stay Confidential | |
| | Documents prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service for the BP oil spill trial are confidential and are not to be made public, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan ruled Tuesday. Shushan's one-page order cites earlier orders issued by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier outlining what documents should be treated as confidential by the trial's Plaintiff Steering Committee, BP and Justice Department attorneys. The order requires BP and the steering committee to have anyone viewing the fisheries service documents sign a form prohibiting them from revealing their contents. Mark Schleifstein, New Orleans Times-Picayune 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune | | Judge Casts Doubt Over Widow's BP Settlement | |
| | A Texas widow, one of the 11 wrongful-death claimants from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident, finally settled her case with BP on Feb. 28, apparently for an eight-figure sum. Then suddenly, 10 days later, with an order from a judge who is not overseeing her case, Shelley Anderson of Midfield, Texas, thought the agreement to compensate her and her two small children for the death of rig worker Jason Anderson had been nullified. How that happened has raised new questions about a March 8 order from U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier that retroactively cut off payments from claims czar Kenneth Feinberg, as well as about plaintiffs' lawyers' efforts to collect a share of fees from settlements struck out of court. David Hammer, New Orleans Times-Picayune 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune | | Labor/Employment | |
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| | Lawsuit Filed Over Unpaid Internship | |
| | A former intern for talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose has filed a lawsuit against him over lack of wages during her internship. According to the suit, the girl worked about 25 hours a week for Rose in the summer of 2007 but was not paid, an alleged violation of New York labor laws. The lawsuit is seeking back wages and class action status for other unpaid interns that worked for Rose. Christine Kearney, Reuters 03/14/2012 | | Read Article: Reuters | | Business Litigation | |
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| | CIT Group Looks to Settle Securities Fraud Lawsuit | |
| | A $75 million settlement has been proposed to a federal judge in a class-action shareholder lawsuit against CIT Group Inc. over alleged securities fraud. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed the company failed to "disclose a lowering of credit standards and misrepresented the performance of subprime mortgage portfolios." CIT Group asked for the case to be dismissed two years ago, but the judge had refused based on the plaintiffs' claims. Basil Katz, Reuters 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: Reuters | | Wrongful Death | |
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| | Suit Over Fatal Amtrack Crash in Chicago Settled | |
| | A $6 million-lawsuit has been settled over the death of a 26-year-old woman whose vehicle was hit by an Amtrak train in Chicago in April 2010. According to the suit, the woman was driving across the tracks at University Park when her vehicle was hit. Investigators found that the warning signals around the track had been deactivated by maintenance workers earlier that day, the Chicago Tribune reports. Erin Meyer , Chicago Tribune 03/14/2012 | | Read Article: Chicago Tribune | | Jury: Virginia Tech Negligent for Delayed Response | |
| | It took jurors 3 ½ hours on Wed to find that university officials botched their response to the massacre on April 16, 2007, that left 33 people including the gunman dead. The jury determined that two families each deserved $4M, but the award is likely to be sharply reduced. State law requires it to be capped at $100,000. The state is expected to appeal the verdict, as it did a separate fine handed down by federal education officials. No criminal charges were brought in the shootings. It’s not clear if any more civil lawsuits will be filed. Associated Press, The Washington Post 03/15/2012 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | |
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