Take 60 seconds to vote NOW! | TTLA encourages all members to take 60 seconds right now and cast your ballot in the run-off election for State Bar President-Elect. You can vote in this important run-off election whether or not you voted in the first election. Click on the headline and vote now! | TTLA 2013 Annual Conference - Reinventing The Rules With Rick Friedman | June 12 - 14, Sheraton Downtown Hotel - Austin Register Now! The TTLA CLE Committee is proud to have Rick Friedman present Reinventing the Rules during the Annual Conference. You will want to reserve the date and book early as we expect that this will be the most heavily attended seminar in TTLA history and space will be limited. Click on the headline to learn more! | Women Injured in Elevator Malfunction File Lawsuit | | Two Texas women have filed a lawsuit against Chevron U.S.A., Inc., after they were trapped in a runaway elevator in the company's downtown Houston building. The women say they were trapped on the 39th floor in the elevator for almost an hour before it suddenly "zoomed upward" and crashed into the 50th floor. The women suffered various injuries, the suit says, including a fractured foot, lower back pains and head trauma. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages. Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle 05/10/2013 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | JPMorgan Accused of Illegal Debt Collection | | The state of California has filed suit against JPMorgan Chase, accusing the company of "illegal debt collection" against thousands of California residents. The state says the company has filed "frenzied lawsuits" against hundreds of thousands of people who have fallen behind on their payments. The suit alleges the bank employed "unlawful practices as shortcuts to obtain judgments against consumers" with illegal speed and ease. Anthony York, LA Times 05/09/2013 | Read Article: LA Times | In Suit Over Death, Boogaard’s Family Blames the N.H.L. | | The family of Derek Boogaard has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the National Hockey League. It contends that the N.H.L. is responsible for the physical trauma and brain damage that Boogaard sustained during six seasons as one of the league’s top enforcers, and for the addiction to prescription painkillers that marked his final two years. Boogaard was under contract to the Rangers when he was found dead of an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers and alcohol on May 13, 2011. He was 28. He was posthumously found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head. JOHN BRANCH, The New York Times 05/13/2013 | Read Article: The New York Times | Public Encounters Many Hurdles When Seeking Risk Information | | Federal law requires companies that keep dangerous chemicals, such as the West Fertilizer facility that exploded last month, killing 14 people, to produce a risk management plan so local residents can know what threats sit in their neighborhoods. The West disaster has exposed a system of information sharing that would test the commitment of even the most engaged citizens. Rural Texans have to drive hours to read the risk plans; agencies that are encouraged to collect information sometimes choose not to make it public; and information gathered and reported by the companies themselves may be either incomplete or not useful. The difficulty in accessing even the most basic information about the chemical facilities demonstrates the conflict between informing Americans about the risks in their backyards and the need to keep such information from would-be terrorists and criminals. Those security concerns appear to be winning the tug of war. Asher Price and Jeremy Schwartz , Austin American Statesman 05/13/2013 | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | Judge: HP Must Face Shareholder Lawsuit | | A California judge has ruled that personal computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co. must face a shareholder lawsuit filed against company executives. The lawsuit accuses former executives of misleading shareholders about the company's "commitment to the WebOS operating system and related products" in 2011. When HP suddenly announced it would scrap WebOS in August 2011, shares fell by almost 25 percent and the company lost $16 billion in market value. Jonathan Stempel and Nate Raymond, Chicago Tribune 05/10/2013 | Read Article: Chicago Tribune | | |