| 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!
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| 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. Additionally, we are fortunate to have Paul Begala as a Keynote Speaker for the June 14th Annual Conference Luncheon. A Texas native, Paul is a Democratic strategist and most of you know him as a Special Contributor to CNN. 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!
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| Sex Abuse Suit Filed Against Church |  | A lawsuit has been filed in Maryland against the Louisville-based Sovereign Grace Ministries, accusing church leaders and employees of "repeated acts of sexual and physical abuse on young children" and a subsequent cover-up. The lawsuit represents eleven plaintiffs who say they were molested as children and, when the crimes were reported to church officials, nothing was done to protect the victims. The suit is seeking class-action status.
Peter Smith, Louisville Courier Journal 05/15/2013    | | Read Article: Louisville Courier Journal |
| Suit Over Injury in Kiddie Pool Revived | | The Massachusetts high court has ordered a new trial in a lawsuit filed by a man who was paralyzed after injuring himself when jumping from a trampoline into a small wading pool that had been set up next to it. In their ruling, the court said that the owners of the home where the accident occurred had "a duty to remedy an open and obvious danger, where [a landowner] has created and maintained that danger with the knowledge that lawful entrants would (and did) choose to encounter it despite the obvious risk of doing so." The court ruled the defendants could have anticipated the injuries.
Martin Finucane, Boston Globe 05/15/2013 | | Read Article: Boston Globe |
| Couple Sues Over Adopted Son's Sex-Assignment Surgery | | A South Carolina couple sued doctors and state social workers on Tuesday for subjecting a 16-month-old child born with both male and female genitalia to what they say was medically unnecessary and irreversible sex-assignment surgery while the toddler was in foster care. The state and federal lawsuits - believed by the couple's lawyers to be the first of their kind in the United States - argue that doctors should not have performed surgery to make the child's body appear to be female when they knew they could not predict how gender would develop. The child, now 8, has shown strong signs of identifying as male and recently began living as a boy, according to Pam and Mark Crawford, who adopted him after the surgery.
Colleen Jenkins, Reuters 05/15/2013 | | Read Article: Reuters |
| For Insurers, No Doubts on Climate Change | | From Hurricane Sandy’s devastating blow to the Northeast to the protracted drought that hit the Midwest Corn Belt, natural catastrophes across the United States pounded insurers last year, generating $35 billion in privately insured property losses, $11 billion more than the average over the last decade. And the industry expects the situation will get worse. “Numerous studies assume a rise in summer drought periods in North America in the future and an increasing probability of severe cyclones relatively far north along the U.S. East Coast in the long term,” said Peter Höppe, who heads Geo Risks Research at the reinsurance giant Munich Re. “The rise in sea level caused by climate change will further increase the risk of storm surge.” Most insurers, including the reinsurance companies that bear much of the ultimate risk in the industry, have little time for the arguments heard in some right-wing circles that climate change isn’t happening, and are quite comfortable with the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of global warming.
EDUARDO PORTER, The New York Times 05/15/2013 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
TEXAS LAWYER CASE SUMMARIES
| | | | Houston's 1st Court of Appeals: Torts | | The trial court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens' Participation Act. The newspaper defendants satisfied their burden under the TCPA to show that Miller and the hotel's claims against them are based on statements they made in the exercise of rights to free speech and to petition the government. The trial court's denial of the motion to dismiss is reversed and remanded. Newspaper Holdings Inc. v. Crazy Hotel Assisted Living Ltd., Houston's 1st Court of Appeals, No. 01-12-00581-CV, 05-02-2013.
Texas Lawyer, Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) 05/15/2013 | | Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) |
| Houston's 1st Court of Appeals: Torts | | An accounting firm appeals a judgment finding it 50 percent responsible for damages allegedly caused by unreported income. A criminal conviction for alleged income tax evasion and knowingly filing a false tax return bars a subsequent civil claim alleging accounting malpractice that arises out of the preparation and filing of the return. The trial court's judgment is reversed and rendered that the plaintiff take nothing against the accounting firm, and affirmed that the plaintiff take nothing against a firm employee. Andrew Shebay & Company P.L.L.C v. Bishop, Houston's 1st Court of Appeals, No. 01-12-00118-CV, 05-02-2013.
Texas Lawyer, Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) 05/15/2013 | | Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only) |
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