| Register NOW for our Annual President's Meeting & Advanced PI CLE! | Online registration is now open for our year-end conference, featuring an innovative and interactive Advanced PI CLE and our Annual Board & Membership Meeting. Register now to attend on December 4-5 at the Sheraton Hotel in Austin. Other events include the Advocates Annual Meeting, Awards Reception, and PAC event. Click on the link above to learn more and register. Hotel room rate expires November 3rd.
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Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Guardrail Maker Trinity Industries Liable for Fraud in Texas |  | Trinity Industries, the highway guardrail maker accused of selling systems that can malfunction during crashes and slice through cars, was found by a jury on Monday to have defrauded the federal government. The case was brought under the False Claims Act by Joshua Harman, a competitor who discovered that the company made changes in 2005 to its rail head ' the flat piece of steel at the front of the system ' without telling the Federal Highway Administration. The Texas jury on Monday awarded $175 million that will, under federal law, be tripled to $525 million. The money will be split between the US Treasury and Mr. Harman, who, although a competitor to Trinity, is considered a whistle-blower. After discovering the design change during litigation in 2011, he filed the case on behalf of the government.
DANIELLE IVORY and AARON M. KESSLER, The New York Times 10/21/2014    | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| State of Kentucky v. Purdue Pharma LP | | Purdue Pharma LP, which makes the best-selling painkiller OxyContin, is accused in a civil suit filed by the state of Kentucky of actions that helped create addiction on a sweeping scale. Many of the abusers went on crime sprees to feed their OxyContin habits and ended up in jail, in public treatment facilities, or dead from overdoses, the state alleges. The company denies all claims.
David Armstrong, Bloomberg 10/21/2014 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
| Feds: Air Bag Repairs Can't Wait | | The U.S. government issued an urgent plea to more than 4.7 million people to get the air bags in their cars fixed, amid concern that a defect in the devices can possibly kill or injure the driver or passengers. Multiple automakers have recalled vehicles in the U.S. over the last two years to repair air bag inflators made by Takata Corp., a Tokyo-based supplier of seat belts, air bags, steering wheels and other auto parts. In a statement Monday, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration warned owners of those cars to act right away. The warning covers cars made by Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, General Motors and Ford. Passenger or driver air bags or both could have the faulty inflators. Safety advocates say the problem could affect more than 20 million vehicles in the U.S.
TOM KRISHER, AP, The Dallas Morning News 10/21/2014 | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News |
| Deaths Linked to GM Ignition-Switch Defect Rise to 29 | | A program to compensate victims of a faulty ignition switch in GM vehicles has approved two new death claims, bringing the total number of deaths linked so far to the switch to 29, according to a report released on Monday by the lawyer overseeing the program. Since it began accepting claims on Aug. 1, the program has received a total of 1,517 claims for deaths and injuries, according to the report by the office of Kenneth Feinberg, who GM has tapped to run the program. The report listed all of the claims received and approved as of Friday.
Ben Klayman, Reuters 10/21/2014 | | Read Article: Reuters |
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