Sep 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
I am a trial lawyer. I try cases. Not a hard concept to grasp, but apparently it is beyond the comprehension of some who try to use the term as some type of attack. Case in point. Houston Chronicle article today by Peggy Fikac which discusses the $2,000,000.00 judgment against the Republican Governors Association (RGA)for violating state law relating to donations made to Rick Perry in 2006. The RGA’s spokesperson, Mr. Schrimpf who was quoted in the article is really fond of the term trial lawyer. (As you can see I am kind of fond of it myself) He describes the suit as being brought by a “Democrat trial lawyer” and later said “Unfortunately, this junk lawsuit has gone on for four years, and to the Democratic trial lawyers’ dreams, will likely go on two or three more.” Wow it must really be tough to try and get “trial lawyer” into every sentence while still throwing in junk lawsuit and managing to avoid the issue that your organization was found to have violated Texas law. You do manage to state that you will immediately appeal. Let me help you out here. The lawyer you used during the trial of the case was (I would hope) a “trial lawyer” and now you will probably hire an “appellate lawyer” unless your trial lawyer is also your appellate lawyer. I wonder if you would have preferred using an auto mechanic to try your case, or maybe a surgeon, baker, banker or candlestick maker. It appears that your focus groups have convinced you that the term trial lawyer will cause ordinary people to suddenly lose all sense of justice and blindly ignore what your organization did in trying to buy an election. Trial lawyers try cases. We also advise clients to resolve claims and disputes, not file cases if there is not a claim and not file frivolous (you apparently know the it by the term “junk”) lawsuits or defenses. Trial lawyers understand this. Maybe you should have hired a trial lawyer, or better yet just not violated the law. Wow what a concept, then you wouldn’t have needed that evil trial lawyer.
Aug 12, 2010 | car crash, drunk driving, personal injury
Today in the 240th District Court in Fort Bend County, a driver who was under the influence when he caused a wreck and then fled the scene, was hit himself — with a Judgment of $275,084.26. In June of 2008 a drunk hit our client as she was stopped at a stop sign and then fled the scene. The DPS later arrested him for DUI and fleeing the scene of a wreck. Despite numerous letters and offers to resolve the matter, the Defendant refused to cooperate and the Court entered a default judgment as to liability and then after all the evidence was presented awarded our clients their damages. The judgment included $250,000.00 for punitive damages due to the intoxicated assault and malice in the Defendants actions.
Aug 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
Ultimate Fort Bend reports today about a marine who survived two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan to be killed by a drunk driver. He was home to help his father recover from injuries he suffered due to a drunk driver three months ago. It seems that every week there is a story about someone being killed or severely injured by a drunk driver. What do you believe would reduce drunk driving? Mandatory jail time for first offense? Increased fines?
http://ultimatefortbend.com/2010/08/marines-father-everyone-wear-red
Aug 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
Why would a business owner ever hire a personal injury trial lawyer as their legal counsel? We are after all the source of all evil and downfall of the American way of life (at least that appears to be the mantra spouted by the media, chamber of commerce, etc.), but the real question is why wouldn’t you.
As personal injury trial lawyers we only get paid when we resolve our clients case either through a settlement or judgment (contingent fee). Handling contingent fee cases requires that you are always aware of the amount of time you are spending on a case as well as the out of pocket expenses you are putting into a case. If it takes too long and you spend too much time, you end up losing money. If the expenses are too high in proportion to the potential recovery the case will not be able to be resolved for a reasonable recovery for your client. Common sense. You minimize the cost while maximizing the recovery. Business owners (at least those who are profitable) understand and run their business with concept as one of the principles in making daily decisions.
In business cases we bill our time on an hourly basis, set fee, contingent or some combination of the above after discussing the issues with the client and determining what works best for them in their situation. It seems that some “business” lawyers can tell you to the penny how much they have billed their client at any given time and how much they have “generated through billable hours this month.” As trial lawyers we understand that many times a business may have a legally winnable case, but for economic or business reasons the best resolution is a settlement or in some cases just taking the loss and moving on. We have spent hundreds of hours answering discovery, taking and attending depositions and trying cases. Every minute a business has to spend doing anything related to a legal dispute is a minute they are not doing what they would prefer to do and what is profitable to their business. There are circumstances where you have to file suit and ultimately go to trial and we have and will continue to do so when it is in our clients best interest, but there are other times where our advice has been to keep the money you would pay us and pick up the phone call the other business whom you have been working with for years and tell them you want to take them to lunch and figure out if you can work out this dispute that seems to have come up. If the lunch doesn’t work, at least you know you did everything you could to work it out, you can still hire us, we can file suit and go to trial, but if it does you not only saved you and your company a lot of time, money and frustration, but also salvaged a business relationship.
Another reason to have a trial lawyer as your business counsel is that we have a different perspective than “normal” business lawyers. We are used to litigation and the issues that are raised. When we meet with a client, we have an understanding of what will happen if you have to file suit or are sued, what the other side may claim and how you may be able to take some actions which could eliminate or reduce your exposure and/or increase your likelihood of prevailing.
We see our job as to not just representing our clients, but counseling them as to the realistic issues they will face, and what can happen. It is not our job to tell you what you want to hear or tell you what we will do. We see our job in representing businesses to give them the information they need to make informed decisions as to the best course of action for their business. That could be litigation, but it could also be to have lunch with the other business owner and work out an agreement. Sometimes spending a few dollars now on lunch and a settlement makes a lot of sense. If not you can always hire an attorney.
Jul 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
If you were wondering why there have been no blogs, we have moved our home and office in the last 2 months. Our new office address is 322 Brooks Street in Sugar Land, Texas. Same phone, e-mail and fax. So it is time to get back to blogging and working.
So let’s start off with something non controversial. Today a Court in Arizona ruled that several of the provisions of the illegal immigration law may not be enacted. The order includes several of the provisions? Including:
Not being able to require police officers to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.
Not requiring immigrants to carry immigration registration papers; and
Not making it a crime for an illegal immigrant to seek or perform work.
You can cut and paste the link below for the entire ruling. http://azd.uscourts.gov/azd/courtinfo.nsf/983700DFEE44B56B0725776E005D6CCB/$file/10-1413-87.pdf?openelement
This is just the first step in litigation that will probably end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. We have the Court’s ruling, what do you think?
