Sep 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
I was going through all the topics I could write about and Kathy came up with a great idea for this week. Skip the law and heavy stuff this week. So…..
News:
I was selected as a Texas Super Lawyer again this year. It is a great honor having been selected by my fellow lawyers as one of the top lawyers in the personal injury field every year since the selection began.
We are moved into our new office building in Sugar Land. It is a 1920’s home with lots of character (no not just me!!) and no sign outside. If you don’t know where it is just look for a flag pole until we get through all the historical red tape for the sign.
Football:
UT is my college team and the Texans is my pro team so as you can imagine it has been pretty good so far this year. Both games this past weekend were exciting and fun. I would be happy with a couple of nice blow outs this weekend if that could be arranged.
Steroids cost the Texans another player to suspension so it should be interesting.
So much for news and football. Any suggestions on topics for the next few weeks?
Sep 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
Toyota admits that its black-box recorder readers have a software error that can cause wrong speed readings.
SUV’s have warnings that state avoid sudden turns, but don’t define what that is or how you are to avoid them if someone pulls out in front of you, or if a child runs out in front of your car.
Child safety seats were found to be incorrectly installed 75% of the time by NHTSA in 2009.
What do all these have in common? The manufacturers know of a defect or problem, but rather than fix the problem and save lives they continue to try and blame the driver and parent.
The buzzwords “personal responsibility” is something that manufacturers love to throw out when they are discussing a case. The driver needs to take responsibility. The parent needs to take responsibility.
I have an idea. How about the manufacturers start taking responsibility and fix the problems instead of spending millions of dollars on lobbyist, defense attorneys and advertisements in trying to shift the blame. They have known of the problems for years and yet do nothing about them. Stop blaming your customers and look in a mirror. If any other business was having 75% of their customers not using a product correctly they would probably get the hint that they need to change something. The problem for drivers and parents is that the manufacturers are able to blame them because a jury generally only sees that one case, and not the hundreds or thousands of other claims or lawsuits regarding the same issue filed across the country. The manufacturers can imply this was just a freak accident or this one driver just failed to handle the situation. In those rare instances in which the Courts allow the jury to know about the other incidents the juries usually award significant damages. Does the manufacturer admit they did something wrong and vow to correct the problem and apologize to the family? Do they thank the plaintiffs and jury for helping them become aware of a dangerous defect which is maiming and killing people? No. They generally talk about how the jury was misguided and they how they will appeal this miscarriage of justice. Here’s a solution. Take some responsibility, fix the problem, save the families from having to deal with the sorrow of their children, parents and other family members being injured or killed because you choose to ignore a problem.
Thanks to my brilliant partner for the idea for this blog topic.
Sep 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
I love Facebook and Myspace, but maybe not for the reasons you think. Yes I do have a facebook account and probably spend too much time reading about what is going on and checking out the photos, but the real reason I love them is because they provide great information for cross examination in lawsuits (and unfortunately sometimes against me). There is the old saying that don’t say anything you wouldn’t want written in the paper, now it should be don’t take, or be in a picture you don’t want to be brought up in a trial, job interview or just used to embarrass you. I have seen such things on profile as swinger, escort, weekend drunk, and photos that make for great exhibits in cases. I know you some of you are thinking whew, it is a good thing I have my privacy settings so only my “friends” can see that stuff. Well it might not be so secure. Maybe the picture of you drinking several beers on the weekend are in your friends pages or friends friends and they are not protected. It might it also be that one of your “friends” is not really a friend (or is also friends with the person you are against or interviewing with) and turns your information over. You get asked in a deposition or interview did you drink anything over the weekend, you answer no, but there is a picture of you with a beer in your hand surrounded by empty beer bottles. Again the solution is simple. First don’t put yourself in a bad position and second don’t lie about it.
OK Mr. and Ms. professional, I only put professional stuff on facebook, see above, you never know who took what pictures where you were in maybe without you even knowing about them. There is this thing called tagging, not sure what it is, but my daughters do and it gets you tracked down. Now the others Linkedin, etc. these are professional sites and surely can’t be a problem. Generally that is true as long as you follow the tell the truth. It is useful to find out the background on a person, who they worked for, how long and who they are linked to, but here is another useful piece of information. Say you as a lawyer are trying to determine who to depose at the other parties company in the lawsuit. You send discovery asking for the person with knowledge regarding the topic, they give you a name and/or produce someone OR you get on linkedin and do a search for that company and see who all is listed and what their job titles are. Sometimes they are pretty interesting such as risk assessment and management, operations security, safety training and enforcement. These people may know more and be more interesting to depose than the people they offer.
So the moral of this blog is don’t be stupid as it will show up somewhere sometime on social media and don’t lie about it if asked because you should assume if they (attorney, job interviewer) are asking the question they already know the answer. If your company is sued you should review your own employees social sites, including linkedin to see what they have listed as their jobs and descriptions of job. This may help you determine who may be deposed and help prepare them (and you) for questions. Finally never assume that just because you deleted it that it is gone. It seems like the worse the picture, statement, or information the more somebody wants to keep it around.
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 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.
