Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The former police officer suffered brain injuries and requires constant care, his lawyer says.
A jury awarded $15.7 million to a San Diego man who sued the city of Los Angeles after he was struck by a city-operated dump truck while riding his motorcycle in Northridge.
The jury reached a decision last week in the case filed by Barry Bowman, a 62-year-old retired police officer who suffered brain injuries as a result of the accident, according to his lawyers.
Bowman’s attorney, Michael Alder, said the 2-year-old lawsuit went to trial after his client was unable to reach a settlement with the city’s lawyers. “They never seemed to understand the potential liability,” Alder said. “They never offered a dime more than $50,000.” The city has not decided whether to appeal.
Bowman, a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, suffered short-term memory loss and requires 24-hour care as a result of the accident, Alder said. The jury assigned Bowman roughly $4.7 million to cover his medical costs and lost wages and $11 million for pain, suffering and emotional distress.
Tags: accident, Jury, lawyer, truck accident
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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
PURCELL, Okla. — Toby Keith, his mother and his siblings have been awarded $2.8 million in damages in the 2001 collision that killed the country music star’s father.
A jury returned the verdict against Elias Rodriguez and Pedro Rodriguez, operators of Rodriguez Transportes of Tulsa, and the Republic Western Insurance Co.
According to evidence presented at trial, a charter bus owned by the Rodriguezes was “in urgent need” of brake repairs before H.K. Covel was killed in the March 2001 accident on Interstate 35, said attorney Greg Dixon, who represented Keith’s family.
The Rodriguezes had been advised of the brake problem before Covel’s truck crossed the center median and struck the bus, he said.
The family initially suspected Covel suffered a medical condition that caused the truck to veer out of control. It later learned another vehicle had bumped the truck and filed a wrongful death lawsuit to clear Covel’s name, Dixon said.
The verdict was returned last week. “The jury found no fault on the part of Mr. Covel in the wreck that claimed his life,” Dixon said.
The plaintiffs, wife Carolyn Covel, daughter Tonni Covel and sons Toby Keith Covel and Tracey Covel, alleged that H.K. Covel would not have died if the bus had been equipped with properly working air brakes.
Here.
Tags: truck accident, truck wreck
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
With the increased truck traffic on our roads these days, it bears repeating that in our experience prosecuting truck wreck cases, we frequently find evidence of various safety violations by either the trucking company or the truck driver or both. Falsified logbooks and hours-of-service violations, vehicles and equipment with mechanical problems, and speeding are just some of the violations that are commonly seen in these cases. Often victims of trucking accidents are left to wonder why these problems are not caught sooner, before they lead to wrecks. Needless to say, there is much room for improvement.
Let’s hope we see continued investigative reporting from Dallas Morning News reporters Gregg Jones and Doug Swanson, who have written an excellent investigative series in the DMN.
Left alone, the trucking industry is not going to clean itself up, despite the many carriers and drivers who operate professionally and safely. Average citizens must demand more from our lawmakers: More meaningful oversight of the industry, more funds for enforcement, and more dangerous trucks taken off our roads.
Tags: Dallas, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
Attorneys from the Fort Worth personal injury law firm of Laird & Cummings, P.C., are reminding everyone who may be traveling on interstate highways to stay safe and smart this holiday season.
Families traveling north to celebrate the holidays with love ones this year should be particularly aware of weather-related dangers on the roads. Take precautions, and check the weather before you leave.
“The difference in road conditions can be very tricky for drivers who aren’t used to driving on icy roads or in severe weather,” says attorney John Cummings, partner in the Fort Worth personal injury law firm of Laird & Cummings, P.C. “When you combine bad driving conditions with the fact that tractor trailer drivers are trying to make it home for the holidays themselves, you can see the dangerous combination.”
Nearly 5,000 people were killed in crashes on U.S. roads involving large trucks in 2006, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The National Transportation Safety Board and other respected highway safety research groups have found that nearly 40 percent of big truck crashes are due to fatigue. Studies show that extended periods without sleep can slow reaction times by as much as 50 percent, which is the same as having a .05 percent blood alcohol level.
Laird & Cummings, P.C., is a Fort Worth, Texas, personal injury law firm that represents individuals and families in cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, trucking accidents, medical malpractice, construction site accidents, products liability and business litigation.
Tags: accident, car wreck, fort worth, lawyers, personal injury, texas
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
Historically in Texas, there were no particular rules regarding the division of fees among lawyers or the payment of a referral fee from one lawyer to another for forwarding the case. In 2005, however, the Texas Supreme Court enacted new referral fee rules which do away with “pure” referral fees (those where the referring lawyer has no role in the case other than forwarding it to another lawyer). Now, referral fees in Texas must be based on either a “proportion of services” basis or a “joint responsibility” basis.
In a “proportion of services” situation, each lawyer performs substantial services on behalf of the client with respect to a particular legal matter. Each lawyer who participates in the division of the fee is required to perform services beyond simply being hired by the client and forwarding the case to another lawyer. There must be a “reasonable correlation” between services performed and the sharing of the fee between the referring lawyer and the handling lawyer.
In a “joint responsibility” situation, the referring lawyer assumes an ethical and perhaps financial responsibility for the representation. The referring lawyer must make a reasonable investigation into the client’s legal matter and refer the matter to a lawyer reasonably believed to be competent to handle it. The referring lawyer must monitor the matter throughout the representation, respond to client questions and keep the client informed of progress in the case, and assist the handling lawyer when necessary. “Joint responsibility” does not mean joint control, and the referring lawyer is not required to attend deposition or hearings or trial, or be copied on all pleadings and correspondence.
Importantly, attorneys must obtain the client’s written consent in advance regarding the basis for the referral and the division of fees. The complete rules pertaining to referral fees in Texas may be found in Rule 104 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
In our practice handling personal injury and wrongful death cases on a contingent-fee basis, we find that referrals on a joint responsibility basis are most common and most akin to the traditional referral fee arrangements our referring attorneys have enjoyed over the years.
Tags: Dallas, fort worth, lawyers, personal injury, texas, wrongful death
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Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Bizarre car wreck in Dallas left one person dead today. Seems an SUV going one way lost control and hit a concrete median, causing a piece of concrete to break off the median and strike the driver’s side window of a car coming from the other direction. Killed the driver of that car. Story here.
Tags: car wreck, Dallas
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Thursday, December 20th, 2007
This makes me seethe.
Wal-Mart employee suffers brain damage in a truck wreck, Wal-Mart’s health plan pays for medical treatment (which it agreed to do when it took premiums from the employee), employee gets a $417,000 settlement from the trucking company (which is put into trust to pay for her on-going nursing home care) and now Wal-Mart sues the brain-damaged employee for the $470,000 the health plan paid plus its attorneys’ fees (which, at least in Texas, the injured employee would not be able to recover from the trucking company). It’s called subrogation, which is a fancy word for “insurance company screws the little guy.”
The biggest corporation in the world is taking this lady’s last dime, leaving her future medical care to be paid by Medicaid, which means you get to pay for it.
Watch this video and think about this the next time you decide to shop at Wal-Mart.
Tags: insurance, truck wreck
Posted in truck accident | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Infantino® Recalls Infant Teethers Due to Choking Hazard
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced a voluntary recall of Infantino® Lion Teethers, about 28,000 of which were produced by Infantino® LLC, of San Diego, Calif.
Hazard: The plastic nose can detach, posing a choking hazard to young children.
Incidents/Injuries: Infantino® has received eight reports of the nose detaching, including one report of a child gagging on the bitten off nose.
Description: This recall involves Infantino® lion teethers. The yellow and orange plastic teethers have date codes 6116, 6129, 6158, 6137, 0606, 0806, 0906, and 1006. The date codes are located on the back of the lion’s head, above the Infantino® logo. Lion teethers with other date codes are not included in this recall.
Sold at: Babies “R” Us, Pottery Barn Kids and other specialty stores nationwide from June 2006 through December 2007 for about $5.
Remedy: Consumers should take the recalled toys away from young children immediately and contact Infantino® for a replacement teether or a product of equal value.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Infantino® toll-free at (888) 808-3111 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.service.infantino.com
Tags: recall
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Allstate refuses to turn over documents in a Missouri lawsuit which pertain to company policies “allegedly” designed to shortchange clients while earning itself huge profits. Even the Missouri Supreme Court, not exactly known as a hot bed of liberal judicial activism, orders Allstate to turn over the documents. They still refuse. So the trial judge fines Allstate $25,000 per day until the turn them over. They still refuse. This has been going on since September.
The fine currently exceeds $2.4 million. Yet Allstate’s lawyers say the company will not produce these records for public view no matter how much the court fines them.
This display of arrogance and contempt towards courts and the rule of law is just mind-boggling. But perhaps most disturbing is how Allsnake will stop at nothing to screw their own insureds.
Tags: insurance, lawyer
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Remember this case from back in the summer?
A Kentucky judge will decide next week which company will perform testing on the broken cable from the ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom that severed the feet of a 13-year-old Louisville girl in June. Kaitlyn Lasitter’s attorneys are asking that a local company test the cable, while Six Flags “wants to award the contract” to a laboratory in Chicago.
“Award the contract” for testing the cables that cut this poor girl’s feet off sounds so crass.
Tags: personal injury
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