Archive for the ‘Jury’ Category
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Well, my previous prediction was right where it counted, wrong in the timing: today a Houston civil jury in the assault case filed by a flight attendant against Victoria Osteen returned a defense verdict (nailed that part) after several hours of deliberation (missed that one). Edit: MSNBC reporting that the jury reached its verdict after “brief deliberations.”
Some media are reporting that the jury found Osteen “not guilty.” Although that probably conveys an accurate description of the result in the minds of many, this wasn’t a criminal matter. Rather, the plaintiff sued the defendant for assault (and money damages) and the jury was likely asked a yes/no question on whether the assault occurred. Civil juries decide liability, criminal juries decide guilt/innocence. Law Dork will be quiet now.
Tags: jury trials, Osteen
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
…let me apologize for this.
As if we needed more bad publicity, now a flight attendant has sued Joel Osteen’s wife over an alleged assault which occurred when Mrs. Osteen got upset when something wasn’t quite right in First Class.
According to court documents, the plaintiff is suing Osteen for causing “anxiety and hemorrhoids” because of the assault, as well as a loss of faith. I can’t wait to see how the plaintiff attempts to prove causation. I read somewhere that the plaintiff is seeking punitive damages of 10% of Osteen’s net worth, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion dollars. Good luck with that.
Prediction: Osteen’s lawyer Rusty Hardin will beat this plaintiff like a rented mule. IF it gets to the jury, they will deliberate for a few minutes just to be polite and then return a defense verdict. Meanwhile, the rest of us need to start thinking about how we handle this case in our next voir dires.
Tags: jury trials, Osteen
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Exxon, the most profitable company in the history of the world (earning $40.61 billion last year), recently enjoyed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling which slashed roughly $2 billion of punitive damages awarded against it in 1994 over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The plaintiffs - over 32,000 Alaskans - have now asked the court to award $488 million in interest on top of the reduced damages, something that is routine in virtually every case and which recognizes the interest that money owed to the plaintiffs would have earned had the defendant paid the debt when it was due.
Now in a move that must make even the most hardcore, pro-business tort-reformer blush, Exxon has asked the court to deny the plaintiffs interest because “the substantial delay here was not in any sense Exxon’s fault.” Uh, weren’t they the losers at trial who appealed the judgment in the first place?
Exxon’s shameful audacity knows no bounds. And if the Supremes rule in their favor, the take-over of that court by Big Business appears complete.
Tags: Exxon Valdez, tort reform
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Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
A jury in Austin today awarded truck driver Louis Martinez more than $267,000 in a suit arising out of his termination by a trucking company after he refused to drive with an unsafe load. Martinez was terminated by his employer, Safeshred, last year after refusing to haul a load of steel shelves from Austin to San Antonio. He testified that the load was imbalanced and that the securing straps were worn but he was told to leave the yard; after a few miles, he returned to the yard because the shifting load made it hard to control the truck and he told his supervisor he was afraid someone would get killed by a truck wreck from the unstable load. He was ordered to get back on the road and was fired when he refused. The company sent the load with another driver and during that trip, the load came loose and crashed through the cab of the truck.
Kudos to Mr. Martinez for his safe and sensible refusal to put himself and others in harm’s way. The maddening thing about the verdict is the arrogant attitude of the owner, Donald Wallace, who said the verdict was “exorbitant” and that he “fully expects” that it will be reversed on appeal. Unfortunately, as long as the appeals courts go out of their way to protect businesses and insurers over consumers, he could be right.
Martinez made I-35 safer for us that day. Wallace and his company “fully expect” that they’ll be allowed to continue with business as usual, even if that means putting unsafe loads on the road.
Tags: jury verdict, truck wreck, wrongful termination
Posted in Jury, Trucking Accidents, wrecks | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
There’s a good op-ed online in today’s Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi by insurance-defense lawyer Alex Alston (certainly no bomb-throwing liberal trial lawyer) about how that state’s high court has shifted to protecting businesses and insurers over injured consumers. Switch the states and names and he could as well be describing the Texas Supreme Court.
Notable among Alston’s comments are these:
“Our entire judicial system is built on a “rule of law.” In other words, it makes no difference whether you are a prince or a pauper, the law must be precisely the same for all. A court that substitutes its opinion for that of a jury, or simply decides a case for the benefit of a favored party, tears the basic fabric of our judicial system to shreds. If the rule of law is not followed, the entire foundation of our judicial system is undermined. The public has a right to expect the Supreme Court to follow the rule of law and decide the cases before it fairly and impartially without favor to any party regardless of status, race, creed or color…Should we not demand that [they] follow the rule of law? Certainly it is a fair question to ask why 88 percent of the time, the court reverses a jury verdict for a plaintiff and substitutes its own opinion, and why, in 100 percent of the cases involving an injured victim’s appeals from a jury verdict in favor of a defendant, the court finds for the wealthy or powerful defendant. Our court must be more than a rubber stamp for the rich and powerful. Shouldn’t we expect that and more?”
Well said, Mr. Alston. Undermining the rule of law for injured consumers hurts us all in the long run.
John Cummings
Tags: Jury, lawyer, lawyers, undefined
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Now there’s a title I never thought I’d write.
As I posted some months ago, a Longhorn fan apparently had the poor judgment to wear a UT jersey into a bar in Oklahoma City, where he ended up getting in a fight - of sorts - with an OU fan. It seems that in the ruckus, the OU fan grabbed onto the UT fan’s privates and pulled mightily.
Now the UT fan has sued the OU fan. Good for him. And good luck finding an impartial jury.
Tags: fight, impartial jury, jersey, longhorn, ou, ut
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Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Jury service in the United States is unique among justice systems worldwide, so much so that American juries have been called the “bulwark of democracy.” In fact, our Founding Fathers believed trial by a jury of one’s peers to be of equal importance with representative government, and both concepts were integral in drafting the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said, “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” Well over two hundred years later, Jefferson’s anchor still holds fast, despite repeated attempts to dislodge it.
But is the jury system at risk? Regretfully, yes. More and more arbitration clauses, anti-consumer legislation, and anecdotal horror stories about “frivolous lawsuits” and “out of control jury verdicts” have put a damper on the number of civil cases that go before a jury. Coincidentally, a recent nationwide poll shows that a majority of Americans do not mind jury service and view it as a privilege and an active part of democracy. It is ironic that in a time of declining access to the courthouse, most of us are willing to serve as jurors.
Quite simply, jurors level the playing field in the search for justice. My favorite fictional lawyer, Atticus Finch, says in that classic book To Kill a Mockingbird, “The only place where a man ought to get a square deal is in the courtroom.” How true. The next time you open the mail to find a jury summons, I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the importance of jury service and perhaps groan a little softer. And I hope your experience as a juror is rewarding and meaningful.
Tags: Jury, lawyer
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