Posts Tagged ‘Dallas’
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion on whether Exxon should pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages arising out of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. In a decision that comes as no surprise to anyone…except maybe those who expected that the court would throw out punitive damages in their entirety…the court reduced the punitive damages from $2.5 billion to roughly $504 million, which is about $46 dollars for every gallon of oil they spilled in Prince William Sound.
Several observations:
1. Champagne corks are flying at the Exxon boardroom in Dallas. You can hear the popping sounds all the way over here in Fort Worth.
2. Exxon is the most profitable corporation in the history of ever. It set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion last year - or nearly $1,300 per second in 2007. That eclipsed its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.
3. Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the decision because he owns Exxon stock. As if…
Tags: Dallas
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
LBJ Freeway was shut down in both directions near Plano Road after a fiery and fatal crash Sunday morning. Three vehicles — including an 18-wheeler and a pickup truck — collided in the eastbound lanes of of the highway just east of Plano Road at 7:35 a.m. All three vehicles caught fire. There were still massive backups on LBJ Freeway on Sunday afternoon, more than six hours after the incident.
Also from wfaa.com regarding that same wreck:
A 22-year-old woman was killed after she was hit by a car while trying to take pictures of a three-vehicle accident on LBJ Freeway early Sunday. April Sterling, of Dallas, and her friend were heading west on LBJ Freeway near Plano Road when they stopped so she could take pictures of the accident that occurred about 7:45 a.m., said Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda.
Ms. Sterling wanted to get closer to the accident scene so she ran into the HOV lane when a vehicle traveling west struck her, throwing her into the eastbound lanes of the freeway. She was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where she died from her injuries.
The three-vehicle accident shut down both sides of LBJ Freeway for several hours. Police said a tractor-trailer was heading east on the freeway and driving over a hill when he locked his brakes to avoid hitting two trucks parked on the freeway’s shoulder. The tractor-trailer crashed into the two pickups, causing all three vehicles to burst into flames. One driver was taken to an area hospital. That driver’s condition was unknown Sunday evening. Sgt. Cerda said the tractor-trailer driver faces a misdemeanor charge of faulty evasion action.
Tags: accident, Dallas, lawyer, lawyers, truck, truck accident, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Rarely does a day go by without yet another
truck wreck in
Dallas. Today, an 18-wheeler jackknifed on LBJ Freeway and ended up hanging over a bridge while on fire. Needless to say, traffic on I35 and 635 and surrounding streets came to a standstill. NBC5i
reports that the driver escaped with minor injuries and no word yet on the cause of the wreck.
Tags: Dallas, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Friday, May 2nd, 2008
I learned from a colleague in <a href=”http://dallas.texlawyers.com”>Dallas</a> that Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, spoke today to the Dallas Bar Association, where he said:
“In my generation, our greatest injustice was racial prejudice, and I devoted much of my career to fighting it. Nowadays, our greatest injustice is corporate America, which has packed our courts and flooded our legislature with lobbyists — to deprive American’s of basic rights and to destroy our jury system. Why have we decided to lose our jury system? We must fight this injustice as passionately as we in the 1960s fought discrimination.”
Well said, Mr. Dees.
Tags: Dallas
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
James Lee Woodard, 55, of <a href=”http://dallas.texlawyers.com”>Dallas</a> County, is free after serving 27 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Texas Wesleyan law student Alexis Hoff was instrumental in his release, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
How do you even begin to apologize to someone like Woodard? He’s spent half his life behind bars, his parents died while he was in prison, and now he has no place to go. And he said, “I don’t want to waste my time on negative energy. I don’t have any retaliatory or vindictive thoughts about it. I’m just glad it’s over.” Simply incredible.
Kudos to Ms. Hoff. She isn’t even a lawyer yet and she may have just won the biggest case of her career.
Tags: Dallas, fort worth, james lee woodard
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Monday, April 21st, 2008
A man rented a U-Haul truck to help his daughter move. While getting out of the rear of the truck, the 6-ton truck rolled over the man and left him a paraplegic. 14 surgeries later, he still requires around-the-clock care.
He filed a lawsuit against U-Haul, alleging negligence for renting out a truck that was not roadworthy with faulty emergency brake and worn-down gears. A Dallas County jury last Friday found U-Haul liable and awarded the plaintiffs $87 million.
U-Haul says it plans to aggressively appeal the verdict. It issued a statement that this verdict “is another example of abuse of the legal system against corporate citizens in America.”
Shame on U-Haul. There has never been a more corporate-friendly time in our justice system than right now. Big Business has lobbied to change the laws in their favor, they’ve plowed thousands of dollars into electing judges who are favor corporations over consumers, and they’re benefiting from a 20-year media campaign to vilify victims and their lawyers and poison the jury pool against plaintiffs.
The fact that a Dallas County jury hit them hard tells me that the evidence was truly damning, but U-Haul will no doubt string this out in the appellate system for years to come.
Tags: Dallas, Jury, lawyer, truck
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Friday, April 11th, 2008
WFAA.com reporting a truck wreck in Dallas on Stemmons (I35) near Carpenter Freeway involving a cement mixing truck, a car and a motorcycle. Photos show the cement truck on its side apparently on top of an automobile. Southbound lanes of I35 are closed while rescue workers are on the scene.
Tags: Dallas, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
NBC reporting that at least one person has been injured in Dallas when a tractor-trailer lost its load of lumber ear I-30 and Loop 12. What a mess. Photos here.
Tags: Dallas, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
NBC5i is reporting that at least two people (and possibly a third) are dead after an 18-wheeler overturned and crashed onto another vehicle at I35 and Continental Avenue in Dallas. Looks like the truck fell over a guardrail ramp and onto the lanes below. How horrific.
Tags: Dallas, truck wreck, trucking accident
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
A group of 11 plaintiffs, including the family of ex Dallas Cowboys player Ron Springs, filed suit recently in U.S. District Court in Marshall to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s medical malpractice caps.
The Houston Chronicle has a story here. The article suggests that the non-economic cap of $250,000 is per defendant, which is not the case. The $250,000 cap is per claimant (including all derivative plaintiffs such as spouses and children of the injured patient), no matter how many doctors or health care providers are sued. There is - in theory - the potential to stack two limits for a $500,000 cap, but I have yet to see a scenario where that would apply…nor have I heard of any across the state. And in some lobbyist’s fantasy world, there is a magical place where an injured patient could - just maybe - stack three limits for a $750,000 recovery. It’ll never happen, but that was part of the snake oil the insurance lobbyists sold elected officials and voters when tort reform passed in 2003.
In any event, hats off to the plaintiffs in Marshall.
Tags: Dallas, malpractice
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