Back in 2003, when the Texas Legislature bent over for the insurance lobby and capped damages on suits brought by victims of medical negligence, the justification for selling off our rights was typically some variant of a “crisis” facing doctors…too many “frivolous suits,” too many “runaway juries,” too high insurance premiums, too many doctors fleeing the state, etc., etc….

Interesting. President Bush endorses Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett by saying “he is a proven conservative who understands courts should interpret and apply law, not legislate from the bench.” Yet Justice Willett authors a recent opinion – joined by the other eight justices – that “offends not only the law, but also court precedent, legislative intent, reason, custom and…

Jurors just returned a sentence of life in prison rather than the death penalty for Lance Heard, who was convicted earlier this week of capital murder in the shooting death of Fort Worth police officer Hank Nava. I don’t practice criminal law and I don’t weigh in with opinions on most criminal trials because their courtrooms are not mine. But…

Good article in the FWST about the rise in lawsuits filed by debt collectors, a concern I expressed a few blog entries ago. Key points to remember: Don’t ignore debt collection efforts (especially letters and anything nailed to your door while you’re at work) and be ready to challenge the debt collector’s documentation of the debt. Often these groups…

Most Texas trial lawyers can attest that it’s harder and harder to get some plaintiffs’ cases to court these days. This is particularly true in cases involving victims of medical malpractice or homeowners who discover construction problems with their houses. These types of cases, among others, have been affected drastically by recent changes in the law which have the…

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…

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…

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…

And those are just the ones who get caught. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Good truck drivers are among the safest, most-professional, most-skilled drivers on the roads today, and my hat is off to them for doing a tough job well. But the bad apples among them are getting away with murder, thanks to lax…