Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court once again ruled that an injured citizen may not be compensated for damages caused by a defective road. The case was City of Denton v. Paper, ___ S.W.3d___ (Tex. 2012). In this case, a cyclist received significant injuries from an unexpected, sunken area in the street left by the…
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The Associate Press recently compiled a list of consumer product recalls for the week of August 20, 2012. This week’s recall list includes millions of baby seats which are in need of repair, a line of heated pet mats which are hazardous for causing shocks, and snap bracelets. The details of this AP article can…
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In an article on the first page of the “City & State” section of Friday’s (8/10/12) Houston Chronicle, writer Patricia Kilday Hart exposes the loss of rights Texans have undergone due to the Texas Supreme Court’s extremist “tort reform” efforts to protect businesses from bearing responsibility for their misconduct. Ms. Hart references an academic study…
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A large percentage of United States households own at least one gas can. Plastic gas cans represent 95% of all gas cans sold in America which based on these statistics means that most of us at one time or another have either owned or used plastic gas cans. Due to the risk of ignition of…
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Juries in Harris County do not reflect the demographics that makeup its population. Most people think that the diverse population is key to the jury makeup but the truth is that judges and lawyers play the largest role in deciding who stays and goes from juries. Winning cases is what motivates lawyers to remove or…
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Earlier this month, the Texas Supreme Court continued a trend of exonerating governmental entities from facing any responsibility for their alleged negligence by ruling that a city was immune from suit. The decision was rendered in City of North Richland Hills v. Friend, ___ S.W.3d ___ (Tex. 2012). In this case, Sarah Friend was in…
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Although former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been convicted of child-sex-abuse crimes, several civil investigations continue, including whether the university violated a federal campus-safety law, the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires prompt public alerts of safety threats and annual disclosure of crime statistics. Five days after Jerry Sandusky was arrested, the…
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According to an article from the Dow Jones Newswires, Royal Dutch Shell PLC could face a record $5 billion fine from Nigerian authorities. The proposed fine follows an oil spill off the coast of Nigeria last year. Approximately 40,000 barrels of oil leaked at Shell’s Bonga offshore facility. Shell is pushing back hard against the…
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