Distracted driving is always a serious problem and occurs anytime a driver’s attention is taken away from the act of driving. Our attorneys at Springer & Lyle are committed to helping those who may have been injured in one of the nearly 110,000 crashes that occur annually in Texas due to distracted driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) identifies three categories of distracted driving: Visual. Taking your eyes off the road.Manual. Taking your hands off the steering wheel.Cognitive. Taking your mind off your driving. Using a cell phone for … [Read more...]
Identifying the Parties at Fault in a Truck Accident Case
Learning how an accident occurred and who caused the wreck is the first step in deciding who to include in a personal injury lawsuit. This is a complicated process that requires an experienced attorney where a truck accident is concerned. The companies and firms involved in the transport of goods via 18-wheeler can be numerous, and often, more than one party may have been negligent in causing or contributing to an 18-wheeler accident. Potentially liable parties can include: Truck Drivers: We have handled cases in which drivers have operated 18 wheeler trucks for long hours and were … [Read more...]
Contrasting the Perverse Incentive of Family Law and Collaborative Divorce
The Conflict Incentive There is a dirty secret in some family law cases, one that clients only learn about long after they’ve retained counsel, and sometimes only after they look back at the pain, stress, and expense of their divorce. The secret is that some family lawyers have a perverse incentive. Attorneys bill clients by the hour to solve their problems. That means they get paid more if the clients have more problems. Quite simply, lawyers have an economic incentive to create conflict to bill the file. Sure they have a lawyers’ creed that says they will … [Read more...]
What’s Title Insurance and Why Are We Required to Have It?
Title insurance operates to protect a person's loss of their interest in real estate because of defects in the title. So what is a defect in a title? It is a problem with title to your property that could be caused by a lien, mortgage or judgment. It can also be an adverse claim of record like a boundary line dispute or adverse possession. These defects could prevent you from buyer, selling or refinancing your property. Whatever the circumstances of a real property transaction, you want an experienced real estate attorney from Springer & Lyle to protect your interests in the deal. When … [Read more...]
Transvaginal Mesh Litigation
Transvaginal mesh has become a nightmare for thousands of women who have suffered severe adverse effects involving erosion and migration of the mesh along with perforation of organs from it. Surgical mesh was designed over 60 years ago for repairing hernias. It's a woven material made of synthetic or biological materials that usually comes in a prepackaged kit along with tools to aid in the surgical procedure. Because mesh was widely successful in the treatment of hernias, surgeons began using it in other parts of the body that needed support. About 20 years later they began inserting it … [Read more...]
Texas Supreme Court Ends Bad Faith Claims for Workers
Texas Workers Compensation claimants took a big hit Friday when the Texas Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision in Texas Mutual Insurance Co. v. Timothy J. Ruttiger. The Court held that Workers Comp claimants cannot seek damages for bad faith denials of claims outside the administrative Workers Comp regulatory framework. Justice Willett's concurring opinion writes: "The continued existence of bad-faith claims will subvert the Legislature's meticulous soup-to-nuts system, one augmented by an immense regulatory and adjudicatory framework that, taken together, now regulates virtually … [Read more...]
Victory for Big Pharma: Texas Adopts “Learned Intermediary” Rule
Big Pharma had a major victory on June 8th, when the Texas Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Centocor, Inc. v. Hamilton. The Court held that "When a drug manufacturer properly warns a prescribing physician of the dangerous propensities of its product, the manufacturer is excused from warning each patient who receives the drug. The doctor stands as a learned intermediary between the manufacturer and the ultimate consumer." Further, "A prescription drug manufacturer fulfills its duty to warn end users of its product's risks by providing adequate warnings to the intermediaries who … [Read more...]
Deion and Pilar Sanders’ Divorce Illustrates the High Price of Animosity and the Great Deal we get through Settlement
Several sources have reported that Deion Sanders has been ordered to pay over $10,500 in child support and $3,500 mortgage payments. The shocking part is that he’s been ordered to pay over a quarter million in attorney fees incurred just since April 30, 2012. In three weeks of attorney fees these parties blew what most of my clients will not earn in a year. There has, perhaps, never been a clearer example of the high price of contempt and animosity in a family law case. If you do the math, Deion could pay support for his children for 18 months at the rate his wife’s … [Read more...]
Greyhound Bus Drivers say Company Opposes Safety Reform
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700, which represents Greyhound bus drivers, has been speaking out against the company's safety record. "Members of the National Association of Bus Crash Families said they recently learned that Greyhound did not support HR7, a bill introduced by Georgia Democrat John Lewis and Texas Republican Ted Poe. The Lewis-Poe Amendment, as it is known, is identical to language in the MESA Bill, and replaces earlier provisions in the House version with a “Greyhound Compromise.” “We negotiated with Greyhound in good faith and gave up important safety priorities … [Read more...]
1/5 of Commercial Vehicles were Found Unsafe
The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that one-fifth of commercial vehicles they inspected in in 2011 were unsafe: "Since the first of the year, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement personnel and specially-trained Highway Patrol troopers have inspected 331,505 commercial vehicles. As a result of these inspections, DPS removed 66,189 unsafe commercial vehicles and 12,301 unsafe commercial vehicle drivers from Texas roads for a variety of safety violations. “Commercial vehicles are responsible for approximately 15 percent of the fatalities in Texas crashes,” said McCraw. “Most … [Read more...]