RECENT SUCCESS STORY: $4,000,000 SEMI-TRUCK ACCIDENT SETTLEMENT
The Real Takeaway From the Matal v. Tam Decision
The Supreme Court of the U.S. recently ruled that individuals have the right to trademark offensive words and phrases for the sake of using them as company or product names. This unanimous decision is absolutely a victory for proponents of free speech (even if it seems like the mean-spirited kind), but it actually has a...
Click It Or Ticket 2017 Has Begun, But Just Buckle Up So You Don’t Get Obliterated
Monday, May 22 marks the beginning of the Texas Department of Transportation's two-week "Click It Or Ticket" campaign. Until June 4, Texas law enforcement officers will actively ticket drivers and passengers who are not wearing seatbelts. People whose young children are not riding in appropriate child-safety seats or booster seats will also be subject to...
How Do I Discover the Other Driver’s Insurance Policy Limits?
I've learned over the years that the quickest way to make people's eyes glaze over is to either discuss evidentiary rules in Texas courts or to talk about insurance. Despite being a topic that doesn't make people scream, "Oh, tell me more," following a fatal accident, knowing how insurance works is crucial to the surviving...
The Legal Landscape Can Be Murky For Injured Cell Tower Workers
Work-injury law is already more complicated in Texas than in any other state. That's because Texas operates two parallel systems that help those who are injured on the job. The traditional workers' compensation system pays benefits to workers or their families when a worker is injured or killed on the job, regardless of whether or...
Are Passengers “Assuming the Risk” When They Ride with Drunk Drivers?
Everyone can probably agree that riding with a drunk driver is dangerous. However a passenger may have ended up in the vehicle (not knowing that the driver was intoxicated, or maybe even just drunk themselves) there's a significant measure of danger in sharing it with a drunk person behind the wheel. If we were to...
Atlanta Tragedy Shows Why We Have Attractive Nuisance Doctrine
It's no secret that any time a law firm discusses a tragic event in the news, people will invariably accuse that firm of attempting to profit from a tragedy. However, when the reaction of most people is that "the victim's family is going to make a ton of money," it illustrates a lack of knowledge...
Does Not Wearing a Seatbelt Bar Someone From Getting Compensation?
One of the questions that I get asked all the time by people is, "If someone isn't wearing a seabelt in a crash, can they still recover compensation for their injuries?" I learned of a recent trucking accident in the Texas Panhandle that makes answering this question particularly timely. Deaf Smith County, TX: April 4,...
Texans Fighting Wrong-Way Driving With Smarter Signs
One such set of lines is the ones that divide the lanes of the road. Motor vehicles are obviously extremely dangerous, especially when operated incorrectly. The law does what it can to make sure people more or less understand this fact and keep it in mind when operating a vehicle, but drivers still make bad...
When an Accident Implies Negligence: The Principle of Res Ipsa Loquitur
One can't look at any controversy in the courts without hearing someone getting worked up about "judges making laws." While judges shouldn't rewrite laws from the bench in the face of a clearly defined statute, our common law legal system actually encourages them to speak on issues where the law is silent. These well-established principles...
Are “Not Responsible for Broken Windshield” Signs Legally Enforceable? Not a Chance
As long as the law has existed, there have been the twin impulses to find legal ways to get around it and to use the protections of law as a shield against other legal actions. This could rightly be termed a quest for technicalities. A great example of this is that it is well-known that...
