There’s a Lesson in Potential Jurors’ Hate-Filled Interviews About Martin Shkreli
"The Internet is written in ink," as they say. Many people observe these guidelines without trouble, but others seem to thrive on riling people. Martin Shkreli, the infamous "Pharma Bro," seems to be one of the latter type, but he found out recently the same lesson we've tried to impart to clients for years: Watch...
Adios Amoebas: Water Parks and Premises Liability
If you run a business, you'd better know what it takes to make sure your customers have a safe and satisfactory experience there. There are genuine accidents--things nobody could possibly have seen coming--and then there are incidents that likely could have been avoided with appropriate levels of pre-emptive caution. For example: If you run a...
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...
Did Jelly Belly Engage in Deceptive Trade Practices With How They Labeled Their “Sport Beans?”
A California woman is currently spearheading a class-action suit against Jelly Belly, the candy company behind the bags of jellybeans in candy aisles everywhere. The company is credited for its diverse lineup of jellybean flavors like Buttered Popcorn, Toasted Marshmallow, and Strawberry Daiquiri.. The suit's plaintiff takes issue with the declared ingredients of some of...
Dallas Police’s 911 Problems and Their Legal Implications
Ordinarily we at the firm wait for news releases about problems or events in the Lone Star State, but because we can't count on them to get their facts about the law straight, we've elected to be proactive with some recent troubles in Dallas. Over the weekend, two police departments in Dallas suburbs--Plano and Rowlett,...
Lubbock Accident Shows Appearance Doesn’t Match Reality
There is an old joke that when you don't know what a Shakespeare play is about, just say it concerns "appearance versus reality" and you'll always be right. For years, we've said something similar about almost every car accident that appears in the news. Crash victims call us up all the time with tales of...
How Might New Safety Equipment Affect Texas Work-Injury Law?
Industries with a lot of manual labor have heavily invested in developing safety equipment for their employees. Goggles and hard hats may not look like much, but they're carefully designed and rigorously tested to protect as many eyes and noggins as possible. Harnesses, gloves, reflectors, and other pieces of safety gear follow the same idea:...
Brandon Vezmar’s Lawsuit is Definitely Absurd, But Let’s Not Freak Out Or Anything
If you follow the news, you've probably seen a fluff article or two recently about a guy suing his movie date for texting during a showing of the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. No matter what you think about the movie, it's well understood that bothering other theater patrons by talking or texting...
When All Else Fails, Trucking Companies Bluff Their Way to Victory
People often see a truck accident where it appears that the truck driver was obviously at fault. This leads them to believe that the victims are certain to get justice for the damages they've sustained. However, truck accidents are never open-and-shut cases. Our legal system affords everyone the opportunity to defend themselves, even if the...
Fellowship of the Drink: The Expensive Travels of the TABC
Recent audits of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), the state regulatory agency that monitors the distribution and service of alcohol in the Lone Star State, have shown that some of the agency's top brass have been boozing and schmoozing with the liquor industry, paid for by the very industry they are meant to oversee...
Who Pays When a Drunk Driver Hits a Pedestrian?
I realize that we have touched on this topic many times before, but there are still many people who believe that liquor liability, or dram shop, laws unfairly punish bars for the behavior of drunk drivers. The common perception is that a person goes out, decides to drink too much, hurts themselves, and then turns...
Kids Injured Around School Buses and Texas Law
In the past, we've discussed liability for bus drivers who hit children that are loading or unloading from school buses. In reviewing that article, it became apparent that we missed one important area of discussion. While it should be fairly obviously that people who run stops signs are liable for the damage they cause when...
It’s Not the Devices–It’s the Batteries
I am optimistic about the progress of technology and its increasing usefulness for modern living. I'm not blind to its more sinister applications, of course, but generally, when I think of the future I try to see less Blade Runner and more Jetsons. Of course, part of the Jetsons future is a world that is...
Commercial Truck Accidents Caused by Falling Cargo
While most commercial truck accidents involve a truck colliding with another vehicle, there is a small, but not insignificant number of accidents that are caused when cargo form the trailer falls off and obstructs the roadway. While some may be tempted to look at these accidents as "just another truck accident," the fact is that...
Stopping the Buck: Rose City Tragedy and Truck Accident Liability
President Harry Truman famously had a placard on his desk that read "The Buck Stops Here." The phrase ultimately means that one must take responsibility for his decisions and actions, and can't "pass the buck" to dodge any consequences. That idealism is laudable, of course, but ducking blame has been practiced for millennia and shows...
How Trucking Company Lawyers Shift Blame Following an Accident
Defense Attorneys Say The Darndest Things About a year ago, one of our firm's attorneys, Keith Purdue, was taking the deposition of a trucking company's "safety manager." This deposition was a fairly heated affair, wherein we were essentially accusing the man being deposed of having a largely ceremonious title and/or a job that merely existed...
The “Bad” Truck Driver in a Chehalis, WA I-5 Truck Accident
On January 6, 2017, there were two accidents on Interstate 5 in Chehalis, WA. According to reports, on the southbound side of the highway, an SUV collided with a pedestrian who was attempting to cross the road. In that accident, the 15-year-old pedestrian was killed. Naturally, this accident slowed traffic in both directions. A short...
Do Trucking Companies Need Safer Delivery Rules In Residential Neighborhoods?
Commercial trucks are serious business. Freight needs to get all over the country, and every year over $9 trillion in freight is hauled to and fro by trucks. We can talk all day about some glimmering future of electronic drones making deliveries (thanks for the raised expectations, Amazon), but our infrastructure right now depends largely...
Liability for Highway Obstructions in Texas Law
We have noticed a lot of news reports lately about motorists who for one reason or another collide with the rear of a tractor-trailer. Fault in these instances is always case-specific. Sometimes it falls on the passenger vehicle's driver; in other instances, fault lies with the trucker. There are even accidents where inclement weather or...
Should Semi-Truck U-Turns Be Illegal?
It's difficult for a truck accident law firm to ask questions about commercial truck safety without those who drive trucks for a living taking offense and thinking we're "anti-trucker." I'd like to dispense that notion right off the bat. We have the utmost respect for 99% of professional truck drivers who drive their whole careers...
