Don’t Drink the Water: Corpus Christi Industries Leak Chemicals into Public Water System
Ah, Corpus Christi. The brackish water and scorching sands of this Gulf city are often a spot for frolic and tourism around Spring Break. All you need is a tequila-heavy margarita, 2 pints of sunscreen, and a hideously airbrushed tank-top commemorating your visit to "CCTX," and you can snatch all that up while heading out...
Loose Selection and Enforcement Standards Make Some Truckers Fear Their Own Industry.
Have you heard the expression "one bad apple spoils the bunch?" I know it's a little folksy, but most people recognize its meaning without too much strain: Take a generally-benign group and introduce an element that is decidedly less so. Over time, this foreign element will corrupt the larger group, and the more the corruption...
Playground Equipment Company Recalls 1,300 Units After Slide Defect Injures Children
While no one usually gives a second thought to playground slides, a recent recall thrust the issue of playground safety into the public conversation. Here's what we know so far and why 1,300 defective slides are subject to a manufacturer's recall. Who Makes The Affected Products? According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the...
Jurisdiction Measuring: Denton City Council Will Vote on Banning Handheld Device Use in Vehicles
Thanks in large part to increased safety measures in modern vehicles, crash fatalities saw a gradual decline for most of the 2000's. Unfortunately, that positive streak was broken by the increased prevalence and functionality of smartphones, which have become harder and harder to resist for the majority of the populace. We fiddle with them in...
Viral Social Media Post Falsifies Crash Details, Blames Victims
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes auto accidents are simply an acceptable hazard of driving to and fro. It may be a necessary evil to spend time behind the wheel, but the road holds many dangers. Some of them are environmental, certainly--weather conditions, road quality, loose debris--but drivers themselves are responsible for many...
Lawyers Selling 4th Amendment Rights For $40? Game On.
You're breathing while you read this, right? Of course you are. Just the slow, unthinking respiration we do when at rest. No big deal. It's a natural function, and it happens whether you think about it or not. But how do you remember to breathe if no one reminds you to? Maybe it's asking a...
Workplace Accident Analysis: College Station, TX
We write a lot about accidents at Grossman Law--not just vehicular crashes, but all kinds. Though I wish I weren't able to say this, there's never a shortage of tragedies to report: Product malfunctions, commercial trucking crashes, and workplace injuries happen daily across our nation. Even though our attorneys generally keep the closest eye on...
2 Keys for Personal Injury Lawyers: Restraint and Patience
There are two general schools of thought for personal injury attorneys when they're hired on in a case. The first school immediately files suit, regardless of the evidence they have at the time. These attorneys figure that they'll find something along the way that they can work with. Armed with subpoena power, they try to...
New York Governor Bans Sex Offenders from Playing Pokémon Go
Recently I wrote about Pokémon Go, the new augmented-reality offering from Niantic, Incorporated. While the game offers a slew of incentives to exercise and make new friends in a time when children and adults are increasingly withdrawn thanks to technology, it also poses a variety of safety hazards due to the nature of its gameplay....
Beckman v Match.com: Are Dating Sites Liable When the Dates Take a Dark Turn?
Recent research indicates that an estimated 40 million people make use of dating websites in their search for a partner. OKCupid, Tinder, Bumble, and Plenty of Fish are some of the better-known dating sites (though of course we shouldn't rule out niche sites like Farmers Only and VeggieDate). Through it all, though, one of the...
I See Debris: Unsecured Belongings are Killing Motorists
Most motorists have cruised past some kind of abandoned flotsam on the shoulder of the highway. In my own travels I've seen old mattresses, lost tires, suitcases with spilled clothes, and most unusually, a destroyed photocopier. It's kind of sad to see what people left behind, whether they knew it or not at the time,...
Just How Drunk is a .26 BAC?
A few days ago, our firm was hired on a case wherein a young woman went to a Buffalo Wild Wings, was served an obscene quantity of alcohol, and then died in an accident after the bar sent her on her way. Unrelated, a few members of our staff were having a conversation about the...
Compulsory Vaccinations: I Want My MMR
On July 1, California's state bill No. 277 went into action. This legislation effectively bans the admission of unvaccinated children to public schools for grades K-12. Children who have not been given the standard shots to help prevent serious diseases will not be allowed to attend school with their vaccinated peers. Laws like SB 277...
Examining The Validity of Pokémon Go Injury Claims
"It's all fun until someone loses an eye." Lately, I hear those words echo in my head whenever I contemplate the current Pokémon Go fad. Whattymon What? Pokémon Go is a downloadable smartphone-based app where the user plays the part of a "trainer," moving around the real world and attempting to catch cartoon animals (Pokémon)...
We Need to Stop Using The Word “Accident.”
Many commonly used words can mean different things based on not only their context, but also who says them, and who hears them. On one hand, it's interesting that language can be so flexible, but when so much hangs in the balance--such as in a legal case--it can be challenging to make one's self understood...
Cell Phones, Traffic Fatalities, and How the Law Works
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) made a startling announcement last week that, if trends for the first half of the year hold for the remainder of the year, the United States may experience an 8% spike in traffic fatalities. This comes on the heels of several years of flat or declining numbers of...
Can the Producers of “Legal Highs” be Sued Successfully?
The manufacturers of a class of custom-made drugs known as "legal highs" have seemingly found a way to sell incredibly dangerous products, deny the product's known usage, and then hide behind their disclaimer to avoid any legal accountability. We've got a problem with that. And, as we'll discuss, we think there may be a way...
What “The Wire” Teaches Us About the Justice System
When a client brings us a case, our first impulse is to investigate, while their desire is to get into a courtroom, hop up on the witness stand, and tell their side of the story. Their thinking goes that the quickest way to resolve a case is to get in front of jury, explain what...
Myth: Most Lawsuits Are Frivolous
It's not exactly news that some people don't like lawyers. Actually, depending on whom you ask, lots of people don't like lawyers. One of the biggest reasons for that is the perception that many lawyers make money not by pursuing honest claims against those who've done wrong, but by waging endless frivolous lawsuits for personal...
