BTI Recalls AR-15 Parts Kit for “Incorrect” Part That Could Cause Misfires

The AR-15 platform is a weapon system well-known for its accessories and customizability. Be it paint jobs, picatinny rail attachments, or custom inner workings, you could spend all day looking at AR-15s and not see the exact same one twice. Whole kits are even sold to replace large portions of the guns at once, which...

Strong Winds: Acts of God and “Acts of God”

Hurricane Harvey may have dissipated, his awful work complete, but no sooner did the vicious storm subside than his girlfriend Irma turned up to continue in his absence. My heart goes out to those suffering through the intense rains and flooding, the gale-force winds, and the cumulative threat to life and property. Sadly, the Gulf...

The Worst DUI Week of the Year Is Why We Need Dram Shop Laws.

Independence Day is statistically the most DUI-accident prone day of the year. People don't drink hard just on the day itself, though--it has become a week-long celebration for some. All that alcohol creates far more serious risks than the occasional finger-flaying lesson about fireworks, and yet some unscrupulous bars are comfortable with over-serving it to...

Retire the Fire: The Hazards of Flaming Food and Drinks

Sometimes ordinary folks with a thirst for adventure order flaming drinks, in which the alcohol in the cocktail is set ablaze as part of the presentation. It's quite a sight, but is it worth the risk that comes from adding fire to the situation? A recent incident in a Denton suburb made me wonder. Here's...

A Fire In a 2015 Nissan Juke Shouldn’t Have Been Possible After a 2014 Recall.

In late 2014, Nissan issued a serious recall related to its Juke model vehicle, classified as a "subcompact crossover" or "mini SUV." As you can see below, it resembles a standard SUV but is scaled down to sedan or hatchback proportions. Despite using a showroom picture, I'm not trying to sell anybody this car. I...

When Open-and-Shut is Anything But: The Detailed Defenses in Trucking Accidents

Sometimes we at the firm read about cases that seem fairly open-and-shut. Having worked on thousands of personal injury cases, we know they often get a lot more complicated than they seem at first blush. Attorneys are trained to examine those complications--intentionally seeing the trees instead of the forest. Sometimes an accident's details aren't obvious...

Drop Danger: SIG Sauer P320 Gets Recalled “Voluntary Upgrade” Program

Shooters beware: Adding to the unsettling category of weapons that are dangerous in ways other than they're designed to be, Swiss-German firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer Inc. has issued an advisory--not a recall--about one of its popular pistol models. While I always applaud a proactive effort to prevent injury or death, a couple of details about...

The Cliché “Lawsuit Type” Is a Bad and Harmful Misconception.

When people are injured by negligence--by an auto accident or a malfunctioning product, or while on a dangerous property, to name but a few possibilities--they reach out to us to learn about their rights and what they should do next. We welcome their calls, of course, but when we talk to them one puzzling refrain...

TriggerTech Recalls Several Crossbow And Rifle Triggers for Dangerous Breakable Components

A recent announcement from Canadian aftermarket manufacturer TriggerTech caused some concern, as it involved misfires of weapons that had been modified with their drop-in trigger assemblies. Naturally we at the firm take recalls for weapons and their components very seriously because of the obvious disasters that can come from their malfunctions. Which Products Are Affected?...

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...

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,...

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:...

A Fatal Caffeine Overdose and the Dishonest Press Blitz About It

When people or companies hurt others intentionally or accidentally, they are accountable per the law's decree. One could say that "blaming people" as a broad definition of the law is part of how America works, in that wrongdoers should be held responsible for their actions. As a law firm we understand that; after all, we're...

DUI or Don’t We: Drunk Driving in Amarillo is Worse than You Think

A recent drunk driving accident in Amarillo caught my attention and led me to research the relevant accident statistics for the area. As it turns out, Amarillo packs something even more alarming than hubcap-size steaks: an inordinate number of drunk-driving crashes given its overall population. The Accident That Prompted Me to Look Into The Numbers...

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...

HoMedics Recalls 400,000 Faulty Massager Units for Fire Hazard

Generally when products aren't what we expect them to be, they're just sort of a cosmetic letdown over what they show in carefully-arranged advertising (the idea of "expectation vs. reality"), but sometimes they are faulty in more serious ways. When that happens people don't just groan and roll their eyes in disappointment--they can actually get...

Backing Crashes Are a Product of Negligence Behind the Wheel.

The dangers of backing crashes are compounded for larger, more unwieldy vehicles. Box trucks and 18-wheelers lumber to and fro in cramped neighborhood streets and pop out from parking lots and alleys--sometimes in reverse--endangering passing traffic and pedestrians. Tragedy can strike when the people driving these trucks neglect their duty to be completely aware of...

There Are More Daytime Drunk Drivers Than We Realized.

It's widely understood that the hours of midnight to 4 a.m. are a risky time to be on the road. It's not a baseless assumption; in Texas, our roads see an unfortunate number of drunk drivers taking to the streets around the time of last call. Indeed, this phenomenon is so well appreciated that most...

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...