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...
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:...
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...
It hardly needs noting that one of the most dangerous areas on any commercial property is the loading dock. The combination of large machines, heavy cargo, and all-too-fragile human beings often proves calamitous. Leaving aside these obvious dangers, we wondered whether or not there are factors that lead to some loading docks being more dangerous...
Way to go Austin American Statesmen, it appears the editorial has been removed from their website. An editorial appeared in the Austin American-Statesman that was troubling, to say the least. Law professors Thomas McGarity and Sid Shapiro opined on the need for Texas to strengthen its workers' compensation laws and among other things end the...
By now I'm sure you've heard that term; Zika is the latest mosquito-borne disease to strike fear into our hearts, following the grand tradition of West Nile, yellow and dengue fevers, and malaria. While its impact on generally healthy adults seems to be minimal--outside of exceptionally rare cases of Zika-related Guillain-Barre Syndrome--it's still undoubtedly unpleasant,...
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...
History's progress has been fueled by some very dangerous chemicals. The chemicals that immediately come to mind are those that soak into people's bones and ruins their lives. So many are produced and used each year that safety testing for their human and environmental effects is often inadequate - or missing altogether. Unsurprisingly, some of...
News broke the other day of a settlement in the case of Villalpando v. Excel Direct Inc. et al. The case involves a group of truck drivers and Excel Direct a trucking company that claims the truckers were independent contractors. The truckers saw things differently, given the many hoops they had to jump through at...
Imagine that you were working a project at work and left an important file at the office. You, being the awesome employee that you are, decide to swing by the office on a Saturday to pick up that crucial file. As you're making your way to your desk, part of the ceiling caves in and...