- Brooks Schuelke | November 30, 2007 9:38 AM |
Category:
MiscellaneousA new, scholarly study from two law and economics professors at Emory University finds that tort reform discriminates against women, children and the elderly:The results from our empirical analysis are consistent with our theoretical predictions. We find that the impact of tort reform varies substantially among demographic groups. When we consider the net effect of all the reforms in our study...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 27, 2007 8:10 AM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsYesterday's Tyler Morning Telegraph from Tyler, Texas had an interesting story about how DPS Troopers conduct investigations so that they can do accident reconstruction work following a car wreck or trucking accident. Accident reconstruction work used to be done by hand --- from the measuring with tape measures to the calculations. Now, technology is making it easier to collect the data and...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 26, 2007 9:08 AM |
Category:
MiscellaneousThe Dallas Morning News has an enlightening article that discusses lawyers' grilling of Texas Supreme Court justices about potential biases. The article states:Texas' Supreme Court justices aren't in the habit of defending their judicial records, much less from lawyers grilling them as they would an uncooperative witness. But that's just what happened in September at a continuing education...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 23, 2007 10:04 PM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsA new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety describes how new, flimsy bumper designs can lead to excessive damages following auto accidents. The article almost exclusively focuses on the property damage that results from the new style of bumpers, but one has to wonder what, if any, these new designs have on the actual safety of the vehicles.For more information on this subject,...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 21, 2007 11:44 AM |
Category:
MiscellaneousMany personal injury victims have health insurance. And most health insurance policies have a subrogation clause. The clause typically says that if the company pays medical expenses that are caused by a third party's negligence or other conduct, then the health insurance company is entitled to be reimbursed for the expenses it pays in any resulting settlement or lawsuit. While the notion...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 20, 2007 9:21 AM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsRecently, Austin's KVUE news ran a story about ghostbikes in Austin. The white bikes are chained to telephone poles and street signs to mark a spot where a bicyclist was killed in a car wreck. I found this particularly interesting since the most visible bike is only a few blocks from our office, and I had never known what the bike signified.Car wrecks involving bicyclists has long been a...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 19, 2007 10:10 AM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsLast month, Carlos Aleman and his seeing eye dog were walking home from an Austin library when a teenager, who has admitted that he was driving too fast to impress someone, veered off the road and hit them both. The dog, despite sustaining serious injuries himself, ran back to the library to fetch Diane Bomar, Mr. Aleman's fiance, to help him. Mr. Aleman and Ms. Bomar each learned a lesson...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 17, 2007 8:00 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsUnder the recently announced settlement, lawyers participating in the agreement must recommend to all of his or her clients that they participate in the settlement, and if they don't agree to participate, the attorney must take steps to withdraw from the representation. That provision is causing many attorneys to consider whether participation in the agreement requires them to violate any of...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 16, 2007 10:26 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsEarlier this year, the HPV vaccine was all over the news here in Austin and around the state as Governor Rick Perry attempted to unilaterally mandate that all school age girls receive the vaccine. Fortunately, after the legislature passed a law overturning the executive order, the Governor backed away from his plan.Now, stories are coming out showing why it's good to allow parents to make their...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 15, 2007 3:30 PM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsWe posted last month on a rash of hit-and-run auto accidents here in Austin, and now the problem continues. This weekend, we had another hit-and-run car wreck that left two motorcyclists dead. Fortunately, police arrested a suspect yesterday. According to one witness, the suspect driver, who has a previous DWI on his record, appeared intoxicated shortly after the wreck.
- Brooks Schuelke | November 14, 2007 10:17 AM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsLast week, the Austin City Council voted to install cameras at various intersections around town to try and reduce the number of people running red lights. The vote comes following a pilot program where the city installed two cameras to determine what type of results they would obtain. And the results were amazing. A light installed at the intersection of Martin Luther King Blvd and I35...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 09, 2007 3:13 PM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsIn the biggest personal injury news of the year, Merck has agreed to settle most of its Vioxx lawsuits. To learn more about the claims, please refer to Injuryboard's Vioxx resource page.
- Brooks Schuelke | November 07, 2007 9:18 AM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsThe Austin Police Department has announced a restructuring intended to reduce the number of fatalities from car and truck accidents. The reorganization will put more motorcycle officers on the street.According to APD, 175 people died in Austin auto accidents between the beginning of 2005 and the end of October. The main culprits are speeding, inattentive driving and aggressive driving.For more...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 06, 2007 4:12 PM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsUnder the Progressive Gainsharing program, Progressive Insurance provides bonuses to its employees based on how well the company performs. While this system may work in many industries, it provides an improper financial incentive for adjusters to deny or underpay car wreck and other claims. I'm surprised Progressive has made this information public. This type of information, once disclosed,...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 05, 2007 11:39 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsUnder pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, Bayer announced today that it is suspending its global sales of Trasylol. The drug, primarily used to help with bleeding during heart surgeries, has been linked to higher instances of death, serious kidney damage, and stroke. Bayer has been under attack for problems relating to Trasylol for more than a year after Bayer failed to provide the...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 04, 2007 3:44 PM |
Category:
Tractor-Trailer AccidentsThe General Accounting Office has recently used undercover investigators to reveal how easy it is for truckers to cheat on drug tests. The report found that seventy-five percent of the drug testing locations didn't maintain secure testing areas, allowing truckers to compromise the results of drug tests. In addition, the study found numerous online masking agents that they were able to use in...
- Brooks Schuelke | November 02, 2007 7:56 AM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsYesterday, General Mills issued a recall of Totino's and Jeno's pepperoni pizzas (including pizzas that have pepperoni combined with other toppings) due to potential e-coli contamination. This is disasterous news for anyone that was on my college-years diet.For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Defective and Dangerous Products.
- Brooks Schuelke | November 01, 2007 9:49 AM |
Category:
Medical MalpracticeThe recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine discusses the controversial issue of pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of medical devices providing free gifts to physicians that prescribe their products. The article states that 94% of physicians have some type of relationship with the industry. The article best summarized the debate with the following quote:From a policy...