General Personal Injury | InjuryBoard Austin

I have a long-held belief that one of the root causes behind the increase in cost of litigation is the occurrence of more and more frivolous defenses asserted by insurance companies and defense lawyers. Today marks my third story about frivolous defenses, and this story comes from a 2006 patent case in Tyler. That case involved a suit against Microsoft. The judge found that Microsoft's...

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One of the hot topics in prevention of auto accidents is how to reduce the number of people (particularly teens) who text message while driving. There are numerous statistics, but I find that the video from the news story below shows a lot more than mere numbers. The story follows a Clemson study that puts teen drivers in a driving simulator and asks them to text message while "driving" in...

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Earlier, there was an exchange among blogs, including Des Moines Injuryboard member Steve Lombardi, about the value of listserves for attorneys. Instead of rehashing each sides' views, I refer you to my earlier post about our trial lawyer listserves. Steve had another post on the subject recently. And after reading it, I can't say that I disagree with anything he had to say. If I understand...

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As stated in a tort reform post earlier, I believe one of the big problems driving the cost of litigation is insurance companies and defense lawyers asserting frivolous defenses and taking frivolous positions. I have griped and moaned about the lack of coverage, but I haven't done anything about it. Now, I'm going to quit being lazy and try to highlight some of these situations.In November of...

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There have been numerous stories lately emphasizing that text messaging while driving (an increasingly frequent occurrence) significantly increases the risk of auto accidents. For example, one study finds that a person texting while driving is six times more likely to be involved in a car wreck. And one study finds that texting is the number one distraction for teen drivers. But statistics are...

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The "tort reform" movement is one of the most successful marketing jobs in modern day America. And one of the key components of that marketing has been an effort to try and convince the American public that frivlous lawsuits are a big part of the problem. But that's far from the truth.In my experience, the biggest factor in the cost of litigation is frivolous defenses --- insurance companies...

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Consumer watchdog organization Texas Watch has released a new report called Justice Delayed that addresses the growing backlog of cases at the Texas Supreme Court. The report made the following findings:The Court took an average of 852 days (2.3 years) to dispose of a case in the 2006-2007 term, an increase of 24% from the 2004-2005 term. Justices took an average 416 days to write an...

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Unbelievably, Blue Cross of California had a policy of using its customers' doctors as spies to cancel coverage. The Los Angeles Times broke the story this week:The state's largest for-profit health insurer is asking California physicians to look for conditions it can use to cancel their new patients' medical coverage.Blue Cross of California is sending physicians copies of health insurance...

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This is National Burn Awareness Week. In my 13 or so years of doing this, I have seen few injuries that are more painful and devastating than severe burn injuries. In honor of some of those victims, I thought I would post links to a few resources to help us prevent burn injuries.Shriner's Hospitals Tips To Avoid Burn Injuries --- starting a year-long emphasis on gasoline misuseRemember that...

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In September, we reported about a fire at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Today, the Austin American Statesman reports that the fire victims have filed a personal injury suit for their damages. The article sets out the basis of the complaint:The fire was caused, the suit says, when the propane tank was overfilled by the leasing company; the valve that was supposed to stop overfilling...

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New York injury lawyer Michael Kaplan reported in his blog last week on a new study from the Army that up to 20 percent of the troops returning from combat have undiagnosed brain injuries. As a result, the Army is alerting returning troops about the symptoms of brain injury and encouraging those with symptoms to get treatment.But undiagnosed brain injuries are not unique to the Army. According...

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Texas Watch has recently released a new study that finds that states with no "tort reform" have better health care systems than those with "reform," The executive summary of the study reads:In state after state, patients continue to be told that the silver bullet for improving healthcare is to enact severe and arbitrary limits on patient access to the legal system. The argument made by...

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A Texas court has ruled that Texas Mutual Insurance Company, a big backer of tort reform, committed fraud by falsifying a medical record in pending litigation. The company filed suit to attempt to overturn a state of Texas ruling that a person suffered injuries in a work-place accident. After finding that the record was falsified, the Court held that the insurance company had no additional...

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Earlier this month, there was an interesting exchange between Des Moines personal injury lawyer Steve Lombardi and Carolyn Elfant, a well-respected lawyer blogger, on the value of listserves. Like many situations, listserves have become popular in the practice of law. The listserves range from formal nation-wide groups to informal groups of friends that e-mail one another to exchange ideas on...

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This is not necessarily a personal injury story, but it is horrific nonetheless. In California, a 17 year old girl who was battling leukemia received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. After the transplant surgery, her liver failed. On December 11, the girl's doctors determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA insurance. Cigna refused to pay for the transplant. ...

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