Texas Insurance Defense and Litigation

States beginning to restrict truck traffic

USA Today recently published a story discussing how many states are banning big trucks from specific lanes of highways:

Florida has already taken action, banning big trucks from the far left lane of Interstate 4 on a 60-mile stretch between Tampa and Orlando. Stretches of I-75 and I-95 elsewhere in Florida have similar restrictions. Elsewhere:

•Georgia, where truck traffic is likely to grow by more than 50% over the next 20 years, is considering truck-only toll lanes on parts of I-75 northwest of Atlanta and on a 20-mile stretch of the I-285 beltway that surrounds the city.

•Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are using a $5 million federal grant to study adding truck-only lanes on I-70 from Kansas City to Columbus, Ohio.

•California, Arizona, Texas and the Gulf Coast states will use a similar grant to study segregating truck and automobile traffic on stretches of I-10.

•Tennessee is eyeing truck-only lanes on I-40.

After medical malpractice caps, more doctors moving to Texas

The New York Times today reports that more doctors are moving to Texas after the adoption of medical malpractice caps a couple of years ago:

Four years after Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas hospitals and bring professional health care to some long-underserved rural areas.

The influx, raising the state’s abysmally low ranking in physicians per capita, has flooded the medical board’s offices in Austin with applications for licenses, close to 2,500 at last count.

...

“Doctors are coming to Texas because they sense a friendlier malpractice climate,” he said.

Texas Supreme Court Justice under investigation for accepting illegal gift of discounted legal services

This story is reported in Law.com:

Travis County, Texas, prosecutors are investigating whether Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht received an illegal gift when Jackson Walker discounted its legal fees for representing him in his 2006 fight with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

On July 24, the citizens' group Texas Watch filed complaints about the reduction in Hecht's legal bill with three agencies, including the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office, which investigates and prosecutes alleged wrongdoing by public officials. Jackson Walker represented Hecht in his successful challenge of the judicial conduct commission's public admonition of him for his support in 2005 of then-White House counsel Harriet Miers' failed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Miers has been a member of Locke Liddell & Sapp in Dallas since May.

[More at the link...]

Just avoid jury duty ...

The New York Times, in a fluffy piece that provides few details, notes that people do not like to show up for jury duty.  The story notes that nationally, only about 45 percent of the people summoned for jury duty show up.  The story begins with an account of deputy sheriffs serving random people with summonses outside a Wal-Mart and a Food Lion store, requiring them to appear in less than an hour at the courthouse for jury duty.

DC Court strikes regulations increasing driving hours

A federal court sitting in Washington DC has struck the administration’s rules increasing the administration’s 2005 decision to increase the maximum driving hours of truck drivers.  The Court indicated the FMCSA had ignored the results of a study, which indicated a substantially higher risk of fatigue-related accidents in the extra hours of service allowed by the new rules.

The hours had been increased from 60 to 77 over a period of seven consecutive days, and from 70 to 88 over eight consecutive days.

For more, go to these links:

New York Times article
Transport Topics Online

Clients balk at continued associate salary hikes

We haven’t written much additional on the subject, but more law firms have continued to fall in lockstep with “the leaders” and raised their associate salaries to $160,000 plus. 

Law.com has posted an article with some interesting money quotes from the clients:

"There seems to be no end in sight," said James Hall, director of intellectual property at Silicon Valley's Quantum Corp. "At some point I think it has to impact how much I'll pay in legal services ... That money has to come from somewhere."

Susan Hackett, senior vice president and general counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel, said the recent round of raises doesn't take clients into account at all.

"The decision is completely divorced from any recognition of the value that's provided," Hackett said. "I don't see how those people who got paid $10,000 less yesterday got any more talented today."

Our thoughts exactly.  We’re surprised more clients are balking.  It’s obvious that they will end up subsidizing the new salaries, through higher rates or inflated reported hours.

NYT reports that the GAO will be issuing reporting condemning oversight of nursing homes

The New York Times reports in a story that next week, the Government Accountability Office will issue a report that concludes that the Department of Health and Human Services “fails to hold [nursing] homes with a long history of harming residents accountable for the poor care provided”.  The report will also state that “[s]ome of these homes repeatedly harmed residents over a six-year period and yet remain in the Medicare and Medicaid programs”.

Federal Judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma orders new trial in $15M Ford Explorer rollover case

A Federal Judge in Tulsa Oklahoma ordered a new trial for Ford in an Explorer rollover case in which the jury awarded $15 million.  In her order, the judge referenced personal attacks on Ford attorneys and witnesses.  The Judge specifically referenced the closing argument of the plaintiff’s counsel, wherein he "blatantly suggested that Ford Explorers were responsible for 10,000 deaths per year, and he had the temerity to compare this improper suggestion to the number of deaths in the Iraq War."  The Judge found that because the argument was made in the final portion of plaintiff’s counsel’s final argument, Ford had no opportunity to respond or to cure any resulting prejudice.

For the full story, go here.

More on obscene salaries of newly licensed lawyers

Susan Hackett, of the Association of Corporate Counsels, calls foul on the obscene starting salaries of recent law graduates.  In an article on law.com, she estimates the true cost of brand new attorneys to be about $400,000 per year.  She points out that when you raise the salaries of brand new associates, you also have the raise the salaries of the more-experienced associates as well.  Who pays for it?  The client, of course.

Ms. Hackett goes on to excoriate the outrageous money made by lawyers in the “law firm biz”, and to suggest that corporate counsel put a stop to it:

Is this out of touch with reality? You bet. I'm completely unpersuaded by apologists who suggest that entry-level associate salaries are hardly keeping up with partners' slice of take-home pay. The fact that the associates make less per year compared to their partners than associates 20 years ago did is yet another indicator of how obscene partners' fees and profits are in the law firm biz. Sure, outside counsel are entitled to make as much money as they can, but let's not "justify" these salary increases by suggesting that they're necessary to adequately compensate associates.

*****

So where will in-house counsel draw the line on new associate costs? Why don't corporate clients simply say: We're not paying for this anymore? In-house legal executives need to stand up and exercise their considerable influence. Demand to know -- in detail -- why prestigious firms believe their inexperienced associates provide more value than a successful partner in a less expensive firm or an expert legal service vendor/consultant. Tell them that you're happy to pay high rates for high quality and experience, but you'll be the judge of the value provided. And if they answer that they had no choice but to follow the market in order to attract the same 50 graduates from the same 25 top-ten schools, then label them the sheep that they are, and vote with your feet.

New York Times article on Richard Scruggs and his attack on the insurance industry

The New York Times has run an article on Mississippi attorney Richard Scruggs, is one of the lead attorneys in the Katrina homeowners’ litigation in Mississippi.  It’s an interesting article, and really good PR for a lawyer who knows how to play the PR game.  The story discusses how Scruggs made his “first fortune” in asbestos litigation, his “second fortune” in tobacco litigation, took on the health care industry, and is now taking on the insurance industry.  It’s a good read, although lacking in any real substance or in-depth discussion of the legal issues involved in paying the Katrina claims.