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23 Apr '14
Aereo, Inc. is fighting a battle of survival before the US Supreme Court. Who are the company’s opponents? Every single TV content provider, with major broadcasting companies leading the way. Aereo takes free television signals from the airwaves and repackages them to be accessible through the Internet on smart phones, laptops, and the new “smart” TVs. Of course, it charges its subscribers a fee for the service. For those of us who are technology-impaired, this may seem like a strange fight.
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17 Apr '14
At least thirteen deaths are reportedly related to a defective ignition switch installed in various General Motors models. GM has acknowledged that switches used in some of its small cars were quietly changed in 2007 to provide more torque, reducing the chance of turning off the engines. However, it was in fact reported that after requesting their vendor to change these switches, the part number (traditionally changed any time there is a change in the part to avoid confusion with prior, different parts) remained the same.
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07 Mar '14
Earlier this week the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel which opened discussion as to whether the Deepwater Horizon Settlement Agreement required those submitting claims for certain business losses to provide evidence of causation ruled on the issue. In a 2-1 decision, to which Judge Clement was the dissenting vote, the Court ruled that the Settlement Agreement did not require additional evidence of causation aside from the purely mathematical formula previously decided upon by the parties. Thus, the Settlement Administrator’s implementation of the Settlement Agreement was correct. As to the legal validity of the settlement, this panel deferred to the certification panel of the 5th Circuit who has already ruled that the settlement is legally valid.
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24 Feb '14
We began this year with a look back into what makes a lawyer/staff person a good candidate for your office. The following statistics emphasize the point that, should you choose law as a career, you must have a goal and well thought-out plan to get there.
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15 Jan '14
Focusing on what makes someone attractive to an employer, I remember coming across a New York Times article from last spring citing a CEO from a manufacturing company. She was looking for tenacity, focus, and organization; a young person with energy, who treats other people well, and who is a team player. When she interviews potential candidates she also focuses on the path these people took before they knocked on her company’s door. Do they have a plan? Who mentored them before and what was the mentor’s area of expertise.
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22 Dec '13
Our firm would like to wish you happy holidays and much success in the new year.
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I have often wondered whether class action lawsuits give a bad name to the legal profession; whether they are more beneficial to attorneys who file them than the individuals they seek to protect. But if I had any doubts before, they were resolved when I read about a recent case involving railroad workers and Penn Central Transportation, a division of American Financial Group.
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On Monday, December 9th, 2013, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel issued another opinion opening the door to examining claimant causation under the 2012 Deepwater Horizon class action settlement, and possibly scuttling the entire agreement. Below are recaps of the decisions two 5th Circuit panels have made over the past two months.
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On Monday, December 2, Judge Barbier is scheduled to hear arguments on whether the parties to the Deepwater Horizon settlement agreement had discussed the intended meaning of Exhibit 4C (Compensation Framework for Business Economic Loss Claims) as it applies to the use of cash versus accrual basis accounting to calculate claimants’ loss of variable profits. Briefs have been submitted, and the issue has been joined for a hearing.
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In a recent article by John James of Patient Safety America, the author discloses that the evidence based estimate of hospital preventable adverse events (PAEs) affecting patients and leading to death is now more than 400,000 per year. In comparison, 1984 data examined by the Institute of Medicine lead to an estimate that 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. Whether the number is 98,000 or 400,000, there is little doubt that there is a problem with the administration of health care in our country.
