P.I.S.S.D. -- Personal Injury, Social Security Disability. Dallas Texas Lawyers

Link of the Day - BankRate.com

BankRate.com is a Web site with information about almost every conceivable aspect of lending and borrowing and other financial transactions. You'll find calculators, articles, tips, warnings, and many other helpful bits of information. Check it out before you make any financial decisions.

Link of the Day - Natonal Institute On Deafness

The National Institute on Deafness is one of the agencies included in the federal government's National Institutes of Health. Their obvious focus is on the hearing paired, and their Web site includes all kinds of information about diagnosing, treating, and living with this impairment. Here is the mission Statement from their Web site:

Mission

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) is one of the Institutes that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is the Federal government's focal point for the support of biomedical research. NIH's mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. Simply described, the goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Established in 1988, NIDCD is mandated to conduct and support biomedical and behavioral research and research training in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. The Institute also conducts and supports research and research training related to disease prevention and health promotion; addresses special biomedical and behavioral problems associated with people who have communication impairments or disorders; and supports efforts to create devices which substitute for lost and impaired sensory and communication function.

It is estimated that more than 46 million people in the United States suffer some form of disordered communication. NIDCD has focused national attention on disorders of human communication and has contributed to advances in biomedical and behavioral research that will improve the lives of millions of individuals with communication disorders. NIDCD has made important contributions to the body of knowledge needed to help those who experience communication disorders and to advance research in all aspects of human communication.

Link of the Day - HealingWell.com

HealingWell.com is a site with tons of information about diseases and other health matters. Lots of news articles, book recommendations, and chat forums. Here is information about the site:

HealingWell.com is a thriving community and information resource for patients, caregivers, and families coping with diseases, disorders and chronic illness. Our goal is simple....to help people on their way to "healing well". To achieve this goal, we offer health resources, interactive tools, and community support to enable individual's to take control of their illness and start the healing process. Currently, HealingWell.com features health articles, medical news, video webcasts, community message boards and chat rooms, clinical healthcare resources, email, newsletters, books and reviews, and resource link directories on a wide range of diseases, disorders and chronic illness. Health content is contributed by reputable health organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, Mediwire, e-HealthSource, and Healthology Inc.

Link of the Day - Texas Watch Questions Justice Hecht's Impartiality

As a follow-up to my mention Thursday about the editorial in the Austin American Statesman about Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht's $447,000 legal defense fund, here is a link to the consumer organization Texas Watch. Texas Watch has done a study of Justice Hecht's rulings on cases involving law firms that donated to his legal defense fund. According to the study, Justice Hecht has ruled in favor of his contributors an astounding 89% of the time. The Texas Watch article has a link to the case decisions involving the largest contributors.

Link of the Day - Friday Fun

I have to "thank" my friend Tom Mighell for finding yet another way for me to waste my time -- the addicting game of Shuffle.

Can A Judge Really Ignore $447,000 In Donations?

The Austin American-Statesman ran an interesting editorial piece recently about donations to Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht's legal defense fund. The donations were from lawyers and law firms, mostly those who represent big business interests. The editorial asks if Justice Hecht will be able to rule fairly now when those same lawyers appear before the Supreme Court. Here is the text of the editorial:

In a legal battle with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Justice Nathan Hecht actively solicited money from Texas lawyers and law firms who practice before his court to pay for his defense. As he reported this week to the Texas Ethics Commission, those law firms and lawyers gave him $447,000.

That's 447,000 reasons to worry about Hecht's objectivity when the donors bring their cases before him and the Supreme Court.

Hecht sought the financial help last year to battle the judicial conduct commission, which had issued a "public admonishment" against him. It ruled that he had violated the state's judicial code of ethics in 2005 with his high profile advocacy of the nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Asserting his First Amendment rights, Hecht appealed to a special three-member court, which overturned the admonishment.

To pay his substantial legal bills, Hecht tried two routes. The first was to get taxpayers to pay for it. But legislators who tried to help him by passing bills quit when they found out he was also asking for help in the form of campaign contributions. State law and a previous Ethics Commission ruling appear to allow candidates and officeholders to use campaign contributions for legal defense when it's related to their public offices.

Some of the state's biggest law firms — such as Vinson & Elkins and Baker Botts — responded, with contributions totaling at least $447,000.

Hecht says he "absolutely" will not be influenced in court rulings involving his contributors. However sincere and well-intended, though, Hecht cannot erase doubts that such contributions create.

Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, a consumer advocacy group and longtime critic of the court, asks a pertinent question: "Should a justice sit in judgment of someone who has contributed to his legal defense fund?"

Hecht says there is no difference, legally or otherwise, between giving a judicial candidate or a judge money to pay election expenses or to pay legal expenses on a matter related to his office. And Hecht notes that he has long argued for reforms in judicial selection.

So have we. Almost all judges and judicial candidates despise the need to ask for money to run for their offices.

But giving money to a judge to pay his or her legal bills is far more personal than for an election campaign. The lawyers and law firms who didn't give to Hecht would not be unreasonable in fearing they were at a disadvantage when going up against those who did.

Hecht said he was "just gratified that people were willing to help."

The question is: How do you show your gratitude to those who give you $447,000?

Link of the Day - Hannah's House - Supervised Child Visitation And Exchange

Hannah's House opened its doors in late 2001 in response to new legislation which gave judges more latitude to order supervised visitation in cases where there were possible risks to the children involved due to domestic violence, child abuse or neglect.  The Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex had already seen first-hand a number of tragic cases where children suffered, and at times died, during contentious custody battles. Hannah's House began with a clear commitment to providing prevention services, but the need is staggering. In Dallas County alone there are approximately 22,000 new divorce cases per year with an estimated 1,300 of those cases involving families with spousal abuse, child abuse, or both. From the site:

Hannah's House provides a safe location for children to have contact with parents and other relatives they might not otherwise be able to maintain a relationship with due to custody litigation or other difficult family transitions. We also provide a neutral location where parents can pick up and drop off children without having to interact directly with each other. Our goal in providing these services is to eliminate as much of the emotional hardship that children frequently have to endure as a result of custody litigation as possible, while helping them maintain safe contact with their parents and other significant relatives.

While there may be many allegations made between parents in custody litigation, Hannah's House strives to provide a neutral, non-judgmental, and respectful environment for the parents who use our services. We do provide referral services for issues related to domestic violence, substance abuse, and other difficulties which might impair a parent's relationship with their children, however our focus is on ensuring that children can have safe and positive contact with their parents rather than rehashing the issues which are already being addressed by the Family Courts. Although Hannah's House does charge fees for services, we are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that would not be able to continue its work with children without the generous donations of time and money from our Hannah's Helpers.

Link of the Day - Hispanic National Bar Association

The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) is an incorporated, non-profit, national association representing the interest of over 33,000 U.S. Hispanic attorneys, judges, law professors, legal professionals, legal assistants or paralegals, and law students in the United States. The mission of the HNBA is to improve the study, practice, and administration of justice for all by ensuring the meaningful participation of U.S. Hispanics in the legal profession.

Link of the Day - FaganFinder.com

FaganFinder is a terrific search engine site, with many, many options for fine-tuning your search. Here is part of their explanation:

Basics of Fagan Finder
To use Fagan Finder's search tools, type text into the textbox at the top of any of the search pages (includes the home page). Then select which option you want to use, and click on the 'go' button located beside the textbox. To use more specific options, click on one of the links. When you go to a different page on Fagan Finder, your search text will still be there.

More than Basics
Fagan Finder is made of of three sections. The largest section is the search tools section (see below). This includes pages for searching images, news, science, and others. The second section, is information about searching. This section is located here. The third and smallest section, is the "site" section (located here), which includes this page, and other pages relating to Fagan Finder.

Link of the Day - Spam Filter Traps Law Firms Must Avoid

The delightful Jim Calloway, in his great Law Practice Tips Blog has a recent message that every lawyer should read. Jim talks about a firm that had important e-mail correspondence from a court get lost to the firm's spam filter. As a result, the firm was hit with a large sanctions judgment. Don't get trapped by your own spam filter --  do yourself a favor and read Jim's post.