Category Archives: Political and/or Judicial

Big Business Finds Friends on U.S. Supreme Court

Written On December 30, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The New York Times tells us what most lawyers already know — that the Supreme Court of the United States is very “business-friendly.” Not as much so as the Texas Supreme Court, but that would be a hard record to match.
Please read the article; you may be surprised at the influence big business has on [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial

Senate Food-Safety Bill Strengthens FDA Authority

Written On December 20, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Washington Post (12/20, Layton) reports, “A bill that would overhaul the nation’s food-safety laws for the first time since the Great Depression came roaring back to life Sunday as Senate Democrats struck a deal with Republicans that helped overcome a technical mistake made three weeks ago and a filibuster threat that seemed likely to [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Political and/or Judicial

Allstate Will Increase Insurance Rates Next Month for Texas Homeowners

Written On December 20, 2010 By Bob Kraft

I have written many, many times, here and elsewhere, about the ridiculous homeowners insurance system we have in Texas. For years Texas has had the highest homeowners premiums in the nation, surpassed for a brief time only by hurricane-prone Florida recently. In Texas, insurance companies can charge whatever they want, without asking permission from the [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information, Political and/or Judicial

Victory for Texas Consumers in Health Insurance Rule Change

Written On December 8, 2010 By Bob Kraft

In an important and increasingly rare victory for Texas consumers, the Insurance Commisioner, Mike Geeslin, has declared that insurance companies can no longer use “discretionary clauses” in certain policies. This new rule will apply to life, disability, and health insurance, but not to automobile liability insurance.
A discretionary clause essentially gives an insurance company the right [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Insurance Information, Political and/or Judicial

Texas Among Worst States at Preventing Drunken Driving Fatalities

Written On December 1, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Texas ranks among the 10 states that have done the least to prevent alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Most personal injury lawyers have known that for a long time, but the National Transportation Safety Board made it official in a report released recently. The Dallas Morning News published a good article on this subject.
This has been a [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Vehicle Law or News

Texas Legislature Must Cut Homeowners Insurance Costs

Written On November 30, 2010 By Bob Kraft

I’ve written about the ridiculously high cost of homeowners insurance in Texas many times, most recently this November 18. Now the Beaumont Enterprise has published an editorial on this subject, and I completely agree with the newspaper. Here are excerpts:
When the Legislature convenes in January, it has to do more than agree with fed-up consumers [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Government, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information, Political and/or Judicial

Political Rhetoric Harms Perception and Future of Texas Medicaid Programs

Written On November 23, 2010 By Bob Kraft

A recent article about Medicaid in the Houston Chronicle repeated some of the political musings of Governor Rick Perry and other politicians. For anyone with even a basic knowledge of Medicaid, the suggestion that Texas could simply “opt-out” is ridiculous.
Of course that doesn’t stop politicians from proposing it, and thereby frightening the poor, the elderly, [...]

Posted in Government, Health Insurance, Medicaid, Political and/or Judicial

High Court Considers State Lawsuits Against Vaccine Manufacturers

Written On October 14, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The AP (10/13, Sherman) reports, “The Supreme Court is trying to sort out whether drug companies can be sued for claims of serious side effects from childhood vaccines without driving vaccine makers from the market and risking a public health crisis.” The Justices “heard arguments Tuesday in an appeal filed by Pittsburgh-area parents who want [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Prescription Drug Claims

Need to Get Into the Texas Capitol Fast? Carry a Gun!

Written On June 7, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Only in Texas could this story be true.
Not long ago there was a scare at the State Capitol in Austin when a man fired several shots into the air outside the Capitol building after visiting his senator. The rather logical reaction to this was the installation last month of metal detectors at the Capitol — [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial

Featured Link – Money and Politics

Written On June 1, 2010 By Bob Kraft

MAPLight.org is all about the influence of money in politics today. That’s a connection I find frightening and disgusting. The site’s subhead is Connect the Dots Between Money and Votes. That pretty much says it all, and there’s a lot of good information here. Check it out if you wonder why politicians vote for or [...]

Posted in Government, Political and/or Judicial

Graduated Driver Licenses for Teenagers

Written On May 10, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Graduated driver licenses (GDL) are ones that confer greater freedoms on drivers as they age through their teen years. Texas has graduated drivers licenses now.
An act pending before Congress would compel all states to adopt fairly strict standards for graduated driver licenses, stricter than the current standards in Texas. The rest of this post is [...]

Posted in Government, Political and/or Judicial, Vehicle Law or News

Auto Safety Overhaul Introduced in Senate

Written On May 7, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The AP (5/5, Thomas) reports that the Senate Commerce Committee “proposed a major overhaul to the nation’s auto safety requirements” that “would force car companies to meet new safety standards and face stiff penalties for failing to report defects,” just a week after a similar bill was released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, “underscoring [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Proposed Bill Aims to Close ‘Revolving Door’ Between Automakers and NHTSA

Written On April 30, 2010 By Bob Kraft

For years there has been an unhealthy and, in my opinion, unethical “revolving door” between government agencies and the industries they supposedly regulate. The perception is that the regulators go easy on the industries, hoping to land fat contracts with the industries when the bureaucrats leave government service. It’s a great temptation, and surely hard [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Vehicle Law or News

Defective Medical Devices Are Costing Taxpayers Billions Because of Supreme Court Ruling

Written On April 15, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Here is an editorial opinion from Anthony Tarricone, president of the American Association for Justice:
Faulty medical devices are costing taxpayers billions of dollars that should be paid by the manufacturer, but because of the complete immunity status device manufacturers enjoy from a Supreme Court decision, taxpayers are left with the bill.
One such example is Medtronic’s [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Product Liability or Medical Devices

NHTSA Seeking Record Fine for Sticky Toyota Gas Pedals

Written On April 7, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Here’s a roundup of stories relating to the news that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is trying to fine Toyota a maximum $16.4 million for failing to report accelerator problems in a timely manner. This is from the American Association for Justice news release.
The announcement that NHTSA will seek the maximum possible penalty from [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Vehicle Law or News

The Tort Reform Crowd Thinks This Was A Frivolous Lawsuit

Written On March 26, 2010 By Bob Kraft

This was the headline of a recent post on the excellent Boston Personal Injury Blog, written by Massachusetts attorney Alan H. Crede. With Alan’s permission, I am reprinting his post here:

Reading the tort reform blog Pointoflaw.com, I came across a link captioned: “‘Ford failed to warn seating unsafe for obese persons’ suit fails.” Sounds pretty frivolous, [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Tort Reform, Vehicle Law or News

Clay Jenkins Recommended for Dallas County Judge by Dallas Morning News

Written On March 24, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Attorney Clay Jenkins has again been recommended in an editorial by the Dallas Morning News for the position of Dallas County Judge. In the primary election Mr. Jenkins was also endorsed by the Dallas Morning News and he came within 85 votes of winning outright, without a runoff election. Now in the runoff, he has [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial

No Settlement in $58,000,000 Judgment Against Homebuilder Bob Perry

Written On March 23, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The seemingly endless lawsuit between two homeowners and their builder will continue, now that post-verdict mediation has failed. An article in the New York Times reports that settlement discussions have broken down between Robert and Jane Cull, and Perry Homes. This is a very long tale to tell, and I won’t repeat it here, but [...]

Posted in Miscellaneous, Political and/or Judicial

Featured Link – Consumers Guide to the Health Reform Bill

Written On March 22, 2010 By Bob Kraft

This summary of the health care reform bill passed by the House yesterday is very readable. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of all the information here, but I didn’t notice any glaring errors. It’s a good starting point for those who want more information about the effect on them of this historic legislation. The [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Featured Link, Government, Health Insurance, Insurance Information, Political and/or Judicial

Texas Homebuilder Bob Perry Ordered to Pay $51 Million for Defective House

Written On March 3, 2010 By Bob Kraft

A Tarrant County jury this week has delivered a devastating blow to homebuilder Bob Perry by awarding $51 million to a couple who sued Perry because of their defective house. The back-story to this case is quite lengthy, but the bottom line is that it has been drug out for a decade, and has already [...]

Posted in Political and/or Judicial