San Antonio Injury Lawyer Blog

A San Antonio bar employee was sentenced to prison on October 12, 2009 for his drunk driving accident that killed a motorcyclist. The drunk driver was an employee of the bar where he had been drinking. The drunk driver fled the accident scene but was captured a short time later. Court records show that a blood draw taken two hours later indicated that his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, or over .16.

The family of the deceased should investigate a possible civil suit for damages against the bar that overserved the drunk driver. The civil suit would be based upon the dram shop laws that allow an injured person or his family to bring a lawsuit against an establishment that overserved a customer alcohol. Experts in the field of alcohol intoxication have testified numerous times for this firm that everyone is obviously intoxicated at a .16 alcohol level. At a .16 alcohol level, which is double the legal limit, no one can hide their intoxication. Therefore, it is illegal and actionable to serve someone when they are at or above a .16 alcohol level.

Bringing a lawsuit against the bar or other establishment for over serving a drunk customer serves two purposes, it compensates the injured victim and their family and it sends a message to bars and restaurants that over-serving alcohol will not be tolerated in San Antonio.

On Texas Highway 46 near Blanco Road, north of San Antonio, an accident occurred in which a 29 year old woman was injured and her 71 year old passenger was killed. It appears from published reports that an 18-wheeler lost control and jackknifed on a curve.

When an accident involves a commercial vehicle, especially 18-wheelers, it often results in catastrophic injuries. The size and weight of the vehicles increase the harm they cause and also increase the amount of vigilance required by their drivers.

Whenever a tractor-trailer or 18-wheeler is involved in a serious accident it is necessary to do a thorough and timely investigation. As an experienced trucking accident law firm we have hired some of the best accident reconstruction experts in the Country to recreate how an accident happened and how it could have been avoided. When an 18-wheeler loses control and jackknifes it is necessary to look at a number of potential causes: was the driver going to fast for the conditions; was the driver's inattentive because of logging too many hours; was the tractor- trailer's maintenance up to date; were the tires unsafe; was the trailer properly lit and marked to be visible when in a jackknifed position; and finally what actions did the truck driver take when the rig jackknifed.

An 18 year old drunk driver severely injured his passenger in an automobile accident in San Antonio in the preceding week. The injured passenger had his arm severed in the auto accident and was found with his severed arm laying next to the car. The drunk driver was on Somerset Road when he crossed Zarzamora and struck a bicycle sign.

The driver of the car was charged with intoxication assault. Intoxication assault has a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison and a minimum of 2 years deferred adjudication.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission ("TABC") should investigate this accident to determine where the minors obtained the alcohol they consumed. If the alcohol was purchased by the minors then TABC should take action against the establishment that sold the alcohol.

The Texas Supreme Court has made it much more difficult to bring personal injury lawsuits against establishments that violate the law in serving of alcohol. However, a lawsuit should be investigated in a case such as this where minors are illegally served alcohol and because of their intoxication they cause catastrophic injuries. A Texas personal injury law firm that has experience in alcohol matters and dram shop cases should be retained to investigate whether a lawsuit can be pursued on behalf of the injured minor.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reported that orthopedists often fail to disclose payments they receive from makers of hip and knee replacements when reporting on products made by the Companies from which they get payments. These payments to physicians and researchers have the potential to create conflicts of interests and may cause some physicians and researchers to under report problems with the orthopedic devices.

By under reporting adverse problems, the medical device may not be placed under sufficient scrutiny at the initial FDA approval process or in review of the product after the fact. This lack of scrutiny can cause the medical device to be over utilized, thereby injuring many more people than if the device had been properly reported without the interference of conflicts of interest created by medical device manufacturers and physicians whose interest lies in maintaining a secondary income stream from these companies. Patients can be harmed if physicians over use or over prescribe a device when payments are made directly to the doctor from the manufacturer.

The nondislosure of payments by physicians has the potential to hurt many Texans by creating financial incentives for doctors to promote possibly defective medical devices.

A 25 year old camp counselor from Australia was arrested at the San Antonio Airport. It appears as though the counselor was on his way home. It was alleged that the Australian sexually abused two boys at a camp in Hunt Texas, while acting as a summer counselor. The camp employed the counselor through an exchange program. The camp asserted that the man had a work visa and had undergone a criminal background check.

When employing someone from a foreign country it is important to consider what a criminal background check is likely to uncover. If the background check only looks for someone's history in the United States then the background check is worthless and should not provide any protection to the camp in a civil lawsuit. Also, some countries do not keep extensive records and/or have methods by which defendant's can seal their records.

It would be important for an attorney representing a victim of a sexual assault, wherein the employee of the accused asserts that they did a background check, to determine what type of background check was conducted to ensure that the effort was reasonable under the circumstances. It would be particularly important to see if the foreign records were researched and what record keeping is done in the foreign country. One must also consider what other protections for the young campers were maintained and implemented by the camp.

It is tragic when the people who are entrusted to watch over children become the abusers. It is important that a full investigation be conducted to prevent these attacks.

A San Antonio driver was charged with failure to stop and render aid when he struck and killed a 67 year old pedestrian that was crossing S. Zaramora on Thursday. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene and later parked at a Whataburger, abandoning his vehicle and fleeing on foot. The driver of the vehicle claimed that he did not see the pedestrian. The driver's assertion that he did not see the pedestrian was challenged by an investigation that revealed that the pedestrian struck the windshield of the automobile which is probably what led the driver to later abandon his vehicle. The driver of the vehicle turned himself in to authorities.

A driver that is involved in a fatal or injury causing accident may actually have an incentive to flee the scene if the accident was caused because the driver was intoxicated while driving. The penalties for failure to stop and render aid are much less severe than intoxication manslaughter. The reduced penalties for failure to stop and render aid will sometimes cause people to flee the scene of an accident and then later turn themselves into the authorities after the alcohol has left their system.

Alcohol will leave a person's body at the rate of approximately 1 drink per hour. Therefore, if someone can remain at large for 12 to 24 hours it is likely that any tests for alcohol will not reveal alcohol in the driver’s system. A skilled lawyer and experienced law firm, through the use of an investigator and other techniques, may be able to prove the driver was intoxicated through the use of witnesses and documentary evidence tracing the driver’s whereabouts prior to the wreck; however, it is more difficult without the use of a breath test or blood test.

A San Antonio automobile driver was indicted for failure to stop and render aid in a May 5, 2009 accident wherein it was alleged that the automobile driver struck a bicyclist on S. St. Mary's Street. The driver of the car did not stop and the bicyclist died of his injuries.

There have been a multitude of automobile - bicycle accidents causing injury in the past year. In Texas when a driver of an automobile is in accident that causes injury or death, the driver of the automobile is required to stop as close to the scene of the accident as possible and must immediately return to the scene and remain at the scene of the accident until authorities arrive. Failure to stop and render aid is a third degree felony and punishable by up to 5 years in prison. In a strange twist, Texas law is somewhat contradictory when an intoxicated driver causes injury - whether to another automobile driver or a bicyclist or pedestrian. If an intoxicated driver is arrested and charged with Intoxication Assault or Intoxication Manslaughter (in the case of death) the person causing the wreck and injuries may face 2-10 years or 2-20 years in prison. However, if an intoxicated person causes injury, and is able to leave the scene before authorities can obtain evidence of intoxication, even if later connected to the accident the person may only face charges for leaving the scene and failing to render aid. A thorough investigation after an accident should involve a determination of whether the person causing the injuries may have been consuming alcohol at a restaurant or bar before the collision.

Even if a bicyclist is properly obeying traffic laws, and is lawfully on the roadway, the negligence of an inattentive driver can cause serious (if not fatal) injuries. In addition to obeying traffic laws while riding a bicycle, riders should wear bright, reflective clothing and always wear safety equipment such as helmets, wrist and elbow protection. In the event of any type of automobile/bicycle collision, police should be called and information exchanged.

An elderly nursing home resident was severely beaten over the weekend in San Antonio. The nursing home resident and her attacker did not know each other and it appeared to be a random act of violence. Both the victim and the attacker were covered in blood after the assault. The attacker is in the Bexar County Jail charged with injury to the elderly.

It is unclear from the reports, as the investigation has not been completed, as to how the attacker gained access to the San Antonio nursing home facility. The senior care facility allegedly required a key code to gain entry.

Nursing homes have a duty to provide a safe place for their residents. Not all criminal acts can be prevented; however, it is obvious from the weekend attack at the senior care facility that somehow their security system was breached. Someone should investigate how this obviously disturbed person gained entry to the facility. It is possible that security cameras recorded the attacker entering into the facility. Security cameras very often only record for a very short period, such as 72 hours, before recording over the previous material. Therefore, either the police or an attorney representing the victim will need to act quickly to get a copy of the tape or hard drive prior to being erased. Nursing home abuse can take many forms; although facilities should honor and protect our senior citizens, when that trust is violated, accountability should be sought.

In the recent debate over medical insurance reform an often trumpeted statement is that legal malpractice cases are driving up the cost of health insurance coverage. To support this view Texans for Lawsuit Reform cite the statistic that medical-liability-insurance rates have gone down by an average of 21% after Texas imposed various legal changes to medical liability laws.
The greatest change to Texas law was placing a cap of $250,000.00 for noneconomic damages. Valid claims of medical neglect, no matter how blatant or careless the doctor, nurse or hospital staff may be, are all capped under the law. Although allegedly aimed at preventing frivolous claims, this Texas law actually places a cap against EVERY claim against a health care provider. Instead of punishing those that might try to bring a frivolous case, the law actually victimizes those with valid claims - by limiting the lawful recovery for serious and permanent injuries, victims of malpractice are also victims of this Texas law.

However, while this cap on damages may have allowed doctors and hospitals to increase their income by reducing expenses, it has done nothing to reduce the average Texan's health insurance bill. Whether you live in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley or anywhere else in Texas your health insurance rates have risen at the same rate as everyone else in the United States. The difference is in Texas if you are seriously injured by the carelessness of a physician or hospital staff you may not be able to find a lawyer that can pursue the doctor's insurance company if you do not have large economic damages. Therefore, the elderly, unemployed, and the very young often cannot pursue a medical malpractice case even though they may have been seriously injured by a physician's negligence.

In Texas there is a requirement that before filing a medical malpractice case against a health care provider an expert physician file with the court a written report that the defendant health care provider committed negligence and that the negligence harmed the patient. This prevents frivolous lawsuits from being filed. The only effect of the damage cap is to prevent those persons who are very seriously injured from being fully compensated. There are no exceptions to the Texas cap on damages, regardless of the seriousness of the injury; no one can recover more than $250,000. for pain, suffering or disfigurement.

In this national debate on health care it is important to understand what medical malpractice reform has meant to the average Texan. The average Texan has given up rights and has received no reduction in the cost of health care. Doctors and hospitals are no longer fully accountable if the injured party was elderly, disabled, or unemployed, because they have little or no economic damages. We have taken a valuable legal right from our most vulnerable citizens with the veiled assurance that medical costs will be reduced; however, the facts are that our health insurance rates continue to skyrocket and hospitals and insurance companies make larger profits.

The other often cited argument in the "heath care crisis" is that the threat of a lawsuit has made doctors order unnecessary tests as a defense to a potential lawsuit - costing more to insurance companies. While it is possible that some doctors may occasionally order additional tests because of the potential threat, it is also possible that these tests will also prevent a misdiagnosis and further injuries. The best solution would be to decrease errors and to remove error prone doctors from the practice of medicine. Rather than complain about being held accountable, the health care industry should focus on making treatment effective and affordable. How are we served when insurance companies and doctors have no accountability, and your health insurance premiums keep going up?

Over the weekend a couple on a tandem bike were killed in Bexar County.
The cyclists killed were known to be very careful riders who always wore their helmets. Apparently from the published reports it appears as though the driver of the motor vehicle left the roadway as he approached the cyclists from behind and then overcorrected causing the collision. It did not appear as though alcohol played a role in the accident.

This year at least two other deaths have been caused by crashes when cyclist sand motor vehicles collide. The number of serious injuries caused by motor vehicles colliding with bicycles is staggering. It is unfortunate that some members of the public just consider these collisions to be accidents - implying that they are unavoidable. Bexar County and San Antonio should take steps to make our streets safer for bicycles as they contribute to making San Antonio a healthier place to live.

The tragic death of bicyclists in Bexar County highlight the need for an awareness program whereby motor vehicle drivers are taught to give sufficient room to people on bicycles. Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have required motorists to give cyclists at least 3 feet of clearance when passing. It is unknown whether any of the recent cyclist deaths would have been avoided if the law would have passed; however, it is certain that future deaths may be avoided if cyclists are given sufficient safe room when legally using Texas Roadways.

In a recent article in the San Antonio Express-News, the concept of "ambulance chasing" was addressed. Unfortunately, the article headline implicates attorneys - all attorneys - when the facts are that a small number of unethical lawyers, together with unethical chiropractors, team up to run car wreck cases for their own financial benefit rather than to help the victim of the collision.

If you are involved in an automobile accident, and are solicited, report the name and phone number of the solicitor immediately. If you or a family member is injured, you should seek advice from a reputable law firm - a firm with Board Certified lawyers and a long-term presence and reputation in the area. And you should not be afraid to interview several law firms until you feel comfortable with your decision.

Likewise, while pursuing legal help, you should not talk with insurance claims adjusters about anything other than the location of your vehicle and repairs that may be needed. Insurance adjusters are trained to inquire about injuries and potential medical issues in a manner intended to minimize your injuries and damages. If you are being recorded, and give an answer without realizing the implications, insurance companies will use those statements against you. A trained and ethical insurance adjuster will understand that you are under no legal obligation to speak with them and that you have the right to seek legal advice. Therefore, if they do not respect your decision to put off speaking with them until you have talked with a lawyer, and insist on recording you against your wishes, report them to their supervisor and to the Texas Department of Insurance.

If you have been the victim of another driver's carelessness, you have more to worry about than who will be calling you next, pressuring you to speak about the incident. If you are confused, find an attorney that you have confidence in and let them handle the legal issues while you take care of yourself.