Jury Impact – Page 27

YIKES!

Jury Impact 3 June, 2008 no responses

A nightmare come to life:

About 130 people aboard an American Airlines flight got a sharp scare after one of the MD-80’s two jet engines was disabled by shards from a broken window in the passengers’ cabin.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said the outside pane of the triple-pane window shattered about 20 minutes after the 7:35 p.m. take-off Sunday from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Remember the hundreds of American Airlines flights cancelled a few months back due to shoddy maintenance? FYI, those were also MD-80s.

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Texas Judge Returns 400 Children To Polygamist Sect

Jury Impact 2 June, 2008 no responses

If you’ve been following the case of the polygamist compound in Texas, the children that were taken are being returned to their parents. The legal issue rested on whether or not Texas child welfare officials proved the children were in immediate danger before taking them. It’s worth noting that there were no arrests in this case.

A Texas district court judge has signed an order returning custody of more than 400 children taken from a polygamist group’s compound to their parents.

The order returning the children taken from the Yearning for Zion ranch to their parents comes a few days after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Child Protective Services department overreached when it took the children away from their parents.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of this case is the language choice made by the media. For example, on talk radio this morning, they consistently used the word “sect.” Yes, it is in fact a sect, so the use of that word is accurate. However, phonetically it’s problematic: in a case underscored by allegations of sexual abuse, hearing “…the polygamist sect’s” (say it out loud) conjures none-too-pleasant images. Intentional?

A less controversial (although perhaps not as accurate) language choice would be denomination, faction, group, or enclave.

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Texas Appeals Court Reverses Vioxx Judgment Against Merck

Jury Impact 30 May, 2008 no responses

From CNNMoney.com:

A Texas appeals court on Thursday reversed a 2005 judgment against Merck & Co. (MRK) in the case of a woman who alleged her husband’s use of the pain drug Vioxx caused his death.

The jury had awarded Carol Ernst $253.5 million in damages in the first Vioxx lawsuit to go to trial. The jury had concluded Merck’s design and marketing of Vioxx was defective, and that its negligence caused the 2001 death of Bob Ernst. The damages award was subsequently reduced to $26.1 million under state law capping damages.

Merck appealed the judgment, arguing there wasn’t sufficient evidence supporting the jury’s verdict. That led to Thursday’s reversal by Texas’ Fourteenth Court of Appeals. The court concluded there was no evidence that Bob Ernst suffered a “thrombotic cardiovascular event,” or heart attack triggered by a blood clot.

Apparently there is some controversy about whether Merck settled prematurely with other plaintiffs (to the tune of $4.85 billion).

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Lawyer Sues Delta for Ruining Vacation

Jury Impact 29 May, 2008 no responses

This combines two of our favorite topics: Law and Travel! Apparently a New York attorney had himself a vacation from hell and lived to sue about it.

Richard Roth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his mother, said he planned the Christmas 2007 trip to Buenos Aires to celebrate his mother’s 80th birthday. She had grown up in the city, but had not returned in years, he said.

Instead, Roth, his two teenage children, his wife and mother spent three days in airports, went days without their luggage, were treated rudely by airline employees and were forced to spend $21,000 on unused hotel rooms in Argentina, replacement clothes, and other costs.

If I filed a lawsuit everytime I was treated rudely by airline personnel, I’d be a very busy person.

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Odd Laws

Jury Impact 28 May, 2008 no responses

In North Carolina, it is illegal to hold more than two sessions of bingo per week in the same building (and those sessions must be less than 5 hours each).

§ 14‑309.8. Limit on sessions.

The number of sessions of bingo conducted or sponsored by an exempt organization shall be limited to two sessions per week and such sessions must not exceed a period of five hours each per session. No two sessions of bingo shall be held within a 48‑hour period of time. No more than two sessions of bingo shall be operated or conducted in any one building, hall or structure during any one calendar week and if two sessions are held, they must be held by the same exempt organization. This section shall not apply to bingo games conducted at a fair or other exhibition conducted pursuant to Article 45 of Chapter 106 of the General Statutes. (1983, c. 896, s. 3; c. 923, s. 217; 1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1107, ss. 6, 7.)

The more you know!

Jet Lag Cure: Starvation

Jury Impact 23 May, 2008 no responses

For those of you who travel frequently, this Yahoo! article may interest you. According to U.S. researchers, starving yourself before a flight might be the most effective way to combat jet lag.

Here comes the science:

Normally, the body’s natural circadian clock in the brain dictates
when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.

“A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is
enough to engage this new clock,” said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.

Yes, you read that correctly: fasting for 16 hours. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll take my chances with jet lag.

On the other hand, with airlines cutting snack service to save money, you might not have a choice whether to fast or not.

Click here for the full article.

R. Kelly Trial: 12 Ways to get kicked out of the jury pool

Jury Impact 22 May, 2008 no responses

Here is a piece from the Chicago Tribune regarding attempts to seat a jury for R&B singer R. Kelly’s trial. Yikes.

Advice from the R. Kelly trial: 12 ways to get kicked out of the jury pool
By Stacy St. Clair
Tribune staff reporter
5:26 AM CDT, May 15, 2008

Jury selection is expected to resume at 9 a.m., with 10 more Cook County residents available for vetting.There wasn’t any progress Wednesday, with not a single person picked for the panel.

Candidate after candidate came in with excuses as to why he or she couldn’t serve on the high-profile case.

If the dismissed jurors this week joined together, they could write a book: “How to Get Out of Jury Duty without Really Trying.”

Some of the potential chapters:

I have a teenage daughter. Several axed jurors provided this explanation for why they couldn’t give Kelly a fair trial. “I would have a hard time see anything involving a child without thinking of my child,” one man said.

I would change the age of consent. Two who were kicked off offered this philosophy, one going so far as to suggest that “nature already had an age of [sexual] consent: puberty.”I save lives. An oncologist was excused from duty after he told the judge that jury service would create a logistical nightmare for his patients.

Um, well, er, yes, I think I could be fair to Mr. Kelly. Maybe, yes. Nearly everyone who paused when asked if he or she could give the singer a fair trial got the boot from either the judge or the defense.I’m a cop One Niles police officer lasted only about two minutes in the interview room before he was dismissed because of his profession.

I (heart) R. Kelly. Nothing gets prospective jurors booted faster than telling the prosecution they are a fan of Kelly’s. Just ask the woman who called him a “musical genius.” When prodded to say something negative about Kelly, the best she could come up with was: “He and [rapper] Jay-Z don’t get along?” Prosecutors bounced her soon after.

I’ll change my vacation plans. Overeagerness to serve on the jury is a definite red flag to attorneys. When one man offered to rearrange a trip to see his parents, the prosecution bounced him for being star-struck.

Click here to read the full article…

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Author: Jury Impact