Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

According to the web site for Hansen Mortuaries in Phoenix, Arizona, the funeral is scheduled today of 29-year old Colleen Nicole Doyle. Colleen was riding in the Toyota Camry that on July 3, 2011 struck the minivan driven by Joshua (41) and Robin Berry (40) and their children Peter (9), Aaron (8) and Willa (6). Joshua and Robin were killed in the collision near Fort Stockton, Texas and Peter and Aaron sustained serious spinal cord injuries that may leave them paralyzed from the waist down. A fund has been set up for the Berry Children and is accepting donations big and small.

The ceremony for Colleen Doyle will take place at Gateway Christian Church in Roswell, New Mexico. Colleen’s husband Michael Scott Doyle was driving the Camry at the time of the accident and the couple’s 18-month old daughter Mckenzie was riding with them. Fortunately Mckenzie appears to have weathered the tragic accident relatively well.

Channel 13 Eyewitness News is reporting a deadly crash on the Eastex Freeway near Laura Koppe. A Yellow Cab minivan crashed into the rear of a big rig tanker truck when, according to witnesses, the yellow cab driver was traveling at a high rate of speed and weaving in and out of traffic. Two elderly women were riding as passengers in the taxi – one was pronounced dead at the scene, the other passenger was transported to the hospital and died there. The taxi driver’s condition wasn’t reported, but police say if he survives he will face a charge of criminally negligent homicide.

2 People Dead in Crash on Eastex Freeway: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Click2Houston.com has published an article about the Park Avenue luxury apartment complex located off Pearland Parkway: the apartment complex is apparently experiencing a tremendous upsurge in criminal activity, and residents are understandably worried for their safety. The complex is located in southeast Houston and according to the complex’ web site offers 10 different luxury floor plans for 1, 2 or 3 bedroom apartments.

Residents are particularly on edge after two men forced their way into a mother and daughter’s apartment, pistol whipped them both, and then stole their valuables and both of their cars. A single mom whose apartment was burgled 3 months before is quoted as saying those in charge at Park Avenue Apartments did not do enough to make she and her family feel protected after they were victimized by burglars. She said that there is no security, and the one security person who is present is not proactive and does not get out of his car.

According to the Houston Police Department, officers have been called out to Park Avenue Apartments 65 times since February, of which 21 calls were responding to burglaries. When Channel 2 went to the complex to speak to someone in charge, the property manager of Park Avenue Apartments pushed their reporter aside and threatened to have her arrested.

The Texas Supreme Court‘s decision in Timberwalk Apartments Partners, Inc. v Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998) sets out what a Plaintiff must prove when alleging they were injured or sustained damages due to the failure of a property owner to provide adequate security.  In that particular case, a woman who had been raped alleged that the landlord of her apartment complex was in part responsible for the rape because the landlord failed to provide adequate security. The court held that a duty to protect another person from the criminal acts of a third person exists only when the risk of criminal conduct is go great that the risk is both unreasonable and foreseeable. Whether the risk of criminal conduct is foreseeable should be determined based on what the premises owner knew at the time of the incident, not what could have been known with hindsight.

The court decided that in determining whether certain criminal conduct on a landowner’s property could have been foreseen, courts should consider the following factors:

(1) whether any criminal conduct previously occurred on or near the property;
(2) how recently it occurred;
(3) how often it occurred;
(4) how similar the conduct was to the conduct on the property; and
(5) what publicity was given the occurrences to indicate that the landowner knew or should have known about them.

These have come to be known as the Timberwalk factors. With 21 burglaries since February at Park Avenue Apartments, a news story about the pistol whipping of the mother and daughter residents on Wednesday, a news article today, a visit to the Property Manager from a Channel 2 reporter who was kicked out and at least one resident who said she broke her lease and moved out due to concerns she had for her family’s safety, it certainly seems that Park Avenue Apartments is very much on notice that they have a crime problem on their property.

As of July 15, 2011, Park Avenue Apartments has 8 reviews showing up on Google and is rated by reviewers as 1.5 stars out of 5. The Park Avenue Apartments July 2011 community newsletter includes a crossword and a recipe for blueberry ice cream but does not warn or inform residents regarding criminal activity on the property.  The newsletter identifies the Property Manager as Shelly Porter and the Assistant Property Manager as Vanessa Schnell.

The Park Avenue Apartments complex brochure opening paragraph states: “Nothing offers more comfort than the pleasures of a cozy, secure and beautiful home, and nowhere offers a more ideal retreat than Park Avenue at Boulder Creek.”

A single car accident took the life of a female motorist last night and investigators suspect drunk driving may have been involved. A woman was driving along in a Lincoln sedan when her car left the roadway of westbound S. Wayside, crashed through a fence and drove through a parking lot then slipped onto its side and hit a utility pole. Houston Police Department has not identified the woman: she died at the scene. According to ABC Channel 13’s coverage of the accident the woman stopped in the middle of the roadway around 11:30pm, then turned into a field and lost control before hitting an electrical pole. Click2Houston.com’s report states the woman was only 20-years old, and lists the time of the wreck as 12:20am.

One morning on the way to work you are rear-ended while waiting at a red light.  You are hurt and your car is badly damaged.  Your car was not safe to drive and has been towed to a storage lot.  The driver who rear-ended you apologized at the scene and told you she was at fault.  The police officer who investigated the accident issued the driver who hit you a ticket for rear-ending you and told you the other driver is at fault.

That afternoon you called the other driver’s insurance company and set up a claim.  They said they cannot provide you with a rental car right away.  The accident was clearly the fault of their insured, so why no rental car? You’re without your car through no fault of your own and you are frustrated…is the insurance company giving you the run-around?

The answer is that they are probably not giving you the run around.  Before an insurance company will accept liability for a claim and start doing things that cost them money (like providing you with a rental car), they will want to investigate the claim.  At a minimum they will want to speak to their driver and ask them how the accident happened.  The insurance company will also want to verify coverage, by making sure that their driver’s insurance policy was in effect on the date of the accident and that the person driving was a covered driver under the policy.

Even the most efficient insurance companies typically cannot complete an investigation within hours of a car accident, for example: they may have trouble reaching their insured to get their version of events.  While you have called and reported the claim, and you may have provided your version of how the accident happened which is completely correct and truthful, the insurance company will not make a decision to part with their money based ONLY on your version of what happened.

It is frustrating to suddenly be without your vehicle due to someone else’s carelessness and you have ever right to feel frustrated. But…think of it this way: if you got a bill in the mail from someone you didn’t know saying you owe them $1,000 and you need to mail them a check, you would want to know why they think you owe them money.  You wouldn’t just assume you owe them money because they say so and mail out the check.  You would try to figure out if you really owed the money before you paid.

Try to be patient. Even if you are frustrated, don’t take it out on the insurance adjuster.  There is an old saying: “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”  Adjusters are people too, and they are more likely to help out people who are patient and polite than people who scream at them or behave unreasonably.

If you have been injured as a result of a motor vehicle accident, typically the earlier you get sound legal advice, the better. For example, Smith & Hassler strongly recommends you do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company.  You can call Smith & Hassler for a free consultation regarding your motor vehicle accident claim and speak directly to our attorneys.  We can help you by talking you through the process and helping you understand what to expect.

Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, has filed a lawsuit against Casey Anthony seeking to recover the $112,000 it spent on the search for 2-year old Cayleigh Anthony. The suit was filed Tuesday July 12th, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. Tim Miller spent a month in 2008 searching for Cayleigh. Miller and nearly 4,200 workers and volunteers traveled to Florida to participate. Casey Anthony didn’t report her daughter missing for 31-days and claimed she didn’t know what happened to her little girl. EquuSearch went to Florida to search for Cayleigh because they were asked to come by Cindy Anthony who is Cayleigh’s grandmother and Casey Anthony’s mother. Texas EquuSearch relies on donations for funding and Mr. Miller said he owes it to those who donated money to recoup the approximately $112,000 spent on the search for Cayleigh, which he says is about 40% of the organization’s annual budget. The lawsuit also says that Texas EquuSearch turned down requests for help from 15 other families because they had committed so many resources to searching for Cayleigh.

There has been some speculation as to whether Casey Anthony, acquitted last week on charges that she murdered Cayleigh, may profit from the tremendous media attention to the murder trial, perhaps through film rights to her story or a book deal. So-called Son of Sam laws exist to stop criminals from profiting financially from their crimes, including by selling their stories. These laws often allow states to seize the proceeds of such sales and use the profits to compensate the murderers’ victims. The catch with Son of Sam laws as applied to the Casey Anthony case however is that the accused criminal must be convicted of the crime for the laws to apply. Casey Anthony was convicted of lying to investigators, but whether that conviction is sufficient to invoke any Son of Sam law that applies remains to be seen.

Son of Sam laws notwithstanding, any media outlet that pays Casey Anthony for her story, her time, or anything else, should prepared themselves for a significant public backlash.

A Saturday night crash has left a police officer recovering in the hospital.  Apparently the officer was responding to a call in his patrol car with lights and sirens activated when a Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV traveling on the North Freeway feeder road failed to stop for a red light. Police said the Trailblazer t-boned the side of the police car: police plan to investigate whether alcohol was a factor in the crash. Video (see below) from KHOU shows damage to the passenger side front fender and rear fender of the police car, and damage across the entire front of the silver-colored Trailblazer. ABC’s story on the officer involved accident is here.

If you or your family have been injured by a drunk driver, call Smith & Hassler for a free initial consultation (either in-person or by phone) with a personal injury attorney. All of the litigators at Smith & Hassler have experience handling both claims and lawsuits against intoxicated drivers. Smith & Hassler aggressively pursues compensation for clients injured by the selfishness of drunk drivers. Insurance companies want to settle claims involving drunk drivers EARLY and FOR AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. The insurance company knows Harris County juries have little sympathy for intoxicated drivers who hurt others and damage their property. Don’t let an insurance adjuster talk you into giving away your legal rights.

Drunk driving appears to have claimed yet another life on Houston’s roads after a man was killed in a wreck on West Road early morning, Sunday July 10, 2011. A pickup truck driven by a man speeding on West Road around 2:15am ran a red light and smashed into the side of a Ford Explorer that was making a left turn onto Deer Trail. Sadly the Explorer driver died at the scene and his female passenger was taken to the hospital. The driver of the speeding pickup was taken to hospital in serious condition: deputies say the man appeared to be intoxicated and he may face intoxication manslaughter charges if his blood sample indicates he was legally drunk. ABC News’ story is here.

If you or a loved on have been victimized in an automobile accident, motorcycle accident, pedestrian accident, bicycle accident or truck accident caused by a drunk driver, call the experienced Houston personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation. The earlier in your case you call, the better: theinsurance company will want you to settle for a small amount as early as possible and have you sign a release. This will limit the insurance company’s liability and prevent them from having to pay more later. Smith & Hassler’s personal injury attorneys have aggressively represented injured people in the Houston area and throughout Texas for more than 20-years, including bereaved family members bringing wrongful death lawsuits.

The Casey Anthony trial and her acquittal has highlighted a problem. In many states it is either not a crime, or is only a misdemeanor, to not promptly report one’s child to authorities as being missing. Outraged lawmakers are responding to the verdict by proposing Caylee’s Laws that would allow prosecutors to bring felony charges against parents who do not promptly notify law enforcement their children are missing.

Four days after Caylee Anthony went missing, her mother Casey Anthony entered a hot body contest at a Florida nightclub. For the thirty days or so after Caylee was last seen, Casey Anthony spent her time shopping, hanging out with her friends and going to parties. It was Caylee’s grandmother (Casey’s mother) who called investigators when Casey could not produce her daughter, after which Casey lied to investigators and said Caylee had been kidnapped by an imaginary nanny, and Casey was conducting her own search for her child.

By Friday July 8, 2011 an online petition at Change.org boasted an incredible 700,000 signatures of people calling for changes to states’ laws on reporting missing children. Lawmakers in at least 16 states have proposed new laws to address the problem, including Texas lawmaker State Senator Chris Harris who says he will introduce a new law for Texas making it a felony to not report a child missing within 48 hours. Under current Texas law it is a misdemeanor only for failing to report abuse or neglect. Senator Harris has said he will introduce a version of Caylee’s Law for Texas during the next legislative session in Spring 2013.

You should support the passage of Caylee’s Law in Texas and when it is proposed call or email your legislative representative and tell them you think Caylee’s Law should be passed in Texas.

A very sad day today for the Beaumont, Texas police department who lost one of their officer last night to a motor vehicle collision with a fleeing suspect. Beaumont P.D. Officer Bryan Mitchell Hebert, aged-36, was getting stop-sticks from the trunk of his patrol car last night when the 30-year old suspect, whose name has not been released, crashed a 2008 Dodge Nitro into the front of Officer Hebert’s patrol car pushing it backward into the officer. Officer Hebert had been with the Beaumont Police Department for 10-years; he passed away at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital. Police say the suspect had assaulted his elderly grandmother and mother prior to the crash. The suspect will be facing a capital murder charge and if convicted may receive the death penalty. Beaumont P.D.’s press release is here. The last officer from Beaumont P.D. who was killed in the line of duty was patrol officer Lisa Beaulieu, killed by a drunk driver April 27, 2007 while directing traffic at the scene of a freeway accident.