Personal Injury Law

Collegiality ? The Death of Tenure?

Posted on October 29, 2009
American society seems to have accepted that one can be ?voted off the island.? But, should that be allowed in relation to government employment that is protected by due process rights? The purpose of hedging governmental employment with due process rights is to prevent jobs from being used as patronage every time the political winds [...

Should College Football Players at State Funded Universities Lose Their First Amendment Rights?

Posted on September 28, 2009
Texas Tech University football head coach Mike Leach ?suspended indefinitely? an offensive lineman ?for violating team rules.? In the copyrighted AP story published by the Daily Oklahoman, the unattributed AP story seemed to imply that the lineman was suspended because he posted to his Twitter account a complaint that he was at a Sunday [...

FINRA Warnings: Shouldn?t There Be a Rule?

Posted on September 26, 2009
The September 24 ,2009 warning by FINRA about leveraged and inverse ETFs was a bit annoying. If FINRA has to warn about it, should not there be new suitability rulemaking to go with it aimed at these products? Even the explanation by FINRA of what these products are lacks clarity for the people FINRA is [...

FINRA Dumbs Down Arbitration

Posted on September 04, 2009
Associated persons (a/k/a “financial advisors,” stockbrokers, etc.) should be wary of FINRA’s new Rule 13806 which provides for a single arbitrator in promissory note cases. While the single arbitrator may be fine for default cases, where the associated persons plans to make no defense and files no answer, rarely are single arbitrators desirable in [...

To access blog feed reader register for free. (You will also learn about new ways to read and access the freshest law blogs.)

Is Securities Industry Arbitration Dying?

Posted on August 14, 2009
The new FINRA statistics are always fascinating. While filings are up for 2008, ?82%? FINRA says, that is an 82% increase over the fourth lowest number of new case filings since 1994. The lowest since 1994 was in 2007 at 3,238. FINRA is estimating new case filings in 2009 will eventually reach [...

Financial Advisor or Manager?

Posted on July 18, 2009
In Colorado, at least, it might matter. In Dish Network v Altomari (Colo. Ct. App. June 25, 2009), the question was whether the employee that supervised some people, probably a sales staff, was in ?management.? If the employee was in management, then under the Colorado non-compete statute, a non-compete against the employee was [...

Email Insecurity

Posted on July 03, 2009
The case reported by Professor Ross Runkel issued by a New Jersey appellate court, Stengart v Loving Care Agency, held that privileged communication by the former employee with her attorney through her employer?s computer retained its privilege. The case was interesting because the employee made the same mistake many people make...

Business Heaven ? A Stifled Legal System

Posted on May 11, 2009
The federal government is prosecuting far fewer fraudulent stock schemes than eight years ago, according to Eric Lichtblau of the San Diego Union Tribune, in December. Darla Mercado of Investment News reported today that the Attorney General of Massachusetts concluded her prosecution of Goldman Sachs by an agreed fine of $60 million on a [...

Who?s Minding the Store? You?ll Never Believe The Answer!

Posted on March 25, 2009
How did Bernie Madoff, the hands-down all-time winner of the title ?world?s greatest thief,? get away for so many years with bilking so many investors out of so many billions of dollars? Madoff awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts in a Ponzi scheme by which he swindled investors out of $65 billion...

Forfeitures ? Will the Commercial Bank Broker Dealers Resort to Employee Fines?

Posted on February 20, 2009
The investment banks, the wirehouses, and the large broker-dealers, which have all but ceased to exist, had a love - hate relationship with ?at will? employment law. Even the late and great Merrill Lynch, once the ?white hats? in the industry, struggled with it from time to time...

Don?t Get Mad ? Get JP Morgan

Posted on January 29, 2009
The New York Times reported on January 28, 2009 that JP Morgan conducted a ?wide ranging review? of its hedge fund exposure. JP Morgan asked Bernard L. Madoff?s funds questions and did not like the answers. JP Morgan withdrew the money it invested in 2008, prior to the implosion caused by the discovery [...

Dogs Win Over Free Speech

Posted on January 12, 2009
In Oklahoma, on a slow news day, you can be sure each local television news broadcaster will have a story about a dog complete with video footage. Movie industry executives also seem to have concluded that movies about dogs sell tickets. But, it now appears that human civil rights can be curtailed in the face [...

Will the Protocols Stand?

Posted on December 05, 2008
There is an old saw that compares lawsuits to two men armed with knives circling each other in a dark room, not knowing whether they can ever put the knives down. During the raiding wars (a/k/a recruitment wars) of the last twenty-five years, the major wirehouses, broker dealers, and investment banks tried to defend [...

The Upgrade Penalty

Posted on December 03, 2008
Lawyers are generally technology shy because of the time required to master new software. Thus, when this blogsite was the victim of some sort of mishap, it was clear from researching the plague on the web that though the cause might have been a villan roaming through cyberspace, the opportunity given freely to the [...

The BlueHippo Failure

Posted on December 02, 2008
NewsOK.com reported on December 2, 2008 about a Jackson County man ripped off by BlueHippo, a company that sold inexpensive electronics at inflated prices and then never delivered about a third of the sales, continued to dun checking accounts and generally practiced economic vampirism...

Let?s Blame the Sick People!

Posted on November 21, 2008
During the sub-prime crisis, many people started out by blaming the poor people. You know, the dead beats that could not pay their mortgages. They were the people that tricked the billion dollar banks into giving them mortgages they could never afford, especially those on floating interest rates...

Who is Afraid of Virginia Stock Market?

Posted on October 11, 2008
Selling off, even in market ?crash,? later called more accurately a ?correction,? is usually driven by switching from the investment strategy based on company fundamentals to the strategy based on market timing. The market timing approach always fails because it is based on prophecy, only without God?s help...

Why the Bailout Will Fail

Posted on October 08, 2008
I hate to be pessimistic, but the United States Senators running for the Presidency of the United States are not businessmen, and never have been, and thus, the bailout will fail. For example, during the debate Tuesday night, Senator McCain claimed he was in favor of the bailout so there could be sources of [...

The End of Wall Street

Posted on September 15, 2008
The demise of Bear Stearns and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, followed by the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, heralds the final end of the Wall Street business model. B of A?s CEO claims that for seven years he predicted the commercial banks would end up owning the investment banks...

What They Would Have Done ? An Evidentiary Quagmire

Posted on September 14, 2008
Imagine that you had a right to exercise certain stock options that you had earned. Imagine that the contract under which you were going to exercise the stock options gave you a three month window in which to do it, but that no one sent you a copy of the contract or the amendment [...

The Fort Hays State University Debacle

Posted on August 28, 2008
Fort Hays State University fired its debate coach because he allegedly mooned others attending a debate round between the Fort Hays team and Towson University according to an article posted by the Kansas City Star at their website. A debate coach from the University of Pittsburgh was somehow involved...

54 Famous Trials of the Centuries

Posted on August 07, 2008
Here?s a fascinating webpage with images of 54 famous trials, and links to hundreds of additional pages of info about each of them. One Oklahoma trial is included. Can you guess which one? (Answer below) The 54 trials start with the trial of Socrates, 399 B...

Technorati Registration

Posted on August 06, 2008
I am registering this site on Technorati. I am surprised to discover that I hadn’t done so already (after all, we’ve been writing this blog for almost three years now). Among other advantages, being registered on Technorati makes it possible for us to use their tools to track who is linking to this [...

The State of Law Blogging in Oklahoma, 2008: Part Four

Posted on August 05, 2008
? Part One ? Part Two ? Part Three Terra Extraneus happily adds seven more entries to our list of Oklahoma Law Blogs. Six are based in Tulsa, which had been poorly represented on our Oklahoma Law Blogs directory. We now list 19 blogs: 9 in OKC, 8 in Tulsa, and 1 each in Paul?s Valley [...

Sitemeter May Be Causing Your Website to Crash

Posted on August 02, 2008
If you use Sitemeter on your blog or website, it is probably causing problems when people visit using Internet Explorer 7. The problem began on Friday and remains unsolved Saturday afternoon. I took a day off yesterday and was away from my computers, so I only learned about the problem this morning...

The State of Law Blogging in Oklahoma, 2008: Part Three

Posted on July 31, 2008
Part One Part Two Here at Terra Extraneus we are assembling what we hope will become an authoritative listing of Oklahoma law blogs. In two previous posts, we searched the 526 blogs listed on the Blog Oklahoma directory and found 7 blogs which meet the criteria (a table of those blogs is on our Okla Law [...

Insurance Law ? Bad Faith for Negotiating?

Posted on July 30, 2008
Oklahoma has once again affirmed that offering less than the amount for which an insurance company evaluates the value of a claim could be bad faith conduct by an insurance company toward its insured. Miller v Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 2008 OK CIV APP 65 (Okla...

The State of Law Blogging in Oklahoma, 2008: Part Two

Posted on July 27, 2008
? Part One It appears that nobody is doing the very important work of maintaining a directory of Oklahoma law blogs. Ever eager to serve the community by meeting a need that no one else even knew existed, we at Terra Extraneus are stepping forward to host and maintain such a list...

The State of Law Blogging in Oklahoma, 2008: Part One

Posted on July 26, 2008
I decided to survey what?s happening among fellow Oklahoma law bloggers. Back in 2006, when Terra Extraneus was young, Rod Heggy and I surveyed several Oklahoma blogs, including some law blogs. I wanted to see if any new blog stars have emerged in the Sooner State legal community...

Maybe They Wised Up?!

Posted on July 18, 2008
Investment News writer Darla Mercado reported that fixed and variable annuity sales by banks fells 4% in April and that for the third consecutive month, fixed annuities out sold variable. She quoted Jackson National Life Distributors, LLC as blaming the decline and the change in the mix of sales on ?market volatility...

Post No. 92 and Holding the Lead

Posted on July 16, 2008
I encourage you to take a look at our Top Ten page. On that page, Rod Heggy and I have listed our favorite blog posts, ten for each of us. I had not updated that page in two years, but it is updated now. Rod and I have been writing Terra Extraneus since Dec...

Buying a Business ? Franchise Risks

Posted on June 28, 2008
For many years, every kid I knew that did not go to college was somehow located and drafted by some pyramid or outside sales company. They were each eager to make their initial presentations to family, friends, and friends of their parents. Thus, I sat through many presentations on vitamins, cleansers, vacuums, and [...

HBO?s ?JOHN ADAMS?John Adams: Great and Grating, or Ordinary and Likeable?

Posted on June 26, 2008
Arrogant, contentious, vain, verbose, bookish, boorish, strident, cantankerous. Sound like anyone you know? Those are a few of the less complimentary descriptions that have been made about founding father and second president, John Adams. Biographer David McCullough described Adams as ?high-spirited and affectionate, vain, cranky, impetuous, self-absorbed and fiercely stubborn...

Book Review ? Arbitration Road Map ? Where?s the Book?

Posted on June 21, 2008
The State Bar of Texas, I guess, will publish absolutely anything. In this instance, the State Bar of Texas published a pamphlet, called it a book, and stuck in a CD to try and justify the nice cover. Arbitration Road Map, A Guide to Clauses Procedures, and Hearings, Austin 2007, is divided into two parts...

HBO?S ?JOHN ADAMS?Depriving Basic Human Rights Leads to Acts of Terror, Revolution

Posted on June 18, 2008
I have been enjoying the HBO mini-series ?John Adams? since it was released on DVD June 10. Parts of the film are quite entertaining, even riveting; some segments are a bit more tedious. That being said, I enthusiastically recommend the entire 8-1/2-hour series to anyone who appreciates the importance of history, particularly our own [...

Book Review ? The Invincible Iron Man

Posted on June 11, 2008
Unlike other professions, lawyers are often known more by their passions and hobbies than by their law practice. For example, most lawyers that claim to be undefeated in litigation maintain that claim by dumping losers on associates and partners or trying very few cases...

Credentials Marketing Limitations ? FINRA Still Missed the Mark

Posted on June 05, 2008
One of my earlier experiences with advertising material regulation was the time the NASD refused to approve an advertisement by a registered representative that contained a cartoon with a caption that read ?We put the boots on the bull.? The cartoon displayed a Texas longhorn wearing boots...

Book Review-The Believer?s Guide to Legal Issues

Posted on May 10, 2008
Stephen Bloom?s new book, The Believers Guide to Legal Issues (2008, Living Ink Books), is mis-titled. While the book is very generally about legal issues, it is more of a consumer protection guide for Christians. Possibly it should have been entitled, The Legal Services Christian Consumer Guide...

The Next Wave ? What Will It Be?

Posted on April 27, 2008
As an Oklahoma based trial lawyer, I do not have the luxury of a continuous stream of cases all in the same genre or even area of law. Largely originating on one of the three coasts (including the Gulf Coast), cases usually come in waves. I just completed a three year group of [...

An Unhappy Union ? Insurance Coverage and the Registered Representative

Posted on April 11, 2008
Errors and omissions insurance policies for registered representatives and broker-dealers have been offered at different times by different companies and usually, quickly withdrawn from the market. One of the companies that has stayed in the market longer than most has been AIG / National Union...

Insurance Law of Oklahoma ? Early 2008

Posted on April 04, 2008
While the annals of Oklahoma insurance law may not be whipped into a froth, the Supreme Court ruled that ?actual cash value? in the insurance code means the same as other insurance code terms such as ?fair value? and ?actual value.? Tyler v. Shelter Mutual Insurance Company, 2008 OK 9...

The Tax Rebate of 2008

Posted on March 30, 2008
There seems to be some fear that many eligible tax payers will not receive their tax rebates because they did not file a 2007 tax return. An old friend sent around an email indicating that some of the people that might not have filed a 2007 return could include disabled Social Security beneficiaries and [...

Will CPAs Need a Duty of Zealousness?

Posted on March 29, 2008
The Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 imposed penalties on tax preparers if the tax return understates the taxes due to the government and the tax preparer knew or should have known. Most tax preparers will wisely avoid this problem by asking for less documentation from the client to avoid the [...

Law Firm Marketing Methodology

Posted on March 21, 2008
The sword play among law firm marketing pundits and bloggers of late pretty well proves the point: law firm marketing did not grow as a profession and the concept of law firm marketing, much less governing principles, have never emerged. Larry Bodine?s blog on law firm marketing and the startling candor of Betiayn [...

Two Steps Back - Oklahoma Returns to 1982

Posted on March 15, 2008
The Oklahoma Supreme Court, though not unanimously, hurled the Oklahoma Court system backwards with such force the court system is now back in 1982. Pleadings are no longer available on line from the Oklahoma court system?s internet presence, the Oklahoma Supreme Court Network...

The Funniest Oklahoma Court Decision of 2007 ? Satellite Dish Blues

Posted on February 27, 2008
What requires the skills of an appliance technician and Spiderman? A brand new satellite dish!! In 2007, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reiterated a time honored rule of law that before there is liability in a negligence claim there must be a duty. The breach of the duty must also cause the damage (injury)...

Post-Claim Underwriting ? The New Old Era

Posted on February 23, 2008
After the United States Supreme Court defanged the tort system in Campbell v State Farm Insurance Company by limiting punitive damages to ten times actual damages, insurance companies almost uniformly reverted to their business methods employed prior to the advent of theories of recovery involving bad faith breach of contract...

Hey, I Needed That!!

Posted on January 25, 2008
The folks at the 39th Annual RV SuperShow found one of our cartoons funny enough to post on their website. Our cartoon, “Red Neck Risk” portrays two of our favorite trying to hook up their RV with less than the skills taught by our friends at the RV Show, much to the suprise and [...

The Great Debaters ? What We Have Lost

Posted on January 20, 2008
I attended the showing of this great movie twice, so far, with a bitter sweet attitude. The movie brought back many memories of my own debate career. My debate partners were among the finest people and greatest minds I have ever known. One would be famous during one of America?s most tragic [...

Is Retail Securities Arbitration Dying?

Posted on January 17, 2008
Most people that engaged a financial advisor employed by a FINRA (formerly NASD) broker-dealer and all registered representatives signed something containing a mandatory arbitration clause. FINRA announced that for 2007, new arbitration case filings dropped to their lowest level since 1992...

Book Review ? Supreme Court Decision Makers

Posted on January 13, 2008
In his book, Witnessing Their Faith, Religious Influence on Supreme Court Justices and Their Opinions, author Jay Alan Sekulow, Esq., attempted to test the hypothesis that Supreme Court justices wrote their opinions under the influence of their long held religious beliefs...

Mall Fight Prompts Outbreak of Christmas Spirit

Posted on December 27, 2007
On Christmas evening, we went to the movies to see The Great Debaters. I offered my review of that great film in my previous post. While I was standing in the concession line at the theater that night, a fist fight broke out, which led to an unexpected outburst of Christmas cheer...

MOVIE REVIEWGreat Debaters Make Great Leaders

Posted on December 26, 2007
One thing that distinguishes a ?great? film from a ?good? one for me is the discussion it prompts on the drive home, and whether I?m still thinking about the film the next day. Was it merely entertaining, or did I learn anything from it? Did it make me think? I saw Denzel [...

BOOK REVIEWAn American Hedge Fund

Posted on November 22, 2007
During the inter-war generation in the Western democracies, the wealthy elites that arose created a generation of wastrels. That was the basis of the first hit television series starring Hugh Laurie (House), Wooster & Jeeves (BBC). Bertie Wooster (Laurie) was a young man who lived well on an allowance from his family money [...

We Sang a Dirge For You

Posted on November 17, 2007
I received an email from Jim Guest, President, Consumers Union, as did probably every subscriber to Consumer Reports. Mr. Guest was appealing for a petition to Congress to get these dangerous products off the market. What products? Toys containing lead; Sesame Street?s Elmo, Dora the Explorer, Winnie th Pooh ?and more...

Investigating Jurors: A Primer

Posted on November 14, 2007
After my recent experience with finding a felon on a federal court civil jury, I encountered a local judge who related a similar story. In his case, in state court, the jury was seated and voir dire was progressing when an employee in the court clerk?s office noted that the name of a juror [...

Affair of the Heart Turns to Bedlam ? But Was the Law Violated?

Posted on November 10, 2007
The District Attorney of Oklahoma County according to The Oklahoman has announced that the sellers at the Affair of the Heart craft show will not be prosecuted for violation of trademarks of the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University. The District Attorney has not announced and has reserved on the issue, according to the [...