Houston Personal Injury Claims

You reside, work, or frequent Houston and the Houston area. While in the city, you had accident and are now dealing with a personal injury. In Houston, personal injury claims are being filed all the time. Here is some advice on filing your Houston personal injury claim.

First, you need to decide if you are eligible to make a personal injury claim. Situations to consider are wrongful death, a brain injury, and negligent exposure to a dangerous product or substance, false arrest or an injury that occurred because of negligence on someone else’s property in Houston. These types of personal injuries can be mentally challenging and physically disabling so adequate compensation is the goal.

To file a personal injury claim in Houston, you will first need to find a personal injury lawyer. You can find one by looking in the phone book, searching on the Internet or asking your friends or family for recommendations. They will best understand the nuances of filing personal injury claims in Houston. Try to find a lawyer who has experience and success with cases that are similar to yours.

After you find a lawyer, begin the process of filing your personal injury claims. What was the nature of your accident? Did you get food poisoned at a Houston restaurant? Did you get into an accident on a Houston road? Did you break your foot on a cracked step at a Houston office building? Whatever your situation, a good lawyer will help you find the best approach when making your personal injury claims.

Be prepared to endure the often long process. Sometimes when you file a personal injury claim, the matter can not be settled outside of court. You will need to relive your trauma in front of others. So, if something happened to you in or near Houston and you desire to make a personal injury claim, make sure you have adequate representation and an excellent support network.

Cornyn, Kyl Introduce Comprehensive Border Security, Immigr

by Al Loy

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee, and U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Chairman of the Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security subcommittee, introduced comprehensive border security and immigration reform legislation on Tuesday.

The Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005 will, S.1438, dramatically strengthen enforcement, bolster border security, and comprehensively reform our immigration laws. The key components of the bill include enhanced border security and interior enforcement, employer accountability, and reform that addresses temporary workers and the current illegal population.

Following is a summary of the bill:

Border Enforcement and Visa Security
• Authorizes sufficient resources, including 10,000 Border Patrol Agents (same figure as Intelligence Reform bill, with monthly reports to Congress on progress made in hiring and deploying the agents) and 1,250 new Customs and Border Protection Officers (working at ports of entry). Authorizes $5 billion over 5 years for accompanying technology (e.g. cameras and sensors) and infrastructure (e.g. stations and checkpoints), to stop illegal border crossing
• Expands and improves Expedited Removal, which provides a streamlined means of removing aliens who are clearly ineligible to enter the U.S. Authorizes $50 million over 5 years
• Strengthens US-VISIT entry-exit system to better track and identify aliens who enter the country and those who fail to depart
• Increases the bond amount for aliens from noncontiguous countries
• Cancels all visas in the possession of an alien if he or she fails to depart U.S. at end of stay
• Authorizes $50 million over 5 years in grants for American Indian Tribes on border adversely affected by illegal immigration.
Strengthening Interior Enforcement and Leveraging State and Local Law Resources
• Provides the Department of Homeland Security with 10,000 detention beds over 5 years to eliminate the release of illegal aliens into the country
• Clarifies State and local authority to enforce federal immigration laws
• Expands Institutional Removal Program to identify criminal aliens in federal and state correctional facilities and remove them upon completion of their sentences
• Authorizes $4.45 billion to reimburse states and counties for costs related to the incarceration of criminal illegal aliens and $200 million each year for the costs of processing criminal illegal immigrants through local criminal justice systems
• Authorizes 1,000 smuggling and status violations investigators over 5 years (200 more per year than Intelligence Reform bill)
• Authorizes 250 additional DOJ immigration judges and 500 DHS trial attorneys over 5 years
• Allows the Department of Homeland Security to expeditiously remove aliens who were previously deported and then reentered illegally
• Increases penalties for alien smuggling, document fraud, drug trafficking and gang violence
• Establishes new Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice to oversee immigration enforcement and litigation, to ensure high level DOJ attention and accountability Worksite Enforcement
• Authorizes 10,000 additional agents over 5 years to investigate employers who hire illegal aliens. Also 1,000 new investigators over 5 years to detect fraud in application process
• Increases the penalties for unauthorized employment of aliens, social security fraud and false claims to citizenship
• Requires within one year issuance of secure machine-readable, tamper-resistant Social Security cards
• Closes loopholes in identity theft by establishing minimum standards for state-issued birth certificates
• Requires within one year that all new hires participate in a Social Security-based electronic employment eligibility verification system
• Assists employers by reducing the number of documents that workers may present to establish identity and employment authorization

Obligations of Participating Countries
• Requires countries to enter into bilateral agreement with U.S. government before the nationals of the country are allowed to participate in a temporary worker visa program or Mandatory Departure status
• Requires aliens to have a minimum level of health coverage, which can be provided by the participating country, the alien or the employer
• Encourages countries to provide housing incentives for returning workers
• Requires participating country to:
1) Cooperate in efforts to control illegal immigration
2) Immediately accept return of nationals who are ordered removed from the U.S.
3) Work with U.S. to reduce gang violence, human trafficking and smuggling
4) Provide access to databases and information on criminal aliens and terrorists Temporary Worker Program
• Establishes new visa category that allows aliens to enter the U.S. to work temporarily when there are no available U.S. workers
• Limits the period of visa to two years, after which the alien must return home for one year. Alien may participate up to three times (for a total of 6 years of employment in the U.S.)
• Requires completion of background checks, health screening and issuance of biometric documentation to participating aliens
• Establishes a Temporary Worker Task Force to prepare a report on the effect of the temporary worker program on wages and employment of U.S. workers, which would then form basis of cap
• Family members may visit principal worker in the U.S. for no longer than 30 days within a given year

Mandatory Departure and Reentry in Legal Status
• Allows aliens who are present in the U.S. illegally to apply for Mandatory Departure, which enables them time to depart the United States voluntarily and reenter the country through normal legal channels (e.g. as temporary worker)
• Aliens granted Mandatory Departure status are ineligible to obtain permanent resident status (i.e. green card) while in the U.S. - they must depart and reenter through normal legal channels
• Aliens are registered, fingerprinted, and checked against all available criminal/terrorist lists
• Aliens are issued secure, biometric identity documentation. The documents will function as identity documents and employers will use document readers to verify identity and employment authorization
• Provides incentives for aliens to depart the United States immediately, but all aliens are required to depart prior to five years
• Aliens who return to home country within a short period of time may quickly reenter through legal channels as a temporary worker and are not required to spend up to 10 years outside of the country
• Aliens who fail to depart are ineligible for any other immigration benefit for a period of ten years

Circular Migration and Visa Backlog Reduction
• Creates temporary worker investment funds to encourage aliens to return home
• Reduces visa backlog waiting times by allowing the recapture of unused visa numbers and terminating the Diversity Visa Program.

Find more articles about immigration at LawyerIntl .com articles

About the Author

Al Loy is a senior editor at LawyerIntl.com

Malpractice - Medical Malpractice Statistics

In this article we’re going to go over some very alarming statistics regarding the ever increasing problem of medical malpractice.

There is a very good reason that they call lawyers ambulance chasers. The majority of them specialize in what is known as medical malpractice suits. The rate at which these suits are increasing each year is staggering. To get a good understanding of just how serious this problem actually is, we need to look at some numbers.

Of all the malpractice trials in the United States last year, nearly 50% of them were against surgeons and other doctors representing only 75 of the largest counties in the United States. This is according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which is a very good source. This shows that the main problem of these suits is in the most densely populated areas of the country which is where the most income is generated. This can’t be a coincidence that the more money there is to be made from these suits the more lawsuits there will be.

Another 33% of the malpractice trials in the United States last year was against non surgical physicians in the 75 largest counties in the country. Adding these two numbers together you get 83% of all medical malpractice suits in the United States last year was against only 75 counties. There are literally thousands of counties in the United States.

Of all the cases that went to trial only 27% of them were won by the plaintiffs in these 75 counties. This is a large indication that most of these malpractice suits are not legit, otherwise there would be more of these cases won.

Close to 19,000 medical malpractice payment reports were made in the US last year according to the Annual Report, National Practitioner Data Bank, US DHHS. This is an absolutely staggering number.

It is estimated that about 25% of all the doctors in the United States get sued on an annual basis. This means that if you are a doctor, especially if you are a surgeon, you have a one in four chance of being hit with a lawsuit each year you are in practice. Makes you wonder why anyone would want to be a doctor in this country.

It is also estimated that between 50 and 65% of all doctors in the United States are sued at least once in their career. That gives you less than a 50% chance of getting through your career without an incident.

What is even more staggering is that of all the malpractice payment reports made world wide, over 80% of those payments were made by United States doctors with the whole rest of the world accounting for just 20% of all payments made for malpractice.

Even interns are not immune from this problem as over 1500 malpractice suits were filed against interns last year alone.

There is no question that these statistics point to an alarming and growing problem in the United States. Unless measures are taken to prevent fraudulent lawsuits, which many of these are, the problem is only going to get worse.

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Malpractice
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