San Antonio Injury Lawyers Blog

It was reported that actor Mel Gibson crashed his Maserati into a hillside in California yesterday, but was not injured. Alcohol was not reported as a factor. It was not reported if speed, texting or cell phone use was a factor.

Bexar County is reportedly breaking a state law requiring the swift examination of every mentally ill prisoner in jail, leaving an untold number of inmates languishing without proper psychiatric care. Many of the defendants who are housed at the Bexar County jail suffer from mental illness. Left properly untreated, this results in harm to the inmate, cell mates, the Bexar County employees, and when released, the general public. As an attorney assigned court appointments, I can tell you first hand, that many of the individual inmates suffer from some form of mental illness that is often not treated. San Antonio and Bexar County must do more to properly examine prisoners for mental illness and provide medication, treatment, placement or proper services in a humane and safe manner.

The City of San Antonio started a pilot program to help reduce wait times at its municipal court, allowing a judge to hear minor traffic cases via videoconferencing. The photo is of Judge Al Tavera.
San Antonio Video Court, gives residents with traffic tickets the option to go to a Community Link Center, to see a judge through a live video feed instead of driving downtown to municipal court.
Video Court is only for those pleading guilty or no contest on traffic citations. So before you decide to go this route, think about its effect on your insurance rates. An attorney can get you on a deferred adjudication status that does not count as a conviction for insurance purposes. You should check with the video court to see if they offer deferred adjudication.

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Here is a video recently sent to my San Antonio office on the dangers of driving and texting. It is graphic, but I wonder if it would help to send it to teens and young drivers. View it and if you think it would help send it on.

Wednesday night at about eight o'clock p.m., sudden strong winds and rain, blew through San Antonio. Several trees were pulled out around our neighborhood, one roof was badly damaged.

If you suffered significant damage, you should report your damage to your insurance agent and review your homeowner's insurance policy and there may be coverage.

If you decide to make a claim, make sure you photograph the damages, and obtain estimates for repairs and send a copy to your insurance agent and insurance company. If you have a long-time agent, the agent can help you secure the proper documentation of your claim.

A local San Antonio man learned that even a small personal amount of marijuana can cause big problems. A man with a clean record was caught with a very small amount of marijuana for personal consumption. He gave permission to search his car, which led to the find. The judge was very fair and gave him a zero fine and 2 days jail with credit for time served, so he did not have any more jail time as the judgment was satisfied. However, because the sentence was considered a conviction, the State of Texas will automatically suspend his driver's license until for a minimum of 6 months and until he completes a drug education course. He can apply for a temporary occupational license, but that will result in more costs and expenses. Thus, the administrative costs will far exceed the criminal penalty.

Two children were critically injured Saturday evening after an ATV accident in southern Bexar County, officials said.
The unidentified children were airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Office officials.
The crash occurred while the kids were riding an ATV and lost control near Interstate 37 south of Loop 1604.

There has been a recent increase in reported accidents while using ATV motor vehicles in an around Bexar County. If your child is involved in such an accident, it is important to preserve the vehicle, as well as all warnings and instructions that accompanied the purchase. Many ATV makers have had to consider design changes and warning changes due to product defects.

A new directive dictates all San Antonio city employees, including police officers, must undergo drug and alcohol tests if they're involved in wrecks while driving San Antonio-owned vehicles.

San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley said she issued the directive after two recent incidents. The first involved a city vehicle that injured a man in a wheelchair, and the second was a deadly wreck involving former police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino.
"We had a couple of recent accidents that brought it to my attention," Sculley said. "We want to make sure that whenever there's an accident involving a city vehicle, that we're testing for drugs and alcohol.

This is a new measure, which if sustained will protect the citizens of San Antonio, as well as the individual officers should there ever be an event questioning whether drugs or alcohol were a contributing cause of any collisions or car wrecks involving a San Antonio Police Officer, firefighter or any other city owned vehicle. Car wrecks by city employees cost tax payer money as well as result in financial loss and personal loss to innocent victims.

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Experts estimate that a staggering 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors each year. Hospital acquired infections, by the federal Centers for Disease Control as the cause of such deaths. According to the Hearst Newspaper, they conducted a national investigation and found that the Federal Government and most states have failed to take the steps outlined in a Federal Report over ten years ago, to help eliminate preventable deaths. Some of the lives taken could have been saved with innovations as simple as color coding medical tubes to avoid confusion.

When our parents, grandparents and great grand parents used to tell us that they were afraid of hospitals or afraid of going into a hospital and not coming out, we often dismissed it as folk tales with no substance. As the new generation, we have been taught by television and our authority figures that doctors, hospitals, the federal government, and the medical industry through its public relations machine are some type of arch angel, always looking out to guard us, and putting our health above all else.

But once a preventable death touches us, we know it is a horribly false premise. We once had a San Antonio attorney working for us, who told us the story of his girlfriend nurse, who confided to him that she made a mistake and caused the death of one of her patients that continued to haunt her. A mistake that was preventable according to her. But because the patient was elderly, she and the hospital worked the case as the death was due to the age of the patient and routine complications, and the family never questioned them, because they trusted the hospital. These cases are not limited to local private San Antonio Hospitals, they also include the hospitals that service our large military personnel.

Until the system wishes to change from within, it will be very difficult to make any positive changes. In the meantime, if your loved one has to go to hospital never assume that someone is specifically looking out for them, but you and the patient. Note all medications, drastic changes in condition, learn about the illness or disease, its symptoms and complications, and note any abnormal behavior in the staff or doctors. And if something unforeseen happens, seek the timely advice of a qualified Board Certified Personal Injury Attorney. Someone who can have doctors, nurses or hospital experts look at what happened and see if preventable mistakes were made. It wont bring back your loved one, but hopefully it will help someone else by bringing light to the problem.

Many of our local officials like to call San Antonio "Military City" USA. Indeed with several military bases, we do see alot of active and retired military people needing help with the Justice system here in San Antonio. Recently, several judges, both Republican and Democrat attempted to get special help for veterans with mental issues. In order to receive such help, strict guidelines applied as to who was qualified to receive the assistance. Factors such as a medical diagnosis, veteran status, etc.

According to my interpretation of the San Antonio newspaper, Reed says helping veterans costs too much and she does not believe that veterans deserve special attention.

The program was to be funded by a grant program, and the Legislature last year passed a law that allows for pretrial diversion program with narrow eligibility guidelines for certain veterans in the criminal justice system. Not all crimes are covered, but those that are covered are seen many times in the criminal system.