NewsWire

Check Before Making Last-Minute Contributions
Year-end is a time when taxpayers consider charitable contributions, while many non-profit organizations are making last-minute appeals. But Tyree Collier of the Dallas office of Thompson & Knight recommends caution. "Before giving to any charity you haven't previously been involved with, even if it sounds legitimate, get the full legal name and verify the tax-exempt status. Many organizations have similar-sounding names, and unethical groups may purposely solicit using those familiar-sounding names." He notes that a number of popular websites offer guidance on a charity's effectiveness and status, and that the IRS website provides a function for researching charitable organizations. "It's best to make contributions with a check or credit card to help assure that the funds are used as intended, and donors should be sure to get a receipt or acknowledgement from the charity with the date and amount of the contribution." For more information, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Juror Tweets Create Controversy
The Arkansas Supreme Court last week reversed the murder conviction and death sentence of a 26-year-old man, solely because a juror used Twitter during the trial to publish multiple comments about the case, despite the judge's strict instructions. "A juror using social media to post comments or conducting online research about the parties during a trial remains a concern," says Michael Hurst of Dallas' Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail Shank. "While state laws and trial judges demand that jurors not engage in this kind of behavior, the reality is there's no real way to make sure those rules are followed. Monitoring every juror's online account is simply not practical, and many people are so invested in social media they may not realize the potential problems they can create." In the Arkansas case, the Supreme Court has ordered a retrial and asked for a civil and criminal court committee review of whether and how jurors' online access should be limited during trials. For more information, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Car Safety Agency Too Timid to Do Its Job
Charges that the government agency responsible for auto and highway safety was slow to investigate a fire linked to the hybrid Chevrolet Volt are no surprise to personal injury attorney Frank Branson, who's all too familiar with the agency's failings. News reports indicate the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration knew of a fire involving the electric car's battery pack as early as this past spring, but failed to report the incident until November. NHTSA then performed additional tests on Volt battery packs, one of which smoked and sparked, while another caught fire a week later. "The problem with NHTSA is that no one wants to rock the boat," Branson says. "And the auto industry doesn't want to update safety standards, many of which were written in the 1970s or before." Branson says NHTSA has let the auto manufacturers have their way for too long, and that it's time consumer advocates participated in NHTSA's leadership, rather than leaving it to those with ties to the auto industry. For more information, contact Mark Annick at 800-559-4534 or mark@androvett.com.

Texas Redistricting Headed to Supreme Court
Plans for redrawing Texas' congressional and state legislative districts are headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, causing disarray among candidates, party leaders and election officials. "As if the potential implications of the court's decision to take this case weren't enough, the consequences are exacerbated by the impending March primary and the fact that the candidate filing process has already begun," says political legal consultant and Dallas attorney Chris Gober of Gober Hilgers PLLC. "Since the court's announcement, there has been a mad scramble to answer such basic questions as how the filing requirements will be affected, when the primary election for the non-contested maps will be held, and whether the state's residency requirements will be relaxed." Gober represents Rep. Quico Canseco (TX-23) in the redistricting litigation and argued for the bipartisan interim U.S. congressional plan. For more information, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

Changing Child Labor Laws Far From Simple
With his proclamation that current child labor laws are "truly stupid," GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has cast a light on an emotionally charged issue complicated by a patchwork of regulations. Originally designed to protect Industrial Revolution-era children from working long hours for pennies, the federal government created the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The act is still in effect today, but some have called for a reassessment of FLSA regulations as well as the various child labor laws that each state has enacted. "Permitting teens to work for lower than minimum wage is being proposed as an answer to jobs going overseas for cheaper wages, and as an answer to the myth of adolescence. However, these proposed changes focus on age alone and not intellect or ability," says employment attorney Neil Martin of the Houston office of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP. "You have to balance protecting young workers and allowing them to become productive members of society and that is neither simple nor evident." For more information, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

Exercise Caution in Recruiting from the Ranks
It's natural for executives to want to take members of their team with them to their next job, but there are right ways and wrong ways to recruit from your former employer, says executive employment lawyer Joe Ahmad of Houston's Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C. "Recruiting fellow employees to leave with you while you're still working for the company is not only bad form, but it's generally regarded as a breach of fiduciary duty or duty of loyalty," he says. "You simply can't maintain those duties if you're actively recruiting other employees away to a competitor." Once executives have moved to the new job, though, they are free to recruit from the former employer – assuming the employees being wooed aren't constrained by non-compete or other agreements. It's a good idea to abide by both the letter and the spirit of those agreements. "Litigation avoidance is often less about the law than it is about courtesy and conscientiousness," says Ahmad.  For more information, contact Mary Flood at 800-559-4534 or mary@androvett.com.

Bloggers Cautioned About Journalistic Protections
A federal judge set off a blogosphere panic last week when he ruled that a blogger wasn't entitled to journalistic protections, in part because blogs are not defined as "journalism" under Oregon law. The blogger, hit with a $2.5 million jury verdict, claimed her critical posts about an investment firm were based on information from a confidential source she refused to disclose. "Any blogger or even mainstream journalist faced with a defamation action who asserts that the only source of damaging information is confidential is in dangerous waters," says Jim Stewart, a media law attorney in the Detroit office of Thompson & Knight. "That danger exists when a court allows a defamation defendant to refuse to name a source, but then decides not to consider information the defendant claims to have received from that source. For many reasons it's highly unusual to base a news report only on a confidential source, especially if the information can't be verified." For more information, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Keeping Grandma Close After Divorce Difficult
Under Texas law, parents deemed fit have a fundamental right to parent any way they want, leaving grandparents very few rights and forcing them to jump through a litany of legal hoops when it comes to protecting the best interests of their grandchildren. "For grandparents to remain in the lives of their grandchildren after a divorce, everyone has to remain on good terms," says family lawyer Amber Liddell Alwais of McCurley Orsinger McCurley Nelson & Downing in San Antonio. "If you are a grandparent and your divorced son or daughter does not exercise their rights to visit their child, then you will be left out." To secure visitation on their own, grandparents must prove the child's health or emotional well-being will be impaired without the time together, she adds. "There is a lot out of your control. It'll be much easier to just stay close to your children and their former spouse so that they will want to keep you involved." For more information, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

McKool Smith Bash Includes Charity Donations
Attorneys and staff members from all seven McKool Smith U.S. offices recently gathered in Dallas for the firm's annual holiday party and the presentation of two $100,000 donations to non-profits Global Health Corps and Vogel Alcove. GHC co-founder Barbara Bush and her parents, former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, attended the event at the Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas. GHC is dedicated to improving health care services in needy communities in the U.S. and around the world. Vogel Alcove provides social services and child care for Dallas-area homeless children and their families. This is McKool Smith's first contribution to GHC. The firm has supported Vogel Alcove for more than 15 years, including serving as the lead sponsor for the organization's 20^th Annual Performance Arts Event in May 2011. McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy and white-collar defense. For more information, contact Bruce Vincent at 800-559-4534 or bruce@androvett.com.