Category Archives: Settlements

Arizona Man Arrested For Drunk Driving With 0.00 BAC

DUI?

A man in Surprise, Arizona says he’s being unfairly targeted by police officers due to his unusual sleep/work schedule and is now suing the department for $500,000 after a recent incident where he was arrested for drunk driving despite having a BAC of 0.00 percent.

The man, Jessie Thornton, is a retired firefighter that lives in Arizona with his wife, a nurse who works the night shift. Thornton says in an attempt to spend more time with her, he shifted his own sleep habits so that he was in bed during the day and up running errands at night. The problem with this approach is that his appearance outside late at night has attracted a lot of attention from the Surprise Police Department. Thornton says he has been pulled over 10 times and received four tickets since moving to the area several years ago.

Coffee Lawsuit Brews Up Trouble For Airline

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Java’s brewin’

I think it is safe to say that almost everyone has heard of the infamous McDonald’s coffee case, where the plaintiff received a healthy lump sum for suffering third-degree burns (some all the way to the bone) in her pelvic region when she spilled hot coffee. Why is it that companies keep finding themselves in hot water with hot coffee? Lourdes Cervantes, who is a resident of Houston TX, filed suit against Continental Airlines over an incident of hot coffee. Cervantes was on her way to Newark NJ from Madrid on board Continental Airlines Flight 63 where a stewardess placed a cup of coffee on the tray in front of her lap. The complaint states that the passenger in seated ahead of Cervantes reclined his seat, causing the coffee to slide off of the tray table on her lap mid-flight.

Why MADD Isn’t A Fan Of New BAC Limit Proposal

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Destructive decisions?

Earlier this month the NTSB released a controversial proposal that asked states to lower the legal blood alcohol limit from the current 0.08 percent threshold to 0.05 percent. The NTSB says that the goal of the new rule change is to lower the number of drunk driving deaths in the United States, something the agency estimates would lower fatalities by eight percent.

You would expect that after the announcement, the powerful lobbying group Mothers Against Drunk Driving would stand up and cheer. Far from it. MADD and several other influential lobbying organizations have so far failed to embrace the measure, with MADD issuing a statement saying it was only “neutral” on the NTSB’s proposal.

Florida Court of Appeals Rules That Rear-End Accident Liability Requires Factual Support

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The Sunshine State

Under certain circumstances, Florida law affords the victim of a rear-end car accident the presumption that the other driver is at fault for the crash. Specifically, Florida has adopted a rebuttable presumption that a rear driver’s actions are the sole proximate cause of an accident and any resulting in injuries in the case Clampitt v. D.J. Spencer Sales.

To rebut the presumption of negligence, the rear driver must present evidence that “fairly and reasonably tends to show” that the presumption is misplaced. Evidence that the lead driver stopped suddenly would not be sufficient to rebut the presumption, however, evidence that the lead driver stopped “at a time and place where it could not reasonably be expected by the following driver” would be.

Feds Recommend Drastic Reduction In Legal Alcohol Limit

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Legal limit

In a shocking announcement earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board released a proposal arguing that all states, including my home state of Minnesota, should decrease the legal limit for alcohol consumption. The proposal by the federal agency would lead to potentially major changes in what qualifies as legally acceptable social drinking.

The NTSB specifically issued a recommendation that all 50 states drop their hurdle for what qualifies as impaired driving from the current 0.08 percent BAC. This figure is currently the legal limit in all 50 states and also many other countries across the world. The number has long been seen as a fairly accurate barometer for the level at which most drivers are unable to safely operate a motor vehicle.
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