NEWSLETTER AND LEGAL UPDATES: FALL 2013

OUR VISION:

SUCCESS BASED ON LONG LASTING

RELATIONSHIPS FORGED IN INTEGRITY,

EXCELLENCE, COMMITMENT AND TEAMWORK.

Fanning Harper Martinson Brandt & Kutchin, P.C. is pleased to provide you with our Fall 2013 Newsletter and Legal Update. Below you will find information regarding successes and activities of our attorneys.

Please click the hyperlinks for updates regarding Local Government, Constitutional and Civil Rights Law, Products Liability, Employment Law, Special Education Law, School Law, Commercial Trucking Litigation, Premises Liability, Land Use, Zoning, and Regulatory Taking, Insurance Law, and Property Owners Association Law.  Please call us with your questions or comments.

DISTRICT COURT VICTORIES

MARC FANNING recently won two Summary Judgments in slip and fall cases filed in the District Courts of Dallas County, Texas:  One case was for a well-known grocery store chain and the other for a well-known discount store.

SPEECHES AND PUBLICATIONS

THOMAS P. BRANDT and FRANCISCO J. VALENZUELA participated in a radio interview on KATH 910 AM’s Culture Lifeline program with Lauren Muzyka on August 19, 2013, where they discussed the topic of religious liberty.

On August 23, 2013, THOMAS P. BRANDT spoke to the Texas Municipal League –  Intergovernmental Risk Pool Attorney Workshop on the topic, “Recent Cases of Interests to Cities.”

THOMAS P. BRANDT spoke on the topic of “Conscience Protections for Healthcare Professionals.”  The speech was presented to the Catholic Physician’s Guild of Dallas on September 5, 2013.

THOMAS P. BRANDT and co-presenter, former Kountze ISD Superintendent, Kevin Weldon, gave a presentation at the 2013 TASA/TASB Convention titled Hell Hath No Fury:  A guided tour through the Kountze Cheerleader case.  The TASA/TASB Convention was held in Dallas on September 27 – 29, 2013.

On September 30, 2013, MARC FANNING was interviewed by radio station KLIF- AM where he discussed the insurance lessons businesses and consumers can take way from the fire that destroyed Big Tex, whose replacement was unveiled on Sept. 27, 2013.  To listen to this interview in its entirety, please click here.

THOMAS P. BRANDT and LAURA O’LEARY co-authored a paper with Lenore Silverman of the law firm of Fagen, Friedman, and Fulfrost, LLP of Oakland, California, on the subject of Working with Child Witnesses.  The paper was presented at the NSBA’s Counsel of School Attorney’s School Law Practice Seminar held in Nashville October 10 – 12, 2013.

THOMAS P. BRANDT was interviewed by radio station KLIF-AM on November 7, 2013, on the topic of the legislative prayer case orally argued before the United States Supreme Court on November 6, 2013.  The case, Town of Greece v. Galloway, involves a resident’s challenge to the constitutionality of beginning city council meetings with a prayer.  To listen to that interview in its entirety, click here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

LAURA O’LEARY and AMANDA BIGBEE, General Counsel for Keller Independent School District, will be presenting a session entitled “Section 504 Litigation:  A Moving Target” at the Great Ideas Convention sponsored by the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education being held in Austin from January 21-23, 2014.