This year, the country’s highest court made several revisions to the Miranda warnings.  The court did not make any changes to the actual wording of the Miranda rights, although it did approve one version that is being used in some parts of Florida.  That Florida version goes like this:

You have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any of our questions.  If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed for you without cost and before any questioning.  You have the right to use any of these rights at any time you want during this interview.

Criminal defense lawyers in Florida argued that this version of the warnings did not make it clear to suspects that they could have a lawyer present WHILE the police was questioning them.  But the 7-2 Supreme Court majority obviously did not agree.

There are other more serious changes to the Miranda rights.  For the first time, a suspect’s request for an attorney is only good for about 14 days from the time he is released from custody.  Once those 14 days are up, police officers can question the suspect again without having to repeat his Miranda rights, and without doing anything unconstitutional.

In yet another change, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that suspects who want to remain silent, must inform the police that they intend to remain silent.  In other words, suspects who want to remain silent, must inform the police that they intend to remain silent, and thus, break their silence.  It’s enough to make your head spin.

If you have been charged with a crime, or have questions about criminal legal issues, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at The Kahn Law Firm for a free legal consultation by calling 713-226-9900.

The release occurred between April 6 when the ultracracker unit went off-line, until May 16 when the unit was repaired and started.  According to a refinery spokesman, the company estimates that approximately 36,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 17,000 pounds of benzene were released during the 40 day period.  Under Texas law, emissions equaling 10 pounds or more of benzene and 200 pounds or more of nitrogen oxide over a 24-hour period, must be reported to the Texas Commission on Environment and Quality’s air emissions database.

BP insists that neither of the two pollutants were released into the environment at levels that require self reporting to the US Environmental Protection Agency.  That agency requires nitrogen oxide emissions of more than 1000 pounds every 24 hours to be reported, but has no set standards for benzene emissions.

Houston injury lawyers have known of the sketchy record at the Texas City refinery as far as benzene emissions are concerned.  In 2008, a report by the Environmental Integrity Project estimated that the BP Texas City refinery, along with three other refineries, had one of the largest increases in benzene emissions.  This was even as the overall emissions in refineries dropped by more than 18% from 2000 to 2008.

Benzene is a known carcinogen that has been linked to the development of several forms of blood cancers including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as well as some types of anemia.  Short-term exposure to high amounts of benzene may cause dizziness, drowsiness, tremors, headaches, confusion, and/or unconsciousness.  Long-term and/or high level exposure to benzene may affect normal blood cell production by hematopoietic ( or blood forming) cells in ones bone marrow which may result in a decreased ability of ones blood to transport oxygen (called anemia) as well as a lower ability to fight infections and a low white blood cell counts, and can even be life-threatening.  Additionally, some evidence shows that benzene may affect reproductive organs.

If you or a loved one lives in the Texas City area and has been affected by the recent Benzene release or have been diagnosed with leukemia, we can help. Contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at the Kahn Law Firm today by calling 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877-226-9940.

According to the report, the number of deaths in local prisons in the United States increased from 905 in the year 2000, to 1,103 in 2007. In all, between 2000 and 2007, there were 8,110 deaths in custody. The mortality rate in prisons decreased from 152 per 100,000 inmates, to 141 per 100,000 inmates. During this period of time, the prison inmate operation increased by 31%. More than half of all prison deaths took place within a month after the inmate entered the prison.

More than half of all deaths in local prisons were due to illnesses including AIDS. Among these, heart disease was the number one cause of death among inmates, with 42 % of prison inmates dying from cardiac disease.

The one statistic that jumps out from the study is the fact that suicide is the #1 cause of unnatural death among prison inmates. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of all unnatural prison deaths were linked to suicide.  This was even as the overall suicide rate among prison inmates declined from 49 per 100,000 inmates in 2002, to 36 per 100,000 in 2007.  Suicide also seems to be a much bigger factor in prison deaths in smaller local jails, than in large prisons. In prisons which had 50 or fewer inmates, the suicide rate was 159 per 100,000 inmates, while in some of the largest prisons, the rate was just 27 per 1,000 inmates. In fact, after the researchers adjusted for age, sex and race differences, they found that suicide as a cause of death increased at a much higher pace in US prisons than in the US general population. What this indicates is that prison inmates are committing suicide at a rate that’s increasing faster than the suicide risk for the general population.

According to the New York Times, sobriety education in classrooms-something we champion-is not such a great way to drive home the “don’t drink and drive” message. Results from sobriety education programs have not been as effective.  We don’t believe that there is sufficient reason for educational institutions to stop offering these programs to their students. Even if these programs can save one life or prevent one teenager from going on to become a binge drinker or repeat drunk driving offender for life, it’ll be worth it.

However, education seems to be more effective when the parents are involved. This is something we definitely agree with. We would encourage all parents in Houston to have free and honest discussions with their children about alcohol-related excesses.

A DWI offense on your record can seriously the impact the college you attend, or the kind of job you get, and will follow you around for the rest of your life. Besides, you are a serious danger to other motorists, if you drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Other measures like advertising campaigns and other forms of social marketing, as well as warning labels on alcohol, have not been found to be that effective. That is not so surprising to us. These measures may be effective in the short term, but it’s hard for the message to stay ingrained in your mind for months or years after.

Ultimately, we would encourage schools to keep the focus on not drinking and driving, and parents to continue talking openly with their kids about drunk driving, in order to avoid Houston DWI license suspensions, and drunk driving accidents.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an alcohol-related accident or arrested for DWI or other alcohol-related offense, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at The Kahn Law Firm today for a free consultation at 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877–226-9940.

According to the New York Times, Toyota received the subpoena on last Tuesday, regarding documents related to the steering rod defects.  The news of the subpoena will not be a complete surprise to Toyota.  Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation confirmed that it was investigating the 2005 Toyota recall for alleged steering rod defects.  That recall involved a number of vehicles, and it came about a month after the company recalled vehicles for a similar problem in Japan.

The entire federal investigation centered on why Toyota took months to recall its defective vehicles in the US, when it was aware that there was a steering rod defect problem in its vehicles in Japan.  In 2004, soon after the Japanese recall, Toyota told US authorities that there was no need to order a recall in the US, because the steering rod problem was isolated to Japanese cars and Japanese conditions.  There had been no problems involving steering rod defects in American cars.  However, that didn’t stop the company from recalling its vehicles for steering rod flaws in the US the very next year.

That grand jury subpoena comes during a particularly bad week for Toyota in which its public relations have been a complete disaster.  Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran a story citing certain “confidential sources” within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  According to the WSJ, the sources had said that many of the crashes blamed on unintended acceleration, were actually caused by driver error.  The NHTSA was quick to distance itself from the WSJ piece.  An agency representative in fact,squarely blamed Toyota for planting that story in the WSJ to take the heat off the automaker.  Toyota has responded with an angry rebuttal, claiming that it never planted in the story.

To Houston Toyota recall lawyers, it seems like just another day at the office for Toyota.

Some of the discussion also centered on a DWI program in Texas that levies thousands of dollars of surcharges on drunk drivers.  This program has been a major failure as any Houston DWI defense lawyer will tell you.  Since the program was initiated in 2003, DWI offenders in Texas have racked up more than $54 million in unpaid surcharges.  The program also contains a provision that would ban driver’s licenses for motorists who fell behind in the surcharge payments.  That has only led to more numbers of motorists driving without a valid license.

One approach that any Houston DWI lawyer would support was put forth by Austin police Chief Art Acevado.  His approach involves intervention in the form of treatment programs for first-time drunk driving offenders.  Right now, what we’re doing is simply dumping people with addiction in prison, somehow hoping that once they come out, things will be different.  It’s still the same person, and they still have the same disease.  Alcohol addiction is a disease, and it’s sad that law enforcement agencies and lawmakers don’t seem to realize this.  Treatment will not only help free up prison space in our overcrowded prisons, but will also help the person overcome his addiction.  It decreases the chances that the person will be involved in another drunk driving offense.

Currently, Texas DWI laws seem to involve a tough cowboy approach that often ends up doing more harm than good.  It costs money to keep people in jail for a few months, and even then, there are no guarantees that he will never drive intoxicated again.  Treating him, so he is never involved in a DWI offense again, is a far more reasonable approach.

If you have been charged with a DWI or other alcohol-related crime, contact the experienced DWI lawyers at the Kahn Law Firm today for a free, confidential consultation by calling 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877-226-9940.

Apparently, several motorists had informed the Department of Public Safety that a motorist was headed the wrong way on Highway 59.  However, by the time troopers could get to the driver, the accident had already taken place.  According to troopers, a bottle of alcohol was found in the wrong way driver’s vehicle.  They are looking at drunk driving as a possible factor in the accident.  The medical examiner is performing toxicology tests on all the three victims.

If drunk driving was indeed found to be a factor in this accident, then it will come as no surprise to Houston accident lawyers.  Intoxicated driving is often a result of impaired driving.  Every year across the country thousands of people (at least 11,000 deaths in 2008) are killed in drunk driving accidents, and the majority of these are caused by intoxicated motorists who end up traveling in the opposite direction.  That’s not to say that drunk driving is the only factor, however.  Sometimes, there may be genuine mistakes made, like when a road design is particularly confusing, or when a person is new to the neighborhood.

However, no matter what the cause of a wrong way driving accident, the one thing that they all have in common is the seriousness of the impact.  These accidents often end either in fatalities or serious injuries, because they’re high-speed, full-on head-on collisions.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an auto, truck or bus accident and alcohol is suspected as a factor, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at the Kahn Law Firm today for a case evaluation by calling 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877-226-9940.

• If they received plenty of love and affection from their parents
• If their parents kept track of their movements outside the home

Not so surprisingly, children whose parents showered them with love and affection and at the same time, were strict about their movements outside the home, had lower incidences of binge drinking, and had more responsible drinking practices.  Children, whose parents were very loving, but not too strict about activities outside the home, had their risk of binge drinking increase by at least three times.  Children whose parents were strict, but did not show too much affection, had a risk of binge drinking that was twice as high as children whose parents were both loving and strict.

It’s obvious from the study that a combination of love and support, and setting rules and enforcing these, can help prevent alcohol-related excesses among teenage motorists.  That shouldn’t exactly be a surprise to a Houston DWI lawyer or a Houston car accident lawyer, but it’s good to see that what we’ve known all along has been proved scientifically.

It’s also a reminder that although you may not be able to control all the insane things your teenagers are capable of doing, there is much that you can do to prevent them from driving under the influence, binge drinking, and other kinds of dangerous behavior.  Let your teenager know he’s loved and wanted at home, and keep track of what he’s doing outside the home-that seems to be all it takes.

If you or a loved one has been affected by a DWI, contact the Husband & Wife legal team at the Kahn Law Firm by calling 713-226-9900 today for a free, confidential consultation.

A new rule requiring a range of children’s products to come with product registration cards went into effect this  month. Under the rule, a number of products including play yards, strollers, cribs, walkers, bassinets, baby slings, baby carriers, stationary activity centers, bath seats and a number of other infants’ and toddlers’ products will have to come with registration cards that allow the consumer to register the product with the manufacturer.

As Houston injury lawyers and parents of toddlers, we know that there definitely is a need for a rule like this. Very often, parents continue to remain unaware of recalls even after notices have been splashed across the media. Parents continue to use defective products like cribs or highchairs, even after a recall has been announced, placing the children at a risk of serious injury. With the product registered with the manufacturer, it’s much easier for the company to inform parents about the recall.

Just how beneficial these cards can be is seen from the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has required child car seats to come with registration cards for many years now. These products have a high recall response rate among parents, because manufacturers can contact consumers to inform them of the recall. With this new rule, all the products that are included in the list will come with such cards.

You might have to wait a while to find these cards available with all products. It may be a few months before all manufacturers begin adding registration cards to their infants’ products.

The program aims at the development of an in-car breathalyzer that automakers can install in future models of cars. The plan is not to make the breathalyzer mandatory in all cars in the future, but the program administrators and the NHTSA hope that consumers will be interested enough in having the device in their car, to pay extra for it.

As Houston DWI lawyers, we have mixed feelings about an in-car breathalyzer device. The idea is great, and if the device detects alcohol on you, you’re better off not driving anyway. However, there are no guarantees that your breathalyzer reading will match accurately with the reading on the breathalyzers that are used by Houston police officers. In other words, you don’t have any guarantee that you won’t measure at or above the .08 level if you’re pulled over by police. There is therefore no guarantee that that you won’t be charged with DWI, or have to face a Houston license suspension.

As Houston DWI attorneys, we are concerned at the high potential for misuse of these devices, by motorists who mistakenly believe that they are safe to drive when they may not be.

If you have been charged with a DWI or alcohol-related charge, contact the experienced DWI lawyers at the Kahn Law Firm today for a free consultation at 713-226-9900 or toll free at 1-877-226-9940