FAQ Friday w/ Greg Herrman & Josh Hopkins | Corpus Christi Personal Injury Lawyers

hello everybody welcome to frequently asked questions Friday before we get started with our interview let me mention a couple things first of all we are having our Fiesta Texas summer giveaway it started today the winner will be announced July 12th the prizes are four tickets to festive Texas and a parking pass and a $50 gift card or I guess that is the price see our Facebook page for more details also we want to remind everybody of our scholarship you go to our website look at our scholarship page and that's going to end on December 1st of this year the first-place winner that writes the best essay gets $2,500 the second place it's $1,500 and third place takes $1,000 so just go to Herman Herman calm and look at our scholarship page you'll get all the details finally I wanted to remind everybody early voting is still going on for the special election this is the 27th District congressional district the one that Blake Farenthold advocated and it's basically winner-take-all whoever gets more than 50% will be the our congressional representative until January so the voting locations are on the noises Kenny fleet district post website we'll put a link on Facebook but friends it's a courthouse which is this about this time of day there's nobody yet the noices County Courthouse so if you want to go by there it's pretty easy to to go vote it's 5 to 5 and that'll be 5 to 5 I believe all next week also also this Saturday voting at the courthouse 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then Election Day which is June 30th which is next Saturday the polls will be open 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. but you know if you don't want to wait that long then I encourage you please go early vote she can't make it today during the week turn next week then go tomorrow and worst case scenario go go next Saturday let's start taking America back all right today we got Josh Hopkins hey josh is a lawyer's been with us since a year about a year and Josh mainly does products liability he does some bed now and some 18 wheelers and anything else you'd say you think you kind of sexualized and I really then give it an employment law to drive at the city case that's right yeah so Josh and Daniel working on the case against the city Corpus Christi for not paying the workers for being on on call I'm paying up over time they're supposed to get anything else she just got back from Atlanta for the media arbitration we have Brooks case that was interesting yeah I want to feel quick about the Brooks case yeah mr. Brooks is an actor who was on Desperate Housewives and several other TV series and whatnot got in a bad accident and he made a claim action on his own insurance policy just denied he said we went out arbitration and had a hearing and our pressure under trial for a day long presenting his case and essentially he missed out on some opportunities from movies yeah and like you were an arbitration because the insurance policy required your garage variety required arbitration okay so we had no choice we sure he couldn't hear this case and any good arbitration know who did that this week so anyway he was sort of normal so what happens to me miss Adams for movies yeah so he was good he was up for four world wars the he was up for Django Unchained he was up for two other movies or so and missed out on opportunity to read frozen to reason get those roles because it was injured because there is just was a just was an uninsured underinsured motorist claim uninsured person that came in had some insurance now it wasn't enough insurance to cover his losses so we were arbitration in terms and when y'all hear from the other car I hope takes that long take that long journey look quicker than that yeah sure internet you know that day right here you know get to know that gets beside that but it was interesting you know it's the first time I've ever represent an actor yeah he's a really nice guy and you know it's a shame what happened to but you really appreciate the help I just hope we get a good result yeah alright so we were just going to talk a little bit about products liability in particular cases that talk about or in particular incident or well I mean I guess in the news lately has been some issues with Tesla Tesla vehicle but after car right which is the new technology and there's been some litigation involving the autopilot features in the me gold and people were overly trusting technology to drive their car getting in accidents the cases where the self-driving features they didn't see it 19 Liverpool across the highway in the car van right inside and so there's bits litigation involving those type of technologies we call collision avoidance technologies or CMT Music if the new technology it's gotten some bugs and the budget coming out and people are getting killed so in a case like that I I guess the Tesla manufacturer would say it's your fault because you've shed them over light on this and tried to let the car drive for itself would that be kinda their defense well that might be their offense but of course they put that technology out and represent to the public that safe technology in this range of prime time when perhaps it really isn't ready prime time yet and so if the product is defective and unreasonably dangerous what we have to prove in court then the companies responsible what does that mean that mean to be unreasonably dangerous well this is more dangerous than the average maybe consumer would expect any dangers and then in other words everyone knows that that guns for dangers and a shitty gun somebody so you can't say guns and reason with danger because she's bullets that's intended that's what's intended purpose but if that same gun when the person fires it blows up in their face and injures the sugar then it's under equally dangerous so hey and what about defective product what it basically means that the product has a defect either in the way it was made manufactured or the way it was designed the way it was meant to be that makes it dangerous so in other words a product might be might be suspect out in design such as maybe the battery in a Tesla vehicle it was designed have a certain voltage a certain amperage whatever and the actual wants but a car didn't meet those specifications that might be a manufacturing detail okay the timekeeping can we have a design defect that would be the case where let's say the battery and Tesla vehicle the way they built it the way they designed it is defective in some way because it doesn't have maybe a thick enough case on it to contain the battery in case of an accident that would mean next fpg pick so there's two ways that product need effectively by the way it's made or manufacturer the way that it's designed there's something also that's what marketing defect yes it's also marketing the back stitute and what would be an example of marketing there would be an example of where someone manufacture the product and say it has certain types of major qualities that really doesn't have you know they represents the public and the public has to rely on those those qualities of the product so maybe like Guinness and we're talking about the Tesla maybe some salesman saying hey you can let the car drive you can explore and you can close your eyes and go to sleep and you can't ya because it doesn't meet those expectations now would that be any kind of breach of contract or breach of warranty you're more aware that say something yeah I mean that's part of poggle about to breaching the warranty so if a product doesn't meet the warranties that are represented to it by the manufacturer to the consumer in previous one of those warranties or does it live up to one month warranty that's another flame under product liability - those would be like express warranty right and would they have to be I can write even something they express morning the warranty we're meeting something's are riding or something this in workman riding or is implied they looked at born you have live where something's applied to be merchantable or sellable and then it lacks something that otherwise should have look like what would an example be of an implied warranty of merchantability well the implied warranty might be in the case of a Tesla vehicle that if you buy it and you're driving down the road like then suddenly just burst into flames because the battery fails on it it's an alive that it's going to be a good product and that's going to be not have defects in I won't just catch fire for no reason right want to spontaneously combust right cars aren't supposed to do yeah yeah which is the problem that we had with some of these tests of the Eagles with the batteries Catching Fire batteries of lithium-ion battery which is the same very same battery that wasn't the Samsung phones that you're fought an airplane has say do you have a certain Samsung phone you can't get on the airplane with Ryan because the battery just combust message the batteries are put has the same batteries in the Tesla and that's not to say that all lithium-ion batteries are bad but they have if there's a deep thinker is a short elevator on battery that can catch fire and burn so is that is that a design defect there's that manufacturing defect there what's causing my queue Montanans to be but with this I think in the case of the of the Samsung phones I think it was a manufacturing issue a manufacture defect with the batteries that was causing them to fail what about to test the test I think everybody may have seen that video on but on the news with you that I guess he's a director or something in Hollywood and it's explained to just shoot now that her nieces customer yeah you know you know I don't know if that's that's a matter of design or the manufacture of batteries of course Tesla makes their own batteries so they have the gigafactory we run up there in the desert so they're the manufacturer yeah in the designer if there's a problem one that they're responsible who investigate says to see what the problem is where there's design illiterate well the the government does through the TSB I believe will investigate those matters and I was that alright somebody's injured her yes is your well not yes some and then and then of course private lawyers sometimes like like we did right where someone comes to us it says you know I had cases from oven forward increased patrol its which is a problem the forehead with the kids control systems on some for trucks spontaneously the truck catches fire swings garage burnt your house right yeah well those were cases where for didn't learn in under the problem we just sort of discover the problem on her own when someone came says hey my evil just caught fire in my garage where I know why now and so then we did some investigation and we find through our investigations wrong experts that yet manufacturers aren't usually real keen about telling everybody they have defective products Oh No and sometimes the hem is called a silent recall which I had we had with some poor vehicles from f-150s well Ford had a problem with the spring in the door handles certain f-150s and discovered that they were weakened successively they had done and the week door springs causing doors to fly open and accidents the people to be gone from be equal to impartial and we discovered the in litigation this problem with the springs that Ford was aware of but the hit from the government but quietly replaced that part came in at the doors service they replaced the part without without telling anyone out telling me government anything about what about the people did they tell they didn't tell people either the consumers we're gonna tell me but they kept it secret silently yeah and we met so that's what manufactures find out if you have a problem in their products they don't want to tell the government about it so they secretly replace parts in their vehicles fix the problem tires on them once a recall expires what recalls really don't have an expiration expiration dates or recalls don't have anything to do with liability too much and what we do well depends on look like to recall her for yes and sometimes recalls happen too late sometimes not at all sometimes recalls happen I've had cases where a person was injured you know in an accident in a week later they get the recall notes for the defect privates in the vehicle so you know we can't depend on the manufacturers can't depend on the government to make order the minute lecture recall sometimes you know unfortunately I'm involved way before it all happens yeah and using the manufacturer knows even with that one just case change your liability or anything if the recall comes before or after the accident for the injury where the defect at least our client has now discovered the defect because he's injured he or she well that some of that doing like a good example that is the Takata airbags recalls there were there's there's some arguments with a new kind of airbag recall for Takata had these airbags and had basically the two raid and they went off shrapnel will go out and hit the person injured so Takata recalled these airbags of certain vehicles certain manufacturers we call them but unfortunately they weren't enough replacements but despite the fact that the manufacturers believe there was a defect in their vehicle they didn't offer consumers right to go Parker maybe the wrong card they allowed consumers it's a continuing to drive there he's these vehicles that they know were defective because they've got was defective airbag line but they don't make enough parts you know to fix something so then in some cases there were arguments made that if you had a defective Takata airbag in your vehicle and you got the recall notice and subsequently you were injured that the manufacturer was even more responsible in that case because it should provide you with a replacement car a real car maybe so she isn't right this car that was defective that they knew was defective in dangers right can't they blame the consumer to say well you should have you know you should have many gated you damages you should have gotten a bunch of cars you should've gotten yourself in your own car now fortunately some people can't afford that they already make it car payments on the car that they're driving and they just don't have the money I mean I guess they could walk all right bye but that's not so piece of that so oftentimes consumers don't have a choice in that matter but the manufacturers got lots and lots of resources certainly could put the person in a rental car you know and that was the argument was made at some time if you're against Akata airbag alleviation to kind of since going bankrupt now so freedom sober now he's do they just companies like Takata usually carry insurance or something like that or they're on their own they usually they typically manufacturers such as Takata and handling auto manufacturers they are self-insured to exert an amount which is the millions of dollars no if they they have set aside in their corporate reserves like 10 20 30 40 million dollars it's actually the deductible right but over and above that they are insured so then it shouldn't matter whether they go bankrupt or not well as long as long as they pit up what they owe then they're insured pick it up after that yeah and they can't really go none of these manufacturers I don't have a comma but I can tell you for the auto manufacturers they have sufficient resources and sufficient insurance they're not going bankrupt over product claims okay this is not gonna happen there's enough there yeah all right well we're running out of time here let me let me oh I have one other question they can finish with this I know sometimes consumers have heard that their strict liability with with products what what what jacket is that inspect lightly well strict product liability is is concept in the law and the law that says that even if a manufacturer designs and builds and sells a product is they're not negligent or at fault they're responsible with the product is actually defective in dangers so that's called strict product liability ignores it doesn't matter what their mindset was when they sold a product or even how careful they were when they manufactured it they give you the world's best manufacturer completely what we call not negligent or the Act the act is a reasonably prudent manufacturer would and putting this product out in the market but it ends up hurting someone because it's defective needs to be dangerous then there was called strictly liable for it the car was their fault that's what the law is on product liability if the product sells be unreasonable danger yes so okay well I think answers all right well we gotta look longer than we normally do we usually like to end after about 15 minutes but anyway well is this your first time doing the truck yeah okay say hi to everybody [Laughter] all right well everybody that is that's it for frequently asked questions Friday we'll see you again next next Friday same time same channel don't forget to go vote if you're in this if you're in this area you're in the special election Crysta we have our link up on our Facebook page okay you got a link up so y'all can go and look at all the voting places and the and the times that your your local voting place will be open and don't forget dinner the the contest for the Fiesta Texas summer giveaway and if you know anybody in school who need some money tell them to apply for the scholarship somebody's gotta win so we got first second or third place so until next week thank you