Monthly Archives: June 2016

State Employees Can Take Paid Leave to Volunteer in a Disaster

State Employees Can Take Paid Leave to Volunteer in a Disaster

Texas allows state employees to take paid administrative leave to volunteer with the Red Cross during a disaster.

For many years the state of Texas has allowed for State employees to take paid administrative leave to volunteer with the Red Cross during a disaster. Can’t believe it? It’s true! In fact, It’s written into Texas statute (Tex. Gov’t Code § 661.907). Granted, the code has been expanded over the years, but here’s the upshot: State employees who are certified by the American Red Cross as Disaster Service Volunteer, may take up to 10 days paid administrative leave per year when three conditions are met: (1) at the request of the Red Cross, (2) the employee’s supervisor authorizes it, and (3) the governor approves it. Further, there can only be up to 350 state employees on this paid administrative leave at any one time.

So what does this mean? This means that there is an incentive for state employees to get involved with their community  to help themselves and their communities become disaster ready. In my opinion, those who volunteer during disaster response are more likely to be ready when one comes their way. Granted, they aren’t going to be 110% ready, but the mindset will have at least set in once that this could likely happen to them.

The next question becomes: why don’t major corporations do this? The fact is that they likely do to some degree. The question will always boil down to “who is going to pay the workman’s comp if the volunteer gets hurt while on this paid administrative leave?” The Texas Labor Code does allow for Disaster Volunteers to be covered by state workman’s compensation plans if strict time line and conditional requirements are met. Really, it’s going to boil down to what the volunteer’s and the corporation’s insurance carriers think about it.

So next time you’re at the DMV and get really mad at the person behind the counter, realize that they may actually be the same person that comes to help you after disaster strikes.

State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting – Day 2 Review

Friday was the second day of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and meetings for the State Bar of Texas. Here is my take on some of the events attended and topics discussed.

Today was the second day of the State Bar of Texas’ Annual Meeting, hosted in Fort Worth, Texas this year. Though the location rotates every year, this is the first time since 2010 that the conference has been held in Fort Worth. There were many great events and discussions on a wide variety of topics available to attend today. Here is the highlights of some of the major ideas shared during a small handful of the presentations today:

  • Setting up Your Practice & Solo Solo: These two sessions discussed some of the unique issues that Solo Practitioners and small law firms face in getting established and actually running the business side of the law firm. One of the biggest questions revolved around client trust funds and when a lawyer actually earns the retainer. There have been some new ethics decisions from the State of Texas directly on point to the issue.
  • Military Justice Update: A View From the Bench: This was a great seminar talking about the recent changes in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) that changed the way medical records can be requested and used during a Court Martial proceeding. This was presented by recently retired Lieutenant Colonel Faulkner, a former Military Judge from Fort Hood, Texas. Essentially, instead of the Military Judge reviewing the documents in-camera (meaning only the judge reviews it and then decides whether it is admissible or not) there must now be some level of cause shown before the Military Judge can begin the the in-camera review. This was a great session that brought up some interesting issues around the concept of “privileges” (i.e. the ability to exclude relevant evidence for a good reason like the husband-wife privilege or the priest-partitioner privilege) and how this new law expands or contracts  the scope of current privileges.
  • General Lunch Session with Guest Speaker S.C. Gwynne: This was an incredible speaking event. Mr. Gwynne wrote the recently published “Empire of the Summer Moon” which talks about the waning days of the Comanche Empire in Texas. The big take away (which I echo from my experience deployed in Afghanistan) is that culture means everything. It is likely immature and inappropriate to view a problem solely through your own cultural lens, history, and social norms. You must view the problem through both sides in order to develop a lasting and adequate resolution. (i.e. the Comanches spent several decades rating other tribes back and forth. This was their cultural norm. To those who were settling Texas, it was barbaric).
  • Disaster Planning and Recovery: This was an awesome session with Mr. Paul Martin of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. In this presentation he broke down the concept of disaster preparedness and why even solo firms need to think about it. Many of the things that Mr. Martin presented were actually echoed almost everything I spoke about in my recent paper “Operation Disaster Defender”.

State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting – Day 1 Review

State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting – Day 1 Review

Today was the first day of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and meetings for the State Bar of Texas. Here is my take on some of the events attended and topics discussed.

Today was the first day of the State Bar of Texas’ Annual Meeting, hosted in Fort Worth, Texas this year. Though the location rotates every year, this is the first time since 2010 that the conference has been held in Fort Worth. There were many great events and discussions on a wide variety of topics available to attend today. Here is the highlights of some of the major ideas shared during a small handful of the presentations today:

  • Advertising Rules and Social Media Usage for Attorneys: Though one might think that the State Bar vets all attorney ads for “tastefulness.” That really isn’t their job. The State Bar actually seeks to ensure that ads are not misleading or fraudulent to the public.
  • Legal Perspectives on Drone Regulation and Liabilities: This is an area to watch very closely. The FAA came out with proposed regulations in February 2015 and closed the comment period recently. We are still waiting to see what the new regulations will be for commercial (that includes government) and hobby/recreational Unmanned Aerial System (“UAS” aka “Drones”). Though some Fire, Police, and Emergency Management Departments might hope; there is skepticism that local governments will obtain a separate regulatory scheme apart from commercial business applications.
  • Fit for Flight: A Critical Look at Mental Health in the Pilot Community, and the Science Behind the FAA’s Fitness for Duty Standards: This was interesting in the fact that an analogy could be drawn to first responders in the sense that they are similarly placed in high stress situations as part of their duties. (Sometimes what I call “complete and utter boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror”) It is interesting that this same concept of mental fitness hasn’t completely parted over to the Police, Fire and Emergency Management professions, given some of the concerns over suicide and mental illness within some of the professions. I believe that it might be a matter of time before we begin seeing industry wide application of similar principals. It won’t be a carbon copy of the system (that would be somewhat inappropriate and economically infeasible for most small departments); however, some of the best practices might be ported over.
  • Liability Insurance: Key Practice Pointers for Litigators: One of the major take aways is that there can be an additional counsel brought in during an insurance case to represent issues related to Insurance Policy coverage rates. The whole role of this attorney its to represent the actual policy (where the insured and insurer’s interest align). For example, if the insured and insurer both come to a conclusion in court on what the settlement ought to be, this third attorney would be the one to raise the red flag if the contract (insurance policy) will not cover the settlement reached.

Publication Forthcoming!

Publication Forthcoming!

We are proud to announce that our article “Operation Disaster Defender” will be published soon!

We are proud to announce that The Western Michigan Cooley Journal of Practical & Clinical Law will publish William Gribble’s (our Editor-in-Cheif)’s article entitled “Operation Disaster Defender: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Preserving Access to Justice and Client Property Through Disaster Preparedness” in Volume 19.1. This is a major milestone for Mr. Gribble as his first published work in a scholarly journal.

Below is an abstract of the article. If you are interested in viewing or discussing this topic of this article, feel free to reach out to Will via our blog.

With the livelihood of nearly 79,000 possibly at stake in the United States, shouldn’t preparing for a disaster be one of our top priorities as a profession? Additionally, the professional responsibility rules and civil liability will likely not be completely suspended during a disaster. This means that individuals could possibly face professional discipline or civil liability for failing to prepare for a disaster. Though this culture of preparedness is growing; what about our duty as leaders to preparing our communities? Would it be surprising to learn that there has been a gap in collaboration between legal and emergency management profession until it’s too late? Though some work has been done to help bridge this gap, more can still be done.

The Emergency Management profession has developed–and routinely updates–emergency management accreditation and certification programs that are mirrored in industries both domestically and internationally. Incorporating these established programs within the legal community will allow the profession to have a solid foundation in mitigating professional responsibility and civil liability pitfalls following a disaster. Additionally, the tertiary effects of this program are likely to: (1) provide a ready and capable legal community who can easily understand and assist emergency managers and civic leaders with some of their most misunderstood legal problems before, during, and after a disaster; (2) safeguard access to justice after a disaster strikes; and (3) preserve client and third-party tangible personal property.