Two Louisiana workers suffered fatal work-related injuries this month. In Houma, a Gulf Island Fabrication worker was killed when a cable at his work site loosened in the process of moving a 700-pound metal sheet piling. Also, a R&R Construction contractor was electrocuted and killed while working on a chlor-alkali…
Articles Posted by Broussard, David & Moroux
Expediting FDA Review: Good for Corporations; Bad for Consumers
Last week, the Senate proposed a bill purporting to accelerate the FDA’s review times for medical devices. The proposed legislation would relax current conflict of interest rules that apply to FDA advisers, reversing an existing law. Currently, federal law prohibits an expert with a financial stake in medical device companies…
Supreme Court Tackles Employment Discrimination
The Supreme Court is back in session with a full docket for the month of October. Early this month, the Court confronted the controversial question of whether the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) applied to a school teacher at a Lutheran school. The Court heard oral arguments this week, but…
Lake Charles Refinery Crackdown
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed two felony charges in a bill of information in a Lafayette federal district court against Pelican Refining Company for knowingly violating its permit issued by the Clean Air Act at its refinery located in Lake Charles. The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that from 2005…
Air Show Safety
After fatal plane crashes at two different air shows within a 24-hour-period, critics are now questioning air show safety in the United States. The first plane crashed in Reno at the National Championship Air Races, killing nine people, including its 74-year-old pilot, and seriously injuring 69 bystanders. Just one day…
Colorado Food Poisoning
A Colorado-based melon farm issued a recall last week after its cantaloupes tested positive for listeria, a deadly bacteria. The contaminated cantaloupes have been linked to at least two deaths and 22 illnesses in Colorado and New Mexico. State authorities believe that this number could increase in more states pending…
BP Shortcuts Blamed for Gulf Oil Spill
The U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforcement released a 500-page report this week finding BP primarily responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill. The report revealed that the company took many shortcuts in an attempt to cut costs and complete its troubled well…
Louisiana Medical Review Panel’s Findings Not Admissible
The Louisiana Supreme Court recently held in McGolthlin v. Christus St. Patrick Hosp. that a Medical Review Panel’s finding is not subject to mandatory admissibility when the Medical Review Panel exceeded its statutory authority by making its determination based on of a finding of credibility. In Louisiana, a plaintiff suing…
Fired for Facebook
This year, the National Relations Board (NLRB) received more than one hundred charges filed by employees who were fired for an online comment or post about working conditions, according to an analysis released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The recent spike in complaints raises a novel question: Is it…
Pearl River Toxic Water Exposure?
A recent untreated wastewater spill in the Pearl River killed thousands of fish. State officials are not certain how the contamination will impact the surrounding community’s drinking water; however, some officials are optimistic that the damage will not affect citizens because the Pearl River is not a source of drinking…