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Is The Use or Nonuse of Seatbelts Admissible in Court?

I wrote an article for the Dallas Trial Lawyer’s Association pertaining to the use of seat belts as evidence.  Here it is:

“USE OF SEAT BELTS IS STILL NOT ADMISSIBLE”

HB4 repealed Section 545.413(g) of the Texas Transportation Code, which prohibited the admission into evidence proof concerning the use or non-use of seatbelts.  The Legislature did not enact a new law stating that seat belt evidence is admissible, nor did it abrogate the common law on which the statute was based, although it had the power to do so.  The clear intent of the Legislature was that “The bill will allow evidence of the use or non-use of a seat belt to be admissible to the same extent other acts of plaintiff are admissible under the Texas Rules of Evidence.”  Thus, the ultimate effect of the repeal of Section 545.413(g) simply returned the status of the law in Texas to the pre-statute status.  As expressed in case law prior to the enactment of Section 545.413(g), the failure to use a seat belt is not a basis for negligence liability,  nor a basis for contributory negligence,  nor a basis for failure to mitigate damages.   The Texas Legislature chose to repeal Section 545.413(g) without expressly abolishing the judicially created rule announced in Carnation v. Wong.   Therefore, the Texas case law remains the law and governs the admissibility of the use or non-use of seat belts. This argument was successful for our client in a trucking accident case in East Texas.

If you are a lawyer and would like to download a brief for the Court, click here.

How to Setup Microsoft Exchange on iPhone 2.0+

I will discuss how to setup Microsoft Exchange with the iphone with firmware version 2.0 and later.

When you begin configuring your Exchange account, you’re asked to type in your Email, Username, Password and Description.  It looks easy enough but you are wrong.  If all you did was enter your email, username and password, then you are in for a long wait. Make sure you have the server information handy because you’ll need it.  You must enter the information correctly. Using my previous account information, here’s the correct way to enter the information so that your iPhone can understand. 

1. Email: enter your email address
2. Username: DOMAIN\username =clayjenkins\stephen
3. Password: enter your password
4. Description: Whatever you would like to call this account

As soon as you click NEXT, a second field called Server miraculously appears. You will NEVER see this field if you INCORRECTLY enter info in the initial four fields. Instead, you will get “Verifying Exchange account information” message with the spinning progress icon and it never connects. Next, enter your Server info. In my case, my server is my a static IP address. For instance, you could also use servername.yourdomain.com.  Click SAVE to continue. You should then see the same info in the screenshot below. Click Sync and you’re good to go. Make sure to take NOTE that all information in your Contacts and Calendars will be erased when you first synchronize Exchange.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you are wondering why your battery life is going faster than a cabbage patch kid in 1983, then you need to turn off push. Go to settings and go to Fetch New Data and turn push off as shown below.  You can always to it manually but I choose hourly and hit check for new mail if I need it sooner.