Nathan featured in ATLA Docket

Nathan was recently featured in the ATLA Docket, the magazine published by the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association. The article follows the awards ceremony at the 2011 ATLA Convention, at which Nathan received an award as the 2011 Most Outstanding Member of the Young Lawyers' Division, and it details Nathan's qualifications and achievements that led to him receiving the award.

Hot Coffee the Movie: Now on HBO

Earlier this year we reported on the Sundance Film Festival’s world premiere of the movie Hot Coffee, which is a documentary about the McDonald’s hot coffee spill case. As of last night, the movie is now airing on HBO.

The movie delves beyond the quippy one-liners most folks are used to hearing about the case, and instead examines the actual proof presented during the trial. The victim was an elderly woman who suffered burns on her lap so severe she almost died. She had to have skin grafts. During the documentary, the filmaker shows photos and other evidence from the trial to random strangers, who are appalled at the severity of the woman’s injuries.

The case became the butt of jokes not because it was frivolous — the woman’s injuries were far from laughable. No, the case became infamous due to a media propaganda campaign by corporate America to limit our citizen’s access to the judicial system. Powerful lobbyists demonized the lawsuit as the posterchild for runaway juries and frivolous lawsuits in order to limit corporations’ exposure for harms they cause to innocent Americans.

The fact is, our civil justice system only allows one way to fix what can be fixed, to help what can’t be fixed, and to make up for what went wrong: an award of money. And a jury of our peers decides how much money is appropriate in each case. Every jury receives detailed instructions telling it what must be proven for the jury to award money to the injured party.

In the McDonald’s hot coffee case, that amount of money helped pay for the woman’s medical bills, made up for all the time she spent in the hospital and in recovery, and helped provide things she needed to perform her activities of daily living, which she couldn’t do as well after her hospitalization.

Watch the movie for yourself on HBO. After seeing the evidence firsthand, let us know if you still think the McDonald’s hot coffee case was the posterchild for frivolous lawsuits. You might just change your mind.

Trademark Dashboard

Last month, I posted about the Patent Dashboard, a fairly new feature on the USPTO’s website that provides statistics on how quickly and how well the USPTO is examining patent applications.

Last month, the USPTO’s Director announced a new Trademark Dashboard aimed at providing the same type of information for trademark application pendency. Currently, a trademark applicant can expect to hear something about an application within 3 months. Assuming no problems, total pendency is averaging a little under a year.

The new tool provides tons more useful statistics. As a practitioner, it is helpful to have this information available so I can give my clients a firm estimate of how much time it will take to secure a federal trademark registration. This represents a step in the right direction for the USPTO, which has been plagued by a lack of transparency about its operations in recent years.

Arkadelphia Signing Day is Wednesday

Congratulations to the graduating class of Arkadelphia High School, who are the recipents of the inagural Arkadelphia Promise Scholarship.

Thanks to the Ross Foundation and Southern Bancorp for funding this incredible commitment to the children of our community!

Nathan receives award from Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association

The Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) held its annual convention in Little Rock last weekend, and Nathan received ATLA's award for Outstanding Member of the Young Lawyers Division.

Nathan has been a member of ATLA since becoming a licensed attorney in 2004. However, Nathan's history with the organization is much older. Don has been a member of ATLA for three decades, and Nathan attended many an annual meeting in Eureka Springs with his father.

We are excited and proud to have ATLA award-winning trial lawyers within our ranks, as ATLA's mission statement coincides with our own:

ATLA has become the state’s largest and most active voluntary statewide legal organization representing, educating and developing Arkansas’ trial bar. Our members are attorneys dedicated to protecting the health and safety of Arkansas families, to enhancing consumer protections and to preserving each and every citizen's right to trial by jury and access to the courts.

For more information, please visit ATLA's website.