A string of dangerous and catastrophic tornados has hit Tulsa in the last few days. Some areas of northwest Tulsa have received more than 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Flash flooding and torrential rain have been reported throughout the city. This highest threat level of severe weather was last issued in… read more…
Our newest Oklahoma Crash Fatality Dashboard looks at recent FARS data to determine what areas of Tulsa are the most accident-prone. Luckily, between 2015 and 2016 accidents decreased by 4.5% on our roadways. However, the fatality rates are still too high and our drivers are still distracted. According to our data and data pulled from… read more…
Driver safety remains a major issue in Oklahoma, and it only seems to be getting more serious every year. We wanted to see how many motor vehicle crash deaths occur in the state, along with a closer look at any underlying causes or factors contributing to these increasing numbers. In order to do so, we… read more…
Do the privacy rights of an inmate confined in a county jail supersede the Oklahoma Open Records Act? A recent lawsuit against a Title 60 public trust that operates an Oklahoma jail facility is asking a court to answer that question. The Petition is available here. The issue arises from the custodial death of Kongchi… read more…
A riot broke out at a Tennessee prison operated by CoreCivic on Sunday night. According to news reports, 3 inmates were assaulted by others at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility. You can access the article here. Despite the number of involved inmates, CoreCivic insisted on referring to the incident as a “disturbance” and not a… read more…
Would a private prison company mislead the government to avoid paying taxes? According to New Mexico, that’s what CoreCivic did when it requested and received a multi-million dollar tax refund for housing federal inmates within the state. Article here. The scheme uncovered by New Mexico involved the mechanism used to house federal inmates. Rather than… read more…
Police misconduct is often defined by the use of excessive force. In Oklahoma, these excessive force claims can be proved in two ways. The first method is grounded in a constitutional standard that substantially borrows from the Fourth Amendment. There is one primary difference between the state and federal standards: whether the reasonableness of the… read more…
Accident victims have a right to know the compensation they are entitled to, and our civil justice system is designed to compensate people financially. That means determining how to quantify damages and injuries that may not be susceptible to a precise mathematical calculation. Another consideration is a defendant’s ability to pay. A paper judgment is… read more…
Richard “Gary” Black was a decorated Vietnam veteran. He also lived in Aurora, CO, where city officials permit officers to kill citizens and resume their duties before the investigation into the killing is completed. On Monday, this practice resulted in Mr. Black being gunned down by an Aurora police officer while Mr. Black was defending… read more…
Insurance companies adjust automobile accidents on a daily basis, most clients do not. So how do you know if an offer is fair following an injury accident? Simply stated, you generally don’t. Information is power, and when you work from an information disadvantage, you lose the leverage and bargaining power to level the playing field…. read more…