ReleaseWire Connect

New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez has signed into law a bill that prohibits texting on New Mexico roads. The new law is a good step in the right direction in addressing what has become a very serious problem on New Mexico roads, which is reflective of a wider national problem. This behavior leads to an unacceptable number of automobile accidents resulting in injury or death.

Homelessness has become such a huge problem throughout the country that many simply accept it as the new normal. Like many cities throughout the country, Albuquerque has a significant and persistent problem with homelessness. And there are many that refuse to accept homelessness as normal or acceptable.

Few recent technological advancements have affected the legal process the way that social media has. Social media is often a gold mine of information on the parties to a lawsuit. Though the issues apply across the board in all litigation, the focus here will be primarily on personal injury claims. More specifically, it will apply to the discovery process in a personal injury case.

The recent United States Supreme Court case of Missouri v. McNeely addressed the legality of a forced warrantless non-consensual blood draw in a DWI case. Though the Court headed off what would have surely resulted in wholesale violation of individual rights in DWI investigations, the ruling was quite limited in scope and will have a negligible effect on the rights of New Mexico DWI suspects.

The lure of social media is just too strong to resist for some. Some feel compelled to share their every thought and moment throughout the day. Not only do they share, but they do so in the most artful ways with photos, video, links, diary style entries, and the like. Remarkably, these same folks are often shocked to find that all of this is admissible in court against them in their divorce proceedings (or other legal or other legal proceedings for that matter).

Social media has created all kinds of new challenges and opportunities in litigation. It also creates a number of possible avenues for abuse. In nutshell, the courts are having a hard time keeping up with social media technology. Some issues are old in today's terms (a few years). One interesting issue than will have far reaching implications in litigation involves service of process issues.

A New Mexico news story has been getting a lot of press of late. A man convicted in 2010 of vehicular homicide for a DWI fatality has now filed suit against the bars and restaurants that served him. The man has also filed suit against his drinking buddy on the night of the fatal DWI auto accident.

US News and World Report maintains a database of the nation’s nursing homes, ranking them from best to worst with numerous evaluation criteria. The database was created in conjunction with Nursing Home Compare. The report and others like it are very important for anyone faced with the need or possibility of placing a loved one in one of these facilities.

Collins & Collins, P.C., an Albuquerque based law firm, will be meeting with homeless veterans at Noon Day Ministries at 101 Broadway NE weekly on Thursdays from 1 PM to 3 PM.

The homeless problem is pretty daunting nationally. It is equally so locally in Albuquerque. The problem is so large that it sometime seems there is no good place to start to try to help with the problem. This was the challenge that we were facing at Collins & Collins, P.C. when trying to figure out if and where we could make a difference