Mississippi Lawyer Blog

A tragic accident occurred over the weekend in which three (3) Jackson, Mississippi children were killed and 7 others were injured. A preliminary investigation revealed that a Ford Expedition was carrying 10 people, two more people than recommended by the manufacturer. The investigation also showed that the tires on the vehicle were not the correct size. In fact, the tires on the vehicle were not capable of carrying the weight of the vehicle, occupants and luggage. Finally, the left back tire had low tire pressure resulting in a blow out. Once the tire blew out, the driver was apparently unable to control the vehicle leading to the crash. Sadly, none of the occupants were wearing safety restraints and the children were not in child safety seats.

It is critically important to follow the manufacturer's guidelines for tire size, pressure, and occupancy loads. In today's world, we get too busy to check such things or entrust them to others. If we can learn anything from this tragic accident it should be that vehicle maintenance is imperative. The most precious cargo we carry day after day is our family. Please take time to check your tire pressure when going on long trips or even day to day driving. Check to make sure the tires you have on your vehicle are the correct size. Lastly, please fasten your safety belts and make sure your children are properly restrained. Routine maintenance and safety belts can be a lifesaver.

Continue reading "Overloading, Low Tire Pressure, Wrong Tires Cited in Mississippi Fatal Crash" »

I usually like to write entries that are light hearted and amusing (at least to me). But this is a very somber article because it deals with the loss of children. The Clarion Ledger had an article today discussing driving accidents involving teenagers and young persons in general. The Jackson, Mississippi area has been devastated recently with car and truck accidents involving young people. The families of those lost will feel this pain for as long as they are alive. As a parent of a soon-to-be driver I am already worried about my son driving. So what can we do to help our children become better drivers?

-First and foremost, no cell phones/texting while driving! Studies have shown that texting while driving is more dangerous than being under the influence of alcohol.

-Absolutely zero drinking and driving. Parents who allow their underage children to drink, and yes there are some that do, are not only encouraging poor decision making but are also endangering their children's lives and those who ride in a car with them or those of us on the highways.

-Reduce night driving. A recent study showed that driving more than 3 hours at night have the same effect as drinking. This is especially relevant during the holidays as we have so many college students coming home for Christmas break.

-Wear seatbelts at all times. And this goes for the passengers as well. How many times do we have to read about an accident where the occupants were ejected from the car because they weren't wearing their seatbelts? Buckle up!

Continue reading "Mississippi Teens' Car Accident Stats Grim" »

As a baseball coach for my son's U8 Coach Pitch team, today's article in the Clarion Ledger concerning a lawsuit against the Louisville Slugger bat company caught my attention. Brandon Patch was pitching for his Helena, Montana American Legion baseball team in 2003. He was struck in the head by a ball and died. He was only 18 years old. The Clarion Ledger article lacked facts so I found the original newspaper article which provided much more detail.

Brandon's family filed suit against Hillerich & Bradsby, the makers of the Louisville Slugger line of bats. A jury ruled against Hillerich & Bradsby and ordered them to pay damages in the amount of $850,000 for Brandon's death. The jury found that the company was responsible for not placing a warning label on the bat. The company appealed the decision but yesterday an appeals court upheld the judgment.

My son and his friends are at the age where a coach pitches the ball to them. The league is aptly named "Coach Pitch". It should be renamed "Coach Pitch, Then Duck"! I cannot tell you the number of times that these 7 year old kids have crushed a baseball that has come within inches of a coach's head. The baseball bats these kids are using are nothing short of rocket launchers. The barrels of the bats are as big as high school or college bats but they make them shorter and lighter for the kids. As a result,the Dads need to be light on their feet.

The technology got so advanced that colleges and other youth baseball governing bodies were forced to pass new legislation to limit the materials in the bats, Bats now have a BPF, bat performance factor, which establishes a method of measuring how a ball jumps off of a bat compared to how a ball rebounds off of a wall at a controlled speed. BPF is simply the increase in the liveliness of a ball hitting a bat compared to throwing a ball against a solid wall (i.e., 20% faster rebound = a BPF of 1.20).

Continue reading "Louisville Slugger Lliable in Wrongful Death " »

When you fly over Jackson, Ridgeland, The City of Madison, Flowood, or any of the surrounding cities you get a good idea how many homeowners have a swimming pool. Frankly, it amazes me the number of backyard pools. Spring is upon us and soon children will be out of school and either headed toward their backyard pools or to local public or private pools. Hopefully everyone knows some of the basic swimming safety rules, but if not take a minute to look over this list.

First and foremost all children need to be taught to swim as early as possible. The first swimming lesson that kids are given is what to do if they accidentally fall into a pool or other body of water. Generally that means "get to the side and grab on." My son started swimming late. He was about 4 years old. We waited longer than we should have but since he has some learning problems, we felt teaching him earlier was not practicable. Our decision to send our son to classes came because we decided to put in pool. I went with my son to the lessons and it was interesting to watch a child learn to swim. Honestly, it was a little painful, but then things that are good for kids in the long run can sometime be painful.

Once your child learns to swim he/she needs to be taught other basic safety rules like: Do not push other people in the pool. Stay away from the edge or don't try to reach for objects in the pool. Stay away from the water valve at the bottom of the pool. Kids that have reached the right maturity can understand these issues but young kids will not. With the younger kids the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends you never leave small children alone, even for just a minute while you run and get something in the house. Children can drown in just a matter of minutes. It is suggested that you stay within touch distance for any child under 5 years of age.

If you put in a backyard pool then your insurance company is going to require you to put a fence around the pool. In legal language a pool is called an attractive nuisance. A pool is one of those things that draws children like the sound of the ice cream truck. The fence should be at least 4 feet tall and go around all four sides with a secure lock above the reach of the children. It is also smart or a safe approach to have a pool alarm. When we put in our pool we of course had a 6 foot high fence. We had a pool alarm and several shepherd's hooks at each end of the pool along with floating rings for tossing to swimmers. We were still concerned about our child so we installed locks on all of the doors going out of our home. The locks were high enough so our child could not reach them and we had a note by each one that read: Is the Door Locked?
This kept us on our toes and made sure the backdoors to the pool were always secure.

I mentioned this earlier but the suctions on pools can be very dangerous. I just read a case where a 6 year old child drown when he swam down to the drain and the force of the drain held him down. The sitter had run in the house to get a towel and left the kid in the care of another person who, guess what? Could not swim! It broke my heart to read about the dad running out of the house and diving into the pool to rescue his child, but it was too late. There is currently a safety device you can put on pools that will cut off the suction in something gets in the drain. This is a good idea.

There are other safety rules a person can observe. I think these are the major ones talked about most of the time. In my mind carefully watching any child who uses your pool is the best safety device that can exist. If your child goes to another location to swim, make sure these safety rules are observed. Remember as parents it is our job to watch out for the safety of our kids-they just don't think that much about safety when they are trying to have fun.

Continue reading " SWIMMIMG POOL SAFETY RULES" »

Dear Friends:

Will those of you in Jackson, Hinds County, Ridgeland, Clinton, Madison, Flowood, Rankin and other cities around Jackson allow me a few minutes of your time to get on my soapbox? I will be brief. I started practicing law when I was 24. The year was 1980. Immediately I travelled all across this beautiful state helping people. But everywhere I went I was called "one of those Jackson lawyers" by other lawyers and people in the community. It was only after they got to know me and saw the dedication I put into helping my client that I was able to be just me.
The same has been true for years about Jackson, the city. Jackson has been getting a "bad rap" for 20 years. It frustrates me when I hear people running down Jackson, yet they come into the city to shop, go to the restaurants, go to the movie, go to the many Jackson Festivals, to visit the new multi-million dollar Children's Museum, to visit the Museum of Natural Science, to go to the great hospitals, to go to Federal Agencies or State Agencies, and for a million other reasons. Do you understand what I am getting at?
The City of Jackson is out Capitol. It hosts and supports events and things that smaller cities could not afford to do or do not have the infrastructure to do. Jackson is bigger. Jackson can from time to time have bigger problem. Jackson has had financial problems not due to any mismanagement but because of "flight" from the city. Currently there is a wonder revitalization going on in Jackson. We all should support that effort no matter where we live. In my opinion is especially true for the many small cities and suburbs around Jackson. The City of Jackson should be your partner in the overall plan of helping the entire metro area. When one benefits, we all benefit. If you don't believe in what I say then please do what my mom and dad tried to teach me when I was a child. My mom and dad were fond of saying: "Buddy, if you cannot say something nice, do not say anything at all." This was good advice then, and it is good advice now.

Here is a question I ask all parents. Why do we have laws requiring us to buckle our seat belts in our cars, but there are no requirements for seat belts on school buses? Most school buses across the country are not equipped with safety belts. The cost of seat belts on buses would cost about a nickel a day over the life of the bus. Interestingly bus manufacturers claim that seat belts are not needed because of what they call compartmentalization. This is the theory that kids will be protected in an accident because their heads will hit the front of padded seat. Does that seem reasonable to you as a parent? Maybe if we required the manufacturers of the school buses to put their own kids on the bus every day they might change their mind.
My response to Compartmentalization is that it only works in frontal collisions. Frontal collisions only account for 1/3 of all bus accidents. So 2 out of 3 crashes with school buses provide no protection for our kids and then in case of rear collisions, side collisions, or rollovers, children are completely unprotected. Here is another way I like to think of the problem. Suppose someone asked you if they could punch your 6 year old child in the head. You would be astonished at such a request. You would be angry. You might want to punch the person who asked the question. Well, without school seat belts then every time there is a school bus accident and the children hit the front of the padded seat, it is like having someone punch your child in the forehead. That is not okay with me. Yet, it seems to be the argument with the manufacturers.
I know it might cost more to put seat belts in school buses. We live in some very economically tough times. But would you give up one coke a day or one Starbucks coffee a day or a pack of cigarettes, or any luxury item for the protection of your kids? If you do not have kids or your kids do not ride the school bus I still believe you should be interested in this issue. All kids need our protection, whether they are our kids, whether they are white, black, yellow or brown. Kids are our future. And I will leave you with one other statement on this issue that might right a bell. When I was little I remember a Bible passage from Jesus that went something like this: Whatever you do to the least of my people, you do to me. Our kids are the least of our people because they cannot protect themselves. They have to get on the bus. So, I hope you will bring this issue up with other concern parents. I notice when I Googled this topic there were organizations promoting these safety concerns. You may wish to research into one or more of these groups and join to start a movement around the Jackson Metro Area.

Your graduating senior may still be your baby, but in the eyes of the law he or she is an ADULT!

That means you can no longer make important medical or financial decisions for your child without their permission. But your job of being a PARENT doesn't stop just because your child turns 18. If there's a medical emergency or your child asks for financial help, you NEED the ability to cut through the legal red tape and get involved.

FACT: Doctors, hospitals or financial institutions (i.e. college business offices, student loan processing agents, banks, etc) will NOT bend the rules on this! It's against privacy laws. You must have 3 KEY DOCUMENTS in place to make important medical or financial decisions on your child's behalf. Even something as simple as a status update would be refused!

It's easier to see this need in case of medical emergencies, but financial decisions are as equally concerning. Millions of college students fall prey to the "predatory" lenders on campus, all promising money through student credit cards and student loans. You need to be legally able to assist and safeguard the financial wellbeing of your new adult.

You need to ensure you do not fall prey these lenders yourself through cosigning for credit cards, student loans, etc. As a Mississippi bankruptcy attorney, I often I see young adults who have run up enormous debt during college and are now facing lawsuits and garnishments. I also see parents and grandparents are also facing the same due to cosigning for their childrens loans. Student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.

I call these 3 key documents the Parent Child Protection Kit, as they will give you the legal permission you need to HELP your child! Seeking the counsel of an attorney is always recommended, however these forms are all available on the internet, free of charge, and do not require an attorney.
• Advance Health Care Directive
• Financial Power of Attorney
• HIPPA Medical Release Form

Here's wishing your new adult a hearty congratulations on their big graduation day and hoping that, through your guidance, they will never need my services!!

With warmer weather arriving in Mississippi, it's just about time to head for the local pool, or it you're lucky, to the pool in your own backyard. However, it you have young children you should remain ever vigilant around swimming pools.

Each year in the United States more than 1,000 children die in swimming-related accident, with approximately 33% of these deaths occurring in swimming pools. In the U. S. in 2000 over 3,400 people lost their lives in drowning accidents; this does not include people who drowned in boating accidents. These tragic fatalities are very painful for the families, and should not happen.

Near drownings can leave the victim with serious problems, including brain damage. A large amount of water, such as a pool, is not required to pose a drowning threat. Many drownings occur in locations with as little as 2 inches of water, such as:
• A bucket with water
• A sink
• A bath tub
• A toilet
• A puddle

Continue reading "How to Avoid Swimming Pool Accidents in Mississippi" »

We should all be interested in saving kids' lives not only in Jackson, Ridgeland, and Madison, but in every county in Mississippi and every state in the United States. A new report has just come out stating that childred should stay in a rear facing child seat until age two (2) or they reach the correct weight for the seat. Kids should continue to use a booster seat until they are 4 feet 9 inches tall and continue to ride in the back seat of the car until they are 13 years old. Wow. I think back of the time when I was a kid and we crawled all over the car. We jumped on the backseat, climbed up to the front seat, put our head out of the windows, and did just about anything else you can do in a car when you are not strapped down.

One of the leading cause of death amoung young children is automobile deaths. The fact is we know more now then our parents knew about safety. Statistics can prove to us how and in what manner children are dying and we can do something to prevent these deaths. Safety has gottten more important both to the government and to some large companies. Believe it or not lawyers who bring product safety lawsuits have been responsible for many of the positive safety changes to consumers.

Here is a handy list of the various State Booster Seat Law Chart. If you want to be an advocate in Madison, Ridgeland, Clinton, Jackson, or any place in Mississippi there is a group you can join to help. People ask me all the time how I have so much time to to help charities or groups and I find that question funny. I don't feel like I do enough sometimes so if you are interested in being involved in one of these groups, "just do it."

I know when we as parents were trying to decide on a Child Safety Seat the choices were wide and varied. We did a good deal of research into the various seats. There was a interesting article in Parents Magazine called Ten Car Safety Seat Secrets. The article is short and worth the read.

Child safety is serious business. As parents we invest more in our children in terms of love, attention, time, and money then in anything else in life. Let's take the best care we can of them.

Continue reading "Save Kid's lives in Jackson, Madison, and Ridgeland" »

In the state of Mississippi, there are certain people who feel the purpose of Youth Court is to alleviate the constant backlog of criminal cases in other courts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Youth Court has exclusive power over these types of cases:

1. Delinquency Hearings: These are "mini-trials" dealing with delinquent acts committed by children. Delinquent acts are considered any actions that would carry a criminal punishment if those actions were committed by an adult.

2. Child Abuse/Neglect Hearings. At times, these hearings can end up terminating parental rights when parent(s) have failed or neglected to provide basic, fundamental care to their child/children.

3. Children in Need of Supervision Hearings

4. Involuntary Commitment proceedings involving children in need of special care or mental treatment.

According to the statutes in Mississippi dealing with Youth Court, the purpose of this Court is to see that each child who comes in contact with the youth court becomes a responsible, accountable and productive citizen.
Each child shall receive care, guidance and control preferably in the child's own home, as long as that home can provide that care. It is simple and good public policy to have the parents of each child be responsible for their care and support, but when it is necessary to remove a child from the control of that child's parents, the youth court will provide proper care for that child.

The two principal factors to determine the jurisdiction of Youth Court are age and conduct. No child may be 18 or over and be handled by the Youth Court. The Court looks at the age of the child when the alleged offense occurred. Once within the Youth Court, a judge may transfer the case to Circuit Court, as long as a transfer hearing is conducted, and the judge is satisfied that other alternatives have been exhausted or will be ineffective in the particular case before the judge.

All of us have heard the range of percentage of marriages that end in divorce. And with these divorces, inevitably, there are often times minor children involved. The parties go their separate ways, either amicably or not, with an understanding of what their responsibilities will be with regard to their children. This usually includes who has primary custody, what the visitation schedule will be, child support issues, who pays for daycare, etc. Those decisions are obviously all made at or near the final judgment of divorce. And things may go along swimmingly from there on out. But more and more it seems, one parent finds the need to relocate - perhaps for the necessity of employment or possibly for the comfort of another location - but when this happens, especially when that move takes a parent to another state, all the arrangements finalized at the time of the divorce concerning those minor children become much more complicated. And in some instances, one party desires to go back to court to try to modify their agreement to reflect the change.

Once a court has ruled on a minor's support, custody, etc., that court typically maintains jurisdiction over that minor. In cases where the custodial parent goes to another state, its easy to imagine the tension that would be created. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) is a set of law designed to address custody issues that may arise in such situation. Example: John and Jane marry in Mississippi, have children and then divorce in Mississippi. A Mississippi judge orders the terms of their divorce and custody arrangements. Jane then moves to Arkansas with the children and files a Petition in a court there in order to modify the terms of her and John's custody, visitation and support. In this situation, the ability of Jane to bring such an action and the likelihood of her success would be governed by the provisions of the UCCJEA.

The attorneys at Coxwell and Associates understand the UCCJEA and can help navigate clients through what is typically an emotional and inflammatory issue. If you or a friend are facing such a situation, feel free to call Coxwell and Associates for a free initial consultation.

Children being neglected or abused at daycares or schools is intolerable. Many of us make enormous sacrifices for the care and protection of our children. It is extremely difficult to leave our children in the care of non-family members when we are occupied; however, outside child care is a necessity for thousands of parents in Mississippi and millions throughout the nation. Given that it is a necessity for so many, though, means that child care providers must provide certain standards of care and supervision when entrusted with such an important responsibility.

Lack of Supervision

If children are not properly monitored while being taken care of, they can sustain a variety of injuries playing unsafe games, playing in hazardous areas such as the street, or during dangerous horse play with other kids. In any of these cases, it is the child care provider's responsibility to ensure that the child is safe and unharmed while in his or her care.

Child Neglect and Abuse

In recent years, a disturbing trend of child neglect and abuse while in day care or with the babysitter has led many families to file lawsuits against their child care providers for injuries. If your child has been physically harmed in child care, or sustained emotional injury, Coxwell & Associates can help you and your family achieve peace of mind and financial compensation for any resulting injuries or damages.

OUR MOST PRECIOUS ASSETS!

Many of us make enormous sacrifices for the care and protection of our children. It is extremely difficult to leave our children in the care of non-family members when we are working or otherwise occupied, however, outside child care is a necessity for thousands of parents in Mississippi. It is very important that parents investigate and ask question about the child care that they are considering as custodians of their children. Child providers are required by law to provide certain standards of care and supervision when entrusted with the care of children.
If children are not properly monitored while being taken care of they can sustain a variety of injuries playing unsafe games, playing in hazardous areas such as the street, or during dangerous horse play with other kids. In any of these cases, it is the child care provider's responsibility to ensure that the child is safe and unharmed while in his or her care. Fortunately, the majority of child-care facilities employ responsible workers who love watching and supervising children.
In recent years, there has been a disturbing trend of child neglect and abuse at daycare facilities or when children are left with a babysitter. This has led many families to file civil lawsuit and to seek criminal punishment against their child care providers for injuries. None of us want to be in that position. As the old saying goes: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Here are some simple tips to remember : 1. Investigate the daycare facility or individual caring for your child. Nowadays it is possible to run background investigations on virtually anyone using the Internet. 2. Check to see that the facility has a business privilege license and is a registered childcare provider. 3. Ask for five (5) references spanning a period of time and check with the references. 4. Make a careful examination of the facilities, talk to the staff, and by all means speak openly and bluntly about any concerns you have about leaving your child. Never forget that as parents we owe it to out children to protect them and be the guardians of their safety.