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March 12th, 2018

3/12/2018

PRESS RELEASE

Alan C. Brown, Esq. Has Been Nominated and Accepted as a 2018 AIOPIA'S
10 Best in California For Client Satisfaction

The American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys has recognized the exceptional performance of California's Personal Injury Attorney Alan C. Brown, Esq. as 2018 10 Best Personal Injury Attorneys for Client Satisfaction.

The American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys is a third-party attorney rating organization that publishes an annual list of the Top 10 Personal Injury attorneys in each state. Attorneys who are selected to the "10 Best" list must pass AIOPIA's rigorous selection process, which is based on client and/or peer nominations, thorough research, and AIOPIA's independent evaluation. AIOPIA's annual list was created to be used as a resource for clients during the attorney selection process.

One of the most significant aspects of the selection process involves attorneys' relationships and reputation among his or her clients. As clients should be an attorney's top priority, AIOPIA places the utmost emphasis on selecting lawyers who have achieved significant success in the field of Personal Injury law without sacrificing the service and support they provide. Selection criteria therefore focus on attorneys who demonstrate the highest standards of Client Satisfaction.

We congratulate Alan C. Brown, Esq. on this achievement and we are honored to have him as a 2018 AIOPIA Member.

You can contact Alan C. Brown, Esq. directly at 714-832-4811 x 228 or www.daydayandbrown.com.

Congratulations to the Attorneys of Day, Day & Brown!

1/16/2018

Day, Day & Brown gets young girl $300,000.00 in case against the City of Westminster

12/28/2017

By DOUG MORINO | dmorino@gmail.com | Orange County Register
November 13, 2013 at 4:52 pm

Westminster leaders have settled a lawsuit resulting in the city’s largest legal settlement in five years.

The city paid $300,000 to a girl who was seriously injured in September 2011 after a fountain in the Civic Center fell on top of her. An additional $45,000 went to her father, Jaime, for emotional distress after witnessing the accident.

Hayley Lynn Casker was playing in a park area of the Civic Center. Her father, Jaime, was watching close by.

Hayley, age 7 at the time, spotted a large decorative fountain with three large bowls that wasn’t working. She approached the fountain and reached for a pool of water left in the base. The heavy concrete structure collapsed on her, crushing her body, according to a complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court.

Both her femurs were broken, and her left femur broke through the skin. Her two front two front teeth were also broken, said the family’s attorney, Alan C. Brown.
Jaime Casker rushed over, took the broken fountain off of his daughter and carried her to get help. An off-duty Westminster police officer was nearby and came to their aid. Paramedics soon showed up.

“Her father witnessed what happened, and he thought his daughter had died,” Brown said.
In the suit, the family claimed that the fountain was in need of repair and not properly maintained by the city. The area was not surrounded with warning barricades or signs indicating the fountain was not working and could be dangerous, the complaint alleged. Further, the city did not have records for maintenance and inspection, Brown said.

The family originally asked for $1.2 million, said Westminster Deputy City Attorney Harold W. Potter. On July 24, during closed session, the City Council approved the settlement.
The Caskers avoided a jury trial to put the issue behind them, their attorney said. “We felt basically at that point the city was being fair and the dad wanted closure for his daughter,” Brown said.

Hayley’s left femur was surgically repaired. Today, Hayley is recovering and still walks with a limp, Brown said. Hayley’s money will be paid out over time, starting when she is 18 to offset any future medical bills she may have.

The fountain has been removed, Potter said.

https://www.ocregister.com/2013/11/13/westminster-settles-lawsuit-with-young-girl-father/

When bullying leads to suicide, are schools responsible?

12/27/2017

By: Alexandra Mondalek
In early December, a middle school student in California named Rosalie Avila committed suicide. Her story echoes those that seem to arise on a regular basis now: stories of school bullies, mournful communities, and GoFundMe pages created to finance funerals.
But there’s also a movement to find justice for what parents believe was their late child’s school neglecting to stop bullying on school property and online. In September 2016, a Rochester, N.Y., family filed a lawsuit against the district of their 12-year-old’s school, claiming negligence for an ongoing bullying problem that they say caused their child’s suicide. In August, a New Jersey family filed a lawsuit against their child’s school district, saying it failed to stymie cyberbullying that they say caused their 12-year-old to kill herself. An 8-year-old boy in Cincinnati died by suicide, and the family sued the school district for wrongful death in August.
The Avila family now plans to do the same, saying they verbally told school administrators and teachers of the Yucaipa-Calimesa School District that Rosie was being bullied but were met with inaction, according to the family’s lawyer, Brian Claypool.
But the Avila family also says laws regarding bullying in public schools need to change, and they started an online petition for U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Mike Morrell, and California Assembly member Chad Hayes to draft “Rosalie’s Law.” Started two weeks ago, the petition has nearly met its 5,000-signature goal. “Rosie’s Law would require schools nationwide to establish and implement suicide detection and prevention programs on campus,” according to a press release.
Meanwhile, the school district issued the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle:
“Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Avila family. Our students, teachers, staff and the communities are mourning the loss of Rosalie as well. Yucaipa-Calimesa School District is committed to working with its students and the community on academics, student safety and well-being. We strive every day to be a safe, supportive and engaging learning environment. We will continue to raise awareness and work with students and the community to support our children. The issue of suicide awareness and prevention is very important to discuss and address as a community. We are cooperating fully with the Sheriff’s office as it conducts its investigation. We are also conducting our own internal investigation. Given that these efforts are ongoing, and due to our commitment to protecting the privacy of our students and their families, we cannot share any details at this time.”
But as media outlets report these stories with what seems to be increasing frequency, one might wonder: Are child suicide rates actually increasing, or is more attention paid now because of the 24-hour news cycle and the speed at which these stories spread on social media?

Rosie Avila, who attended Mesa View Middle School in California, took her own life in early December. The family says the school ignored its “bullying epidemic,” according to the family’s lawyer, Brian Claypool. (Photo: Courtesy of the Avila family)
MoreAccording to a CNN report in August citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, children younger than 13 die by suicide once every five days. The data, which covered U.S. suicides from 1999 to 2015 for children ages 5 to 12, found the rate has increased by 54 percent for 11- and 12-year-olds.
A study from May 2017, meanwhile, looked at data from the Pediatric Health Information System and found that the number of children’s hospital admissions of patients ages 5 to 17 for suicidal thoughts or actions more than doubled from 2008 to 2015.
While grieving parents are beginning to hold schools responsible for their children’s deaths, every state already has laws in place that require schools to implement anti-bullying policies. And at Mesa View Middle School, which Avila attended, reporting procedures and disciplinary action were outlined, according to the school district’s publicly available bullying prevention and intervention policy. “School employees are required to report incidences of bullying to principal and principal is obligated to report to district; social media accounts may be suspended,” the policy says. “Corrective actions for a student who commits an act of bullying of any type may include counseling, behavioral intervention and education, and, if the behavior is severe or pervasive as defined in Education Code 48900, may include suspension or expulsion in accordance with district policies and regulations.”
Whether that policy was implemented and enforced is the subject of an investigation. It also reflects the larger problem lawmakers and arbiters nationwide face when dealing with instances of school-related bullying: There is a lack of effective enforcement mechanisms by the state, and a lack of data about which policies are best practice.
“There are anti-bullying curricula out there, but nothing that’s demonstrated all that much success,” Justin Patchin, the co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and a professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We’re learning over the last decade that we’ve made progress on what works but we need more resources. Some schools are doing amazing things to prevent bullying, but there are no resources to evaluate efforts — it’s all kind of speculation and anecdotes.”
Patchin explains that based on the data available, schools that use a “social-emotional learning curriculum” to teach students things like the “steps to respect” tend to have an impact on how kids relate to each other. Still, that doesn’t reflect what happens when there is bullying. One 2013 study conducted by the American Education Research Association recommended that school employees need to better describe the types of bullying that take place to better prevent it.
“Federal, state, private money is all needed. Some schools fundraise for these things, and PTAs sponsor assemblies or other programs to raise awareness. But if we want to make a serious dent, legislatively, we need more resources,” Patchin explains. “The problem with most state bullying laws is that they say schools have to deal with the issue and require schools to have policies, but don’t provide provisions or money for schools to purchase the curriculum or hire social workers to do assessments. If authorities were really prioritizing this, they’d also provide the resources to fight it.”
The California Department of Education outlines sample bullying prevention and conflict resolution policies on its website, as well as 35 regulations within the California Education Code that relate to discrimination, harassment, and bullying. California Assembly member Patrick O’Donnell, chair of the education committee, declined to comment on the laws through a spokesperson, and O’Donnell’s co-chair, Assembly member Rocky Chavez, did not respond to requests for comment.
For the Avila family to win a case against the school district, the family would have to prove that bullying was the cause of their daughter’s death — a difficult thing to do in a world where the internet has led to increased reports of depression in children, though Claypool says causation is “defined as a substantial factor in bringing about the death, not the sole cause of the death.”
Dewey Cornell, a professor at the University of Virginia and clinical psychologist who works on the school’s Youth Violence Project, says it’s difficult to determine how frequently school systems are sued for failing to protect students from bullying because most cases are settled without readily available records. But he says there has been a “dramatic increase in litigation” since the early 1990s. Still, parents tend to lose cases to schools, Cornell adds, citing data from 2014.
“No one expects schools to be perfect, but educators cannot ignore bullying and they should take reasonable steps to maintain a healthy school climate that is conducive to learning,” Cornell told Yahoo Lifestyle in an email. “In the workplace, adults are protected from a hostile work environment. Women and men who are sexually harassed at work can sue. There is no reason why children in school should not be afforded the same protections as adults in the workplace.”
Or, as Rosalie’s bereaved mother, Charlene Avila, told NBC News, “Now I know what my daughter was up against. Something needs to be done.“

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bullying-leads-suicide-schools-responsible-170011810.html

Alexandra Mondalek

Trump signs bill reinstating the FAA’s drone registration requirement

12/13/2017

Trump signs bill reinstating the FAA’s drone registration requirement

Brian Heater
TechCrunchDecember 12, 2017

Back in late-2015, the Federal Aviation Administration introduced new rules requiring owners of small drones to submit their devices to a database and attach a registration code to the side of the product. In May of this year, a judge in the D.C. Circuit shot the rule down, and the FAA began the process of returning the $5 registration fee.
Now the registry is back on, courtesy of a bill signed into law earlier today by President Trump. The reinstated rules were one small piece of the $700 billion National Defense Authorization Act, about which the President reportedly said, “We need our military, it's gotta be perfecto.” Likely the bit about drone registration didn’t even register a blip on the President’s radar.
In a statement to TechCrunch, an FAA spokesperson unsurprisingly gave the rules the thumbs up. “We welcome the reinstatement of registration rules for all small unmanned aircraft,” the FAA said. “Ownership identification helps promote safe and responsible drone operation and is a key component to full integration.”
The initial ruling was shot down this spring after the appeals court determined that the FAA didn’t have the authority to regulate model aircraft. 838,620 people registered drones that first go-round. The FAA anticipated that 2.3 million consumer drones would be sold this year in the U.S. alone, adding that it was going back to the drawing board with the regulation.
“The FAA put registration and operational regulations in place to ensure that drones are operated in a way that is safe and does not pose security and privacy threats," It said in a statement at the time. "We are in the process of considering our options and response to the decision.”
The registry requires all drones weighing between 0.55 and 55 pounds be entered in the database. The full run down of rules can be found here.

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-signs-bill-reinstating-faa-191928630.html

Day, Day & Brown is a Proud Sponsor of the LA Galaxy Orange County Girls Team!

12/11/2017

Great Job Team!

Congratulations to DD&B!

11/10/2017

Day, Day & Brown has been Awarded as a Highly Recommended Business by The Trabuco Canyon Business Owners!

Great job attorneys and staff!

Drones to soon perhaps power electric vehicles

10/18/2017

Amazon patents a drone that delivers a charge to power up EVs on the go

Darrell Etherington (@etherington)

A recent Amazon patent could be an answer to range anxiety, albeit one that sounds a bit more sci-fi than practical solution at the moment: the newly granted patent (via Roadshow) describes a drone that could carry a battery charge for electric cars, and deliver them to any cars out on the road that need them while in route, providing enough juice to get to a proper charging station.

There’s a lot that seems crazy about this patent, however – including the fact that drones themselves require a lot of tricky power management to get even limited flight times with lightweight cargo on board. Keeping themselves charged and within range of vehicles in need of a top-up might be the most challenging aspect of the idea overall, in fact.

It’s not the only hurdle in terms of making this thing real, either; the patent also describes a rooftop docking station that the drone can land on to stay connected with the vehicle and provide power on an ongoing basis while it continues along its route. That means either aftermarket modifications or buy-in from automakers will be required to make it happen, too.

At the moment, it’s not a super realistic concept, in other words. But it has potential, especially if we get to a future where EVs are commonplace, as are drone delivery services (something Amazon definitely is interested in making happen).

Have you seen these signs? This not only includes people, but Drones too!

10/2/2017

Ruling gives FAA more power over drones than local governments

9/25/2017

Ruling gives FAA more power over drones than local governments

Mariella Moon
September 24, 2017
When it comes to drone regulations, the FAA's rules trump anything local governments conjure up. That's what a federal court in Massachusetts has proven when it ruled in favorof a commercial drone owner who sued the city of Newton over its drone ordinance. Newton resident Michael Singer filed the lawsuit in a bid to eliminate some of the city's rules that don't align with the FAA's, including having to register with every municipality it has to fly over and to maintain an altitude of 400 feet and above over private and Newton city property. Two of the rules he chose not to challenge prohibit operating drones in a reckless manner and the use of drones to spy on people.
Singer argued that having to register with every municipality would make flights impossible, since an unmanned flying vehicle could cross several for a trip that takes a few minutes. In addition, the FAA requires UAVs for businesses to fly under 400 feet. US District Judge William G. Young explained that "Newton's choice to restrict any drone use below this altitude (400 feet) thus works to eliminate any drone use in the confines of the city, absent prior permission. This thwarts not only the FAA's objectives, but also those of Congress for the FAA to integrate drones into the national airspace." Singer said the ruling "ensure[s] that the skies would remain open for new technology that would benefit society."
Since we're still figuring out which drone rules and regulations work, the judge's decision could influence similar cases and even local authorities' decisions regarding drone use in the future. Doug Johnson, Consumer Technology Association's VP of Tech Policy, said the ruling "establishes a rock-solid affirmation that the federal government unequivocally holds jurisdiction over the drone industry."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ruling-gives-faa-more-power-013400638.html