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● SPRING 2018 CERTIORARI Journal of Consumer Advocacy CONSUMER INFORMATION FOR THE CLIENTS AND FRIENDS OF FRASIER, FRASIER & HICKMAN, LLP Page 2: ● CASE FILE Texting and Driving Is Dangerous Health Costs and Small Page 3: Arbitrator Rules for Business Recovered Firefighter Union After Serious Wreck Frasier, Frasier & Nathan H. was riding his motorcycle to Hickman, LLP work in Bartlesville almost two years ago. At Attorneys at Law the last major intersection before arriving, an inattentive driver failed to yield and ran over 1700 Southwest Boulevard Tulsa, Oklahoma 74107 him in the middle of the intersection. As was 918-584-4724 or his practice, Nathan wore a helmet that day. 1-800-522-4049 Nevertheless, he suffered severe and exten- sive orthopedic injuries, requiring multiple Internet site: surgeries. http://www.frasierlaw.com Adding insult to injury, Nathan also devel- E-mail Address: oped severe infections in his wounds and [email protected] broken bones from his hospital stay. Not only did the accident leave him physically inca- Thomas Dee Frasier pacitated for months with multiple surgeries 1924-2001 and hospitalizations, but the small business When the doctors were finally he worked hard for years to develop was dev- able to release Nathan James E. Frasier astated. Nathan hired Frank Frasier and Frasier, from their care, a demand Steven R. Hickman Frasier & Hickman, LLP, because Nathan’s for settlement was made. John W. Flippo local lawyer knew his serious injuries needed someone willing to fight the insurance com- However, Frank Frasier proved them wrong J.L. Franks pany in court. and negotiated a million dollar settlement, The Frasier firm collected all the informa- convincing the insurance company that both Frank W Frasier tion necessary for Nathan’s claim. When the policies provided coverage. This was the doctors were finally able to release Nathan policy limit. If Nathan had uninsured motorist George M. Miles from their care, a demand for settlement was coverage, he could have obtained substan- made. In the meantime, investigation revealed tially more. Kathryn H. Black that there were actually two separate insur- With the settlement, Nathan was able to pay ance policies that should provide coverage for his medical bills and have money to restart Maureen M. Johnson the accident. Predictably, the insurance com- his small business. He also has added UM pany rejected the notion. coverage to his policy. CERTIORARI ● WORKER Part of Workers’ Comp Law Struck Down In 2014, the Legislature provides that there shall be no spe- implemented a complete over- cial law where a general law can be haul of Oklahoma’s Workers’ applicable. It looked at the ques- Compensation system. The stated tion of whether oil and gas owners purpose was to save money for and operators were somehow dif- businesses. Of course, the way to ferent from other kinds of employ- do that is to reduce benefits to the ers and determined that they were maimed and injured. not. Accordingly, the Supreme Historically (and even under the Court struck down this special pro- new law, in most cases), an injured vision, leaving oil and gas work to worker can receive benefits from Under the new law, however, be treated the same as any other his employer, even if the injury was there was a provision that exempt- kind of employment. caused by the fault of a third-party. ed owners and operators of oil As the new Workers’ Under both the old and the new and gas wells from any third-party Compensation law has been imple- law, if the injured worker recovers liability where someone was hurt at mented, several of its more dra- from the third-party, the Workers’ the well. conian measures have been struck Compensation insurer is entitled The Oklahoma Supreme Court, down by the Oklahoma Supreme to recoup a share of the benefits it in considering this provision, noted Court. Little by little, some protec- has paid. that the Oklahoma Constitution tion is being returned to workers. ● CONSUMER When Driving, Texting More Dangerous than Drinking Texting while driving is more How to set an auto-reply dangerous than drinking and driv- for phone calls ing. Technically, it is categorized on your smart phone as “distracted driving”, along with Various applications are other activities such as personal available for use with smart grooming, talking on the phone, phones that will send an auto- and searching for loose items, the mated response to an incoming National Highway Traffic Safety text while your vehicle is oper- Administration says. ating. Use auto-responses to let According to NHTSA, in 2015 people know “I don’t text while alone, 3,477 people were killed, and driving.” 391,000 were injured in motor vehi- cle crashes involving distracted driv- ers. During daylight hours, approximately 660,000 drivers For an iPhone are using cell phones while driving. That creates enormous • Step 1: On your iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > potential for deaths and injuries on U.S. roads. Respond with Text. Teens were the largest age group reported as distracted • Step 2: You will see 3 pre-formatted quick responses. at the time of fatal crashes, according to NHTSA, but all These are the default ones offered by Apple. Tap on age categories are using smart phones and texting while one of the default messages. driving. • Step 3: Type in your own message. Repeat for all three. For more information, click NHTSA’s website on • Step 4: Tap the “Phone” button at the top left of the Distracted Driving at: https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driv- screen to save the new messages. ing/distracted-driving. Spring 2018 2 www.frasierlaw.com TOMY DEE’S CORNER “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt January 20, 1937 Gun rights, the Second Amendment, is, appropriately trained peace offi- tighter firearms regulations all are cers can be and are present in many part of the current national conversa- school buildings already. tion fueled by a spate of mass-casu- And as far as I know, there’s not alty shootings in the past few years, any suggestion that the use of certi- particularly those in which students fied law enforcement officers does and teachers have been wounded and not work to deter violence and pro- killed in schools.. tect schoolchildren and teachers. The issue is complex and there How to afford properly trained have been a lot of suggestions from officers is not a legitimate issue. How all sides of the debate. much is school safety worth? Inability But one that has been thrown into to fund legitimate protection should the middle of the table more often not be confused with unwillingness. than most others is the suggestion of armed police officers, sheriff’s depu- If arming school personnel is autho- arming school teachers and other per- ties, and school police must receive. rized by the federal or state govern- sonnel as a way to protect students The reasoning is obvious. There are ments, will deep training such as that and faculty. so many things that can go wrong provided by CLEET, be required? And Currently, the presence of firearms when discharging or even brandish- will local school boards be called in public schools is tightly regulated. ing a firearm in a crowded space, upon to tailor decisions to the needs In Oklahoma, only law enforcement such as a school building. There is of the communities they serve? officers who have been qualified and a danger that students would take a The issue of arming the faculty certified by CLEET – the Council of gun from insufficiently-trained per- needs to be carefully, thoughtfully, Law Enforcement Education & Training sonnel. Some schools and school considered and should not be decid- – are allowed to bring firearms into districts have assigned CLEET certi- ed by knee-jerk reaction. a school. This is the training that all fied officers to their sites. The fact – Jim Frasier ● CASE FILE Arbitrator Rules for Firefighter Union For many years the City of Claremore has had an was their custom, negotiated the contents of a test for employee handbook. Firefighters, however, were always the promotion to lieutenant position. Hardly before the covered by their negotiated collective bargaining agree- ink was dry, the city changed the content of the test, ment, in accord with Oklahoma law. That law provides including adding the city handbook to the test. The that all policies and practices of the fire department as union filed grievances. of the first day of the fiscal year are part of the collec- In our experience, contract grievances are hard to tive bargaining agreement and can be changed only by win before an arbitrator. This is distinguished from dis- negotiation. cipline grievances, where arbitrators tend to be much Over the years, Claremore has had different city man- more sympathetic. agers. Some of them have recognized that the employ- However, in this matter, Arbitrator Wolitz out of ee handbook was not negotiated and therefore did Texas followed the law and ruled that the city hand- not apply to firefighters. Others claimed that it applied book did not apply to firefighters until it was negoti- to firefighters and all other city employees. However, ated and that the city could not change the content of whenever a city manager would attempt to enforce the the lieutenant test immediately after the parties agreed city handbook on firefighters, the union would object to what it should contain. and the city would back down. This was a big win for the firefighters at the City of That is, until last spring.

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