LIVONIA, MICHIGAN – February 10, 2011- In an effort to reduce traffic fatalities and serious accidents Michigan auto accident attorney Terry Cochran says all motorists need to be responsible and stop texting while driving.

While Michigan in 2010 enacted legislation banning texting while driving the law is not being broadly enforced yet statewide. Because enforcement of the law is challenging, Cochran urges voluntary compliance by all motorists.

“Far too many people have been killed or maimed for life because of thoughtless driver’s who feel compelled to text while driving,” says Cochran, “Michigan took the right step by banning texting while driving but it is challenging for police officers to spot violations so I urge all motorists to simply stop engaging in this deadly practice!”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 20 percent of all injury crashes in 2009 involved distracted driving and in 2009 some 5,474 persons were killed and 448,000 injured in crashes involving distracted driving. Other studies show that:

· Motorists who engage in texting while driving are 23 times as likely to be involved in an accident that those who don’t.

· Texting while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. A motorist texting while driving at 35 mph will travel 25 feet before bringing the car to a complete halt compared to four feet a drunk driver would cover at the same speed.

· A Pew Research study in 2010 shows that 47 percent of adult drivers admit to texting while driving compared to 34 percent of teenagers.

These findings and others convinced Oprah Winfrey to conduct a nationwide campaign in 2010 to persuade Americans to sign a No Phone Zone pledge to agree not to phone or text while driving. In response, more than 200,000 persons signed the pledge including more than 60 celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld, Morgan Freeman, Tina Fey and others.

Cochran also noted that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a strong advocate of measures to reduce accidents caused by distracted drivers, met with Ford and Chrysler CEOs on January 25, 2011, to discuss automotive safety technology related to driving distractions.

In January 2011 T-Mobile added the DriveSmart phone app as a trial to one of its phones that senses when the phone owner is in a moving car and then forwards to voice mail all income phone calls and text messages, eliminating the urge to pick up the phone while driving to read or return a text. 911 calls would not be blocked. T-Mobile plans to offer the app on several other devices.

“I am pleased that communication technology leaders have joined with Oprah to raise national awareness of the dangers of texting while driving in an effort to reduce the tragic consequences of this silly habit,” adds Cochran. “Unfortunately, despite the practice being illegal in Michigan and several other states, the practice of texting while driving still continues to cause needless deaths and disabling injuries.”

Cochran is making the appeal because of personal experience in dealing with families and survivors of persons killed by distracted drivers. Cochran obtained a $1.3 million judgment for a Marlette MI family whose son was killed in an accident caused by a truck driver who was distracted because of fatigue.

In the recent past Cochran also has campaigned for the Michigan Transportation Department to adopt an aggressive program to widen two-lane highways throughout areas to make high-speed travel safer for all as well as his campaign to lower the mandatory retirement age for truck drivers to 65.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 8, 2010 – ANN ARBOR, MICH. — Ann Arbor SPARK, the region’s driving force of innovation and economic growth, will launch “Business Law & Order” on September 20.  The nine-session series will give entrepreneurs insight into important legal issues surrounding company formation and growth.

“The legal considerations of starting and growing a business are complicated, and expert legal advice is often outside of a start-up company’s budget,” said Michael A. Finney, Ann Arbor SPARK’s CEO.  “Business Law & Order will help entrepreneurs gain a better understanding of legal considerations, from company formation to signing an initial contract and everything in between, including intellectual property and hiring.”

Business Law & Order will help new business owners understand their options and make better decisions relating to the structure, organization and management of their business.  Topics planned for Business Law & Order include business structure, intellectual property and doing business overseas.  Additional sessions will focus on compensating founders, hiring employees versus contractors and understanding commercial agreements.

Business Law & Order features a moderator and three panelists who will address different aspects of each featured topic.  The legal series is designed to give start-ups the basic legal information that they need to consider for business formation and growth and is not meant to provide one-on-one legal counsel.
Business Law & Order will meet at SPARK Central from 5-7 p.m. on the third Monday of every month except December, July and August.
There is no cost to attend Business Law & Order, but registration is encouraged.  To register for Ann Arbor SPARK’s Business Law & Order kickoff, visit http://www.annarborusa.org/events/details?e=10576.

ABOUT ANN ARBOR SPARK
Ann Arbor SPARK, a non-profit organization, is the driving force in establishing the Ann Arbor region as a destination for business expansion, retention, and location by identifying and meeting the needs of business at every stage, from startups to large organizations.  Ann Arbor SPARK represents all communities in the Washtenaw County. Ann Arbor SPARK collaborates with business, academic, government, and community investor partners including the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Washtenaw Community College, Michigan Works!/ETCS, Washtenaw County, the City of Ann Arbor, the Bank of Ann Arbor and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.  For more information, please call (734) 761-9317 or visit www.AnnArborUSA.org.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Robert and Ann Aikens have made a $10 million gift to the University of Michigan Law School for the school’s ongoing building expansion and renovation project.

Robert Aikens of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is chairman of Robert B. Aikens & Associates L.L.C., a commercial real estate development and management firm based in suburban Detroit, and a 1954 alumnus of the Law School. The gift is the largest ever made to the Law School by a living donor.

The Aikens’ gift will help fund construction that expands instructional space at the historic Law Quadrangle for the first time since the school’s main classroom building opened in 1933. The $102 million project, for which ground was broken in September, includes a new Law School Commons adjacent to existing Law School buildings, and a new four-story academic building across Monroe Street south of the Quadrangle.

In recognition of the Aikens’ extraordinary generosity, the Law School will name the new commons the Robert B. Aikens Commons. Blending contemporary and traditional architecture, the two-story, 16,000-square-foot space will have a glass roof that affords views of the surrounding stone walls. The Aikens Commons, which will include group study spaces, gathering spots for faculty and students, a café, and student organizational space, is destined to become the heart of Law School community life.

"Bob Aikens is one of the nation’s most respected developers of commercial real estate, and we are so pleased that his name will be associated in perpetuity with the Law Quadrangle, the architectural jewel in the university’s crown," said University President Mary Sue Coleman. "We are deeply grateful that Bob and Ann have chosen to invest in the university and the Law School at this critical time."

The couple has previously provided generous support to the Law School, the School of Art & Design, and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Ann Aikens earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Art & Design in 2002 and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the U-M School of Art & Design.

"When I was in law school, there were few places for the off-campus students to have lunch or work other than the Law Library," Robert Aikens said. "When I was appointed to the Building Committee, we found that most leading law schools had a gathering place. I am pleased to help our school join other leading law schools with such a wonderful facility."

Law School Dean Evan Caminker said the Robert B. Aikens Commons will have a dramatic impact on the student experience, making a school already known for its collegiality an even warmer and more welcoming place.

"By helping build the new commons, this splendid gift will enable generations of students to enjoy the soaring architecture of the Law Quad in an entirely new way," Caminker said. "The Robert B. Aikens Commons is sure to become a new nucleus for the intellectual and social life of the Law School and will help nurture the bonds students form here, both among themselves and with the faculty. We’re extremely grateful to Ann and Bob Aikens for their generosity."

A native of South Bend, Ind., Robert Aikens earned a Bachelor of Arts at Brown University before heading to Michigan to study law. He was a senior partner with the law firm of Wunsch, Aikens & Lungershausen before forming a company in his name in 1973 in Troy, Mich. His portfolio of projects has included regional shopping centers, main-street lifestyle centers, community centers, commercial office buildings and resort communities.

At U-M, Aikens has served on the Law School’s Committee of Visitors and its Detroit Major Gifts Committee. He has also served on the Brady Advisory Council of Johns Hopkins University, the Board of Trustees of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., and as stewardship chairman at Christ Church, Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills.

The new Law School facilities are scheduled for completion in 2012. The project architect is Hartman-Cox Architects of Washington, D.C., working in association with Michigan-based Integrated Design Solutions.

DETROIT (June 23, 2008) – Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP (Honigman) announced today that Cindy Bott joins the firm as a Partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group of the firm’s Corporate and Securities Department. She is located in Honigman’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, office.

Bott concentrates her practice on patent preparation and prosecution, freedom-to-operate opinions, intellectual property due diligence, licensing and collaboration agreements and patent strategies, particularly in relation to bio-technology.

She received a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Order of the Coif, was a member of the Cincinnati Law Review, received the Timothy Walker Founder’s Scholarship, the Charles A. Corry Prize for Corporate Law and the West Publishing Prize for Civil Procedure. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in cellular and molecular biology and a B.S. with honors in biochemistry from Michigan State University.

Bott has experience as in-house counsel for Pfizer Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she provided advice regarding the development of global patent portfolios, especially relating to small molecule and protein therapeutics.

She comes to Honigman from Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Ann Arbor.

About Honigman
Celebrating its 60th year, Honigman is a leading Michigan-based business law firm with an international practice. Headquartered in Detroit with offices in Lansing, Oakland County, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, the firm has attorneys practicing in more than 40 different areas of concentration. Honigman’s highly-credentialed attorneys and staff, along with its customer-service focus, provide clients in a wide variety of industries timely and cost-effective counsel.

In 2009, Honigman received a No. 1 ranking within the state of Michigan from Chambers USA in three key practice areas. Honigman received recognition for 62 of the firm’s attorneys in the 2008 edition of Michigan Super Lawyers, leading for the second year in a row with more attorneys in the “Top 100” than any other law firm in the state of Michigan. The publication also recognized 27 of the firm’s attorneys under the age of 40 as Rising Stars. Honigman was named in 2008 as one of the “50 Best Law Firms for Women” by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers, LLC. For more information, visit www.honigman.com.

April 17, 2009 – Source: The Thomas More Law Center

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced that yesterday evening it filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.  The lawsuit claims that her Department’s “Rightwing Extremism Policy,” as reflected in the recently publicized Intelligence Assessment, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” violates the civil liberties of combat veterans as well as American citizens by targeting them for disfavored treatment on account of their political beliefs.  Click here to read the complaint filed by the Thomas More Law Center.

Napolitano tried to blunt the public furor over the Report by a half-hearted apology to veterans, but she left out of her apology all of the other Americans her Department has targeted because of their political beliefs. In fact, officials in DHS now admit that their internal office of civil liberties objected to the language in the extremism report, but the Department issued it anyway.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center stated, “Janet Napolitano is lying to the American people when she says the Report is not based on ideology or political beliefs. In fact, her report would have the admiration of the Gestapo and any current or past dictator in the way it targets political opponents.  This incompetently written intelligence assessment, which directs law enforcement officials across the country to target and report on American citizens who have the political beliefs mentioned in the report, will be used as a tool to stifle political opposition and opinions.  It will give a pretext for opponents of those Americans to report them to police as rightwing extremists and terrorists.  You can imagine what happens then.”

The Report specifically mentions the following political beliefs that law enforcement should use to determine whether someone is a “rightwing extremist”:

• Opposes restrictions on firearms
• Opposes lax immigration
• Opposes the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs
• Opposes continuation of free trade agreements
• Opposes same-sex marriage
• Has paranoia of foreign regimes
• Fear of Communist regimes
• Opposes one world government
• Bemoans the decline of U.S. stature in the world.
• Upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India
  . . . and the list goes on

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host, Michael Savage, Gregg Cunningham (President of the pro-life organization Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc (CBR)), and Iraqi War Marine veteran Kevin Murray.  The Law Center claims that Napolitano’s Department (DHS) has violated the First and Fifth Amendment Constitutional rights of these three plaintiffs by attempting to chill their free speech, expressive association, and equal protection rights.  The lawsuit further claims that the Department of Homeland Security encourages law enforcement officers throughout the nation to target and report citizens to federal officials as suspicious rightwing extremists and potential terrorists because of their political beliefs. 

Thompson added, “The Obama Administration has declared war on American patriots and our Constitution.  The Report even admits that the Department has no specific information on any plans of violence by so-called ‘rightwing extremists.’  Rather, what they do have is the expression of political opinions by certain individuals and organizations that oppose the Obama administration’s policies, and this expression is protected speech under the First Amendment.” 

The Law Center is asking the court to declare that the DHS policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments, to permanently enjoin the Policy and its application to the plaintiffs’ speech and other activities, and to award the plaintiffs their reasonable attorney’s fees and costs for having to bring the lawsuit.

Click here to read the DHS extremism report.

About The Thomas More Law Center
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.