He has been voted one of Houston's Top Lawyers for the People by H Texas magazine.

He is also in the top 2% of that list.

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Jonathan Harris and Arthur Schechter were named top Lawyers for the People by H Texas Magazine.
Read more at the HTexas.com site here.

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Schechter, McElwee Shaffer & Harris is proud to announce that, for the second year in a row, two SMSH lawyers, Matt Shaffer and Ambassador Arthur Schechter, have been named Texas Super Lawyers by Texas Monthly Magazine.

This honor is only given to the top 5% of Texas lawyers.

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verdictsearch.com
August 14, 2006

Plaintiff, a 57 year old male, was draft fishing when his boat was struck by a larger vessel, suffering multiple back and arm injuries.

Plaintiff claimed the larger vessel made no effort to avoid the collision and claimed negligence. Past and future medical costs, as well as damages for pain and suffering, were sought. Defense counsel contended that the injuries were caused by prior degenerative conditions and not by the collision.

A pre-trial settlement of $300,000 was reached.

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verdictsearch.com
August 14, 2006

Plaintiff, a 47 year old deckhand working on a tugboat as it traveled through an intercoastal waterway, slipped and fell on a staircase. Claiming injuries, he sued for negligence and unseaworthiness resulting in injuries to his elbow and back.

Plaintiff claimed to be in regular pain from his injuries that only became worse when he was physically active and sought damages for past and future pain and suffering. Additionally, plaintiff had been out of work for a year and sought past lost wages as well as future lost earning capacity.

Defense counsel contended that the injuries were caused by a prior accident five years earlier.

A pre-trial settlement of $600,000 was reached.

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SMS & H attorneys have concluded the cases of 11 workers at the British Petroleum plant in Texas City, Texas. These workers were injured on March 23, 2005 when a portion of the plant exploded.

These workers were severely injured and many required back, neck, and knee surgery and prolonged after care. We at SMS & H are proud to represent these fine men and women.

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Matt Shaffer recently concluded a confidential settlement for the teen-age daughter of a locomotive engineer who was killed when his locomotive collided head on with another train. The settlement will provide support for the young lady throughout her life.

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On June 1st, 2006, Arthur Schechter will be returning to Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, LLP as Senior Counsel. He will be available for arbitration, mediation and litigation of substantial cases on contingent fee.

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Matt Shaffer was named a Texas Monthly Super Lawyer for 2005. This award underscores the quality and commitment you receive from SMS & H lawyers.

Congratulations, Matt!

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SMS & H Partner, Matthew D. Shaffer, represents ten laborers that were injured in the disastrous explosion that took place at the British Petroleum Plant at Texas City, Texas on March 23, 2005. SMS & H clients were working for a variety of subcontractors and were seriously injured in the explosion. These claims are on file in the 212th Judicial District of Galveston, Texas and set for trial in September 2006.

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Matt Shaffer was named one of the top Lawyers for the People by H Texas Magazine, and featured in their March, 2005 issue. Read more at the HTexas.com site here.

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The following was published in the The Ukrainian Weekly

Dear Editor:

Thanks from Ukraine for the help and support provided by The Ukrainian Weekly readers during a desperate situation of this past summer.

On September 20, the stranded group of Ukrainian sailors from the 650-foot cargo ship Epta left Houston and returned to Ukraine. They were deported without any of the six months' pay that was owed them for the repairs and maintenance they were hired to do on the Epta. The sailors left Houston disheartened to face the grim realities of the mounting debts that their families had incurred while they were stranded in Houston. The U.S. Marshall's Office had seized the ship and forced the issue into bankruptcy court, and the matter was to go to court in May of 1999.

However, on December 24, a settlement of the case involving the sailors' wages was reached with the other creditors of the ship Epta. A judge's order allowed the distribution of the funds for the sailors' wages (approximately $76,000) to take place immediately. This amount represents only a portion of their back pay, but it will help them repay the tremendous debts their families had acquired in order to survive. It is a happy ending to an unpleasant situation that occurred this summer in the Port of Houston.

The Ukrainian sailors want to thank all the organizations and individuals, both Ukrainian and American, in Houston and beyond, who were instrumental in helping them survive under difficult circumstances. The Sailors' Fund, organized by the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Pokrova in Houston, coordinated the collection of money (approximately $30,000), food, clothing and telephone cards while this situation was being resolved. The Ukrainian American Cultural Club and the Ukrainian National Women's League of Houston also provided valuable help and generous contributions to the Sailors', Fund.

The Ukrainian sailors were abandoned thousands of miles from home by ruthless ship owners and operators. They were left penniless to fend for themselves. To their rescue came many Ukrainian Americans and their organizations. The Ukrainian American community should be proud of the kindness and generous support it provided to solve this problem for these sailors.

Greg and Nadia Buchai
Sugar Land, Texas

Greg Buchai, a Houston financial adviser, and attorney Dennis McElwee negotiated a settlement for the sailors.

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Verdictsearch Texas Reporter
October 2, 2003

Barge owner was blamed for chief mate's death in explosion

Plaintiff's decedent was employed as a first mate on a gasoline barge. On Feb. 21, 2003, the barge exploded while being unloaded at a Staten Island oil depot. Decedent and the barge captain were killed; an oil-depot employee was critically injured.

Plaintiff claimed that the barge was unseaworthy, and defendant had privity and knowledge of the circumstances that led to the explosion.

Defendant claimed that it did not have priivity or knowledge of the circumstances that led to the explosion. It contended that the accident was due to the negligence of a third company, which uses the depot to store motor fuels and heating oil.

The decedent is survived by his wife and two children, one of whom was born the day before the accident.

Defendant moved for limitation of liabiity under the federal admiralty and maritime law's Limitation Act, 46 USC App. 181, which holds that a ship owner may not be held liable for anything more than the vessel's value if negligence occurred without the vessel owner's privity or knowledge. Defendant claimed that the barge was worth approximately $18,000.

The parties reached a $3.75 million pretrial settlement. The award includes the establishment of an annuity that will pay plaintiff's children a combined $6 million over the course of their lives.

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Texas Lawyer

September 24, 2003

Injured Worker Argued That Safety Device Had Been Disabled

A worker whos hand was crushed by the headache ball on a crane settled his claim for $750,000. Plaintiff, a carpenter, was guiding the movement of concrete road barriars when the crane operator allegedly extended the boom without extending the headache ball's line. The boom severed the line, dropping the ball onto Plaintiff's hand. Plaintiff sued for negligence, alleging that the safety device on the crane had been disabled.

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Verdictsearch Texas Reporter
September 13, 2003

Woman's foot caught on edge of floor mat at Randall's

The plaintiff, Jane Doherty, 76, tripped and fell in a Randall's Food Market in Glaveston when her foot got caught on the edge of a carpeted floor mat.

Doherty sued Randall's Food Markets Inc., Houston, alleging that the store was nelgigent. Doherty claimed that the mat was in an area where grocery carts passed, making the mat edges prone to curling and cracking.

The defendant denied any knowledge of an unreasonably dangerous condition and alleged that Doherty was negligent for not watching where she was walking.

Doherty sustained a left hip fracture which required surgery to repair.

The parties agreed to a settlement of $100,000.

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Texas Blue Sheet
www.bluesheet.com

Family Settles Death Claim In Highway Crash With Truck

The family of a 50-year-old man who died with massive head injuries when his vehicle ran up under a trailer, has settled with the owner and driver of the tractor/trailer for an undisclosed amount.

Plaintiff was traveling north on US 59 near Livingston, Texas when a tractor-trailer pulled out suddenly in an attempt to cross the highway and turn south. Plaintiff was unable to stop and his car under rode the trailer. At the time of his death, plaintiff, a computer engineer, was married and had three minor children.

Plaintiff suffered massive head injuries and was taken to Livingston Memorial Hospital. he ultimately was transferred to Houston for treatment where he died 12 days later.

Plaintiff's widow and children settled their federal wrongful death claim on April 12 prior to trial for an undisclosed amount.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XXIV, Issue 5

Plaintiff was an engineer on a dive boat. On May 27, 1999, while carrying a pump, backwards down a stairway, he fell backwards down the stairs.

Plaintiff alleged unsafe workplace.

Defendant argued it was an accident without fault, no Defendant negligence.

Settled prior to trial for $225,000.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XXIII, Issue 49

Plaintiff, a 36-year-old able bodied seaman was working abourd a tanker in the Port of Galveston on 12-14-98. He was standing on ladder, approximately 15' above the deck cleaning a large deck tank when he fell.

When he climbed the ladder, it was secured at the top and held at the bottom by another seaman. Plaintiff alleged his assistant was ordered to move on to another job leaving the ladder unsecured at the bottom. It shifted and he fell.

Defendant contended the Plaintiff was responsible for his injuries. It argued that when the Plaintiff came on his watch, the ladder was secured by ropes to both legs and failed to resecure the bottom after moving the ladder.

Settled in mediation fro $225,000.

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Southeast Texas Bluesheets
Volume XXIII, Issue 7

A 42 year-old able-bodied-seaman was employed aboard the M/V Canonero. They were bringing down a cargo container house from a rig on 2-9-98. He climbed on top of the container house to unhook the cable. He fell on the way down. He alleged he was given a ladder too short for the job and that the rig crew was supposed to come down with the load and unhook it.

Tidewater Marine argued contributory negligence--claimed the accident happened because the Plaintiff wasn't watching what he was doing.

Settled for $295,000.

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Houston Trial Reports
Week of 7-6-1998

Plaintiffs, 140 homeowners in Hull, Liberty County, Texas, brought suit for flood damage that occurred in the October, 1994 storm event. They alleged the railroad trestle system in and around Hull blocked the natural flow of surface waters causing the town to suffer additional flooding that would not have occured but for the railroad.

Union Pacific argued the event was a 500-year rain and was not foreseeable.

The case setteld for a confidential amount.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XXI, Issue 22

Plaintiff, a 48-year-old able-bodied-seaman, alleged Chief Mate pushed him into a boom on 5-20-96. He claimed the shove was after Chief Mate screamed at him about the gangway being out of line. He said that as a result of the shove, he suffered a burst fracture of the C5 vertebra and a herniated disk at C5-6.

Defendants denied the incident ever happened, but had no explanation for the broken neck (Plaintiff was taken from the scene by ambulance and was in a halo device for 2 1/2 months).

There were two persons in the immediate vicinity. Neither recalled the Plaintiff being pushed into a boom, but both also said they were looking the other way at the time of the verbal confrontation.

Judgement awarded for $480,000 + costs.

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Harris County Bluesheets
Volume XXI, Issue 26

Plaintiff presented in November of 1993 for a physical examination. As a part of the examination, two chest x-rays were taken. Mr. Dean claimed the radiologis reviewed the x-rays then revealed the existence of a possible metastatic process, and the radiologist informed the plaintiff's primary care physician of the need for a CT-scan to eliminate the possibility of a malignancy.

Plaintiff said he returned numerous occasions for various complaints after November 1993, but a CT-scan was never ordered nor was he informed of the possibility of a malignancy.

Plaintiff was hospitalized in March of 1996 for pneumonia. He said he learned on 4-5-96 that he was suffering from inoperable lung cancer which had metastasized. He claimed that if he had been diagnosed in earlier stages, surgical intervention would have been available to cure the cancer.

Settled for a confidential amount.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XXI, Issue 1

Plaintiff, a 46-year-old bosun, alleged he injured his back in April of 1995 when he was ordered to manually handle a steel gangway as opposed to using mechanical assistance which should have been done.

Defendant contended Plaintiff came aboard with an injured back. He went to a doctor in Mexico for treatment of hsi back three days after he boarded the ship in Tampa. The alleged incident was about three weeks after he boarded the vessel. The incident wasn't reported until May of 1995.

Settled in mediation for $272,500.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XX, Issue 15

Plaintiff, 73, tripped and fell over an extension cord strung by maintenance personnel to a plant display.

Evidence was that the cord was the same color as the floor and several complaints had been made by customers and retailers prior to the fall that the cord was a trip h azard.

Settled for $179,00 plus costs.

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FELA Reporter and Railroad Liability Monitor
Vol. 8, No. 9
September 1995

A fifty-eight year old seaman struck his head on a valve hidden by a pipeline. He was knocked unconscious for two minutes and sustained three bulging discs, and aggravation of pre-existing arthritis. The plaintiff claimed that containers on the vessel's dock forced him to walk under the pipeline, and that several crewmen, including the first mate, had previously hit the valve, but without injury. The defendant shipping company argued that the valve was open and obvious, and that the plaintiff should have seen it. According to the Blue Sheet, the $184,000 verdict for the plaintiff was reduced by his forty percent negligence for a net verdict of $110,400.

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Houston Trial Reports
Volume XIX, Issue 26

Plaintiff, 55, a longshoreman, was standing on an oil-covered 18" ledge when he fell 6' to the deck. Alleged it was an open and obvious hazard and the vessel owner knew, because of the configuration of the vessel, that the stevedore would be unable to correct it.

Defendant contended the stevedore should have taking action to protect the Plaintiff and that Plaintiff was contributorily negligent in losing his balance. Defendant also denied that there was oil or greas on the hatch cover (became a ledge when containers were stacked on it).

Settled for $440,000.

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