Summary: The death of a UK law student last year has been ruled an accident after it was determined he fell 9 floors after losing balance from a heavy night of partying.

A 19-year-old law student died after falling nine floors after a night out partying. The student, Luke Johns of Pontypridd in Wales, lost his balance and toppled over a stairway banister, falling nine floors. Johns had been out on a booze and drug-filled night, according to a Daily Mail report.

The student suffered several head injuries after the fall at his dormitory building. He had allegedly been drinking heavily, taken MDMA, and smoked cannabis. A security guard at the student halls in Plymouth, Devon saw the fall and rushed over to help Johns. Johns suffered catastrophic injuries that were fatal.

An investigation into the events of the night of February 18, 2017, determined that Johns started out at the student union bar with friends and then moved on to other pubs before returning to drink more at the communal area of his hall. Johns and his friends kept drinking and playing games in the communal area of Discovery Heights on Cobourg Street.

Johns became unwell and left the room. It was then that a security guard, Andrew Perry, witnessed Johns lean over the banister and fall to the bottom. Perry works for Unite Students, which owns the housing complex, and he was on patrol that night. He told investigators that he had been up to the ninth floor to deal with a candle that set off a smoke alarm sensor. He dealt with that issue and left the room when he heard a noise at the stairwell. He said, “I stood in the lift lobby waiting for the lift and I heard some very faint sound of somebody out of breath and an urging-type noise. I opened the door at the top of the stairs.”

It was then that Perry saw the student “balance over the railings facing upwards” between the ninth and eighth floor. Perry said, “He fell over the railings. I ran down the stairs phoning 999 and put on my gloves.” Perry reached the teenager and administered CPR, doing “everything he could” to save the student.

Deputy Coroner Andrew Cox commended Perry for his efforts, stating, “Thank you very much indeed for what you tried to do for Luke that night. Lots of people wouldn’t be able to do that and you did do that.”

A post-mortem exam found that Johns died from multiple head injuries but also “suffered large cuts to his armpit and lower leg and compound fractures to his left tibia and fibula,” according to the Daily Mail. The toxicology results indicated he had about 2.5 times the legal limit of alcohol. The MDMA in his system was below the toxic range but likely still had an impact on his judgment, coordination, and balance.

Cox said, “The circumstances as we have heard is that Luke was doing what all students do – having a good time. I think what has happened to Luke, he’s gone out, had a good night out with his friends. He’s had a bit too much to drink and he’s taken drugs, which I cannot condone. I’m quite clear he didn’t intend to fall over and perhaps lost his balance because he’s under the influence. I think he may have staggered and lost his balance for whatever reason and he’s toppled over the banister and fallen to his death. This by all description is an accident. It is a horrible accident and an absolute tragedy.”

To you think those that supplied him with the drug should be held responsible? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

To learn more about tragedies caused by drinking, read these articles:

• British Teen Has Stomach Removed after Drinking “Nitro Jagermeister”
• Preliminary Hearings Begin for Penn State Fraternity Hazing Death
• Couple Ruin Serenity of a Florida Beach with Their Sex Acts

Photo: dailymail.co.uk via Media Wales

The post Death of 19-Year-Old UK Law Student Ruled Accident first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

Summary: American attorneys have higher rates of drinking problems and depression than any other group, including the general public.

The American Society of Addition Medicine has released their latest report on drinking and it does not look good for attorneys. Attorney’s in America have a drinking problem with over 20 percent drinking at levels considered “hazardous, harmful, and potentially alcohol-dependent.”

This rate among licensed attorneys is three times higher than among the general public rate at 6.8 percent. The numbers were taken from over 12,000 American lawyers by the American Bar Association and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.

The study found that male attorneys have higher rates of drinking problems than women at 25.1 percent to 15.5 percent. The highest rates were for attorneys under the age of 30 at 31.9 percent and junior associates at 31.1 percent. This rate may be partly due to the trend of young Americans to be heavy drinkers but also from the high stress level of being a young attorney in a competitive field.

The legal industry tends to “prioritize success and accomplishment over things like balance, personal well-being, health, etc,” says Patrick Krill, lead author of the study. Attorneys go through training “where they are taught to work harder, play harder, and assume the role of a tough, capable and aggressive professional without personal weaknesses or deficiencies,” continues Krill. “Heavy drinking, lack of balance and poor self-care are entirely normalized. That’s the behavior that young lawyers see being modeled all around them, and throughout the profession.”

The study also found that depression is very high in attorneys at 28 percent. The general public only sees 8 percent experience issues with depression each year. Krill explains this tendency by the attitude most lawyers have, “Studies have shown that most lawyers are pessimists (either by nature or by training) which can be psychologically taxing and inconsistent with health coping skills.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/05/americas-lawyers-have-a-serious-drinking-problem/

Photo: cavemamas.com

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5. Smoking. That’s right, “Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em,” Grandpa always used to say, as he trudged up the Morro Castle’s gangway. Personally, I’m not a big fan, but who knows? Many people seem to enjoy it. Seriously, can it be denied that nothing seems more relaxing, refreshing or stress-relieving than inhaling the combustion byproducts of chemically soaked tobacco leaf, rolled tight, and heated past its flash point so that its incendiary end slowly creeps closer and closer to reward you with third-degree burns to your first and second fingers?

Pure relaxation.

And what better way to utilize those fingers? On the drive home? Of course not. Scratching out by hand that pesky motion to substitute as pro se counsel? Surely you jest. Shaking hands with that “oh-so-hopeful” 2L that is interviewing with your firm? How beneath you. However, when splayed across the firm-issued keyboard that is somehow connected to the fancy light box on your desk, these fingers can unleash the relaxing power of stress relief like nobody’s business.

4. The Internet. The Internet  is simply the gift that keeps on giving. As I understand it, e-mail depends on the Internet. If this is so, Al Gore deserves a hearty “thank you, creator” for the relaxation derived from turning a ridiculously concise 30-second phone call into a three-day e-mail exchange, complete with the requisite faux pas of forwarding the exchange to everyone in the office, if not the entire firm, at least twice.

3. Running. My buddy in Palo Alto likes what actually seems to be a pretty popular stress reliever: running. By this time, though, we’d all had a few drinks, and my other buddy (who proposed No. 2 and hates to run) threw him to the ground and started punching him, while buddy No. 3 (the smoker, who also hates to run) gave him some first-hand exposure to second-hand smoke. Running didn’t seem to be too stress-free that day.

2. Drinking.  As you might have guessed by now, stress reliever No. 2 is partaking of the beauty that is the fermentation process. In vino veritas. For better or worse (insert your own Tequila joke here), “the grape” (or “the barley,” “the potato,” “the grain,” etc.) is quite popular for erasing all sorts of stress whether you are a first-year associate, associate, mid-level associate, senior associate, supervisory senior associate, partner, etc.

1. Friends.  Make use of your friendships. Go grab some beers, play golf, go to the game or just hang out. I’ve found that just sitting around, playing some “Golden Tee” and drinking a few beers — not necessarily in that order — is the best stress relief imaginable. Until someone starts talking about running.

Image credits: AwesomeGIFS

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Former UK Glencore oil trader Andrew Kearns, 38, was employed by Glencore UK Ltd from January 2009 until October 2010, when he was dismissed from the company for serious misconduct after missing a series of meetings on a business trip.

The oil trader, Kearns, who earned about $500,000 a year, was fired for drinking too much, lost a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company, with a judge calling the case “ludicrous.”

Jonathan Cohen, a lawyer for Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore, said today that Andrew Kearns was “dishonest in his evidence” and that he didn’t realize how much the company had tried to help him. According to Bloomberg News Judge Richard Seymour in London said Andrew Kearns’ firing in 2010 “was richly justified.”

Andrew Kearns has argued during the trial that Glencore’s claims were not true and that he had been doing his job by socializing with his clients. He has also denied having any kind of alcohol problem and said that the company singled him out because of a disagreement and or personality conflict with managers.

Bloomberg News reports that Kearns, who didn’t appear in the London courtroom to hear the ruling and is no longer represented by his legal team, will have to pay Glencore’s legal costs of at least 150,000 pounds, the judge said.

Judge Richard Seymour in London had already dismissed a portion of the lawsuit over a share award worth about $1.2 million and today rejected the remaining wrongful termination claim seeking about 12,000 pounds or $20,000. Judge Richard Seymour said he was “troubled” by Andrew Kearns’s lawsuit because it didn’t state a valid legal claim.

Image Credit: The UK Telegraph

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So Krasnov was arrested, and nature will take its course: he’s got maybe 15 years in prison ahead of him.

“All I can say [is] I really regret [it],” Krasnov told police, as reported by Gawker. “Nothing like this would happen if I were sober.”

His girlfriend is willing to shrug it off as inebriated high jinx as well, “It’s just alcohol,” she told a reporter and added also, as if we were expected to believe it, that Krasnov had nothing to be jealous about. “With [Sergei] it was just ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye,’” she claimed. Well it’s only going to be “goodbye,” now, and he leaves this world in one of the least dignified manners possible.

All the blame can’t be put on alcohol, of course; since even when inebriated there is some attendant voice of conscience – hopefully – or at least the whisper of common sense?

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