Finch McCranie, LLP

Crib Recall Announced

Today, Delta Enterprise Corp a children’s products maker will announce a recall of 1.59 million cribs linked to two infant deaths. This recall follows other recent recalls of cribs and bassinets involving other manufacturers.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, is expected to hold a news conference later this morning to announce the recall, which is being conducted on a voluntary basis by the company. Mandatory recalls are rare, though the CPSC sometimes has to pressure manufacturers to agree to repair or pull their products
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Work Related Injuries: Compensation From Third Parties

There is a common misconception that all work related injuries are solely covered by Workers’ Compensation statutory benefits. While it is true that any employee who is injured on the job while working for their employer is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, this does not necessarily mean that the injured worker is limited to the recovery of such benefits. If a third party, such as an independent contractor unrelated to the employer, participates in a negligent or wrongful act that results in a injury to
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Negligence by Emergency Vehicles

Under Georgia law, the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle, including a law enforcement vehicle, when responding to an emergency call, has certain privileges that are not available to other drivers. As an example, the authorized emergency vehicle operator may proceed past a red or stop signal and exceed the maximum speed limits posted so long as he or she does not endanger life or property. The authorized emergency vehicle may also disregard regulations governing direction of movement or turning in specified directions. The exceptions
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Aircraft Engine Failures

Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, requested that the Federal Aviation Administration increase inspections of certain Pratt & Whitney engines on dozens of passenger jets to detect possible flaws linked to the most catastrophic type of failure. The NTSB asked that the FAA require that PW2037 engines undergo recurring inspections for the time being once they reach a certain point in their operation.
The request affects more than 700 engines on some 300 Boeing Co 757 aircraft worldwide, including at least several dozen operated
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Report: More Than 90 Percent of Nursing Homes Cited For Safety Violations

A new federal report found that nine of every 10 nursing homes were cited for violating federal health and safety standards last year. For-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, according to the report. Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups and poor nutrition. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.
Elderly people are entitled to basic safety, respect and dignity. If you or someone you love is
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Digoxin and Byetta: Dangerous Drug Products

Digoxin was developed by the company Actavis Totowa to treat arrhythmias (abnormal heat rhythm) and allegedly to prevent heart failure. In April of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall of this drug. As it turned out, the use of this product leads to a dangerous side effect known as digitalis toxicity, a process that occurs when digitalis is not excreted normally through urine and the body is overexposed to the drug. This process may be fatal to the victim, which
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Medical Errors Not Rewarded By Medicare

New federal regulations that restrict Medicare payments to hospitals for the extra care required to treat patients harmed by certain preventable infections and medical errors went into effect on Wednesday, October 1.
The rules adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to provide hospitals with a financial incentive to improve patient care.
Under the new regulations, CMS will withhold payments to hospitals for care needed after patients suffer from certain preventable errors or omissions in care. These include hospital acquired urinary
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Motorcycle Crashes Continue To Increase

Motorcycle injuries and deaths continue to rise as more people utilize motorcycles and scooters for daily transportation. The Washington Post reports that in an eight-hour span over the Labor Day weekend motorcycle accidents in the metropolitan District of Columbia area left four people dead. One top transportation official calls the rise in motorcycle crashes “our nation’s greatest traffic highway safety challenge.”
While only 2 percent of all vehicles on the nation’s roads last year were motorcycles, they were involved in 11 percent of all traffic
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Nursing Home Report Reveals Disturbing Data

Nursing homes care for the elderly and disabled, some of the most vulnerable persons in society. But, a recent report has disturbing news. More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year according to a report issued by the federal government. For-profit nursing homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes.
The report revealed that about 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused actual harm or immediate jeopardy
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Another Deadly Bus Accident: California Charter Bus Crash Is Another Example of Lack of Passenger Safety Measures

Last night’s deadly charter bus crash in California reportedly killed at least ten passengers, after the bus veered from the road, and rolled over into a ditch. Predictably, passengers were ejected from the bus or tossed around inside the bus, which in our experience greatly increases the severity of injury.
In last year’s deadly bus accident involving the Bluffton University Baseball Team, our firm represents the most seriously injured surviving passenger. As we have written about previously, the NTSB found that the lack of seat
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GM Announces Massive Recall

Many Georgia drivers can expect to receive recall notices for vehicles manufactured by General Motors Corp., due to a dangerous defect which can cause the vehicle to catch on fire. In one of the largest recalls of the year, General Motors announced Tuesday that it was recalling almost 1.5 million vehicles because it cannot fix a defect in the system that squirts heated cleaning fluid on the windshield.
The recall covers many vehicles manufactured during the 2006 to 2009 model year. Since GM is
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Infections At Surgery Centers

Atlanta, and other metropolitan areas in the state of Georgia have seen a rapid expansion in the numbers of same-day surgery centers. Yesterday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article suggesting that lack of infection practices are common in the nations more than 5000 outpatient surgery centers.
The study was prompted by a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas. This outbreak was caused by unsafe injection practices at two outpatient surgery centers.
Failure to wash hands, wear gloves and clean blood glucose
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The Federal Tort Claims Act: How To Sue The United States

When it comes to torts committed by the government and/or its employees, the beginning and ending place for any analysis is the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). See 28 U.S.C. § 1346. The Federal Tort Claims Act provides a limited waiver of sovereign immunity and allows for money damages against the government for damages, loss of property, personal injury or death. In order to recover under the FTCA, one must show that the damages claimed resulted from a wrongful or negligent act of a
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Perfecting Claims Against Sheriffs And Their Deputies In Georgia

Under Georgia law, a sheriff and only a sheriff is vicariously liable for the negligent acts of his or her deputies. A county sheriff employs the deputy and the deputy reports to the sheriff. Thus, if a deputy sheriff is negligent, the sheriff is liable not the County. Notwithstanding this legal liability, however, there is a confusing element of Georgia law when it comes to perfecting claims against sheriffs and their deputies.
While the law is somewhat ambiguous in this regard and in many ways
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Using a Functional Capacity Evaluation In A Serious Injury Case

In a case involving serious injuries which threaten to impair or impede altogether one’s ability to be gainfully employed, a Functional Capacity Evaluation can be critical in helping to establish the extent of the disability. Functional Capacity Evaluations are performed according to objective criteria which have been proven to be reliable in determining the extent of job related restrictions and limitations. If a client submits to a Functional Capacity Evaluation and is proven by such objective criteria to have limited abilities, such evidence can
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Asthma Medications And Potential Safety Risks

There are several popular medications used by those who suffer from asthma which have an increased market share presence. These include Serevent, Advair and Foradel. All these medications use inhalation powders containing long acting beta agonists, commonly known as “LABA.” Beginning as early as November of 2005, the Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory concerning these three drugs informing doctors and patients that the use of these products could increase one’s risk of developing severe asthma and/or possibly having a fatal reaction.
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Vicarious Liability In Serious Injury Cases

A very common issue is a serious injury case is whether there exists any vicarious liability of a third party. If a truck driver runs into a motorist stopped at a stop sign and seriously injures them the question is whether the truck driver alone can be sued and/or their employer. Under longstanding legal principles, an employer is vicariously liable for the acts of the employee. As long as the employee was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the
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Evaluating Pain and Suffering: A Difficult Task

In a personal injury lawsuit, it is always difficult for the trial lawyer representing the injured victim to talk about money in the context of pain and suffering. How does one fairly compensate an individual who is suffering as a result of the acts of a third party? Someone who is sitting still at a stop sign and who is rear-ended by a commercial truck, for example, and who sustains a broken neck or back is going to be faced with a lifetime of
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Deadly Police Chases Still In The News

As our firm handles police chases for innocent victims tragically caught up in these dangerous pursuits through no fault of their own, and as we have witnessed many different tragedies in this context, we obviously pay close attention to other similar cases throughout the country. Just this past week we read three different articles about three different pursuits in three different states in which innocent bystanders were killed during these dangerous pursuits. In none of the pursuits that we read about were any
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Military Members Have No Recourse For Medical Malpractice

Our military service members stand ready to put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms upon which our country is based. Yet, they are not provided the basic remedies available to other citizens who are victims of medical malpractice.
Under a 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling known as the Feres doctrine, service members are banned from suing the federal government for even the most egregious medical errors.
Pending before Congress is a bill that would remove that inequity. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., is the
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