Finch McCranie, LLP

Uninsured Motorist Setoffs

On November 21, 2007, the Supreme Court of Georgia issued an important opinion in Dees, et al. v. Logan, involving uninsured motorist coverage in the state of Georgia. The question presented to the Supreme Court was whether a damage award to an insured can be offset by workers’ compensation or similar benefits paid to the insured. The Court answered with a resounding “No”.
Dees and his wife brought suit against a defendant seeking damages for injuries suffered in an automobile collision. The jury awarded the
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Arbitration Clauses Seek To Ban Class Action Arbitration

In the case of Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 123 S.Ct. 2402, (2003) the U.S. Supreme Court opened the doors to class action arbitrations. The Court held that if an arbitration clause is silent regarding class actions, it’s up to the arbitrator (applying state law) to decide whether class arbitration will proceed.
Banks, credit companies and employers which traditionally have favored mandatory arbitration clauses, have been adding waivers to arbitration contracts specifically exempting class actions from arbitration. Consumer lawyers have responded by challenging the
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Brain Surgery On Wrong Side Of Head Three Times At Same Hospital

It was reported today that a Rhode Island hospital has been fined $50,000 by the Rhode Island Department of Health and reprimanded after a doctor performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the patient’s head.
According to reports, this was the third time this year at the particular hospital that a doctor performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the patient’s head.
The most recent case happened last Friday when the Chief Resident began surgery on the wrong side of an 82 year-old
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Tamiflu Dangers For Children

Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety review of Tamiflu, manufactured by Roche, and Relenza, manufactured by Glaxo Smith Kline. Both of these drugs are designed to mitigate the effects of the flu. The review addresses the potential dangerous effect these drugs can have on children.
The FDA began reviewing Tamiflu in 2005 after it received reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Twenty five patients under the age of 21, most of them in Japan, have died
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ATV Dangers – Units Recalled

Late last week, Baja Motor Sports of Phoenix in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for 16,000 all terrain vehicles marketed for children as young as 12. The Baja 90, Baja Wilderness 90 and Baja Wilderness 90U four-wheel ATVs were recalled because they are missing a tire pressure gauge and a flagpole mounting bracket. Although neither the CPSC nor the company reported any injuries, they did consider the lack of the items to be a potential danger. These particular vehicles were
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Dangerous Toy Lawsuit Filed By California

This week, California’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against 20 companies implicated in the various lead-tainted toy recalls of 2007. Among the companies named in the lawsuit are Mattel, Fisher-Price, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, K B Toys, Costco Wholesale, Eveready Battery Company, K-Mart, and Marvel Entertainment.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies violated the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 since they failed to notify customers of toys in the marketplace that contained high concentrations of lead. Although the
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Cell Phones- Driving Dangers

Our serious injury lawyers are frequently litigating car collision cases in which the driver causing the serious injury was using a cell phone while operating the vehicle.
Research has consistently shown that operating an automobile while talking on a cell phone, either hand-held or hands-free, increases the risk of an accident by three to four times that normally experienced by attentive drivers. The general consensus of the scientific community is that there is little, if any, difference in crash rates involving hands-free versus hand-held cell
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Serious Dangers from Toys – Will It Ever End?

Many of you have already read press reports about the recall of over 4 million children’s craft kits because they contain beads coated with a chemical that turns into a dangerous drug if ingested. We have previously blogged about problems with Chinese manufactured toys and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In light of the massive recalls of these extremely dangerous toys, one has to wonder why these toys reached the shelves of stores in the first place. Many consumer advocates are now contending that these
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Structured Settlements in Serious Injury Cases

When a client is so seriously injured that they may not be able to work again at the same job and will likely incur future medical costs, it may be prudent for the client to consider a structured settlement as opposed to a lump sum cash settlement if one is offered. Our attorneys have handled many serious injury cases where a structured settlement has truly been in the best interests of our client. This is particularly so in the context of cases where the client
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Life Care Plans for the Catastrophically Injured Child

One of the many difficulties faced by attorneys who work on serious injury cases arises in the context of a catastrophic injury case involving a child. Many times, due to limitations on the extent of their medical knowledge, the doctors treating the child cannot always give an accurate prognosis for the child. Thus, it can be difficult when a child has been seriously injured to accurately predict how the injuries will manifest themselves as the child grows older. In some very sad cases, of course,
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E-coli Tainted Lettuce Recalled

An outbreak of 19 E-coli related illnesses in Michigan, Ohio and New York may be linked to shredded romaine lettuce sold to grocery stores for use in salad bars and delis, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Yesterday, the FDA announced a recall of the potentially dangerous produce.
Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli) are a large and diverse group of bacteria. Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can be extremely harmful. Strains of E. coli can cause diarrhea, urinary
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Death Linked to Defective Cribs

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that on Thursday of this week the government recalled thousands of baby cribs manufactured by Simplicity and Graco, after warning that babies could suffocate or strangle in them. Apparently the problem with both types of cribs relates to faulty or defective hardware. According to the article, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said the Simplicity crib recall was linked to at least one death and it involved thousands of cribs. The recall involving Simplicity products is for all full-sized cribs

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Clients Deserve Better And So Do Lawyers

Last night after a long day at work I went home and decided to browse local television shows. In so doing, I came across a program entitled “American Greed.” The topic of the program I was watching was extremely disappointing to me but regrettably a symptom of modern day society. The program dealt with greedy lawyers who were stealing from their clients. I watched the program in amazement because the greed of these lawyers was utterly fantastic and extremely disappointing to me as a plaintiff’s
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Health Insurer Targets Women With Breast Cancer For Denial Of Coverage

Our Atlanta lawyers constantly receive calls from consumers who have had their health insurance companies refuse to pay for necessary treatment or have had their insurance cancelled after they become sick. A recent report has reveled that WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurer, has aggressively targeted women with breast cancer with the intent of canceling their health insurance policies.
Reuters news service cited federal investigators and regulators as a source of this information. According to the report, WellPoint has used a computer program to automatically
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Suing Government Officials In Georgia

Most members of the public do not realize that it is very difficult to sue a government official. As long as government officials are acting within the scope of their discretionary authority, they are typically immunized by law from legal liability for mistakes they make, even including claims involving negligence, gross negligence and/or recklessness. The main exception to this rule typically involves the operation of automobiles for which there has been a statutory waiver of sovereign immunity in Georgia. There are, however, other limited exceptions
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How To Reduce Medical Malpractice Claims

Medical malpractice became a hot button issue in the recent healthcare debate. Many politicians, healthcare workers, and large insurers argued that medical malpractice cases are a large contributor to the rising cost of healthcare in the United States. Even though this line of argument has been consistently proven to be false, it was constantly brought up buy opponents of healthcare reform.
There is a better way to reduce the number of medical malpractice cases without sacrificing innocent victims who have been maimed due to
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Food Safety

The safety of the United States food supply is a vital interest of all citizens. The recent deadly outbreaks of salmonella poisoning in peanuts, spinach, and other foods has brought the lack of safeguards in the food supply chain to the forefront.
A new report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s inspector general, released last week, documents an outdated and ineffective federal food safety program with too few inspectors, too skimpy legal authority and too little funding.
Faced with the reality of overseas food-processing
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Police Pursuit Policies Changed: More Changes Needed

Finch McCranie has been representing innocent victims caught up in police chases for over a decade. While the police should chase violent felons who are endangering the public, many of these cases involve chases where the police are pursuing non-violent or mere traffic offenders at high speeds with the end result being a third party killed or injured, caught up by happenstance in the dangerous pursuit. We have long advocated that the police should pursue violent offenders where the risk of the chase to
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High Chair Recall

Our Atlanta product liability lawyers see many cases involving defective products which cause injury. None are more disturbing than those involving children. There have been 24 reported injuries of children involving Graco Harmony highchairs. In an effort to avoid further injuries Graco Children’s Products announced Thursday that it is recalling 1.2 million Harmony highchairs because of stability issues.
The company makes car seats, strollers, swings and other products for kids. It reported that that its Harmony highchairs can be unstable and tip over. The highchair
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PEDS Wire Hunt to Continue

In February of 2006, John Lamb was killed when a bicycle he was riding became entangled with hazardous utility wires which draped across a city sidewalk. Mr. Lamb did not see the wires that were still attached to the utility pole until it was too late. Unfortunately, he was thrown from his bicycle, landed on his head, broke his neck and was killed.
This spring, PEDS, a pedestrian safety advocacy group located in Atlanta, will be conducting the Second Annual John Lamb Hazardous Wire Hunt.
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