Finch McCranie, LLP

Closing Arguments for Juries in Serious Injury Cases

.We continue in this artice our Previous blog and presentation on the delivery of effective Closing Arguments in jury trials.(See entry of 3/13/07). We continue as follows:
GIVE YOUR REMARKS A STRUCTURE
As discussed above, one should not rely upon the inspiration of the moment to deliver a closing argument. A winning summation is usually the result of meticulous, painstaking preparation done well in advance of the actual delivery of the remarks. In order to insure that such preparation is not wasted, obviously, it is
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Your Duties Under The Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act

We cannot tell people how many times unrepresented, injured workers sabotage their cases by failing to comply with their own obligations under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act. At a minimum an employee who sustains an on-the-job injury must do the following:
1. Report any on-the-job injury within 30 days of the date of the injury. Although the law provides that an employee should notify the employer within 30 days, any injury should be reported immediately. If you do not report your injury immediately, you may
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Basic Overview of Benefits Available Under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act

Many people are unaware of what benefits are available to an injured worker in Georgia. Accordingly we thought it might be helpful to clients or potential clients to have an overview of the basic benefits.
(A) TEMPORARY TOTAL DISABILITY WEEKLY INCOME BENEFITS:
If you are injured and begin losing time from work, you are entitled to receive 2/3 of your average weekly wage up to a maximum of $450.00 per week. The first seven days of compensation are not payable until or unless you have
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Bias In The So Called “Independent Medical Examination”

For over twenty years, we have handled personal injury claims and workers compensation claims of all types. Anyone who has done the same has witnessed the perversion of our system of justice by medical doctors who are performing so called “independent medical exams” for insurance companies and their lawyers. It has always amazed us that medical doctors who spent years of hard work to be able to exercise their own independent judgment in diagnosing and treating injured or sick people are so ready, willing and
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Preparing and Delivering Closing Arguments in Serious Injury Cases

We thought it would be interesting for our readers to understand how experienced attorneys prepare and deliver effective Closing Arguments to juries in serious injury cases. What we have decided to do is to blog about this very interesting subject in a series of brief articles over the next several days. What follows, in fact, is a portion of a presentation delivered by one of our attorneys at a continuuing legal education seminar for the Georgia Bar.
We begin as follows:

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Georgia Firefighter With Heart Attack Awarded Workers Compensation Benefits

Recently, we successfully represented a Georgia firefighter in a workers compensation claim against the county for which he worked. The injury he sustained was a heart attack. Needless to say, the employer denied his claim and took the position that his job had nothing whatsoever to do with the injury to his heart. In researching this injury, we learned that forty percent of on-duty firefighter deaths in the last decade were due to heart attack, according to a recent U.S. Fire Administration report. This is
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Workers Compensation Claims/Uninsured Georgia Employers And The Problems They Cause For Claimants

There is an ever increasing problem for many Georgia workers who become injured and disabled as a result of work injuries. The problem is uninsured employers. We recently got a call about a new workers compensation claim from a worker who was seriously injured as a result of a fall. In fact, this worker had been in the trauma unit of a hospital for several months at the time of this call. He had multiple orthopedic injuries, including leg and arm fractures requiring many surgeries.
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Atlanta Bus Accident Tragedy Takes 6 Lives

We heard today on a radio broadcast that struck very close to home that four young men from a college in Bluffton, Ohio had been killed, in addition to a bus driver and his wife. Nine others were seriously injured when a charter bus crashed off of an exit ramp off interstate highway I-75 (inside the city limits of Atlanta) back onto the highway. The facts and circumstances surrounding this tragedy are still being investigated, however, this is an all too familiar tragedy that we
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PRODUCTS LIABILITY

Products liability refers to the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product. This includes the manufacturer of component parts, the assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner. Products containing inherent defects that cause harm to a consumer of a product or someone to whom the product was loaned, given, etc. can be subjects of product liability suits.
Depending on the jurisdiction, product liability claims can be based on negligence, strict
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Another Atlanta Police Chase Case With Fatalities

Just a few weeks ago we blogged about the dangerous nature of police chase cases. See Blog entry entitled High Speed Police Chase Cases: An American Tragedy (2/15/07). Today we wake up with a headline in the Atlanta paper stating that “Two teens are dead and four others injured in a police chase case involving a juvenile that was driving a stolen vehicle.” According to the newspaper report of this incident, police in Clayton County, just outside of Atlanta, pulled over a joyriding juvenile who
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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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