Finch McCranie, LLP

Traumatic Brain Injury

In our practice we frequently handle cases involving traumatic brain injuries. Traumatic brain injury can occur in a variety of ways. It can occur when there is a rapid acceleration and/or deceleration of the brain such as in an automobile collision whiplash scenario. Traumatic brain injury can also result when the head comes into contact with another object such as in a motorcycle accident, automobile accident, or a blow to the head. This type of injury is sometimes referred to as a “closed head injury.”
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Wrongful Death

A wrongful death occurs when a person’s death is caused by the wrongful act or negligence of another. A wrongful death is the basis of a lawsuit against the party or parties who cause a wrongful death. The action may be filed on behalf of certain members of the family of the deceased due to the wrongful death. The State of Georgia provides two causes of action in the event of a wrongful death. The first cause of action belongs to the survivors as determined
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Defective Tires

There are many news reports of one car collisions in which a vehicle goes out of control and strikes an object, such as a median barrier or a tree, killing the occupant. While it is only natural to assume that the driver of the vehicle was somehow at fault, this is not always the case. In our practice, we see cases in which it first appears that the driver was at fault, but further investigation reveals that a defective tire was the cause of the
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Dog Attacks

It seems that almost every day there is a headline in the local paper or on the TV news concerning horrible injuries suffered by a person attacked by a dog. This firm has successfully handled a large number of liability cases in which our clients were viciously attacked and injured by dogs.
Georgia law provides two ways that an animal owner or handler may be found liable for injuries inflicted by the animal. The first requires that the victim prove: (1) that the animal is
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Uninsured Motorist Coverage: More Necessary Than Ever

One of the unfortunate occurrences we see in our practice all too often is the regrettable case where our clients believe they have more insurance coverage than they have in actuality and less than what they need. It is not unusual for us to see a client who has excellent liability coverage, for example, $300,000.00 – $500,000.00 in single limit coverage (or better). That same client, however, even though they have $300,000.00 – $500,000.00 in liability coverage protecting the third party in the event they are negligent will often times only carry $25,000.00 per person, $50,000.00 per accident in uninsured motorist coverage. In short, the clients have more coverage for the person that they might hurt than they have for themselves if they are hurt by a third party.

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A Welcome Erosion of Sovereign Immunity in Georgia

For many yearsin Georgia, unless a local government entity carried optional liability insurance coverage for automobiles under the control of city/county employees, it could not be sued no matter how much damage was inflicted by their actions. Of course, this resulted in tremendous injustices throughout our state. Finally, in 2004 because many, many innocent members of the motoring public were being injured by the acts of negligent government employees, the Georgia Legislature acted to waive sovereign immunity in such cases.

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High Speed Police Chase Cases: An American Tragedy

Some lessons are never learned. The law enforcement community has known for almost 20 years now that the dangers attendant to high speed police chases are tremendous. Indeed, the data of such dangers began accumulating in the 1980’s that the public price of these high speed police chases was simply too great to continue to allow unrestricted chases by the police. By 1990, the data was inescapable. Indeed, in 1990 alone, there were 314 deaths and over 20,000 injuries associated with high speed police chases. Many of the deaths involved the police themselves (not to mention the fleeing suspects) and thousands of innocent third parties who got caught up in the chase. This was known over 17 years ago. Unfortunately, the law enforcement community still continues to defend its actions when death to the innocent is caused by unwarranted and unnecessary high speed chases.

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An Abbreviated Checklist For The Federal Tort Claims Act

We have handled many federal tort claims on behalf of clients over the years but, nonetheless, it is always helpful to have an Abbreviated Federal Tort Claims Act Checklist to make sure that we are in compliance with the law. Those who have never handled a case against the United States government may find some of the procedural requirements burdensome and difficult to navigate. Nonetheless, once a checklist is developed, the procedure is actually fairly easy to follow but and this is an important but, it must be followed correctly. Here are some of the items on our list:

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Some Chrysler Minivan’s May Have Defective Airbag Sensor

Chrysler Group LLC announced on yesterday it will replace a front airbag crash sensor in more than 355,000 minivans. Careful not to call it a “recall”, Chrysler says it’s “safety improvement campaign” covers its 2005 -2006 Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans sold in the United State and Canada.
Chrysler’s “safety improvement campaign” came about because they discovered that under certain environmental conditions one of the front airbag sensors could crack allowing water to enter the sensor potentially rendering it inoperable. In
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Yaz/Yasmin – Gall Bladder Damage

Recently, the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP got a call from a former client who advised us that her 21 year old daughter had been having gall bladder problems that led to her having her gall bladder removed. It turned out that she had been taking one of two related dangerous drugs that have become associated with such health problems, Yaz. Yasmin became a very popular seller for Bayer Corp. almost immediately upon release to the public in 2001
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Crib Safety Regulations Announced

Defective and dangerous infant cribs have become a major problem across the United States. Since September 2007 the Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, has recalled more than 6 million cribs due to dangerous designs and defects. These problems include failures related to drop sides, hardware and wooden slats.
Consumer advocates and health professionals have long complained that federal safety requirements governing cribs do not address the durability of drop-sides on cribs and related hardware, as well as wood strength and quality and other issues.
Wednesday,
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Man Sues Over Dangerous Over-The-Counter Drug – Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Spray

Dangerous products seem to be everywhere these days. This is particularly true when it comes to pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter drugs. This week the New York Daily News reported that a Manhattan man has filed suit against the manufacturer of Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Spray that he used from 2006 to 2009. The man claims that as a result of using the product, he has lost both his dense of taste and smell. The lawsuit claims that the manufacturer knew or should have known that
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Toyota Brake Recall

Toyota on Tuesday announced another global recall for defective automobiles. This time, more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars are being recalled due to braking problems. The recall comes on the heels of the massive recall of Toyota vehicles for sudden acceleration problems.
Toyota has been criticized for attempting to grow sales while sacrificing quality and for being slow to recall vehicles with dangerous and deadly defects.
The recall will address what Toyota describes as a software glitch in the brakes of the
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Did Toyota Delay Recall ?

Toyota is being taken to task for delaying the recall of vehicles subject to sudden acceleration. Amid reports that Toyota is going to recall its highly successful hybrid, the Prius, for brake problems, there are serious questions being raised as whether the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration responded quickly enough to reports of sudden acceleration in some of its other models.
Insurer State Farm has revealed that it notified NHTSA in late 2007 that it was seeing an increase in sudden acceleration
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Medical Malpractice Caps Tossed in Illinois

Medical malpractice victims in Georgia are not only injured and killed by negligent health care, but are also victimized by the state via caps on so called non-economic damages. In Georgia, the cap limits these damages to $350,00.00.
Many people have pointed out that this is inherently unfair, especially since the most grievously injured victims are penalized to a greater extent. In effect, the legislature, with help of the governor, decreed that if you, or a loved one is retired or too young to have
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Unprecedented Dangerous Product Recall

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have seen our share of dangerous products recalled for one reason or another; however, last week’s recall of numerous Toyota models of automobiles and trucks probably sets a new record. In late 2009, Toyota issued a recall of 4.2 million vehicles because it was thought that they could interfere with the gas pedal and cause sudden acceleration. Now Toyota has issued a recall affecting 2.3 million vehicles and has suspended the sale of eight models,
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Dangers of “Distraction Driving”

In a blog of a few days ago we wrote about the dangers of “distraction driving.” Statistics have been released from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration indicating that many people across the United States are being injured on a daily basis as a result of the use of cell phones and texting devices. Obviously, when using these devices, the driver is “distracted” and the more distracted the driver the less safe the driver. Regrettably, the State of Georgia has yet to enact a
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Lawyer Prosecuted for Illegal Solicitation of Clients

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act. A key component of this law was to prevent attorneys from contacting members of a victim’s family for at least forty-five (45) days after an airline crash. After a crash involving serious injuries or deaths, families need to be left alone to tend to family matters. They do not need to be besieged by attorneys seeking to profit upon their misfortunes. In recognition of the fact that oftentimes members of the Bar fail
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