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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Unnecessary Use Of Tasers Banned By Federal Court

The use of unnecessary force by law enforcement officers is a common and inexcusable problem. Many of the attorneys at Finch McCranie LLP have law enforcement backgrounds and recognize the inherent dangers of police work and the need at times to use force. However, this does not justify the use of unnecessary force.
The United States Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit has recently issued an opinion addressing this issue in the context of Taser use. The Court, headquartered in California has sent a strong
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Polaris Recalls Potentially Dangerous ATV Model

The product liability lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP pay close attention to the recall of dangerous products that can lead to the wrongful death of innocent people. This week, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Polaris Industries has issued a voluntary recall of approximately 8,500 all-terrain vehicles because of a potentially dangerous steering problem, caused by a defective and dangerous front-end component. The recall applies to 2009-2010 models of the Polaris Sportsman ATV. Although there have been no reported
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Vicious Dogs Can Be Serious Liability Risk

Georgia injury lawyers know that dog bite incidents often result in very serious injuries and in some cases, death. We have had a number of these cases over the years. The most recent case involved a real estate agent who was attacked by a large dog. Although the dog was tied up at its owners home, it was inadequately restrained by a collar which was itself a defective product. As a result, the dog got loose and literally bit off the entire calf
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Dangerous Dehumidifiers Recalled

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP handled a wrongful death case several years ago wherein we represented the family of a young boy who died in a house fire caused by a defective humidifier.
This week it was announced that Home Depot is recalling Chinese manufacture dehumidifiers because they pose a fire hazard according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall involves approximately 2,000 Hampton Bay model HB-50 dehumidifiers. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that an
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Georgia Teenager Struck By Car

As Georgia injury lawyers we have represented many pedestrians who have been struck and seriously injured in automobiles accidents. Just this year we represented a young mother who was crossing a roadway with her two young children when they were struck by a motorist who admitted that she never saw them prior to impact. Unfortunately one of the children died and she sustained serious injuries.
Today it was reported that a car hit an 18-year old pregnant girl and her 4-year old brother
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Suing The Government: Pre-Suit Notice Requirements

It is a sad reality that innocent citizens are oftentimes injured by their own government. City and county employees and/or state employees operate vehicles on a day-to-day basis and like other drivers sometimes are guilty of negligence which cause considerable damage to innocent third parties. Because of the expansive conduct of governmental entities in virtually every aspect of our lives, there are many other real life scenarios whereby innocent third party citizens cam be and are injured by the acts of government employees. In such
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Important Victim’s Rights Statute Under Review

The Georgia Court of Appeals has recently accepted an Application for Interlocutory Review of a very important victim’s rights statute in this state. Here we refer to a case in which we represent the Plaintiff involving a tolling provision for the statute of limitations for victims of crime. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-99 was enacted as part of the Crime Victims Restitution Act of 2005 and will now be interpreted by the Court of Appals after a ruling in this appeal. Its tolling provision reads as follows:

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Two Infant Deaths Lead To Recall Of Amby Baby Motion Bed

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that about 24,000 Amby Baby Motion Beds – hammocklike beds have been recalled. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission the side-to-side shifting or tilting of the hammock can cause an infant to roll and become trapped or wedged against the hammock’s fabric or mattress pad, posing a suffocation risk.. The CPSC has instructed customers to stop using the products immediately.
The beds, made by Amby Baby USA of Minneapolis, Minnesota, were sold online through Ambybaby.com and other retailers
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Georgia Bicycle And Pedestrian Accidents

Of all the possible traffic accidents in Atlanta, cases in which vehicles collide with a bicycle or a pedestrian can have the most tragic results. When walking or riding a bike, you do not have the same structural protection against impacts that you do while driving, so you are more likely to be the injured party, and you are more likely to be hurt badly.
If you are severely injured or if a loved one was killed in a bike or pedestrian accident due to
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Head-On Automobile Accident In North Atlanta Results In Death

Georgia injury lawyers know that any head-on collision between two vehicles is usually a serious matter. A head-on collision occurred today in Johns Creek on State Bridge Road which resulted in the death of one of the drivers and serious injuries to the two occupants of the other vehicle. Both individuals were airlifted to different metro Atlanta hospitals.
Automobile accidents are a leading killer of Americans. If you have been injured or lost a loved one due to an automobile accident,
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