Finch McCranie, LLP

Landmark Cigarette Ruling Upheld

Last Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington essentially upheld a landmark ruling that found cigarette makers deceived the public for decades about the health hazards of smoking.
The Court of Appeals upheld the major elements of a 2006 ruling that found the nation’s top tobacco companies guilty of fraud and violating racketeering laws. The ruling said manufacturers must change the way they market cigarettes. It bans labels such as “low tar,” “light,” “ultra light” or “mild,” because such cigarettes have been found to
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Drug Companies Agree To Reimbursement of Taxpayers

The attorney general of Alabama has announced that 14 major drug companies will pay Alabama $89 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding the state Medicaid agency. This lawsuit brought on behalf of the taxpayers of the state of Alabama is one of many throughout the United States brought by state’s Attorney Generals accusing drug manufactures of overcharging and defrauding states for the purchase of drugs used in state sponsored medicaid and health care programs. The lawsuits essentially allege a pattern of fraud
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Product Liability Claims And Other Claims Related To Dangerous Machinery

Georgia injury lawyers, handling a claim for a catastrophically injured employee or the family of a deceased employee, our investigation will often reveal that the employee received injuries while working on or around a piece of machinery that caused the death, some traumatic amputation or other trauma to the employee. In such a case, the attorney must consider potential product liability claims, such as defective design, manufacture, assembly, testing or failure to warn or misrepresentation. The Supreme Court of Georgia has outlined the
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South Carolina Teenager Seriously Injured After Being Thrown From ATV

Georgia and South Carolina injury lawyers are seeing ATV accidents involving serious injury and sometimes death are on the rise with the return of warm weather. Tragically many, if not most are preventable by using common sense and obeying ATV rules. Just this week, I read about a Summerville, South Carolina teenager who is fighting for her life as a result of being thrown from the back of a fast moving ATV. According to witnesses, neither the 32 year old ATV driver or the
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Brain Death

Our Atlanta based lawyers are constantly involved in cases involving brain injury and brain death. As tragic as these cases are, the families and loved ones are many times faced with the decision whether to cease life support after there has been a medical determination of brain death.
In general, brain death is considered to be the irreversible loss of brain function. The exact definition has changed throughout the years and is still subject to debate. The brainstem controls brain function and is responsible for
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Lawmakers Hold Hearing on Medical Device Safety Act

Defective medical devices can lead to the serious injury or death of innocent people. For this reason Georgia injury lawyers representing victims of defective and dangerous products were dismayed when the Supreme Court decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, held that consumers can’t sue medical device companies over medical devices that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Now, victims of these dangerous products who say they were injured by faulty medical devices want Congress to pass legislation called the Medical
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Workers Compensation Injuries – Is There A Premises Liability and Negligent Security Third Party Claims?

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP who handle workers compensation cases always investigate the possibility that there is a negligent third party who can be sued and held accountable for the client’s injuries and damages. As any injured worker knows, the income benefits available under the Georgia Workers Compensation Act are limited. A worker with serious injuries is never made whole with workers compensation benefits alone. Many serious on-the-job injuries or deaths are attributable to the negligence of someone other
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Congressman’s Death Highlights The Dangers of Operating An ATV

As the popularity of ATV’s (all-terrain vehicles) increases the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP see more ATV accidents resulting in death and serious injuries each year. Even experienced riders must be very careful when operating an ATV. On April 18th of this year, former Utah Congressman Bill Orton, age 60, died while operating his ATV. According to authorities, he was riding out on the sand and went off a very steep sand dune, and when he impacted the bottom, the front end
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Car Roof Crush Standards Increased

Many automobile crashes which our Georgia lawyers investigate involve serious injury and deaths which are caused by roof collapses in rollover situations. Tragically, many of these victims would have been less seriously injured or survived had the roof of the vehicle not collapsed. For many years, safety advocates have urged auto makers and the federal government to increase the minimal standards for vehicle roof strength.
Now, under pressure from Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued increased roof-strength requirements. The long-awaited federal
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Limiting The Chance For Serious Injury Or Death From Grinding Wheel Explosions

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have previously posted on the danger posed by defective grinding wheels that explode or disintegrate. When a grinding wheel comes apart, it can result in serious eye injury and even death. Although there are several reasons why these wheels fail, it is thought that many of these are inferior, imported products.
To prevent injuries, the following procedures are recommended when using grinding wheels:
* Check the wheel before each use for any cracks or chips. If
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Sexual Predators in the Workplace

Many employment lawyers are confronted with hostile environment claims where managers exploit their positions to seek sexual favors from employees working underneath them. Such an employment case obviously involves sexual harassment but is entirely different and generally far less devastating to a victim when a sexual predator is hired by an employer and is allowed to gain access to vulnerable victims through their jobs. As an example, if a mental health facility hires someone unsuitable for a position and that person takes sexual advantage of
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Board of Commissioners To Conduct Independent Investigation of Fatal High Speed Chase

From newspaper accounts it appears that the Board of Commissioners of Clayton County may conduct an independent investigation into a police chase which resulted in the wrongful death of two innocent women who were returning from bible study when a pickup truck fleeing from a Clayton County police officer slammed into their vehicle on Old National Highway in Atlanta. The deadly pursuit began when the police noticed a suspect allegedly soliciting a prostitute. Even though this is a misdemeanor and a minor offense, Clayton County
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Georgia Man’s Wrongful Death- Was Alcohol A Factor?

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have handled many wrongful death lawsuits where alcohol was a factor in causing or contributing to our client’s death. Some of these cases have involved our representation of a guest passenger who was killed as a result of the negligence of the host driver. Such could have been the case on Friday evening when an Augusta, Georgia man, Earl Clark, died in an accident on Mike Padgett Highway. Clark was the passenger of a
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Clayton County Police Chase Resulting in Wrongful Death of Two Innocent Victims Is an Outrage

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have sued a number of police departments around the State of Georgia for the wrongful death of innocent citizens caused by police chases. Our experience has shown that following a high speed pursuit, the police begin immediately to plan their defense. We have already seen this in last week’s outrageous police chase in Clayton County. The police have told reporters that the officer had already slowed down “hoping that the fleeing suspect would slow
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Dangerous Drawstrings In Children Clothing

Our Atlanta product liability attorneys have represented parents of children killed and seriously injured by dangerous products.
Drawstrings in hooded sweatshirts have been long recognized as a danger to small children. There have been many reports of children strangled after the drawstrings have been accidently caught in various devices. Some of these incidents have resulted in death.
In November 2008, a 3-year-old boy died in Fresno, Calif., when the drawstring on his Hill Sportswear hooded sweatshirt became stuck on a playground set strangling him.
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Clayton County Georgia Police Chase Leads To Wrongful Death of Two Innocent Victims

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have several wrongful death lawsuits pending against various police departments throughout the state. They all involve police chases.They all involve police officers violating their own department policy with respect to police chases. They all involve the wrongful death of innocent victims and several involve the Clayton County Police. Will they ever get the message? Yesterday, Clayton County Police officers saw two men in a pickup truck appear to solicit a known
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Big Business Trys To Derail Financial Reform

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is again launching an attempt to protect its mega business members at the expense of ordinary U.S. citizens. The Chamber has been at the forefront in attempts to mislead Americans about a multitude of issues which affect millions of people, all to protect the profits of its controlling members. Now, the Chamber is rolling out an advertising campaign of at least $2 million aimed at defeating a central plank of the Obama administration’s financial-regulation overhaul.
But there won’t be any
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$5.3 MILLION WRONGFUL DEATH AWARD IN SMOKER’S DEATH

A Florida jury awarded a 92-year-old man over $5.3 million in his wrongful death lawsuit against Phillip Morris, the cigarette maker according to The Miami Herald. The man’s wife died in 1996 at the age of 63 from lung cancer after smoking 2 packs of Marlboro’s a day since she was 16-years of age. The apparent theory of the case was that the tobacco industry, including Philip Morris, misrepresented the risk of smoking in its advertising and knowingly sold a product which was addictive. Notwithstanding

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Google Alerts Demonstrate Dangers of Police Chases

If you go on Google and take advantage of a tool known as “Google News Alerts,” Google will send to you via e-mail news accounts in which certain terms are used. I typed in today the terms “police chase killed.” The following are headlines received from newspapers across the country which I received from this Google News Alert:
1) Victim In Police Chase Remembered as Caring Mom;
2) Woman Killed In Crash During Oakland Police Chase;
3) Toddler Killed In Police Chase;
4) One Man
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Wrongful Death Verdict For $13.8 Million Against Cigarette Maker

Georgia injury lawyers have not forgotten the sworn testimony the CEO’s of all of the major tobacco companies gave Congress a few years ago. Who could forget when these prominent men raised their right hands and swore that “Nicotine is not addictive”. Apparently a jury has not forgotten their testimony. Bloomberg reported that in a wrongful death case, a California jury has ordered Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro cigarettes to pay $13.8 million in punitive
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