ATLANTA,GA
DULUTH, GA
Dangerous hazards are still finding their way into toys despite recently improved safety standards, according to a report recently issued by the American Association for Justice.
According to the report, for years, corporations have knowingly shipped toys with hidden dangers like small parts, loose magnets, asbestos, and other toxic chemicals until outrage from parents and civil lawsuits forced regulators or manufacturers to act.
(more…)There are limited waivers of sovereign immunity when it comes victims of the negligence of a county employee. Unless a county’s sovereign immunity has been waived by statute, there is no legal claim that can be filed. An example of a waiver of a county’s sovereign immunity is the waiver of sovereign immunity by law where a county employee is operating a county vehicle. There is a specific Georgia statute which provides for the waiver of sovereign immunity with respect to such claims. See O.C.G.A.
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The Federal Torts Claim Act is found at 28 U.S.C. § 1346. It provides for a limited waiver of sovereign immunity with respect to tortious acts committed by federal agents and employees. Under its provisions, only the United States of America may be named as a defendant, not the agency or employee who committed the tort. An administrative ante-litem notice must be filed within two (2) years after the claim accrues. There is a waiting period before suit can be filed against the United States which is either when the written denial occurs or six (6) months, whichever is earlier.
(more…)Today, the United States approved the biggest overhaul to the nation’s food safety laws since the 1930s. By a bipartisan vote of 73-to-25 the new law would gives new authorities to the Food and Drug Administration, places new responsibilities on farmers and food companies to prevent contamination, and for the first time, sets safety standards for imported foods.
The Senate vote was one of the few pieces of legislation to receive bipartisan approval in years. The House of Representatives approved a more stringent version of
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There is a State Tort Claims Act found at O.C.G.A. § 50-21-20, et. seq. The Act resulted from an amendment to the Georgia Constitution and became law in April of 1992. It was intended to provide a remedy for torts committed by State officers and employees and establishes a procedure to waive sovereign immunity under certain circumstances to allow suits against the State for tortious acts of state agents, employees and/or officers. Individual State officers and/or employees may not be named as a party to a lawsuit. Under the State Tort Claims Act, the exclusive remedy for a tort committed by a State employee is an action against the state agency involved and not against the employee personally.
(more…)Our Atlanta based attorneys frequently pursue cases against nursing homes involving horrible neglect and abuse of elderly and disabled persons.
In most of these cases our attorneys must sort through a maze of companies and entities designed to hide the true ownership of these offending entities and thereby avoid responsibility.
It is encouraging to see that several national lawmakers in the health policy world now want want nursing homes to be more open about who’s running them.
Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
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The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a private consumer advocacy group, recently released its 25th annual study of toy safety. It reported that only a small fraction of children’s toys tested for toxic substances and choking risks have been found to violate federal safety regulations.
The group’s public health advocate commented that while the study did not find perfection in toy safety, it did indicate progress.
(more…)An estimated 15,000 Medicare patients die each month, and many more are injured, because of usually preventable medical mistakes in hospitals and other facilities.
The report focused on “adverse events,” defined as “harm to a patient as a result of medical care, such as infection associated with use of a catheter,” and “never events,” which are specific “serious events, such as surgery on the wrong patient, that the National Quality Forum (NQF) deemed ‘should never occur in a health care setting.’”
(more…)Today we received a telephone call from a client who had been injured on some school property. The client was vaguely aware of the doctrine of sovereign immunity and unfortunately for this particular person their claim was completely barred by operation of law. Why: because of the doctrine of Sovereign Immunity?
The law has long been that lawsuits against government official performing their discretionary and official job functions are discouraged. If it were not otherwise there would be litigation every time someone disagreed with what
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Products should meet the ordinary expectations of consumers. If a product is defective and dangerous, then the designer, manufacturer and/or seller can be held accountable for any injuries or deaths that result. There are a number of different types of product liability cases.
Defective in Design: In a design-defect case, the dangerous product is in the condition intended by the manufacturer, but the design itself is unsafe.
Defects in Manufacturing: In a manufacturing defect case, the product’s design was safe, but the way
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All experienced attorneys that practice in the personal injury field are familiar with insurance companies attempting to exploit prior injuries sustained by clients. The argument often used is that the injury caused in the car wreck, tractor-trailer accident, slip and fall incident, or other personal injury case was not caused by the negligence of the person being sued, but rather, that the victim of the negligence is simply malingering and/or claiming damages for a pre-existing injury. Insurance companies subpoena health records as far back as
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According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it has received reports of 13 deaths associated with the use of the popular “Five Hour Energy” drink. Because the FDA’s investigation is ongoing, currently it is not known what has caused these reported deaths. Is it because the product has too much caffeine that results in heart attacks? Or is it because of other ingredients in the drink which are not subject to FDA regulations (because it is considered a dietary supplement)? The Five Hour Energy
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In many of our serious automobile collision cases we unfortunately find ourselves representing victims of a traumatically induced brain injury. During any serious car accident, unfortunately victims oftentimes strike their heads either on the seat or some other interior portion of the car. This can sometimes result in a loss of consciousness, confusion, dizziness or otherwise. When emergency personnel arrive at the scene of a serious wreck and diagnose those who appear to be confused or dazed, they typically use an assessment tool called
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The term “mild” traumatic brain injury is very misleading. While the descriptor “mild” typically refers to the severity of the trauma that resulted in the injury, oftentimes in a personal injury context it does not come close to describing the severity of the consequences of the injury. Even though the trauma may be mild, the long term consequences of the injury may be anything other than mild and oftentimes are quite serious.
The vast majority of people who experience a mild traumatic brain injury
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Traumatic brain injuries typically involve transient periods of some type of neurological dysfunction which can range from brief periods of confusion or dizziness to headaches and/or seizures, sometimes involving nausea. The term concussion is oftentimes used interchangeably with the term “mild traumatic brain injury” or MTBI. The Quality Standards Subcommittee of The American Academy of Neurology has recognized that concussions may occur without the loss of consciousness. There are three grades of concussions according The Academy of Neurology. A Grade 1 concussion involves transient
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In our trial practice we are often presented with cases where the client had a pre-existing medical condition which was aggravated by an accident. As an example, someone can have asymptomatic degenerative disk disease, be involved in an automobile collision and thereafter begin to experience symptoms of pain because of the injury to their neck or back. Someone can have any asymptomatic pre-existing condition, which is aggravated by the trauma from an accident, which causes the pre-existing condition to become asymptomatic. Obviously, the issue in
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There is one duty that a lawyer owes to his client and that is to be truthful with them. In many cases clients need counseling and need it badly. Sometimes clients do not want to hear the truth and take pains to avoid it. Oftentimes clients will turn on their attorneys when the attorney tries to tell them the truth of their situation. In such circumstances the client will accuse the lawyer of not being zealous in his or her representation or not believing in
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When the police encounter a stolen vehicle and attempt to stop it with their blue lights and the driver takes off, the question is whether the public is well served when the police engage in a high speed pursuit thereafter. Clearly the suspect wishes to escape apprehension and is willing to travel at high speeds endangering the lives of the public. The only way they will be apprehended is if the police are successful during their pursuit in running them off the road, using stop sticks or otherwise blockading them. During the pursuit, however, the entire public is endangered and it is quite likely that as the speeds get higher and higher and the offender becomes more and more desperate at escaping apprehension the dangers will increase and tragedy to innocent third parties may result.
(more…)In many car accident and personal injury cases, clients often wish to “settle out of course” so as to avoid the stress, anxiety and uncertainty of a jury trial. In many cases this is entirely possible and the client can still achieve a settlement that approximates the fair value of their case. However, in a certain number of cases, settlement offers pre-trial may not constitute adequate compensation for the damage inflicted and thus a jury trial may be a necessity. Sometimes, despite the
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With today’s low interest rates, sometimes it makes little or no sense to structure a portion of a personal injury settlement. If a case settles for a particular amount, it is always advisable to consider whether structuring a portion of the settlement money into an annuity by way of a tax free investment might be in the best interest of the client. When minor children are involved, sometimes investing in a long term annuity can not only protect the corpus of the funds but
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