As indicated in our prior blogs on this subject, when a claim is brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, it must be initiated via the filing of an administrative claim. The administrative claim should not be filled out in the most sparse form imaginable rather all pertinent details of…
Mandatory arbitration clauses are contained in almost every consumer transaction agreement, and financial and employment contracts. We have previously written about the fact that these mandatory arbitration clauses benefit only big business. As a result of the unfair nature of these clauses, there has been a movement within the United…
Last week we read about what has become an all too familiar pattern, more police chases equal more deaths. In one case in Los Angeles a six year old was killed when the police were chasing suspects who were believed to have been involved in a drug transaction earlier. The…
Police chases very often end in tragic results. Our Atlanta attorneys have handled many such cases in Georgia which have resulted in the loss of innocent lives while law enforcement officers chased suspects for minor offenses. Despite the carnage which these chases cause and the pain and grief inflicted upon…
Under the FTCA, a plaintiff must first submit an administrative claim to the responsible federal agency prior to the initiation of a lawsuit. The courts have held that the filing of such a claim is a jurisdictional requirement meaning that before the United States government can be sued, a written…
Many Georgia drivers can expect to receive recall notices for vehicles manufactured by General Motors Corp., due to a dangerous defect which can cause the vehicle to catch on fire. In one of the largest recalls of the year, General Motors announced Tuesday that it was recalling almost 1.5 million…
Atlanta, and other metropolitan areas in the state of Georgia have seen a rapid expansion in the numbers of same-day surgery centers. Yesterday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article suggesting that lack of infection practices are common in the nations more than 5000 outpatient surgery centers.…
When it comes to torts committed by the government and/or its employees, the beginning and ending place for any analysis is the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). See 28 U.S.C. § 1346. The Federal Tort Claims Act provides a limited waiver of sovereign immunity and allows for money damages against…
Under Georgia law, a sheriff and only a sheriff is vicariously liable for the negligent acts of his or her deputies. A county sheriff employs the deputy and the deputy reports to the sheriff. Thus, if a deputy sheriff is negligent, the sheriff is liable not the County. Notwithstanding this…
In a case involving serious injuries which threaten to impair or impede altogether one’s ability to be gainfully employed, a Functional Capacity Evaluation can be critical in helping to establish the extent of the disability. Functional Capacity Evaluations are performed according to objective criteria which have been proven to be…