Personal Injury & Wrongful Death

Many times we represent clients’ who have been seriously injured in automobile, trucking or on-the-job accidents who have sought and received psychological or psychiatric counseling and treatment. During the course of litigation, insurance company lawyers often try to subpoena mental health records from mental health professionals. It is wise to be vigilant in monitoring these requests from insurance defense lawyers and to object to these requests.
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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 necessary that counsel utilize a structure in preparing his/her outline of the legal and factual issues counsel wishes to discuss with the jury.
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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:
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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 missed 21 days from work. In other words, you are not entitled to weekly benefits if you miss 7 or less days from work. If you miss at least 21 days from work, you will be paid for the first 7. The first payment of weekly benefits, including the first 7 days, is due on the 21st day of disability.
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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 able to misrepresent, if not lie about either an injured persons condition or the cause thereof, in order to keep the insurance company dollars coming. People who are involved in litigation know who these doctors are because they show up over and over again. There is big money in these evaluations for orthopedic surgeons, neurologist, neurosurgeons and others who are in the business of performing them.
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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:

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 an astounding statistic. The fact of the matter is that firefighters are at great risk of suffering a heart attack because of the extreme stress and exertion under which they work when responding to a call.
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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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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 see here at our law practice. Our thoughts and prayers go to the families in Bluffton, Ohio and to the University. Obviously, this tragedy will have far-reaching implications for many families and loved ones. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the kind of fallout that can result from cases where apparent driver negligence is involved and results in serious injury and wrongful death.
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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.
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