Anytime a serious injury case is settled for a particular amount of money, the insurance company for the at fault third party involved will insist on a Release of all claims, not only against their insured responsible for the damages but also for the insurance company issuing the check on their behalf. This is standard as part of any serious injury or personal injury case whereby monies are paid as consideration for a settlement. In all such cases, counsel should be conferred with because the
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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.

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.

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.

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.

A disturbing Inspector General report from the shows that medical errors are harming and killing our senior citizens at alarming rates.

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.’”

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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