Personal Injury

Another Unfair Mandatory Arbitration Clause Bites The Dust

Another bank with a large presence in Georgia has bowed to pressure from consumers and consumer advocacy groups and abandoned the unfair practice of mandatory arbitration. Bank of America Corp. announced it will stop requiring that disputes with its credit card holders and banking and lending customers be settled by binding arbitration.
As we have written before, many consumers are unaware that card agreements typically include a clause that waives a card holder’s right to sue. Lenders instead use arbitration to go after delinquent accounts
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Health Insurer MIsleading Practices Exposed

A health insurer which sells policies in Georgia and other states has been subjected to a major fine and other sanctions by the state of New York, after New York officials accused it of leaving patients with huge hospital bills.
The American Medical and Life Insurance Co., advertising through an intermediary called Cinergy, markets health insurance as a lower cost option for the uninsured and underinsured. It was pitched as costing just $5 a day, or the cost of a hamburger or pack of cigarettes.
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Police Pursuits and Death to the Innocent: The Police Don’t Get It

We read this week the tragic news of eight (8) deaths in a police chase in California. According to news accounts, the police were trying to stop a Dodge Neon over alleged traffic infractions when the pursuit began. Is it worth risking the death penalty to innocent members of the motoring public to catch a traffic violator? There is nothing in the news accounts indicating that this violator was known to the police to be violent. Nonetheless, even though police chases present much greater
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Jury Awards Woman $4 Million For Doctor’s Negligence In Emergency Room

Georgia injury lawyers representing victims of medical malpractice are still disheartened about the so-called “tort reform” that the Georgia Legislature has enacted in the last two or three years. Most Georgia citizens have no idea that they have given virtual immunity to Georgia emergency room physicians. If you are a patient in a Georgia hospital emergency room and you are seriously injured or meet your death as a result of an emergency room doctor’s negligence or medical malpractice, you cannot
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FDA Announces Reforms To Protect Consumers

Many Georgians were affected by the recent salmonella outbreak related to peanut butter. Some were sickened by the defective product and others lost jobs in the peanut processing plant that became ground zero for the recall. Now, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it is moving towards stronger, more aggressive and much faster responses to enforcing the laws and regulations that govern the safety of drugs, medical devices and much of the U.S. food supply,
New FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been in office
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Second Georgia Motorcycle Accident In A Week Seriously Injures Biker

For the second time this week a man has been seriously injured in a Georgia motorcycle accident. A Tennessee man who is a member of the Steelehorseman motorcycle club in Nashville was on his way to the National Biker Roundup at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when the accident occurred on I-7 S at State Route 92 in Atlanta. He was airlifted to Grady Hospital where he is being treated for his injuries. The accident is under investigation. Yesterday’s motorcycle accident resulted in the
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Police Chases and Russian Roulette: Death Penalty for the Innocent

We read today about a deadly police chase which occurred over the weekend which is both tragic but also unbelievable. In this particular case, the police were chasing a 20-year old male in Pennsylvania allegedly for driving a vehicle which was reported as stolen. During the high speed pursuit which ensued, the police chased this individual through, according to news accounts, “39 stop signs and/or stop lights.” In other words, during this pursuit, the police witnessed this individual as a result of the high speed
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Arbitration Exposed As Being Controlled By Big Business

Forced arbitration in consumer contracts has become a way of life in the United States. Almost all consumer contracts and purchase agreements contain clauses requiring a person that has been the victim of fraud, negligence, or intentional harmful conduct by a large company to give up their rights to a jury trial and submit to arbitration.
For many years consumer and lawyer groups have complained that these arbitration panels are stacked against consumers and serve as nothing more than “bought” protectors of large companies.
Recently,
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Cell Phone Usage and Auto Accidents

Our Atlanta car accident attorneys frequently review cases in which the negligent driver has been distracted while conversing on a cell phone. Recently, the consumer advocacy groups Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety obtained records showing that since 2003, the government has known that drivers talking on their cell phones experience the same potentially deadly distraction whether they are using a handheld device or hands-free technology.
In a press release the groups stated that by keeping this information secret from the public
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Servicemembers Have No Recourse For Malpractice

Many servicemembers and dependents reside in Georgia. While servicemembers can receive care at military hospitals they have no rights if they are the victim of malpractice, no matter how egregious. The Feres Doctrine, named after a 1950 Supreme Court decision, grants complete immunity to military health care professionals who commit malpractice upon service members. Service members who have sacrificed for their country and become victims of malpractice are left to suffer the consequences with no recourse.
This injustice has again come to light in
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Inexcusable Surgical Mistakes Continue

Outrageous surgical “errors” continue to maim and kill patients throughout Georgia and the United states despite requirements that hospitals and doctors abide by a standard set of procedures to prevent surgical mistakes.
These errors include operating on the wrong patient or the wrong body part.
This inexcusable problem is highlighted in a new study in the Archives of Surgery. The data was drawn from an insurance database in Colorado that included 27,370 self-reported incidents from 6,000 physicians from 2002 to mid-2008. Doctors in the
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Remington Rifles Have Serious Defect

According to a recent CNBC report, Remington Model 700 rifles have a serious and deadly defect, that can cause the rifles to fire without pulling the trigger.
The danger is caused by a defective component in the trigger mechanism called the trigger connector. The system is known as the Walker Fire Control System and Remington is the only gun manufacturer which incorporates it in firearms.
The report revealed that the defect with the trigger connector is that is not bound to the actual trigger. As
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Burn Injuries

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have seen some horrible burn injuries over the years which have resulted from automobile accidents, truck accidents, use of dangerous products and on-the-job accidents. There are few injuries more serious than burns. Burns can all too often be fatal. Even for those who survive, the degree of pain that accompanies a burn is hard to imagine. The debridement of the dead skin, necessary to prevent infection, is one of the most painful treatments in all of medicine. On top of that, burns leave serious scars that last a lifetime and often cause physical restrictions which affect the quality of life.

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Graco Stroller Recall-Four Deaths Reported

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have seen many serious injuries and wrongful death caused by dangerous products. Last week the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in Washington, announced that Graco, a company that specializes in making baby related merchandise, is recalling about 2 million strollers after receiving reports that four infants died in the strollers. They said the four infants became trapped inside the strollers and were strangled. The deaths occurred between 2003 and 2005. According to the announcement, the strollers being recalled are older versions of the Graco Quattro Tour and MetroLite strollers and travel systems, all made before 2007 and distributed by Graco Children’s Products Inc. of Atlanta.

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Workers’ Compensation Claims And Third Party Liability

When someone is injured on-the-job under Georgia law they are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. These benefits will provide minimal payments for lost wages as well as reimbursement of any medical expenses arising out of the on-the-job injury. In exchange for these statutory benefits the employee may never sue the employer responsible for the on-the-job injury. In short, even if an employer is negligent and/or creates an unsafe situation for an employee, the employer cannot be sued, instead as a tradeoff for not being sued,
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Police Chase Cases And Sovereign Immunity

As we have blogged about on many occasions in the past, there are many unfortunate situations where third party innocent victims become involved in reckless and dangerous police chases. If the police are chasing a juvenile, a traffic offender or some other non-violent offender and while traveling at high speeds continues to chase the suspect under such dangerous conditions that they crash into an innocent third party, there should be legal liability for a reckless disregard of proper police procedure in this context. Indeed, under Georgia law, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-6 specifies that where there is evidence of a reckless disregard of proper police procedure in the decision to either initiate or continue a high speed pursuit, such reckless disregard can be the basis of liability against the police if an innocent third party is injured due to such recklessness. Notwithstanding the statute, it is commonplace in any case brought by an innocent victim against the police for the government entity involved to assert sovereign immunity as a defense.

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On-The-Job Deaths Decreased 47% In 2009

In the late 70’s and early 80’s while I was employed in the Georgia claims department of a major insurance company, we had a very significant number of workers compensation death cases. Part of the reason was that the company wrote alot of assigned risk business but another reason was that the economy was doing well. Construction was booming and there were lots of jobs, especially construction jobs. Recently released statistics demonstrate that this is not the case now..

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Employer Liability For The Acts of Employees

Under Georgia law, employers are vicariously liable for the acts of the employees provided such acts are performed within the scope of their employment. If an employee is working on behalf of an employer and is acting within the scope of his or her duties, an employer will be liable if the employee negligently injuries a third party. The reasons for such liability are due to the fact that the injury arose out of and was caused by the performance of duties being performed on
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Mediating Personal Injury Claims

In a case where an innocent victim is victimized by the negligence of a third party, whether it be as a result of the negligent acts of a truck driver or due to medical malpractice committed by a doctor, a question often arises: Should a claimant in such a case consider mediation as a way of resolving their claims against the negligent defendant? Experience indicates that mediation is successful approximately eighty percent (80%) of the time so logic would dictate that all serious personal injury
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Cadillac Recalls SRX Vehicles

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have represented victims of dangerous products for over 40 years. These products which range from defective automobiles to defective humidifiers can cause serious injury or even death if they malfunction after being purchased by the innocent consumer.
Just last week, General Motors recalled over 4000 2010 Cadillac SRX crossover vehicles because of power steering problems. According to the company, power steering fluid could leak, causing a fire in the engine compartment. All of these cars were manufactured in 2009.
Although this may not seem like a significant problem, it could potentially be very dangerous if the vehicle were to catch on fire after being parked in a home garage or carport. Ford Motor Company found out they had significant exposure when Ford F series trucks with defective cruise control switches caused such fires. Those fires lead to a recall by Ford.

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