Personal Injury

Doctor Sues for Medical Negligence

Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers constantly hear calls from doctors and politicians to limit the rights of recovery of innocent patients injured by medical negligence. Often, the rights of these innocent patients are sacrificed for the monetary benefit of physicians and big insurance companies. One need look no further than the so called “tort reform” package passed by the Georgia legislature in 2005 and later signed into law by Governor Perdue.
Doctors are quick to support this erosion of rights for patients until it happens
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High-Speed Police Chases: One Person Can Make A Difference

On our blog, we have written numerous articles about the dangers associated with high speed police chases. Our firm has handled numerous wrongful death and serious injury cases arising out of these very dangerous pursuits.
By and large the public does not appreciate just how dangerous police chases are. Indeed, more people are killed each year from police chases than are killed as a result of police firearm incidents. Over the last ten (10) years more people have died in police chases than were
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Brain Injuries and the Uninsured

The saddest personal injury cases we see in our serious injury law practice often times involves those who have suffered traumatic brain injury resulting from an automobile, tractor-trailer collision or some other traumatic event, with these tragedies being seriously compounded by the unavailability of insurance. While there has been some media attention on the number of uninsured individuals in this country who have no available health insurance coverage, the impact of this problem is not really seen or appreciated until one is confronted with overwhelming
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Insulin Pump Dangers

Federal regulators are sounding a warning about dangers associated with the use of insulin pumps by children and teenagers. Insulin pumps are used by tens of thousands of young people worldwide with Type 1 diabetes.
The Food and Drug Administration is warning parents to be vigilant in watching their children’s use of the pumps. They are not advising against using the pumps, but suggested further study to address safety concerns in teens and even younger children who use the popular pumps.
Researchers found that in
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MRSA Infections in Hospitals and the Community Continue to Rise

MRSA is a staph becteria which has been in the news in recent years as serious problems have been reported in hospitals and other health care facilities. Staph bacteria, even those that aren’t resistant to antibiotics, have long caused serious infections.
In the 1960s, the first reports surfaced of staph infections that had stopped responding to the antibiotic methicillin. Over the decades, those strains have spread, and the germs have developed resistance to other drugs, largely in hospitals where they infect patients weakened by disease
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Heparin Victims Testify Before Congress

Victims of the wrongful death of their loved ones testified this week before Congress concerning adulterated supplies of Heparin. One of the largest suppliers of this drug, which is used in kidney dialysis and various other surgeries to prevent dangerous blood clots, is Baxter International, Inc. Not only did the victims of families who have been damaged by this product testify before Congress, representatives from Baxter were also subpoenaed by the Energy and Commerce Committee which is reviewing the Food and Drug Administration’s response
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Medical Group Fights Industry Influence

The Association of American Medical Colleges has proposed that drug and medical device companies should be banned from offering free food, gifts, travel and ghost-writing services to doctors, staff members and students in nation’s medical colleges. The Association has begun to write a model policy governing relationships between the schools and industry. While medical schools can ignore the association’s advice, most follow its recommendations.
The rules would apply only to medical schools, but they could have enormous influence across medicine, according to medical educators.
Drug
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Reuse of Syringes Can Cause Dangerous Infections

Medical Malpractice takes many forms. In this article, we write about a unusual but dangerous medical error that can cause lifetime consequences for an innocent patient.
Though most everyone knows that sharing needles is unsafe in today’s world, sharing or reusing syringes can be equally dangerous. During any health related injection, a tiny amount of blood is often inadvertently drawn back into a syringe. Most of the time, that does not make a difference because it is common practice to use a new syringe and
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Motorcycle Accidents on the Rise

Our personal injury practice reflects pretty much what we see in national statistics concerning the rising rate of motorcycle injuries and accidents. We are seeing more and more clients seriously injured in motorcycle accidents. In large part, this is primarily due to increased numbers of motorcycle riders. Motorcycle registrations have more than doubled since 1997. In 2006, almost 6.5 million motorcycles were registered in this country. The good news is that the number of deaths and injuries resulting from these 6.5 million motorcycles is no
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AEDs Save Young Athletes

Portable defibrillators are becoming common equipment at youth athletic event. We have written in the past explaining how theses devices, also known as AEDs, help restart the heart in the event of an accident.
A recent news report relates that last month in Jacksonville, Fla. A high school lacrosse goalie was hit in the chest by a lacrosse ball causing his heart to stop beating. And, it happened again just last week at another lacrosse game in Raleigh, N.C.
Researchers say that over the last
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Employer Liability for Employee Acts: Who Decides?

In a case where an injured party brings a claim against a person who caused them injury and that person’s employer, a jury question is often present as to whether the negligent employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment at the time they inflicted the injury upon the innocent third party victim. As long as a disputed issue of material fact exists, only juries can determine whether an employee was acting within the scope of their employment and/or acting solely for
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Tire Failures Are The Cause Of Many Of Georgia’s Automobile and Truck Accidents

Georgia injury lawyers often see car accidents and truck accidents caused by tire failure. A tire failure can also be the precipitating event in a vehicle rollover case. The causes of these tire failures vary but include manufacturing defects, road hazards and failure to keep the tire properly inflated.

In any motor vehicle crash where a tire failure is suspected, it is crucial to preserve the vehicle and especially the tires and rims so that they can be inspected by experts. Georgia injury lawyers know experts who can timely inspect and evaluate the evidence and who can testify at trial, if necessary.

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Tractor-Trailer Truck Tire Tread On Georgia Highways Is A Growing Problem

Georgia injury lawyers have seen many serious automobile accidents, tractor-trailer accidents and motorcycle accidents caused by foreign objects and road debris on Georgia highways. Just a few weeks ago a 19 year old girl was killed in Tifton, Georgia when she collided with a tractor-trailer. Both vehicles were heading south on Interstate 75 when the girl swerved to avoid a piece of retread rubber in the roadway. After running off the roadway, she apparently over-corrected, came back onto the roadway and struck the tractor-trailer rig. This death should not have happened. Recently I got a call from the mother of the girl and we discussed the growing problem of road debris and in particular, large pieces of tractor trailer truck tire tread littering our highways.

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Offers Of Judgment: An Assault On The Civil Justice System

In Georgia there is a bad law on the books that was passed by the Republican dominated Legislature as part of its so-called effort at “tort reform.” We refer here to the provisions of O.C.G.A. § 9-11-68, the Georgia Offer Of Judgment statute. This statute provides that a party may make an offer of judgment to another party in a pending case in which the offering party agrees to settle the case for a specified sum. Thereafter, if the party to whom the offer is made fails to settle for the offer and later fails to obtain an award of at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the amount of the offer, then the party making the offer of judgment may petition the court for payment of its attorney’s fees from the date the offer was made until the less favorable award or loss.

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Georgia Couple Injured In Motorcycle Accident When Rear Tire Blew

Motorcycle riders are especially vulnerable to serious injury or death when involved in an accident with a careless driver. While many drivers fault the motorcyclist, we at the Finch McCranie firm know that most motorcycle operators are responsible, cautious individuals. Defective tires, or design problems with the motorcycle itself, can also cause a motorcyclist to crash. In such cases, the victims may have a viable products liabilty case against the manufacturer of the product.

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Cords On Window Blinds Continue To Kill

Cords on window blinds continue to kill an average of one child a month, despite a 16-year federal push to make them safer.
According to safety groups, a new voluntary industry rule on window blind cords does not address all strangulation risks to children and ignores input from consumer advocates.
The voluntary standard just published by the Window Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA) prohibits accessible inner cords on Roman shades but still allows long draw cords. Inner cords weave between the slats of horizontal blinds or
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Premises Liability Cases In Georgia

Recently, the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP successfully represented an elderly woman who was injured while shopping in a large, nationwide department store. While walking towards a clothing display that caught her attention, she tripped and fell over an empty wooden shipping pallet which had been left in a main aisle. As a result of her fall, she sustained a serious back injury. When questioned under oath, the manager could not say how long the pallet had been there or even who placed it there. He conceded that the empty pallet was serving no purpose (having been emptied) and that it presented a potential danger to customers. He also conceded that warning cones should have been placed to warn customers of the potential danger.

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Defective Dehumidifiers Recalled

http://www.serious-injury-litigation.com/lawyer-attorney-1259787.htmlGeorgia injury lawyers know that dangerous products can cause serious injury or death to innocent consumers. For example, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall of Gold Star and Comfort-Aire portable dehumidifiers due to a fire hazard. The Commission said the recall involved 98,000 dehumidifiers exported from China by LG Electronics Tianjin Appliance Co. Of China. According to the Commission, the dehumidifiers have power connectors that can short circuit, posing a fire risk. The company has received four reports of fires involving dehumidifiers including Gold Star model # GHD30Y7, which were sold at Home Depot outlets, model # DH305Y7, sold at Walmart stores, and Comfort-Aire model # BHD-301-C dehumidifiers, sold at Heat Controller.
Defective and dangerous products coming into the United States from China are increasing at an alarming rate. In 2008, 80% of all product recalls in the U.S. involved imported products from China. Other dangerous recalled products include dog food, toys with lead paint, drywall and even pharmaceuticals.

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Carbon Monoxide Leaks Often Result In Wrongful Death

Every year Georgia citizens die needlessly as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. According to Journal of the American Medical Association, carbon monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America, yet many people do not know when they are being affected by it since its symptoms appear flu-like. Exposure to high levels of carbon monoxide can result in death.

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Medical Malpractice Realities

Medical malpractice lawsuits in Georgia have long been the target of doctors’ groups and big insurance companies. Using advertising, political contributions, and misinformation, they have been successful in fostering the notion that these lawsuits are frivolous. Many people have bought into this misconception, that is, until it happens to them or a loved one.
A recent story in the Miami newspaper illustrates this well. A Belle Glade, Florida judge plans to sue two radiologists and a surgeon after a foot long by foot wide
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