Personal Injury

NEW DRUG LABELING LAW

As the Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog attorneys have writtten about before, prescription drug manufacturers can cause serious personal injuries and death by failure to warn of a prescription drug’s hazardous side effects. A new law requires prescription drug companies to take steps to ensure drug safety and eliminate the risks of needless serious personal injury or death.
In late September, President Bush signed into law the Prescription Drug User Fee Reauthorization Act, PDUFA. This Act creates new federal safety requirements for drug companies, and
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Spoliation or Destruction Of Evidence

Spoliation is defined as the destruction or a significant or meaningful alteration of evidence. For many years, in Georgia, spoliation of evidence has given rise to a presumption against the spoliator which has resulted in discovery sanctions in appropriate cases. Many states actually recognize a separate tort of spoliation. However, Georgia courts have not yet embraced that concept.
Spoliation of evidence is actually a type of fraud which interferes with the plaintiff’s opportunity to win a lawsuit. In some cases, it can logically be expanded
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Medical Malpractice or Frivolous Litigation?

It seems that all the time we read articles about the need for reform in the medical malpractice area because of so-called frivolous litigation. The argument always seems to be that claims are being brought which are frivolous and that medical malpractice rarely occurs. The truth is that, like any other human undertaking, malpractice does occur in the field of medicine. Sometimes, the malpractice can be egregious and the mistakes life altering.
Just today we read a story about a lady who had a double
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FORMER CHIEF JUDGE OF CLAYTON COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JOINS FIRM

Stephen E. Boswell, former Chief Judge of Clayton County Superior Court, has joined one of the Atlanta area’s longest established law firms, Finch McCranie, LLP., according to Richard W. Hendrix, partner in the firm.
Judge Boswell recently retired from the Superior Court bench after serving 13 years as a Superior Court Judge, over two periods of service since 1982. Previously, he was in private practice in the Atlanta area for 16 years, with a variety of experience in civil and criminal jury trials.
As of
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Georgia Motorcycle Accident Kills One, Injures Another

We read in yesterday’s paper where one motorcyclist was killed and another seriously injured after their bikes were involved in a multi-vehicle wreck just outside of Atlanta in Cherokee County. According to the news accounts, the bikers were among a group of 40 to 50 taking part in a charity bike ride when the crash occurred. The news report indicates that a teenage driver struck a lady who was sitting stopped at a stop sign waiting for the motorcyclists to pass her when, after being
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Civil Restitution For Crime Victims In Federal Court

In 1996 the United States Congress enacted the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996, which makes restitution mandatory upon a defendant’s conviction for a federal violent or property crime in which there is an identifiable victim who has directly and proximately suffered physical injury or monetary loss. Upon conviction for other federal crimes, including drug offenses, the imposition of restitution is in the discretion of the sentencing court. In instances in which restitution is imposed, the court “shall order restitution to each victim in the
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Another Chinese Toy Recall

The Associated Press is reporting that yet another massive recall of Chinese-made toys has been issued. Toys and child necklaces made in China were recalled Wednesday because they contain dangerous levels of lead. The recalled toys contained high levels of lead on their surface paint and the necklaces and jewelry sets contain excessive lead in some of their metal parts.
Under current regulations, children’s products which contain more than .06% of lead accessible to users are subject to a recall. The Consumer Product Safety Commission
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Food Poisoning Danger – Recall Due To E. coli

Our firm was recently retained to represent a gentleman who almost died after he consumed a meal at a restaurant in south Georgia. It seems like our food supply is not as safe as it used to be. Time and time again we hear and read about horrific food poisoning injury cases, some resulting in death.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported this week that a New Jersey-based meat processor has voluntarily recalled 331,582 pounds of frozen ground beef products that may be contaminated with
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Effort to Control Hospital Infections

In an analysis made public this week, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports Magazine, compared data compiled by the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showing compliance with infection control measures for hospitals in Maryland and Virginia.
Consumers Union is advocating a bill before Congress that will require hospitals to publish their infection rates. The analysis determined that the hospitals in both states generally performed about as well as hospitals nationwide. But, according to the study, the hospitals in each state varied greatly
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Gadolinium Contrast Agent – A Dangerous Drug Under Investigation

Many of us who have handled serious personal injury cases, including those involving brain injury have seen MRI’s performed using various contrast agents for years. One of those agents does not appear to be as safe as once thought. Gadolinium, or gadodiamide, is a contrast agent which allows an MRI to define normal tissue from abnormal tissue in the brain and body. The FDA declared Gadolinium safe for use in contrast MRI’s in 1988.
In June 2006, the FDA first notified health care professionals and
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Pre-Suit Notice Requirements for Claims Against State and Local Government

Under Georgia law, a person injured by the act or omission of a state, local or county government agency must file a written pre-suit notification of intent to file a claim before a lawsuit can subsequently be filed. These are known as “Ante-Litem” provisions. Under the State Tort Claims Act, for example, an Ante-Litem Notice must be filed within twelve (12) months from the date the loss was discovered or should have been discovered. Any person with a claim against the county must present that
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Damage Caps and Medical Malpractice

Our Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers have written in the past about the unfairness of damage caps in medical malpractice cases and how they penalize the most severly injured innocent victims of medical malpractice.
Currently before the Georgia Supreme Court is the issue of the constitutionality of the $350,000.00 cap on non-economic damages enacted by the legislature in 2005. A decision is expected any day.
The attorneys who prosecuted that case have prepared a video which explains and details the terrible injuries suffered by their client.
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Defeating Defenses of Sovereign Immunity

Oftentimes we are asked by clients who have claims against government entities and/or employees to represent their interests in personal injury cases. Regrettably, due to the antiquated and harsh doctrine of sovereign immunity (for legal claims), this many times proves to be a difficult undertaking. Simply stated, sovereign immunity protects many government agencies and employees from lawsuits involving personal injuries. Thankfully, there are some exceptions to the rule, most notably when there is another statute that waives the immunity from suit.
With respect to county
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General Motors Recalls 1.3 Million Vehicles Over Steering Motor Problem

General Motors Co. Is recalling 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compacts cars to repair or replace steering motors which can fail causing the vehicle to be difficult to steer at lower speeds. While this may not be an insurmountable problem for some drivers, the Georgia injury lawyers recognize that it may be a serious problem for older or elderly drivers who may surprised by the loss of the power steering and be physically unable to steer the vehicle. Under those circumstances a power steering
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Bus Companies Owe Passengers Duty To Use Extraordinary Care In Georgia

Bus accidents on Georgia roads and highways many times result in serious injury and sometimes death for passengers. Many people do not realize that under Georgia law, common carriers such as bus companies and airlines owe their passengers the duty to exercise extraordinary care in the operation of the bus or airplane which is a higher legal duty than is normally owed. Specifically, the Official Code of Georgia Annotated §46-9-1 provides as follows:
“Carriers as such are bound to exercise ordinary diligence. Common

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Georgia Deck Collapse Cases Usually Result From Negligent Construction and Inspection

As a Georgia injury lawyer, I am always amazed at the number of deck collapse cases I read and hear about. Many of these decks are built high off the ground and do not meet any acceptable or recognized building code. Unfortunately the deficiencies of the construction do not become apparent until the decks are loaded up with people and the deck pulls away from the house and falls. In recent years there have been a number of death cases related to deck
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$9.45 Million Awarded in Prempro Dangerous Drug Case

Georgia injury lawyers are well aware that just because a prescription drug is an FDA approved drug is , does not mean that it is safe. There was a time when the American public believed that to be the case but we have come to the realization that money talks. Yes, “it is always all about the money” when it comes to business relationships and the drug business is BIG business. It is common knowledge that many former FDA employees end up being hired

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Some Chrysler Minivan’s May Have Defective Airbag Sensor

Chrysler Group LLC announced on yesterday it will replace a front airbag crash sensor in more than 355,000 minivans. Careful not to call it a “recall”, Chrysler says it’s “safety improvement campaign” covers its 2005 -2006 Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans sold in the United State and Canada.
Chrysler’s “safety improvement campaign” came about because they discovered that under certain environmental conditions one of the front airbag sensors could crack allowing water to enter the sensor potentially rendering it inoperable. In
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Yaz/Yasmin – Gall Bladder Damage

Recently, the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP got a call from a former client who advised us that her 21 year old daughter had been having gall bladder problems that led to her having her gall bladder removed. It turned out that she had been taking one of two related dangerous drugs that have become associated with such health problems, Yaz. Yasmin became a very popular seller for Bayer Corp. almost immediately upon release to the public in 2001
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Crib Safety Regulations Announced

Defective and dangerous infant cribs have become a major problem across the United States. Since September 2007 the Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, has recalled more than 6 million cribs due to dangerous designs and defects. These problems include failures related to drop sides, hardware and wooden slats.
Consumer advocates and health professionals have long complained that federal safety requirements governing cribs do not address the durability of drop-sides on cribs and related hardware, as well as wood strength and quality and other issues.
Wednesday,
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