Personal Injury

Aircraft Engine Failures

Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, requested that the Federal Aviation Administration increase inspections of certain Pratt & Whitney engines on dozens of passenger jets to detect possible flaws linked to the most catastrophic type of failure. The NTSB asked that the FAA require that PW2037 engines undergo recurring inspections for the time being once they reach a certain point in their operation.
The request affects more than 700 engines on some 300 Boeing Co 757 aircraft worldwide, including at least several dozen operated
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Report: More Than 90 Percent of Nursing Homes Cited For Safety Violations

A new federal report found that nine of every 10 nursing homes were cited for violating federal health and safety standards last year. For-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, according to the report. Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups and poor nutrition. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.
Elderly people are entitled to basic safety, respect and dignity. If you or someone you love is
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Digoxin and Byetta: Dangerous Drug Products

Digoxin was developed by the company Actavis Totowa to treat arrhythmias (abnormal heat rhythm) and allegedly to prevent heart failure. In April of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall of this drug. As it turned out, the use of this product leads to a dangerous side effect known as digitalis toxicity, a process that occurs when digitalis is not excreted normally through urine and the body is overexposed to the drug. This process may be fatal to the victim, which
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Medical Errors Not Rewarded By Medicare

New federal regulations that restrict Medicare payments to hospitals for the extra care required to treat patients harmed by certain preventable infections and medical errors went into effect on Wednesday, October 1.
The rules adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to provide hospitals with a financial incentive to improve patient care.
Under the new regulations, CMS will withhold payments to hospitals for care needed after patients suffer from certain preventable errors or omissions in care. These include hospital acquired urinary
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Motorcycle Crashes Continue To Increase

Motorcycle injuries and deaths continue to rise as more people utilize motorcycles and scooters for daily transportation. The Washington Post reports that in an eight-hour span over the Labor Day weekend motorcycle accidents in the metropolitan District of Columbia area left four people dead. One top transportation official calls the rise in motorcycle crashes “our nation’s greatest traffic highway safety challenge.”
While only 2 percent of all vehicles on the nation’s roads last year were motorcycles, they were involved in 11 percent of all traffic
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Nursing Home Report Reveals Disturbing Data

Nursing homes care for the elderly and disabled, some of the most vulnerable persons in society. But, a recent report has disturbing news. More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year according to a report issued by the federal government. For-profit nursing homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes.
The report revealed that about 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused actual harm or immediate jeopardy
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Another Deadly Bus Accident: California Charter Bus Crash Is Another Example of Lack of Passenger Safety Measures

Last night’s deadly charter bus crash in California reportedly killed at least ten passengers, after the bus veered from the road, and rolled over into a ditch. Predictably, passengers were ejected from the bus or tossed around inside the bus, which in our experience greatly increases the severity of injury.
In last year’s deadly bus accident involving the Bluffton University Baseball Team, our firm represents the most seriously injured surviving passenger. As we have written about previously, the NTSB found that the lack of seat
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Product Liability Claims Involving Byetta

Three new lawsuits were filed in the state of California in September concerning the injectable diabetes drug Byetta. The lawsuits allege design defect and inadequate warnings of the drug’s alleged links to pancreatitis. The lawsuits name the manufacturer, Amylin, and the marketer, Eli Lilly, as the named defendants in the suit.
Byetta is a injectable drug for adult Type 2 diabetes. The principle ingredients of the drug are a derivative of the saliva of the Gila Monster, a lizard found in the southwestern United States.
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Brain Injuries Cause Half of Seniors’ Fall Deaths

As Georgia trial lawyers we have handled a wide variety of slip and fall injury cases. While serious injuries from falls can occur at any age, it can be particularly serious for senior citizens. The elderly fear breaking a hip when they fall, but a government study indicates that hitting their head can also have deadly consequences: Brain injuries account for half of all deaths from falls. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first comprehensive national look at the
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Car Accidents, Personal Injury and Tort Reform

Not only must Georgia car accident, truck accident, and other personal injury victims fight the insurance companies to get a fair shake, but now days they must also swim against the tide of so-called “tort reform.” Brainwashed by propaganda, bought and paid for by the most dangerous industries and their insurers, potential jurors naturally come into court believing that all injured litigants are exaggerating – or worse. Sadly, we taxpayers often end up paying the medical and other bills that the wantonly, careless and dangerous
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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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