Personal Injury

Atlanta Man Electrocuted: Serious Injury and Wrongful Death

We read in the newspaper this week about the death of a maintenance man at a local school system when he was electrocuted while trying to change a fixture at the elementary school. While the newspaper article did not provide many details, it was curious to us that a maintenance man would be killed while simply trying to change out a light fixture. This raises the obvious issue of whether there is third party negligence because the electrical system obviously had some problems within it,
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Georgia Serious Injury Cases: Frequently Asked Question Number 3

This blog will continue in our series of providing our readers with answers to frequently asked questions in the context of a serious injury case. This blog will address FAQ number 3:
3. If a client settles his or her personal injury claim against an at fault defendant, will they have to repay their own insurance carrier under current subrogation provisions of the law?
Answer: This question often comes up in the context of serious injury cases where the injured individual has incurred substantial medical
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Ortho Evra Contraceptive Patch is Dangerous to Use

The Ortho Evra contraceptive patch has been used by many young women who unfortunately have developed clot related injuries. Some users have had strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms or deep vein thrombosis as a result of using this product. This past week, the Food and Drug Administration announced a significant update to the manufacturer’s warning on the contraceptive patch. The label now warns users of the patch that they are at a significantly higher risk of developing clot related injuries than other women who use
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Georgia Serious Injury Cases: Frequently Asked Question Number 2

This continues in our series of providing our readers with answers to frequently asked questions in the context of a serious injury case. This blog will address FAQ number 2:
2. Who will bear responsibility for my future medical expenses if I settle my serious injury case today?
Answer: Anytime a serious injury case is settled, there has to be an evaluation of future medical expenses. Has the injured individual recovered completely from their injuries? Are future medical expenses likely? If future medical expenses are
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Medication Errors In Atlanta Hospitals

We have previously written about the dangers of medication errors in hospitals. Recently another incident made the news because a celebrity was involved. Actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins and another child were put in serious danger when they were administered overdoses of a blood thinner. The California Department of Public Health said the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center gave the newborns 1,000 times the intended dosage of heparin. Fortunately, all three children recovered, but two needed a drug that reverses the effects of heparin.
The authorities said
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Emergency Care Lacking in Hospitals

Our attorneys are increasingly reviewing cases where major surgical procedures are being performed at small physician-owned hospitals and surgical centers.
On January 10, 2008, the Washington Post revealed that the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, had issued a report concerning physician-owned specialty hospitals. The report concluded that most physician-owned speciality hospitals are poorly equipped to handle medical emergencies.
The report revealed that only 55% of the 109 physician-owned hospitals studied had emergency departments, and of those, the majority had only
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Atlanta/Georgia Medical Malpractice Limits on Recoveries

Our medical malpractice attorneys are frequently forced to decline cases which have merit from a liability standpoint, but due to caps on the amount of recovery cannot be justified in economic terms.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran a story concerning a 72 year old woman who entered Stanford University Medical Center for double knee replacement surgery in April. Four days later, she was dead. Her son, an anesthesiologist, felt that the case was a classic case of medical malpractice. After the operation, his
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Having Full Insurance Coverage Does Not Mean You Have Good Coverage

Serious injury lawyers like ourselves often hear clients involved in serious accidents tell us that they had “full coverage” at the time of the accident and that they therefore have “excellent” insurance protection. The vast majority of the time, this is not the case at all. This is because the term “full coverage” means that one has the coverage one is minimally required by law to possess. Full coverage does not mean adequate coverage nor does it mean excellent coverage. It means minimally required coverage
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Medical Malpractice Bill Seeks To Correct Injustice

Our medical malpractice attorneys are many times forced to turn away cases against emergency rooms where the patient is injured by clear negligence. This is caused by the gross negligence standard for emergency departments adopted by the Legislature in 2005.
With the Georgia Legislature meeting this week, Senators from both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, have joined to co-sponsor Senate Bill No. 286. This bill is designed to amend the provision of the so-called Tort Reform Bill initially passed in 2005, which essentially
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Police Chase Cases Do Not Always Protect the Public

Our firm is working on a police chase metro Atlanta case involving an officer who has been in two separate high speed pursuit cases resulting in two deaths. We have learned in this case that another officer in the same department has also been involved in two other accidents that have resulted in four deaths. Thus, between these two officers within the same police department there have been 4 high speed pursuit cases we know of involving six deaths. Is the public being protected when
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Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Serious Problem

The term “mild” traumatic brain injury is very misleading. While the descriptor “mild” typically refers to the severity of the trauma that resulted in the injury, oftentimes in a personal injury context it does not come close to describing the severity of the consequences of the injury. Even though the trauma may be mild, the long term consequences of the injury may be anything other than mild and oftentimes are quite serious.
The vast majority of people who experience a mild traumatic brain injury
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What Is A Traumatic Brain Injury?

Traumatic brain injuries typically involve transient periods of some type of neurological dysfunction which can range from brief periods of confusion or dizziness to headaches and/or seizures, sometimes involving nausea. The term concussion is oftentimes used interchangeably with the term “mild traumatic brain injury” or MTBI. The Quality Standards Subcommittee of The American Academy of Neurology has recognized that concussions may occur without the loss of consciousness. There are three grades of concussions according The Academy of Neurology. A Grade 1 concussion involves transient
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Aggravation Of Pre-Existing Injuries

In our trial practice we are often presented with cases where the client had a pre-existing medical condition which was aggravated by an accident. As an example, someone can have asymptomatic degenerative disk disease, be involved in an automobile collision and thereafter begin to experience symptoms of pain because of the injury to their neck or back. Someone can have any asymptomatic pre-existing condition, which is aggravated by the trauma from an accident, which causes the pre-existing condition to become asymptomatic. Obviously, the issue in
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Saying No To Clients: The Requirements Of Professionalism

There is one duty that a lawyer owes to his client and that is to be truthful with them. In many cases clients need counseling and need it badly. Sometimes clients do not want to hear the truth and take pains to avoid it. Oftentimes clients will turn on their attorneys when the attorney tries to tell them the truth of their situation. In such circumstances the client will accuse the lawyer of not being zealous in his or her representation or not believing in
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High Speed Pursuits For Stolen Vehicles: Are They Justified?

When the police encounter a stolen vehicle and attempt to stop it with their blue lights and the driver takes off, the question is whether the public is well served when the police engage in a high speed pursuit thereafter. Clearly the suspect wishes to escape apprehension and is willing to travel at high speeds endangering the lives of the public. The only way they will be apprehended is if the police are successful during their pursuit in running them off the road, using stop sticks or otherwise blockading them. During the pursuit, however, the entire public is endangered and it is quite likely that as the speeds get higher and higher and the offender becomes more and more desperate at escaping apprehension the dangers will increase and tragedy to innocent third parties may result.

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Settling Serious Injury Cases Out Of Court

In many car accident and personal injury cases, clients often wish to “settle out of course” so as to avoid the stress, anxiety and uncertainty of a jury trial. In many cases this is entirely possible and the client can still achieve a settlement that approximates the fair value of their case. However, in a certain number of cases, settlement offers pre-trial may not constitute adequate compensation for the damage inflicted and thus a jury trial may be a necessity. Sometimes, despite the
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Structured Settlements For Minors

With today’s low interest rates, sometimes it makes little or no sense to structure a portion of a personal injury settlement. If a case settles for a particular amount, it is always advisable to consider whether structuring a portion of the settlement money into an annuity by way of a tax free investment might be in the best interest of the client. When minor children are involved, sometimes investing in a long term annuity can not only protect the corpus of the funds but
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Evaluating Wrongful Death Cases Involving Children

One of the most tragic kinds of case that we encounter is that involving the death of a child. Oftentimes it is in the context of a serious automobile collision but obviously death due to negligent behavior comes in a variety of forms. It is particularly difficult to deal with the death of a innocent child. It is also difficult to evaluate such a claim because of the emotions involved. Nonetheless, there are criteria that can be used in evaluating such claims even though financial “compensation” for such a loss is essentially an oxymoron when it comes to the death of a child.

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Assessing Damages In A Burn Injury Case

In those serious injury cases where the damage is a burn injury and significant scarring or disfigurement is present, it sometimes is difficult to estimate the settlement value of such a claim. Even if the plastic surgeon is able to give a reliable figure of future medical expenses, assuming more surgery is needed to address the problem, nonetheless, these cases are difficult to evaluate because most of the damages are intangible. The disfigurement of the scar, where the scar is located, whether it can
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Boating Under The Influence: A Deadly Combination

We read in the paper this week about a tragedy which occurred on Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta. A ski boat being operated by an individual under the influence of alcohol crashed head-on into a pontoon boat occupied by 13 people. Many of the people on the pontoon boat were seriously injured and apparently two young boys killed. As of the date of this blog, the authorities were still searching for a missing 9-year old boy. The driver of the ski boat was under the
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