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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Complications Of Bad Back Cases

In serious injury cases, usually arising from tractor-trailer collisions or automobile accidents, it is not uncommon to see clients with serious back injuries which create a host of physical and mental problems for the innocent victim. If someone is rear-ended by a tractor-trailer, as an example, and suffers a significant back injury requiring a fusion or other surgical procedure, it is not uncommon at all for such a client to develop leg problems, hip problems and other associated maladies. The mental stress
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Attacking “Independent” Experts For Bias In A Personal Injury Case

As we have written before, it is becoming increasingly necessary that plaintiff’s counsel be prepared to attack the veracity and credibility of so-called “independent” experts in personal injury cases. Insurance companies and defense law firms routinely retain medical “experts” to testify that plaintiffs are not injured at all or have only suffered minor injuries. They do this by examining diagnostic tests and/or by offering testimony that the test results do not substantiate a traumatic injury. Such testimony can be extremely misleading because oftentimes a clinical
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How Insurance Companies Attack Bad Back Claims

Increasingly we are seeing a trend that started many years ago but continues today. This involves the use of so-called “independent” experts to provide testimony in personal injury cases to the effect that the claimant has suffered no injury at all or, if any injury, only a minor one. Insurance companies employ so-called “independent” medical examiners to review radiology films, many times, so that a radiologist can testify that based upon an examination of the film, there is no evidence of trauma seen, thus the
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Bicycle Accidents On The Rise

We read this past week an article in the paper about the increasing number of cyclists hit by automobiles under a variety of different circumstances typically involving gross negligence by the driver. In one reported case, the driver was on her cell phone and hit the cyclist from the rear while speeding. In another case, a drunk driver ran over a cyclist. In another reported case, a speeding motorist hit the cyclist on the shoulder of the road, killing him.
During the summer, of course,
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The Importance of Stackable Uninsured/Underinsured Insurance Coverage

We have written before about the importance of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This past week we resolved a case for a client that is a classic demonstration of why it is so very important that uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage be purchased at the time one acquires liability insurance coverage for their own vehicle.
In the case we mentioned, a young lady was hit by a driver who was clearly negligent. Unfortunately, the driver of the vehicle that injured our client had only the minimum limits of liability
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Professional Service In A Personal Injury Case

For any innocent victim of a car accident where an at fault driver runs a stop sign, crosses the centerline or otherwise seriously injuries an innocent motorist, one of the essential ingredients of professional legal services for the victim is personal interaction between the victim and their attorney. In a serious case the innocent victim/client will need an attorney. Due to mass marketing, however, in many cases, clients may go to law firms where most of their interaction is not with attorneys but with lower
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What is Stackable Uninsured/Underinsured Insurance Coverage

When one purchases an automobile insurance policy from their insurance agent, the real reason that the policy is being purchased is to comply with Georgia law, which requires that all automobile drivers have minimum limits of liability insurance in the amount of $25,000.00 per person, $50,000.00 per accident. What this means is that if a driver is to drive lawfully under our laws, one must be financially responsible. If one runs a stop sign and injures another individual and breaks their leg, as an example,
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Most Dangerous Intersections For Motorcycles

Our Atlanta attorneys frequently litigate motorcycle accident cases. Our experience over many years shows that in almost all cases the motorcyclist was not at fault.
Recently, the Atlanta media reported a case in which a young man was fatally injured in the Little Five Points district when the scooter he was driving was hit from behind by a vehicle.
Allstate insurance company has conducted a study of the most dangerous intersections in Atlanta for motorcycle riders.
The data indicates that the intersection of 14th Street
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Deadliest Months For Teen Drivers Begin

As teens begin summer vacations, a disturbing warning has been issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The latest data from U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that the deadliest days of the year for teens ages 15-19 are in the months of May, June, July and August. During these four months, nearly twice as many teens died on the roads each day as compared to the rest of the year – for an average of nearly 16 deaths per day (15.9)
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Pedestrian Accidents

We read in the paper this week news articles about various traffic incidents involving pedestrians. In one case a drunk driver hit a pedestrian who was walking in a crosswalk at an intersection. The drunk driver apparently ran the stop sign running over and killing the pedestrian. In another case, again, a pedestrian was in a crosswalk and a driver simply failed to pay attention to the situation and ran over the pedestrian, seriously injuring the victim.
Big cities are dangerous because there are many
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