Trial Attorney Blog

Last week we told the story of a recurring tragedy–a preventable aviation accident that took the lives of all on board–in a wrongful death lawsuit we filed last week.

The story of this airplane crash is yet another disturbing example of how lives are lost when basic safety–and common sense–are disregarded.

The pilot ignored clear warnings of dangerous weather, and proceeded into conditions that he and his aircraft were not capable of handling. Experienced pilots have a term–“get-there-itis”–for foolishly disregarding dangers and plowing ahead.

Portable fans have been overheating and causing fires. Now, a company which manufactures these dangerous products will pay a $500,000 fine for not quickly reporting these problems.

Lasko Products received 42 related complaints involving nine injuries and property damage from 2002 through 2005 as a result of malfunctions in portable fans it manufactures.

Federal law requires that companies such as Lasko report potential hazards to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission within 24 hours. The company did not fully report the problems until September of 2005.

It seems that almost everyday there is a news story in the Atlanta and Georgia media involving the tragic death of a young person in a traffic accident. Many times alcohol is involved.
Fatal car wrecks involving alcohol impaired young drivers are a major concern, especially around the Christmas and New Years holidays. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), recently released a study involving alcohol related deaths from crashes involving 21-24 year old drivers. The findings are disturbing.
The study was based upon data from the years 2003 trough 2007. Data from 2008 is not yet available. Statistics show that drivers 21-24 years-old consistently have the highest level of involvement in alcohol impaired driving fatalities. In 2007, 35% of 21-24 year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes were impaired by alcohol. This is based upon a blood alcohol level of .08 + grams per deciliter which is the level at which a driver is presumed to be impaired.
Drivers in the 21 to 24 year-old group were the most frequently involved age group in alcohol related crashes.
While alcohol impaired driving is always a major concern, there are certain times of the year when the problem is more prevalent. The percentage of impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes during the last two weeks of December increases among all age groups. But, the percentage among 21-24 year-olds is the highest, just as it is throughout the year. In crashes involving the 21-24 year-old group during the last two weeks of December, almost 4 fatalities out of ten resulted from alcohol impaired driving crashes.
In Georgia, in 2007, there were 263 fatality crashes reported involving the 21-24 year-old group. Of these, 72 involved were alcohol impairment.

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Consumers have received long overdue protections from abusive practices by credit card issuers . In enacting the most sweeping changes to credit cards in decades, federal regulators on Thursday approved new rules to crack down on unfair and deceptive practices by card issuers.

The rules were issued by the Office of Thrift Supervision and approved later Thursday by the Federal Reserve and the National Credit Union Administration.

The rules, which take effect in July 2010, will let credit card companies raise interest rates only on new credit cards and future purchases or advances, rather than on current balances as is the practice currently. They also restrict other unfair lender practices such as allocating all payments to balances with lower interest rates when a borrower has balances with different rates.

The tragedy of preventable construction accidents was repeated last week at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, a beautiful area near my home enjoyed by young and old alike. News reports have described the horror of one dead, and eighteen injured, many of them critically.

In our experience from having handled contruction accidents–including a much larger structure’s construction collapse during the building of Philips Arena that killed ironworkers erecting a section of precast concrete–the injured workers and their families are in a state of shock and confusion. They should have some medical care available through their workers’ compensation carrier, but that will not be enough to make up for what sound like very significant injuries. Nor will those benefits be enough to compensate the losses of the deceased worker.

A careful analysis must follow to determine the identity of all of the parties who had any role in the project, as well as the scope of the work undertaken by each of them, and the legal responsibilities imposed by contract or by law.

Abuse of elderly and disabled persons is one of the most disturbing matters our Atlanta based attorneys see. A report issued last Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Services has revealed that almost 22 percent of the nation’s nearly 16,000 nursing homes received the federal government’s lowest rating in a new five-star system, while 12 percent received the highest ranking possible.

The new star ranking system has not been well received by the nursing home industry. It has been criticized for being too simplistic for a complicated care system. However, federal officials see the new rating system as a way to challenge nursing homes to improve the care they provide to nearly 1.5 million patients nationwide.

Under the new system, five stars means a nursing home ranks ”much above average,” four star indicates ”above average,” three means ”about average,” two is ”below average” with a one indicating ”much below average.” The rankings will be updated quarterly.

Un desplome de construcción que implica un puente fue informado esta mañana en los Jardines Botánicos de Atlanta. Desafortunadamente, parece que había una muerte y muchas heridas graves. Nuestros abogados han investigado y han archivado pleitos en numerosos casos de desplome de construcción. El más notable fue el desplome durante la construcción de la Arena de Phillips (Phillips Arena) en Atlanta.

Mientras los informes no indican la causa del desplome, habrá indudablemente una investigación por “OSHA” (the Occupational and Safety Health Administration) la Administración Profesional de Seguridad y Salud.

Muchas veces abogados creen errarmente que cualquier recuperación en estos casos es impedida por el estatuto de compensación de trabajadores. En esencia este estatuto prohibe a un empleado para demandar un empleador o a co-empleado para la negligencia.

A construction collapse involving a bridge was reported this morning at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, there appears to be one death and many serious injuries. Our lawyers have investigated and filed lawsuits in numerous construction collapse cases. The most notable was the collapse during the building of Phillips Arena in Atlanta.

While the reports do not indicate the cause of the collapse, there will undoubtedly be an investigation by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Many times attorneys mistakingly believe that any recovery in these cases is barred by the workers compensation statute. In essence this statute prohibits an employee for suing an employer or co-employee for negligence.

Consumer protection got an unexpected boost this week when the United States Supreme announced its decision in Altria Group v. Good. In a surprising decision that could have wide-ranging impact, the Supreme Court held that federal law neither expressly or impliedly preempts a lawsuit filed under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act by Maine smokers. The underlying lawsuit claims that smokers of Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights cigarettes were misled by deceptive labels touting the cigarettes as “light” and “low tar” when the manufacturer knew that they were just as dangerous as other cigarettes.

In recent decisions involving federal preemption of state laws concerning medicines and dangerous products, the Supreme Court has come down squarely on the side of big business holding state consumer protection laws preempted by federal regulations.

The decision in Altria Group v. Good means this suit as well as other similar claims seeking billion of dollars in damages from tobacco companies can proceed. It also could spur tobacco companies to undergo massive relabeling of cigarette packages to avoid liability under similar state statutes.

Dangerous drugs have been placed into the stream of commerce by manufacturers for years without warnings. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered the manufacturer of two drugs commonly used before colonoscopies to add warnings to the products. These are commonly referred to as “black box” warnings.

Visicol and OsmoPrep are oral sodium phosphate medicines used for bowel cleansing before colonoscopies. There have been reports of serious kidney injuries linked to their use. The FDA has received reports of 20 cases of kidney injury associated with the use of OsmoPrep, including three cases of acute kidney injury.

The onset of kidney injury varied, occurring in some cases within several hours of use and in other cases up to 21 days after use phosphate products for bowel cleansing.