Articles Tagged with Personal Injury

Our Atlanta lawyers interview potential clients on a daily basis concerning their injuries and hospitalizations. Many times, potential clients, even those who have been hospitalized for long periods, cannot tell us the name or names of the doctors who treated them in the hospital. Now, a recent survey has shown that this is a common occurrence. According to the survey, hospital patients are rarely able to identify their doctors by name or to describe their roles in the patients’ care.

Researchers at the University of Chicago interviewed 2,807 adults admitted to the school’s hospital over a 15-month period. The patients were asked about the roles of the various physicians attending to them and to name the doctors on those teams. The medical teams consisted of three to four people.

Amazingly, 75 % of the patients surveyed were unable to name a single doctor who participated in their care. Of the 25 % who offered a name, only 40 % were correct. The patients who claimed to understand the roles of their doctors were more likely to correctly identify at least one of their doctors.

Our personal injury and wrongful death attorneys in Atlanta, Georgia support MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. If you have not done so, please go to Parade magazine’s website at www.parade.com/drunkdriving, and vote “YES” in the poll asking this question: “Should ignition interlocks be mandatory for drunk drivers nationwide?”
MADD’s National President Laura Dean-Mooney has asked that this message (below) be passed along, so we are using our blog to publicize it. Please pass this message along to your friends and family, to help eliminate drunk driving!
Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful Super Bowl weekend. I don’t usually write to you on the weekends, but there is an extraordinary opportunity today and tomorrow to help advance the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving quickly and easily, so I wanted to let good friends like you know.
The Parade Magazine that comes out Sunday, February 1st, includes a short piece on the effectiveness of interlocks. The Parade article highlights the huge reductions in repeat offenses that interlocks can achieve by making it so that drunk drivers can’t drive drunk. The article is up at www.parade.com/drunkdriving and it’s a quick read.
The exciting part is that there is a poll next to the article asking whether these interlocks should be required for all drunk drivers nationwide. We are working to get just such a bill in every state this year and having your voice in this poll would help us convince legislators that interlocks aren’t just the right thing to do, but that they are also the right thing to do politically.
Please take a moment today or tomorrow to go to www.parade.com/drunkdriving and make your voice heard; please help let the politicians know that you want to eliminate drunk driving as soon as possible.
Thank you for your strong support. We couldn’t do what we do without you.
Happy Super Bowl weekend,
Laura Dean-Mooney
MADD National President
PS. Would you please also ask your friends and family to vote? Thanks!

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Every spring and summer as swimming pools open for the season, we read about tragic drownings, often involving children. Statistics show that drowning and near drowning are a leading cause of death and brain injury. Many of these unfortunate incidents could be prevented if swimming pools had proper anti-drowning drain covers and suction cutoff devices installed. These covers and suction cutoff devices are designed to prevent children from being caught in the swimming pool drain as a result of strong suction. Under the new federal regulation, which went into effect last year, public swimming pools and hot tubs are required to install special devices that will prevent drain suction from trapping children under water. These new rules apply to pools and spas used by the public, including municipal pools and those at hotels, private clubs, apartment buildings and community centers. The new law does not require retro-fitting of private home pools.
As with any case, it is always important to throughly investigate the facts of a tragedy in a timely manner so as to preserve evidence. The law firm of Finch McCranie, LLP has represented the families of victims of serious injury and wrongful death accidents for over 40 years.

Since our Atlanta, Georgia personal injury lawyers represent the most seriously injured survivor of the Bluffton University bus accident in March 2007, we have written previously why it is an outrage that seat belts are not required on buses in the United States.
Many of the serious injuries and deaths in the Bluffton rollover crash occurred because the bus had no seat belts–and thus passengers were ejected onto the roadway.
Tonight we were saddened to learn that this preventable tragedy has been repeated–once again. A bus travelling near Hoover Dam in Arizona rolled over, passengers apparently ejected onto the roadway, and seven passengers died.
News reports indicate that the bus was heading north on Highway 93 (a four-lane highway), veered right, and then overcorrected. The bus then apparently crossed the median and rolled over at least once.
The victims were Chinese citizens who had traveled from San Francisco to Las Vegas. When the crash occurred, they were returning from a trip to the Grand Canyon.
It is a “no brainer” that seat belts save lives. Most Americans are amazed that buses and motorcoaches are not required to have seat belts for passengers to use. When a bus wrecks, passengers can often be thrown around inside the bus and even ejected, and death or serious personal injury is a near certainty.
We hope the new administration in Washington puts a stop to this recurring tragedy by mandating that buses have seat belts. Ohterwise, the senseless deaths and horrific injuries will continue.

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In addition to representing victims of trucking accidents and automobile accidents, Finch McCranie, LLP also represents victims of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect. including patients who have sustained decubitus ulcers (bed sores), falls and brutality in nursing homes.

In one case we handled, our client who suffered from Alzheimers Disease was actually struck in the face by one of the caseworkers. When struck the client fell, breaking her hip. She underwent surgery to repair the hip; however, the trauma of the surgery led to her death. Our investigation revealed the “qualified” care giver on the Alzheimers ward, had actually been a kitchen worker just months before she assaulted our elderly client.

While it is important for families to always visit a nursing home before their loved one is admitted and to continue to monitor care once an admissions takes place, some further information can now be obtained from a new system that rates nursing home care across the country. A five-star rating system has been established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This federal agency oversees the quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes. You can access the nursing home ratings by clicking here.

The lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have seen many different types of injuries result from being in various nursing homes. Some injuries are the result of being assaulted by nursing home staff or other patients and others are the result of nursing home neglect. Recently the family of a man who died four years ago at a Georgia nursing home was awarded $1.25 million after the jury found that the nursing home’s neglect was responsible for his wrongful death. Tucker Nursing Center allegedly provided inadequate care to the man when he was admitted in 2002. Nine months later, he had to be hospitalized for a bed sore that infected his left buttock to the bone, according to his attorney, and ultimately put him in a death spiral. He died in June of 2004.
Elderly people are entitled to basic safety, respect and dignity. If you are someone you love is a victim of elder abuse or nursing home abuse, you have the right to hold the abuser responsible in Court. Finch McCranie, LLP has represented injured Georgians in nursing home law suits and other personal injury suits for over 40 years. For a free consultation, call our Atlanta Office today at 1-800-228-9159.

The personal injury law firm of Finch McCranie, LLP has been representing victims of truck accidents and automobile accidents for over 40 years. We do not advertise on television and have no intention of doing so. Unseemly television advertising has damaged the public image of the law profession. One Georgia senator is trying to do something about it; however, in its present form, it is not likely to pass.

Senator Seth Harp, a practicing Georgia attorney, has introduced a bill in Georgia Senate that proposes to regulate television advertising by attorneys. The Bill, known as Senate Bill 41, or SB41, proposes a new Georgia Statute, OCGA § 15-19-55.1.

The new statute would regulate legal television advertising in Georgia by requiring that the real attorney(s), not actors, appear in the advertisements, require the television advertisement state the city in which the attorney practices in bold type, require television attorneys to “personally consult,” with their clients, require the television attorneys to actually sign the pleadings, and allow a client to declare a settlement void if certain new television advertisement certifications are not signed by both the television attorney and client at the time of settlement. There are other additional provisions.

We have blogged before about the importance of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Because of the economic problems being currently experienced by our Country, such coverage is probably now more important than ever. Many people who are experiencing economic problems are cutting back on expenses. Some people are driving with no insurance. When insurance premiums and bills are received they are ignored. In short, people are taking their chances that they won’t be in an accident while driving without insurance. Those who are violating the law in this regard are really taking no chance at all. While they may be charged with driving without insurance, if they inflict serious injury and/or death on someone due to their negligence, the question arises as who is really bearing the risk of such misconduct. The answer is simple: Innocent members of the public.

The only way that an innocent member of the public can protect themselves against an uninsured driver is to purchase uninsured/underinsured insurance coverage. Such coverage will provide a safety net for the innocent victim of the negligent acts of an uninsured driver. If a driver, who is operating without insurance, runs a stop sign, a red light, crosses the centerline or otherwise is responsible for a serious collision which results in serious personal injuries and/or death, because such a driver has no insurance, the only way the innocent victim of such negligence can be compensated is if he or she was wise enough to take advantage of the availability of uninsured motorist coverage.

Uninsured motorist coverage protects everyone from the negligent acts of third parties and particularly those who are financially irresponsible. In today’s tough economic times, more and more people are acting financially irresponsible particularly when it comes to their duties to the public. Selfishness has always been a problem in human affairs and it is astounding that so many people are able to rationalize that they can violate the law particularly when they are exposing others to tremendous risks should they be involved in a collision.

Our Georgia injury lawyers know that food poisoning cases can result in serious injury, and sometimes death. Just this week, federal officials announced that two Georgia citizens have been poisoned by salmonella found in peanut products and they warned consumers of dangers associated with more than 125 products recalled as part of a nationwide salmonella-and-peanuts Investigation. The Food and Drug Administration said products affected by the recall range from ice cream to pet foods. A list of recalled peanut products is available on the FDA website. The FDA’s investigation has revealed the common denominator among the cases is that all the products contained peanut paste or peanut butter made at a plant in Blakely, Georgia. At least 486 people in more than 40 states have gotten sick since the outbreak began in the fall. Six people have died.
If you or a loved one have been poisoned as a result of adulterated food products, call the product liability attorneys at Finch McCranie, LLP for a consultation.

Georgia injury lawyers are acutely aware of the so-called “tort reform” changes in the law which has limited and in some cases eliminated the rights of victims of medical malpractice. Unfortunately, most Georgia citizens are unaware that since 2005, emergency rooms have been a place where there is no liability for injuries caused by careless healthcare providers. Current Georgia law makes it virtually impossible for an injured patient to seek accountability in the Courts because it requires an injured victim to show by “clear and convincing evidence” that the medical provider acted with “gross negligence”. For three (3) years, some lawmakers from both parties have attempted to pass a Bill that would do away with the “gross negligence” and allow patients with severe cases to go to court. Lets hope that this will be the year that victims of emergency room medical malpractice will have their rights restored.
If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of medical malpractice, call the injury attorneys at Finch McCranie, LLP at (800) 228-9159 to learn about your rights.