Articles Tagged with Personal Injury

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.

A New Jersey jury recently awarded nearly $13 million to three acne drug users who developed severe inflammatory bowel disease after taking the medication. The drug, Accutane, is manufactured by Hoffman-La Roche.
The three plaintiffs are Florida residents who used the drug to treat adolescent acne. All three developed bowel disorders including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease. The jury found that the drug manufacturer should have issued better warnings that the drug could cause bowel problems and that their failure to do so resulted in the plaintiffs’ injuries.
If you are someone you care about was seriously injured by a dangerous prescription drug, you should speak with a litigation attorney at Finch McCranie, LLP. We have won justice for Georgians since 1965 and recovered millions of dollars to help sick and injured people seek justice. For a free consultation, call us at 1-800-228-9159.

Escalator injuries are increasing at an alarming rate. Our Georgia injury lawyers frequently review cases in which persons have been injured by malfunctioning or improperly designed escalators. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Sunday concerning this increase in injuries, especially among children.

Among the mechanisms of injuries reported to the state were the following:

A 17-year-old boy’s right hand was bleeding after it got stuck in an escalator at MARTA’s Lenox station in February. He had reached down to pick up a fare card that fell out of his pocket.

Dangerous toys containing harmful chemicals have long been a problem in the United States. The United States Congress recently passed a law banning the use of a plastic softening chemical known as phthalates in certain consumer products, including toys. The chemical is used to soften plastic – making it popular for rubber ducks, teething toys, and anything else that young children love to chew on. Exposure to phthalates has been shown to harm the development of reproductive organs and have been linked to cancer

The use of this chemical is already banned in much of the industrialized world and starting in January, the state of California. The Senators who sponsored the ban intended that it would go into effect 180 days after enactment. Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein sponsored an amendment to the law which required the Consumer Product Safety Commission to remove the affected toys and children’s products off of store shelves by Feb. 10, 2009.

Instead, the Bush administration is working to keep these harmful products on the market as long as possible. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s general counsel issued an opinion allowing these products to remain on shelves as long as they were manufactured before Feb. 10, 2009. This important distinction gives toy manufacturers a way to continue selling these goods until they have dumped every last bit of their inventory.

Our attorneys sometimes represent people who have been injured by employees of the State of Georgia in automobile accidents or truck accidents. Cases against the State of Georgia or its employees are governed by the Georgia Tort Claims Act. For instance we recently learned that a state accident reconstruction unit is investigating a wreck, involving a Georgia State Patrol trooper, that killed a motorcyclist in Lumpkin County last month. According to the motor vehicle accident report the state trooper executed a U-turn in the path of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle driven by 57 year-old Donald Teague of Blairsville. Teague’s motorcycle struck the patrol car when it turned around in the road, according to the report and he died after he collided with the passenger-side door of the patrol car. Depending on the facts, the State of Georgia may be liable for the wrongful death of Teague.

Abuse of patients in medical or mental facilities is a major problem in the United States. Our attorneys frequently handle cases in which patients have suffered physical or sexual abuse at the hands of facility staff or other patients. These cases are extremely disturbing as the victims are usually some of the most vulnerable and helpless members of society.

A recent article in the Los Angeles times focused upon this issue. According to the article, Psychiatric Solutions Inc. was on its way to becoming the nation’s leading provider of private psychiatric care when it purchased Sierra Vista Hospital in Sacramento, Californis in 2005.

The company put its tested business formula into action: Staffing fell. Beds filled up. Profits soared . While the results made investors happy, for some patients, federal records revealed that for patients it proved dangerous and at times deadly.

Our Georgia attorneys often represent the drivers of motor vehicles who have been injured in collsions but sometimes the passengers are injured as a result of the negligence of the host driver. Just this week, we read that a Georgia man was arrested and charged in a September motorcycle crash that left a Panama City Beach woman dead. According to authorities, Storm P. Wood and a female passenger, Robin Arnett, were ejected from the motorcycle when Wood lost control of it. Arnett died from her injuries and Wood was taken to the hospital in critical condition. According to the authorities, tests determined that he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.187. The legal limit was 0.08. Wood has been taken into custody by Georgia authorities where he faces charges of felony DUI, manslaughter and felony driving with a suspended/revoked license.
Depending on the circumstances of the case, a guest passenger on a motorcycle or in a motor vehicle has a right to sue the operator of such a motor vehicle if they are injured as a result of the operator’s negligence. Under Georgia law, generally, a guest passenger who has no right of control and who does not assume control of the operation of the vehicle cannot have the negligence of the operator imputed to him or her.
If you have been injured while a guest passenger in a automobile or on a motorcycle being operated recklessly or negligently, you may very well have a cause of action against the operator of the vehicle who caused the accident and your injuries. Our trial lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have represented passengers who have been injured or the families of people who have been killed as a result automobile accidents caused by the operator of a motor vehicle who is doing so recklessly or negligently. The person who has been injured while a guest passenger would be well advised to consult the law firm of Finch McCranie, LLP before giving any statements to insurance adjusters or discussing the case with anyone.

Another prominent psychiatrist has been exposed for taking payments from drug manufacturers. According to the New York Times, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin who served as the host of public radio’s popular “The Infinite Mind” program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers.

Dr. Goodwin is the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drug makers have been exposed by Senator Charles Grassley a Republican from Iowa. Senator Grassley has been asking some of the nation’s leading researchers and doctors to provide their conflict-of-interest disclosures. He is comparing those documents with records of actual payments from drug companies.

In October of this year, Senator Grassley revealed that Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University Medical School here in Artlanta, earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drug makers from 2000 to 2007. Dr. Nemeroff failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules. After trhese revelations, the National Institutes of Health suspended a $9.3 million research grant to Emory and placed restrictions on other grants. Dr. Nemeroff has resigned his chairmanship of Emory’s department of psychiatry.