Personal Injury & Wrongful Death

Jury Awards $114 Million In Nursing Home Abuse Case

Almost every week the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP hear about horrific treatment of elderly patients in nursing homes or other long-term facilities. Occasionally they are held accountable for their negligent treatment.
Last month, the family of a 76 year old Florida woman was awarded $114 million in a nursing home abuse case. The woman died in 2003 after having been a patient at the nursing home. The lawsuit alleged that the elderly woman was injured after falling, had developed pressure
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Bench Trials Under The Federal Tort Claims Act

Under the unique provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), there is no right to a jury trial. What this means is obvious: once an FTCA lawsuit is filed and the United States of America is named as the defendant, if the case cannot be resolved thereafter and a trial is required, the trial will be before a United States District Court judge which will sit, not only as the finder of fact, but also as the Judge of the law. In short,
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Who And Where To Sue Under The Federal Tort Claims Act

We have blogged in the past about some of the unique provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and how they pertain to tort claims against the United States government. As an example, one unique provision is that no claim can be sued against the federal agency per se but instead only against the United States. In any lawsuit against the federal government in which a tort has occurred, the named defendant must be the United States of America. Thus, in a case
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Contact Lens and Medical Device Injuries In Children

Injuries caused by contact lens are a serious problem in Georgia and elsewhere. The consequences of injuries from these seemingly harmless devices can be life changing, including blindness. Our lawyers have just recently concluded several cases involving injuries sustained by contact lens wearers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has just released a report which reveals that more than 70,000 children and teens go to the emergency room each year for injuries and complications from medical devices. Contact lenses are the leading cause of these
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Georgia Motorcycle Accident Injures Two

Friday evening, a motorcycle accident in north Georgia injured two people. The wreck occurred before 8:00 p.m. on U.S. Hwy 41 in Tunnel Hill, Georgia.. Although details of the wreck have not been released and the accident is still under investigation, the motorcycle and a pickup truck collided. It has been reported that charges are pending against the driver of the truck. The driver of the motorcycle was flown to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga and the passenger was taken to Hamilton Medical Center in
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Defective Heart Defibrillators

Defective implanted heart defibrillators have been the subjects of many recalls over the last several years. This week, Boston Scientific Inc., advised doctors that a part in certain models of its implanted heart defibrillators made in 2006 and 2007 has a “somewhat higher’’ failure rate, requiring units to be reprogrammed. The company reported a failure rate of one in 670 devices. No deaths or injuries have been reported.
Boston Scientific estimates that about 34,000 patients still have the defibrillators implanted, even though they are
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False Arrest Claims in Georgia

Over the years the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have represented clients who have been “falsely arrested”. In one memorable case, our client was accosted in the Lenox Mall parking lot by three store security officers who forcibly carried her back into the store where she was accused of shoplifting and strip searched. Eventually, the store realized they had made a mistake and told our client that she was “free to go”. She remained in the store and called the Atlanta
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Georgia Woman Drowns At Lake Lanier – Boat Operator Charged With Boating Under The Influence

This week, The Associated Press reported that last Sunday evening a 26 year old Georgia woman drowned at Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta. Although the boat, upon which the woman had been a passenger, had not been involved in a crash. the owner/operator of the boat was charged with boating under the influence.
Our Georgia injury lawyers have represented clients who have suffered injuries or lost loved ones in boating accidents. Some of the causes include boater error, boater inexperience, boating under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, equipment failure, and operating in adverse weather and/or water conditions.
Georgia law states, in part, “No person shall operate, navigate, steer, or drive any moving vessel, or be in actual physical control of any moving vessel, nor shall any person manipulate any moving water skis, moving aquaplane, moving surfboard, or similar moving device while under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it is less safe for the person to operate, navigate, steer, drive, manipulate, or be in actual physical control of a moving vessel, moving water skis, moving aquaplane, moving surfboard, or similar moving device”.
A boat operator and the boats owner must exercise the highest degree of care to prevent injuries to passengers, swimmers and others in the nearby water and those in any boats around them. Failure to exercise the required care can result in serious injury or the wrongful death of innocent victims. In addition to the Atlantic Ocean, Georgia has numerous recreational bodies of water. In addition to the Chattahoochee and many other Georgia rivers, there are numerous lakes where boaters congregate: Lake Lanier, Lake Sinclair, Lake Oconee, West Point Lake and others. Our main office is located in Atlanta which is not far from any of these lakes. As a result, we have seen more than our share of boating accidents and fatalities.

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Two Georgia Power Men Burned in On-The-Job Accident

http://www.serious-injury-litigation.com/As Georgia injury lawyers who have handled thousands of workers compensation claims, few on-the-job injuries are as horrifying to us as burn injuries.
Today 11 Alive News and WSB News reported that two Georgia Power employees suffered burns today as they were replacing a utility pole in Milton, Georgia. It is thought that as the crew was drilling a new hole for the pole, they hit a natural gas line which sparked an explosion. One of the injured Georgia Power workers, who was about 35 feet up in a bucket lift at the top of the pole, jumped to try to escape the flames. He was reportedly burned over 80% of his body and was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital’s burn unit.

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Georgia Motorcycle Accident Results In Death

When most people hear about a motorcycle accident they envision a collision with a car or a truck; however, motorcycle accidents also occasionally occur as a result of debris and foreign objects on the roadway.
The Savannah Morning News reported today that on Sunday, a 23 foot trailer came loose from a Ford F-150 truck being operated by 66 year old Gerald Adams. The trailer crossed over the median on Interstate 16 where it collided with 26 year old Carroll Girtman, who was riding his Yamaha motorcycle in the westbound lanes.
Adams has been charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and operating an unsafe vehicle, both misdemeanors.
As a Georgia injury lawyer who often pulls a long, heavy boat trailer, I am always aware of the my responsibility to make sure that the boat is secured to the trailer, that the trailer is properly secured to the truck with safety chains, that the tires are in good shape and that all of the lights are operational. As the Savannah motorcycle case illustrates, when a trailer comes loose from a motor vehicle, it will almost certainly result in the serious injury, if not the wrongful death of an innocent person.
Although no additional details about why or how the trailer came loose were reported, there are alot of questions to be answered. Was the hitch properly secured to the vehicle? Were safety chains being used? If there was an equipment failure, is there a products liabilty case against the manufacturer of the hitch, ball or trailer manufacturer? If properly secured, trailers do not usually come loose from motor vehicles.

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Assessing Damages In Serious Burn Injury Cases

Unfortunately, in the normal course of our law practice, we have encountered clients who have sustained serious burn injuries. These cases are always extremely painful for clients and oftentimes results in permanent disfigurement. Indeed, a burn injury is one of the most painful injuries anyone can sustain and unfortunately we have seen them arise in a variety of contexts, whether it be gasoline fires after automobile accidents, accidents within the home due to defective products and/or chemical burns sustained on the job.
One of
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Fatal Police Chase Results In Dismissal Of State Trooper

We read in this weekend’s news accounts that a Georgia State Patrol Trooper had been fired for failing to exercise “due regard” for the safety of the public while he was allegedly responding and on his way to aid another trooper involved in a high speed police chase on Interstate I-20. On New Years Eve, an innocent motorist was killed when this Georgia State Patrol Officer allegedly ran a red light and struck the vehicle occupied by the decedent.
Georgia law requires that all government personnel operating motor vehicles in “emergency situations” exercise due regard for the safety of all persons. Apparently, the internal review of the subject occurrence found that when the State Trooper ran the red light at a high speed while in route to the alleged need for assistance (a high speed police pursuit matter) he failed to exercise such due regard, ran the red light and thereby allegedly caused the fatal collision due to negligence. This review, apparently, has resulted in the termination of the involved trooper.
What the news accounts do not address is whether the underlying police pursuit was even justified. We do not know enough about the details to know whether the person being pursued in that action was merely being pursued for a traffic violation. It appears from some of the news accounts that the other trooper was chasing a motorcyclist because he was speeding.

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Another Police Chase Kills Another Innocent Person–the Wife of Atlanta Braves Trainer Jeff Porter

Too familiar is this week’s tragic story of how a police cruiser struck an innocent motorist and caused the death of Kathy Porter, wife of Atlanta Braves Head Athletic Trainer Jeff Porter.
Late Saturday afternoon, the Porters were among many fans driving to the Chick-fil-A bowl in downtown Atlanta–a short distance from the Braves’ home at Turner Field. A Georgia State Patrol cruiser–reportedly speeding on city streets to join a chase of a motorcyclist on I-20– crashed into the Porters’ Ford Expedition on the passenger
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The Importance of Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

We have written prior entries in our blog about the importance of uninsured/ underinsured motorist coverage. The importance of such coverage was underscored this week when we were contacted by clients who had been hit by driver of a stolen vehicle. This is a classic case where the at fault driver will not have insurance coverage. In this particular case the innocent victim caught up in this collision did not have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Obviously, the stolen vehicle had no insurance coverage which provided coverage
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How Do I know That I Have Received A Fair Settlement Offer In My Case

Defense attorneys and plaintiffs attorneys, alike, both have resources available to determine the fair value of a particular personal injury claim. Jury verdict research services exists which track jury verdicts throughout metropolitan Atlanta and indeed the entire state of Georgia. By tracking jury verdicts, one can determine what juries are giving for particular types of cases. Juries award so much for a broken leg, a broken back, a neck injury, a back sprain, a neck sprain, an amputation, etc. In short, there are a lot
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How Do I Choose a Personal Injury Attorney?

Many clients choose their personal injury attorneys by watching the television or looking at billboards. Unfortunately, this does not always result in a client choosing the right attorney for his or her case. The best way to choose an attorney for a personal injury case is to make sure that the attorney selected is competent, professional and experienced. It is also important that the client determine that the lawyer being chosen has the ability to present the case to a jury if the case cannot
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Quantifying Pain And Suffering In Personal Injury Cases

It is extremely difficult to quantify damages in a personal injury case. While medical bills can be totalled and lost wages calculated, trying to calculate damages for pain and suffering is a different matter. When one is out of work for months at a time suffering from back pain, as an example, the question is: how does one go about trying to determine what would constitute fair and reasonable compensation for the pain and suffering attendant to the injury? The longer one suffers, the
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Representing Crime Victims in Personal Injury Cases

Most of our clients are innocent victims of negligent acts. A person is sitting still at a stop sign and a driver negligently fails to stop in time rear-ending them and causing serious injuries. Another driver fails to yield right-of-way and crashes into the side of their vehicle. In both cases, a negligent act caused the injury to the innocent victim. In other cases, however, intentional torts are involved. A step-father molests a child. A man rapes a woman. A man kills someone else. In
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Atlanta Police Chase Ends In Crashes With Innocent Persons

This morning we were disturbed to hear of a police chase on Atlanta’s major street that ended in crashes with two innocent motorists.
In the Buckhead neighborhood this morning, a police pursuit of a reportedly stolen vehicle ended with a violent crash with two innocent drivers on Peachtree Road, near Peachtree Battle Ave. (near several elementary schools).
Witness accounts report that at least one innocent driver’s vehicle was propelled a long way after the impact, and we pray that the innocent motorists survived without serious
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Wrongful Death Cases Caused By Fire

Our office has been contacted on numerous occasions by individuals seeking restitution for the loss of a life of a loved one due to a house fire. In some cases the house fire may be caused by a malfunctioning device. In other cases the fire’s consequences may have been escaped had a smoke detector been functioning properly. In other cases, an electrical water heater may explode or there may be problems with a gas line or some other component of the house itself which causes
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