Personal Injury & Wrongful Death

Here in Atlanta we have had an extended break from work due to icy road conditions. Most of our lawyers have not been able to get into work so we have been watching some television during the day. What is fascinating is the number of lawyer ads on television particularly pitching for personal injury cases. What is troubling, however, is the pitch that many of the law firms promised to get “quick cash settlements” for car accident victims.

We are often called by clients who have traveled through the Atlanta area only to be the unfortunate victim of a third party’s negligence. Calls usually come from those in car accidents or tractor-trailer collisions. Sometimes a slip and fall is involved or a defective product. These innocent persons sometimes are hospitalized following the incident in Georgia and then sent back to their home states for follow up treatment. When they reach out to an attorney the usually are being overwhelmed with medical bills, lost wages and similar issues. They often do not fully understand which law controls their case. The answer is fairly simple for most all states in this country. The law where the injury and accident occurred typically will control the claim.

Even if a traveler is coming from California to Georgia, as an example, and is injured in Georgia, once they return to California, the claim is still governed under Georgia law. Almost all states agree that the law of the place where the tort occurred should control the claim. Thus, the California resident typically will have no choice but to hire a Georgia lawyer since their claim will be covered under Georgia law. While there are a few exceptions to this rule (typically in cases where public policy issues are involved) innocent victims from other states who are injured while traveling should understand that their claims will almost always be governed by the law of the place where their injuries occurred and where the accident happened.
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It is not unusual for our firm to be contacted by family members who are bereaved over the death of a close family relative. Oftentimes the individual is killed through the negligence of a third party and the family member simply wants to understand the law that pertains to the claim. Sometimes, however, family members can get in an argument among themselves as to who has the right to pursue the claim for the wrongful death. While Georgia, like many states, has a statutory scheme which sets forth who has the right to bring such a claim, many lay people do not seem to understand that a wrongful death claim belongs to the heirs-at-law, at least here in Georgia.
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In any serious injury case involving permanent or lifetime injuries, careful consideration should be given to whether a structured settlement should be part of any settlement of such a case. A structured settlement agreement is a device whereby if the overall lump sum amount can be agreed upon, a certain percentage of it can be set aside and invested in an annuity that will pay benefits over the victim’s lifetime, usually on a monthly basis. Such benefits are extremely important for people who are disabled because it provides them a safety net and allows them to pay rent and other necessary living expenses as they grow older. Particularly in those cases where a victim is incapacitated and unable to work, a structured settlement agreement can provide a lifetime of revenue for necessary living expenses.

In a serious injury case the victim is usually overwhelmed with medical expenses, lost wages, terrible pain and suffering, and a total disruption in their personal, family and home life. If they are fortunate enough to have good counsel and they are fortunate enough to get a good settlement from the third party responsible for inflicting the injuries upon them, it will not be uncommon for such a victim to have to deal with a host of medical lien issues. The most common medical liens are Hospital liens whereby the hospital that provides the medical services obtains a lien on any settlement. If the victim does not have adequate health insurance or otherwise cannot pay the hospital bill, the bill will have to be paid out of the insurance proceeds. Sometimes if the party inflicting the injury has limited insurance coverage, the lien amount can swallow the entire settlement amount thus leaving the victim with nothing. Accordingly, if there is a hospital lien or other valid medical lien (doctors in Georgia can file medical liens for their bills as well) the victim in such a case should confer with experienced counsel to determine the best course of action.
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More than 20% of patients who received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator — a high-tech device that produces electrical impulses to regulate heartbeats and prevent life-threatening arrhythmias — in recent years were not good candidates to receive the device, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Duke University looked at more than 111,000 patients who received ICD implants between 2006 and 2009. More than 25,000 of those patients did not meet evidence-based criteria for receiving the device, according to the study.
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The Food and Drug Administration is also concerned that hospital, med-center and emergency patients may be given the higher dose, as correctly labeled outer packaging is generally discarded.
Health care providers seeing only the mislabeled bottle would be very likely to give the wrong dose, especially since the two solution strengths are distilled in equal sized bottles. The .05 mg/3 ml bottles look just like the 2.5 mg./ 3 ml bottles. Only the strength differs.
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In car accidents, tractor-trailer accidents, medical malpractice or other serious injury cases, in the event a settlement is reached, there is always the possibility of a subrogation claim being asserted by a third party against the settlement proceeds. Subrogation claims are usually claims held by insurance carriers that have paid medical benefits. The victim who was injured by the negligent truck driver, for example, may have incurred hundreds of thousands in medical bills for expensive surgery. If a third party health insurance carrier pays these bills, the health insurance company will seek to get its money back out of any settlement fund. The victim wants the money for him or herself because they will need it for their lifetime due to the severity of their injuries. Moreover, the reason that they are entitled to the compensation because they are the ones that have experienced the pain and suffering and have had to go through the horrible ordeal of being so seriously injured. On the other hand, the healthcare provider contends that it is entitled to its portion of the money because it paid the money usually under a contract that may contain a right of reimbursement or an alleged right of subrogation.
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Each year, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 48 million people, that is one in six Americans, are sickened by food-borne illnesses. Of those, 180,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.

The first major overhaul of the nation’s food-safety infrastructure since 1938 was signed into law yesterday by President Obama.

The Food Safety Modernization Act moves the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) away from its early-20th-century role of responding to adulterated food to a more modern one of requiring companies to stop contamination before it happens by looking for the places where things can go wrong and fixing them.

It also allows the FDA to issue mandatory recalls and hire more food-safety inspectors.
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Electric adjustable beds have been singled out for causing serious injuries and death. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to Invacare Corp. for failing to report and address malfunctions with its electric beds, including electronics that allegedly caught on fire causing injury and death.

The FDA posted a warning letter to the Ohio-based company Tuesday morning. Invacare makes a variety of medical equipment, including wheelchairs, oxygen tanks and electric beds.
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