Personal Injury

Cobb County Police Officer Injured by Suspected Drunk Driver

November 7, 2009 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

marietta dui.jpg It is an unfortunate fact that drunken drivers pose a significant risk to motorist traveling in and through Cobb County. The danger of becoming victim of DUI is even greater on week-end nights. According to WSBTV a suspected drunk driver crashed into a Cobb County Police Officer’s cruiser at 11:30 Friday night. The officer was parked with his emergency lights on, helping with lane closures for road construction on Interstate 575 south at the Bells Ferry exit.

From review of the scene photographs this was clearly a tremendous and horrible impact. Both the officer and the suspected drunk driver were injured. The officer was transported to Kennestone Hospital with head injuries. My wife and Iare praying for a quick and full recovery for the injured officer and the other driver.

Horrific Motorcycle and Car Collision Used to Illustrate the Dangers of Cell Phone Distractions

November 2, 2009 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

With all the vehicles driving in and through the metro Atlanta area, auto accidents are going to happen. Unfortunately, some of these accidents cause injury. Georgia personal injury lawyers that handle these types of cases have observed that the most catastrophic accidents are usually caused by impaired or seriously distracted drivers. In the picture below, the driver of the Volkswagen was reportedly using a cell phone at the time of the collision. All three people involved in the collision were killed.

A recent study suggest that driving while talking on a cell phone increases the risk of accident twice as much as driving while intoxicated (.08 Blood Alcohol Content). More public awareness on the dangers of texting and talking on cell phones while driving will hopefully lead to less deadly auto collisions in Georgia.

In Trucking Personal Injury Cases, Time is of the Essence

October 30, 2009 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Investigating and litigating civil cases involving interstate trucking collisions and automobile wrecks is significantly different due to the Federal Motor Safety Regulations governing the operation of Interstate Motor Carriers as well as the technology on board today’s tractor-trailer. As a former lawyer for some of the nations’ largest trucking companies, I was often called to the scene of major collision within hours of the incident. When there is a trucking accident that causes serious injury or death, trucking companies immediately begin gathering experts and building their defense. If you or a loved one has been involved in a trucking accident, it is important to consult with a Georgia trucking lawyer as soon as possible for a variety of reasons to level the playing field.

First, significant evidence can be lost forever if the accident is not investigated immediately. Accident reconstruction engineers, hired by your trucking lawyer, can determine many important facts from promptly inspecting an accident scene, such as speed, braking, and lane of travel. This can be determined from skid marks, yaw marks, road gouges, and other evidence that might be completely gone after a few days or weeks. Additionally, many tractor-trailers have various types of on-board technology that record invaluable crash data that can be lost if not downloaded and stored promptly. For example most diesel engines have accessible electronic control modules (ECMs) or electronic control units (ECUs), that upon hard braking, record and collect various data including truck speed and braking. Often this data is lost if is not downloaded soon after the accident and the truck is put back into service. Some tractor-trailers even have accident reconstruction computers that record extremely detailed crash and pre-crash data. The sooner an accident is investigated the more likely it is that important facts and data will be captured and preserved.

Defective Products Cause Injury and Death; Many Corporations Know Their Products are Defective and Sell Them Anyway

October 29, 2009 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

We are constantly hearing about product recalls warning the public of products that turned out to have design flaws or unexpected problems. However, a more troubling fact is that many corporations know their products can cause serious injury or death and sell them anyway, even when there is an easy and inexpensive solution that will make the product safer.

The American Association for Justice has recently issued a report documenting true stories of corporations that knowingly sold defective products to American consumers and the devastating consequences caused by these products. Here are a few of these shocking true stories.

• A pharmaceutical company that discovers that its drug causes severe side effects in pediatric patients…and then spends hundreds of millions of dollars marketing to children.

• A company that discovers its medical device is little more than a bomb waiting to go off in people’s hearts…and then decides not to tell anyone.

• A car company that discovers that if it does not spend $11 dollars per car to fix a defect, hundreds of people will be horribly burned…and decides it would be cheaper to let them burn.

• A company that discovers its bulletproof vests are defective…and then sells them anyway to be worn by law enforcement, the military, and the President of the United States.

Many Georgia Wrongful Death and Personal Injury Plaintiffs May Not Get Their Day in Court Due to Forced Arbitration.

October 20, 2009 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

It has become a regular practice in Georgia for nursing homes, assisted living, rehabilitation centers, and long-term care facilities to include forced arbitration contracts in the required admission documents. These mandatory arbitration contracts are forcing Georgia’s elderly citizens to waive their constitutional right to a trial if they become victims of medical malpractice or abuse at the hands of the nursing home. First, these arbitration contracts are typically hidden in a stack of admission documents. Additionally, it is impossible for patients and families to contemplate the magnitude of what they are signing at such a stressful time. Nursing home admissions are often made under emergency situations or when a potential resident or family is faced with inadequate resources to care for a loved one; and when they sign this document they are forever waiving the right to seek civil justice in a court of law with no regard to the severity of the neglect, abuse, or malpractice.

In the nursing home medical malpractice cases we have handled involving forced arbitration agreements, clients tell us they had no idea they had signed such an agreement and certainly did not realized they were waiving the right to pursue a claim for neglect, abuse, or malpractice. The types of cases most affected by this wide spread nursing home practice are typically catastrophic – such as amputations caused by undiagnosed and untreated medical conditions, painful pressure sores that untreated lead to infection, amputation, and death, serious injury and death from malnutrition or dehydration, and physical and sexual abuse. Although Georgia law (See O.C.G.A. § 9-9-62) is supposed to render these offensive arbitration contracts unenforceable, nursing homes have gotten around the law arguing the doctrine of Federal Preemption. Although, thus far, our medical malpractice lawyers have been successful in defeating the mandatory arbitration contracts we have encountered in our cases, these agreements are being enforced by Georgia Courts in some circumstances.