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In a groundbreaking Atlanta car accident case, lawyers have received an unfortunate decision on whether a driver who causes a crash and injury because of cell phone use can be sued for punitive damages.The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in Lindsey v. Clinch County Glass Inc. No A11A1313 that where a driver caused a car accident while talking on a cell phone, the injured party cannot pursue a claim for punitive damages.

Georgia law allows a party to sue for punitive damages when there is a “pattern or police of dangerous driving, such as excessive speeding or driving under the influence.” But the Court stopped short of finding that talking on a cell phone and causing a crash was anything more than a violation of the rules of the road. The decision did not bar a car accident victim from seeking punitive damages in cases where the at fault driver was texting and driving although no case has specifically said that texting enables a punitive damages claim either.

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When clients meet with us after a car accident in Atlanta and they disclose that they received their emergency room care at North Fulton Regional or Atlanta Medical Center and they do not have health insurance, we know going in that the bill is going to be staggering. Back in 2009, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a study on the markup hospitals apply to cost.

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We handle between 10-15 cases at any given time involving people hurt by drunk drivers and one of the frequent questions we hear relates to punitive damages and how multiple convictions can affect the outcome.As we have discussed in our article on how to prosecute car accidents caused by drunk drivers in Georgia, when an injury is caused by a drunk driver, Georgia law allows us to seek punitive or “punishment” damages against the driver and their insurance company. There are some situations where certain insurance companies do not provide coverage for punitive damages, but all of the front line insurers including Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, Liberty Mutual and USAA are obligated on their liability policies to pay for punitives against their insured.

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We just completed our most recent instructional video on steps to take after you are involved in a car accident in Georgia. Some of these action items are intuitive but others will surprise you.

So once again I got summoned for jury duty in Fulton County, the massive County that includes the City of Atlanta. Many people are apprehensive about jury duty so I thought we would lay out the basics of what to expect. Can you get out of jury duty? Yes for the day they summon you , but eventually you will have to serve on another date.

How do i get out of jury service? If you care for a child 6 or under, are doctors orders sick or over 70, you can get out of it. If you have some pressing engagement,you can call into the Court and geta reset date often several months down the road.

The night before, call the court to verify that your group is being called for service.

In the first few hours after a car accident in Georgia, it is normal to be confused and anxious. For people facing injuries, they can spend hours in the emergency worrying over whether the bill will be paid. If the crash was serious, drivers often don’t get the contact information for the other driver’s insurance company. Even if you are just dealing with how to get your car fixed, the process can be daunting. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with car accidents so let’s take it step by step.

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As a car accident lawyer in Atlanta Georgia, we see hundreds of low back injuries a year and a good number of clients are eventually ordered to have MRIs by their treating orthopedic doctors. One of the most common questions I get from clients is “my doctor diagnosed me with a disc herniation at L5-S1. Was this caused by the crash?” The honest answer is that it is hard to tell in most cases unless the MRI was taken immediately after the crash and there was edema (swelling) on the film.

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Today we completed the deposition of the sister of a client who died in a accident with a tractor trailer in 2008. Many of our clients have questions about what a deposition is like as they consider whether to file suit so we will review the basic structure.

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Atlanta Georgia wrongful death lawyers come across a wide variety of tragedies as an unavoidable consequence of the nature of their profession. As the firm finished a demand package this week involving a 20 story elevator fall in Atlanta, we thought we would blog this week about some of the unique characteristics of elevator injury and wrongful death law in Georgia.

Over 20,000 elevator accidents occur every year in the U.S. Elevators qualify as a common carrier of people and are therefore subject to strict rules regarding their operation and investigation of accidents. For example, after a fall “[a]ny elevator … involved in an accident…shall be removed from service at the time of the accident. The equipment shall not be repaired, altered, or placed back in service until inspected by a certified inspector for the enforcement authority.” OCGA § 8-2-106(c)

When there is an accident or injury, the standard of care to be applied to the operator of the elevator is extraordinary care. The appellate courts in Georgia put it this way:

“(W)henever a carrier, through its agents or servants, knows or has opportunity to know of a threatened injury, or might have reasonably anticipated the happening of an injury, and fails or neglects to take the proper precautions or to use proper means to prevent or mitigate such injury, the carrier is liable. It is the common carrier’s duty to use proper care and vigilance to protect passengers from injuries by such persons that might reasonably have been foreseen and anticipated. Knowledge of the passenger’s danger, or of facts and circumstances from which that danger may reasonably be inferred, is necessary to fix the carrier’s liability in this class of cases. The carrier is not regarded as an insurer of his passenger’s safety against every possible source of danger; but he is bound to use all such reasonable precautions as human judgment and foresight are capable of, to make his passenger’s journey safe and comfortable.

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As car accident lawyers in Atlanta, we get numerous callers telling us that the investigating police officer made out the report incorrectly. Everything from the color of the car being wrong, to vehicles going the opposite direction, to leaving out eyewitness information. Police officers who investigate car accidents in Atlanta are human and it happens.

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