Atlanta Injury Attorney BlogMany clients come to me and want to know how long it takes an injury lawyer to handle a case. The answer is that it depends on the case. I generally classify cases into three categories For Class I cases involving catastrophic injuries and wrongful death cases, the time line is not predictable. Class II injuries involve a car accident that results in fractures, ligament tears, surgeries and other major injuries. Class III cases are injuries that involve strains and sprains or other soft tissue injuries that the client is able to make a full recovery from.For Class II and III injuries much will depend on how long the medical care continues but the following is a general outline of what to expect.
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Paralegal CLE Article on Handling Georgia Personal Injury Cases
Here is a recent presentation I gave to a paralegal continuing education group and I thought my readers might find the material interesting.
Investigating and Evaluating a Personal Injury Claim
By Christopher M. Simon, Esq.
Personal injury cases come in all sizes, but I generally classify them into three categories:
Class III is a garden-ariety soft tissue auto accident case.
Class II involves a more significant injury including fractures, ACL tears, Meniscal surgeries and Scaring cases.
Class I is a complex or catastrophic case. I could go on for hours about these. For today, we will focus primarily on Class I and II.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in Georgia is a Winter Danger
I have represented a number of families in Columbus Georgia, Albany Georgia and Atlanta Georgia over the last few years where the heating systems malfunction and release carbon monoxide gas into the living area, poisoning the residents. Carbon monoxide is so dangerous because it is colorless and odorless, giving no warning. As a lawyer, I get calls from all over the state and the reports are consistent. It strikes so quickly that it can overwhelm the victim and render them unconscious in a short period of time.
Attacking the central nervous system, in low concentrations the gas makes you tired and gives you severe headaches, almost like the flu.
At higher concentrations it will knock you out in minutes. The severity of the effects are determined by the concentration and duration of the exposure. Below is an idea of what concentrations will have what effects.
Should I pay My Traffic Ticket in Georgia?
Many clients involved in car accidents in Atlanta have come to me explaining that even though the officer ticketed them, the crash was the other driver’s fault and they wonder what they should do with the traffic ticket from the City of Atlanta. If the injury is serious, I will take a hard look at the evidence to determine if the officer just got it wrong, and sometimes they do.
For people that have been injured in a car crash and the probability of a subsequent lawsuit, the outcome of the traffic ticket can be critical. People that sustain serious injuries in Atlanta should be careful with how they handle the citation they are given.
Car Accident Injury Victims Can Celebrate Another Positive Georgia Supreme Court Decision on HIPAA
The Georgia Supreme Court issued a major decision last week in Moreland v. Austin which effects Georgia car accident victims by holding that HIPAA, the Federal law protecting the privacy of your medical records, preempts the Georgia State law saying that your doctors can talk to the defense attorney without your knowledge. That means that insurance defense lawyers in Georgia can no longer meet with your doctors privately and spin the truth to damage your case. As a car accident lawyer who frequently has to guard his clients against these kind of aggressive defense tactics, I was thrilled with this decision.
Moreland is a medical malpractice case wherein the insurance defense lawyer had met with the injured person’s Atlanta doctor in an effort to hurt the Plaintiff”s case. The Supreme Court overturned the Appellate Court decision and held that unless a Plaintiff specifically grants permission, the Defense may not speak with the Plaintiff’s treating doctors. The Court even went to far as to hold that “(w)e will not presume a plaintiff consented to such communications simply because the plaintiff did not object when defendant sought plaintiff’s medical records pursuant to a subpoena or request for production of documents.”
When I was a defense lawyer and before HIPAA came into effect, I would try to set an appointment with the Plaintiff’s treating and family doctors and establish rapport. I would never fabricate things but I would certainly bring the accident photos in lower impact collisions to try to win the doctor over to my side of the argument. I have had to be careful in modifying the HIPAA releases that defense lawyers send to my clients. Many insurance companies will try to get the injured person to sign a HIPAA release in the early days following the crash so that they insurance company can get access to records and documents but this is a huge mistake.
When handling an Injury Claim, Coordinating Health Benefits Can Be Critical
What are some of the pitfalls of representing yourself and not hiring an injury attorney after you have been injured in a car accident in Georgia? One of the major challenges is how to coordinate Georgia injury medical care benefits.Many people are hesitant to hire an injury attorney, worrying that they would have done better in their quest for just compensation without paying the lawyer one third of the recovery. It is a good analysis to go through. I have written extensively on the subject of when you need and attorney and when you don’t after a collision injury and you can see that article here. This entry will get into a real world example of the value a lawyer can bring.
New Georgia Uninsured Motorist Laws Voted in by Legislature in Atlanta
The Georgia legislature in Atlanta passed a sweeping change to Georgia Uninsured Motorist Insurance coverage law this past session and the law goes into effect on January 1, 2009. Most Georgia drivers should expect to see a mailing asking them to make their new selections this winter.
The change is significant and it can be confusing. Under the old scheme, you either chose to have Georgia uninsured motorist insurance coverage or you chose to waive it. If you did have it and you were injured in a car accident in Georgia, the first inquiry was “how much insurance does the other driver have?” Let’s assume the bad driver had the minimum limits of $25,000.00 and that you had $50,000.00 in Uninsured coverage. You would be entitled to seek the bad guys $25,000.00 and then another $25,000.00 from your own policy. (there are certain exceptions under which you could recover more but they involve situations where the insured had to repay certain Federal programs)
Under the new scheme as laid out in O.C.G.A. §33-7-11(b), the consumer can now make three basic choices. First you can chose to waive the coverage entirely. (bad idea) Second you can get Add-On type Uninsured Motorist Insurance Coverage. This is the best choice. Going back to the example above, if the bad guy has $25,000.00 and you have $50,000.00 of Add-On type Uninsured Motorist coverage then you can recover up to $75,000.00 for a serious injury.
Burn Injuries Occur More Frequently Than You Think
Over the last six months, my law practice has received a staggering number of calls from clients that have been burned through the negligence of others. I have represented a Decatur, Georgia woman burned at a Stone Mountain spa by hot stone therapy that resulted in second degree burns and permanent scarring; a Gainesville Georgia toddler that received skin grafts after having hot grits spilled on her hands at day care; an Atlanta Georgia woman that was burned when the drive through attendant spilled coffee on her resulting in second degree burns and permanent scarring and just this past week I spoke with a woman whose 22 month old had to receive skin grafts after the gravy at Dairy Queen spilled on them.Put simply, these companies are actively ignoring the acute danger that scalding foods and liquids pose.Let’s talk about burns for a moment. First, it is important to know that adult skin is more that 4 times as thick as a child’s and therefore, a child will sustain a full thickness burn much more quickly than an adult. According to the National Burn Victim Foundation, it would take a liquid at 140 degrees 5 seconds on adult skin to cause a 3rd degree burn. On a child it would only take 1 second.
A First Degree burn is painful but only involves the out layer of the skin, the epidermis.
A Second Degree burn will show blistering and can get into the reticular layer of the dermis. They can result in scarring and can require grafts when they are partial thickness burns instead of superficial only.
Dog Bite Victims are Sometimes Dogs Too
An Atlanta man’s dog was attacked in Piedmont Park recently and his Chau died as a result. As detailed in this article, Dog Dies After Being Attacked At Piedmont Park by a local Atlanta TV Station, this dog was viciously attacked and ultimately died of its bite wounds. This issue has received a lot of press recently and there are strong arguments to be made by dog lovers who claim that it is unfair that all that can be sought under Georgia Law is the value of the animal.
Georgia Property law has long held that animals are chattels or property and when they are injured or killed, the value of the property is what the tortfeasor owes. Over the past month, several lawsuits have brought the issue to the forefront including ones regarding owners whose pets died as a result of melamine poisoning from Chinese dog food. These owners legitimately ask, how will will dissuade this type of behavior by manufacturers when the damages are $800 at worst.
When I represented Liberty Mutual Insurance, we defended several cases involving injuries to animals and I saw the other side of the issue too. If you accidentally run over the neighbors cat, do we want these cases going to suit over the “pain and suffering” of an animal that is impossible to know because they cannot talk? Do we as a society want lawsuits in our courts with multi-thousand dollar hip operations to fix animals injured in car accidents in Atlanta?
Is the Settlement my Injury Lawyer Obtains for Me Taxable?
Assume that we tried or settled your car accident Injury case and now you are trying to determine what your actual recovery will be. Many of my clients call and ask, what will I have to pay in taxes? The answer is, probably nothing.
Compensation for pain and injuries is not gross income under the tax code. Generally speaking, unless you received money for punitive damages in Georgia or lost wages, there is no tax on the money recovered.Generally speaking, all income is taxed. So if you get income, it will be taxed. The key here is that injury settlements are compensation and not income, so there is no tax. The exceptions are if you got paid for lost income or punitive damages. The portions of your settlement allocated to those sections would be taxed. Under Treasury Regulation § 104(a)(2), damages received through verdict or settlement because of injuries is not income.
If you have any further questions, please give me a call.