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 Car accidents with police officers can present numerous challenges for those injured in the crash. Chief among these challenges is the issue of sovereign immunity, which can make it quite difficult to pursue a claim against a negligent officer if they are operating within the course and scope of their duties. If an officer is in pursuit of a suspect or responding to a call for help and their blue lights are flashing, it is hard to bring an injury claim if you are struck and injured by a police cruiser during such an incident. Likewise, injuries resulting from crashes resulting during a police pursuit have an entire body of law protecting the officer if they are following department guidelines.

A recent Georgia case, however, illustrates one situation in which a claim is not be barred by immunity issues. Last week, two Paulding County teenagers were killed in a wreck involving a Georgia State Trooper traveling at a high speed for no apparent reason.  The crash occurred on the night of Saturday October 3 on U.S. 27 northbound in Carroll County. The trooper, who was not on an emergency call, not responding to an accident, and not trying to stop a vehicle, was merely on patrol traveling over 90 mph on a stretch of road where the speed limit is 55pmh.  Data from the crash shows that he was going 91 mph only five second before the fatal impact. The unfortunate victims in this tragedy were sitting in a Nissan Sentra, attempting to turn left in front of the path of the police cruiser, clearly not realizing that the trooper was traveling at such a high rate of speed. The trooper applied his brakes in an attempt to avoid the impact and had slowed to 68 mph just prior to the collision, but it was too little too late.  Both backseat passengers in the Nissan were killed and the two other teenagers suffered serious injuries.

Sovereign immunity is waived for most vehicle accidents involving cities, counties and the state. State claims in particular are governed by the Georgia Tort Claims Act. The cap for GTCA claims is $1,000,000. See GTCA Liability Policy.

Thank you all for the opportunity to speak to the South Carolina Bar. Just click on the link below to download the powerpoint from my presentation and feel free to email me with any questions.

Chris

The Business of Law powerpoint

In the “what were you thinking” department, the Supreme Court gave the final smackdown to a lawyer who filed a lawsuit after the 2 year statute of limitations after a bus crash against the Georgia Regional Transportation Agency. The lawyer tried to wiggle out of missing the Statute by arguing that one part of OCGA § 50–21–27(e) says that “All provisions relating to the tolling of limitations of actions, as provided elsewhere in this Code, shall apply to causes of action brought pursuant to [the GTCA].”  The lazy plaintiff’s lawyer tried to argue that the “all provisions” language meant any provision anywhere in the Georgia Code.  She argued that OCGA § 36–33–5(d)3 , a tolling provision for lawsuits against municipal corporations should apply and, because the State never responded to her ante litem notice, she argued, the Statute of Limitations was tolled and the suit could proceed.

Although the trial court bought her argument, the Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court gave it the royal beat down. You can read the case, Foster v. Georgia Regional Transportation Agency.

Because we handle car accidents as part of our daily business, we think about insurance policies and pricing often. Most consumers, however, give little thought to their insurance needs or even which company they send their premiums to every month. I get the sense that most people pick one company (probably the one their parents have used for decades) early on in their driving years and stick with that company for many years. However, a new push from a consumer advocacy group suggests that being loyal to one insurance company is likely not the best strategy to get the best bang for your buck.

Earlier this week, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) publicly announced its position in support of a ban on an insurance pricing tactic known as “price optimization.” This pricing strategy looks at data designed to measure a customer’s loyalty to a particular insurance company and whether that customer is likely to stay with the same insurer, even if being charged more. According to CFA, the result of this data mining has allowed insurance companies to charge long-time customers higher rates because they know they can get away with it. Meanwhile, customers deemed more likely to shop around are given a better deal. It seems as though loyalty doesn’t always pay.

CFA’s position is that this price optimization is inherently unfair to consumers and should be prohibited. According to the group’s statement, “the purpose of price optimization is to extract as much profit as possible from policyholders who are often required to purchase insurance policies.”

Speed Cameras: Coming to a Road Near You?

Last week, detailed research from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety demonstrated a new program aimed at saving thousands of American lives each year. The idea is simple- end speeding on our roads. Speed is a factor in over 50% of all fatal crash reports. Curtail speeding, and you reduce the likelihood of a deadly crash.

The program presented in this research concerned a system of portable, automated speed cameras.  These cameras have been utilized in Montgomery County, Maryland since 2007.  Since their implementation, the cameras have been credited with reducing the urge to drive 10mph above the posted speed limit by 59% when compared with counties not using these same devices.  The study concludes that if these cameras were introduced nationwide, more than 21,000 deaths or catastrophic injuries could be prevented.

How to Start Your Own

Law Firm

Chris Simon

Christopher Simon Attorney at Law, PC

Should I Open a Law Firm?

1. Where will you get clients from?
2. Are you experienced enough to properly serve them?
3. Fill out a financial plan and figure out how much it will cost you to a) get started and b) operate monthly (your “nut”)
4. Courtesy of the ABA 
5. What are you going to bill an hour? How many hours must you bill to be able to meet the monthly nut? How many months can you last on just that. What is your burn rate? What will it take to become profitable?
6. Here is a more detailed budget: http://www.practicepro.ca/practice/PDF/SampleBudgetSpreadsheet.pdf

Continue reading

By now, almost everyone in a major American city has either heard of or taken advantage of Uber, the popular, highly efficient, low-cost alternative to traditional taxi cabs and car services. Now, this kind of technology is making its way into the trucking industry, with the goal of improving efficiency for a huge segment of the economy that relies on trucks to haul a majority of our freight from coast to coast.

These Uber-like apps would connect manufacturers and shippers of goods with a trucker nearby who is heading to the intended destination. Truck drivers will be happy because they can get additional freight that they would not otherwise have been able to acquire on an on-the-fly basis, and the shipper gets a better deal because they can ship goods on an on-demand basis. Much like Uber, payment is transferred swiftly between the two parties.

A recent study found that by 2025, $26.4 billion of all truck freight movement will come from mobile app freight brokering. The growth potential here is astounding, and some established companies like Volvo and UPS have begun investing in this sector. Many hope that this technology can also attract younger truck drivers to an industry that is facing a serious shortage of available truck drivers in the years ahead as many aging drivers near retirement age.

Last week, Google revealed the news that one of its much anticipated self-driving cars was involved in a car wreck with injuries for the very first time. Certainly, this wasn’t the first time one of Google’s prototypes had been in a collision, but this was the first such crash that left passengers walking away with complaints of pain.This particular crash occurred when a Lexus SVU made over with all of Google’s technology was rear-ended in Mountain View, CA. The three Google employees inside all complained of whiplash injuries. The car’s sensors showed that the Lexus was traveling at about 15mph in self-driving mode behind two other vehicles when it had to slow for traffic further ahead on the road. The vehicle behind the Lexus then struck the rear bumper traveling at approximately 17mph.

According to Google, this was only the 14th wreck in six years of testing involving its self-driving cars and that none of its own vehicles have ever caused any of these crashes. 11 of these 14 crashes involved rear-end collisions similar to this latest incident. Clearly, the problem with these kinds of collision is distracted or inattentive driving- something a Google self-driving car can’t control when it’s coming from other vehicles on the road.

While these statistics are impressive, the day is coming when self-driving cars are going to be all over the road, and when that happens, these lofty numbers are going to take a hit. Not only will these autonomous vehicles have to account for the poor driving of others on the road, but they will have to make calculated driving maneuvers on the fly that may cause crashes themselves. It is only a matter of time before Google gets tagged with a claim when one of its cars makes an incorrect calculation that leads to a serious injury. This first injury crash is merely a harbinger of things to come.

New and improving technology in our vehicles has led to all kinds of upgrades in terms of driving safety- blind spot warning systems, automatic braking with radar detection, updated airbag systems, to name a few. Not all new technology, however, has been beneficial or as accepted in this regard. In particular, the new trend among auto manufacturers involving the implementation of large, tablet-like dashboard displays in almost all new vehicles has been the source of controversy over vehicle safety and the responsible use of technology while driving.

Car companies suggest that these oversized dash displays, which often times behave more like smart phones than the traditional dashboard, are actually safer than the design of older cars due to features like integrated voice controls that keep the driver’s hands on the wheel or the large touch screens for tasks like navigation that are easier to manage than trying to fumble with a smartphone (not to mention the fact that these kinds of new features will almost certain boost manufacturer revenue). But the questions remain- how much technology is too much in our cars? How connected should drivers be out on the road? Do we really want drivers or passengers checking social media posts or uploading photos while navigating rush hour traffic?

The dangers of texting and driving are all too familiar to personal injury lawyers who see the devastating effects technology can have when drivers aren’t devoting their full attention to the roadway. These large dashboard displays are just the newest distraction coming to our cars, and we’re sure to see an uptick in the number of wrecks caused by this technology as it becomes more and more commonplace. Unfortunately, our lawmakers are generally slow to adapt the law to changes in technology, so regulation over the use of these kinds of systems will likely be a topic of debate for years to come.

Spoiled Food Cause Your Injuries? Look Again…

​We frequently get calls from prospective clients who have been harmed by foreign objects in their food or by food tainted or spoiled in some fashion. Evaluating the foreign object cases is generally less complicated. Did you bite into something that caused significant dental problems? Did you swallow something that caused considerable damage to your mouth, throat, or esophagus? Those are the type of serious cases that are worth pursuing and hiring a lawyer to handle. Short of these types of harms, however, usually the best rule of thumb when you find a foreign object in your food that hasn’t caused you any physical harm is to write a negative online review and find somewhere else to eat.

​Cases where victims have been harmed by tainted food deserve quite a bit more scrutiny and can be more difficult to prove. Obviously, cases of serious injury caused by the presence of some harmful bacteria like salmonella are worth pursuing with a lawyer. The line becomes less clear, however, when this type of smoking gun cannot be detected. What if the allegedly spoiled food is just a little past the expiration date? It turns out that even the date printed in black and white on the sides on our packaging doesn’t give us an accurate picture of when our food is actually still good to eat. In fact, according to Thrillist, most of the food in our fridge remains unspoiled and safe for consumption well after the date on the label has told us it has gone bad.