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In a recent Georgia Court of Appeals decision, Perkins v. The Val D’Aosta Co., Case No. A10A0413 (Ga. Ct. App., July 9, 2010), the Court held that where the injured person had walked across the allegedly hazardous curb several times prior to falling, typically a fatal “prior traverse”, they were still able to take their case to the jury. This decision continues the recent Court of Appeals trend chipping away at the ability of trial judges to take away the plaintiff’s constitutional right to jury trial.

Remember that as we have discussed before on our slip and fall page, the basis for holding a property owner responsible is the information imbalance. If the property owner knows the property better than you do and there is a hazard present that hurts you, then you have a case. However, if you know the area, have walked over it previously or know the conditions for any reason before you fall, you have equal knowledge. Equal Knowledge is deadly to a Georgia slip and fall case; as it should be. Think about it; do we want people suing businesses when the injured person knew about the hazard before they tripped over it? People have to take responsibility for their own lack of care, plain and simple.

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As a Georgia injury lawyer with a statewide practice, I often handle cases involving issues for out of State clients. One of the Texas personal injury attorney that we work with, the Grossman Law Offices, PC, and I got to talking the other day about the Statute of Limitations and how they differ for each state.

As it turns out, the Texas Statute of Limitations for injury cases is generally two years, much the same as Georgia. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 16.003 Texas has the same rules that allow minors to reach the age of majority before the clock begins to run. It does not appear that Texas has the tolling provision that we currently have in Georgia where a Plaintiff in a case stemming from a crash with a traffic citation or a crime has the two years plus the days it takes for the ticket or criminal case to be resolved.

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As a parent and lawyer with a child in the Atlanta City Public Schools, I am disgusted by the corrupt culture of shortcuts that keeps rearing its head in our city. After reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner a few years back, I remember thinking to myself that the cat is out of the bag and teachers would know that widespread cheating on competency tests leaves a statistical “fingerprint” that is easy to see.

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Over the last two months, our firm has filed two wrongful death lawsuits and tractor trailer companies in Georgia and is preparing to file another in California with co-counsel. The idea of going into litigation and facing a jury is daunting for many prospective clients but you must understand that when significant dollar amounts are at stake, no insurance company is going to make a settlement offer that is even close to full value unless they are forced to.

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We have had a number of calls from people in Atlanta hurt in car accidents recently where they receive phone calls from runners after the crash. As we discussed previously “runners” are scumbags hired by some lawyers and chiropractors to drive business to their practices. They sometimes claim to be a referral service and sometimes they are calling on behalf of a specific chiropractic clinic. What they all share in common is a sleaze factor a mile wide. These people cannot get business in a legitimate fashion so they resort to taking advantage of confused consumers.

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Over the last week I have had 4 people call the office complaining that their Atlanta lawyers won’t call them back. Furthermore, the injury lawyers have sent a letter to the client saying the office is sending a demand to the insurance company without running it by the client first. In even the most simple car accident case, they are certain fundamental duties your lawyer owes you in Georgia.

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Several weeks ago you may recall I wrote a piece decrying the decision making on a number of cases involving Geico insurance. While I am outspoken when I see injustice, it is only fair to also recognize improvement.

In the DUI case that I described, Geico went on to reverse their liability decision and has now taken care of the property damage that the clients sustained at the hands of the drunk driver. What happens with the husbands injured shoulder remains to be seen but for now the universe is back in order and functioning as it should for that family.

On the case involving two carpal tunnel surgeries that I mentioned was getting close to trial with a totally unfair offer in light of the jury value, Geico also reassessed the situation and ended up doing the right thing and resolving the claim. Do I wish for the client’s sake that they had done this a year ago? Absolutely, but as I said earlier, in the field of injury law justice delayed is still better than no justice at all.

The motorcycle case was put into litigation two weeks ago and we are now waiting for the defense to file an answer. Whether the adjuster on that file is given the latitude to better assess the risk remains to be seen but as the old song says, “two out of three ain’t bad.”

I do not inherently believe that first tier insurance companies are evil as some of my brothers at the bar do, but they can go through periods where their decision making is profoundly obtuse.

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Because we are known to handle a lot of slip and fall claims in the Atlanta area, we get frequent calls from people with fractured ankles, concussions and compression fractures.My clients are generally conservative Georgians who would not ordinarily think of filing a claim, much less calling a lawyer. Suddenly they find themselves looking at an unwelcome surgery. Most folks don’t want to make a claim if they are reaching, they just want to know what their rights are. This is especially true when the way the fall happened was preventable had the owner been paying attention and taking care of business.

So, the question arises; what are you rights when you seriously hurt yourself in a slip and fall? If it is just a mildly sprained ankle or something equally minor, use common sense and don’t make a big deal out of it. Stuff happens, move on. On the other hand, if you broke a bone and it was not your own fault, a thinking person will make a further inquiry into their rights.

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Georgia Semi truck crashes devastate families and yet year after year, some tractor trailer companies push their drivers well beyond their capacity as “big box” companies squeeze the drivers down to the penny on their margins. All of this downward price pressure creates a deadly combination of tired truck drivers and worn out equipment. The DOT is spread thin and relies on traffic enforcement to pull drivers off the road and that system typically misses 99% of the violators.

After spending seven years defending semi truck drivers and trucking insurance companies after serious crashes, we formed our firm to represent the victim’s families. Civil law attorneys are not effective in prosecuting cases on behalf of victims unless there are bright and experienced lawyers representing the families. If you are reading this article after a family member has been hit by a tractor trailer in Georgia, there are some key things you should know.

Hire a Georgia Semi Truck Crash Lawyer Early

Hiring a trucking lawyer early on will drastically increase your success rate because without a thorough investigation, evidence will disappear. Even though many families are in the middle of the grieving or healing process, for serious cases, it is essential that you hire a semi truck crash law firm immediately.

A case we recently took in is illustrative. We are handling a case involving a gentleman rear-ended on the interstate by a tractor trailer. He sustained a fractured shoulder and has undergone two surgeries to repair the clavicle. Without critical recordings from the 911 call center we would have been unable to prove that the truck driver was lying about not seeing the victim prior to the crash. If we had been contacted 2 months later, the evidence would have been gone. In Georgia, police departments only retain 911 records for a certain period of time, often only 90 days. If the request for the records is not received in a timely fashion, the records can be overwritten.

Skid marks and yaw marks get washed away within a week of the crash in most cases and the paint marks from the SCRT (Georgia State Patrol Serious Collision Reconstruction Team) unit will wash off within months. Witnesses move away and forget. Most importantly, operational documents from the trucking company can be destroyed and without a strong spoliation letter from the trucking lawyers, it is more difficult to argue that the trucking company should have retained the records beyond the six months required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

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If you read our Georgia Car Accident Guide book, you know that it does not make much sense to hire a Georgia injury lawyer for a case with $3,000.00 or less in medical bills. So lets assume that you followed the do it yourself guide in our book and now the insurance company is being ridiculous and is offering less than the medical bills. The only remaining option is to file suit.

Do understand that the other driver is going to get a free lawyer to defend them if they have insurance and that puts you at a serious disadvantage. Sometimes however, filing suit on your own will get you an increase on the offer. With small cases, you should file in the Georgia Magistrate Court for the County where the defendant lives. The Magistrate Court is small claims court and only handles cases seeking under $15,000.00.

Key Points to remember:

1) Sue the other driver, not the insurance company.
2) Sue in their home county or review our article on Georgia venue and personal jurisdiction requirements.
3) Make sure you keep an eye on the Georgia statute of limitations on injury claims.
4) Make sure the sheriff actually serves the defendant. Failure to serve kills the case.
5) Keep the complaint (document that starts the lawsuit) simple. What did the other driver do wrong. What did it do to you and how much were the bills. (submit the gross amount of the medical bills)

If it proceeds all the way to trial, keep in mind you may get overwhelmed on a technical defense.

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