Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog

At Robert J. Fleming, PC, we receive many calls from potential clients and referring attorneys regarding medical malpractice claims. Evaluating these cases is a "necessary evil" of our practice. Most callers report horrible injuries such as loss of limb, death of the patient or of an unborn child, loss of bodily functions, loss of sight, paralysis... The list is endless and truly troubling. According to the National Institute of Medicine, over 98,000 American deaths each year are caused by medical errors. However, it should be noted that not all bad medical outcomes are due to malpractice and, possibly an even more troubling truism, not all instances of "sloppy medicine" lead to actionable medical malpractice cases.

This is the sad reality in which we operate. Medical malpractice cases are expensive to litigate, take a long time to prosecute and require a tremendous amount of dedication and resoursces to pursue. With that said, there still are many meritorious cases; many cases worth pursuing and many instances in which justice requires (perhaps demands) that a lawsuit be filed. In the next few posts, we will help you separate the wheat from the shaft and better understand the type of medical malpractice case that should be pursued.

At Robert J. Fleming, PC, we get many calls from potential clients who have recently been involved in wrecks in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. While each case is different, here are some general suggestions that can help.

CONSULT WITH A QUALIFIED ATTORNEY
Obvious advice coming from a law office, right? While many people resist hiring an attorney because they feel they can "do better" without one, this simply is not the case. Many times, an experienced and qualified attorney is needed to evaluate the case, timely gather and preserve critical evidence, interview potential witnesses, identify potentially liable defendants (many of whom may not be readily apparent), identify available sources of insurance coverage, comply with statutory notice requirements and properly present your case to the insurance companies for prompt settlement or trial. With that said, here are some other nuggets of wisdom that I have gleaned over the years that should prove helpful in protecting your rights and maximizing your recovery:

DO NOT TALK TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU TALK TO YOUR LAWYER FIRST
Generally speaking, you should not talk to anyone about the accident except your lawyer and their staff. Obviously, you must cooperate with the police investigation. In addition, you are required to talk to your own insurance company, but your lawyer is entitled to be present. Do not talk about your injuries or the accident with the other party's investigators, lawyers or insurance adjusters. Trust me: nothing you say will help you; anything you say will be used against you. If you doubt this, ask yourself a simple question: Whose interests are these people working to protect? Answer: Not yours. They are working hard to build a case against you, to make sure you get nothing, or very little, certainly less than you deserve. Do not help them.

POLICE REPORT / WITNESSES
Please obtain a copy of the police report as quickly as possible, and forward this to your attorney. If you know of any witnesses to the incident, please write their name, address and telephone numbers down and provide your attorney with a copy as soon as possible. You would be amazed at how quickly witnesses disappear, memories fade, addresses change, telephone numbers are disconnected and the like. It is your attorneys' job to quickly gather witness information and preserve it for settlement or trial preparation.

DIARY OF PROBLEMS
Please keep a diary of problems that you confront because of your injuries. This should include when you are experiencing pain and suffering, activities that you are not able to perform or are able to perform, but must do so with pain and other problems. Be honest and truthful.

LOST WAGES
Be certain that you have the name and addresses of all employers from which you lost wages due to the wreck. If you are self-employed, try to obtain records that will show your wage loss. Keep an accurate record of all days lost from work due to the incident and/or your injuries.

DAMAGE TO YOUR AUTOMOBILE AND PERSONAL PROPERTY
They say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Please take pictures of all damages to your car, and to the other vehicles involved in the wreck. Err on the side of caution and take a lot of pictures to ensure that you capture the full visual impact of the damage to the vehicles. Also, keep copies of repair bills and estimates.

DOCTOR VISITS
The most important thing is for you to get well and to hopefully fully recover from your injuries. Therefore, follow your doctors' advice, continue being treated by your doctor and subsequent doctors that you are referred to until you are well. This is equally applicable to any physical therapy to which you have been referred. Many times, physical therapy is a long and tedious process. However, you must complete the program to reap the benefits. If you are patient and follow the program, most times your condition improves. Remember, the most important concern is your health and recovery.

HOSPITAL, MEDICAL AND DRUG BILLS
Obtain and keep receipts and records of all these expenses.Your are entitled to recover for these as part of your damages.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
If your injury requires a cast, brace, traction, or other medical device, please save it. As discussed above, if you have pictures or other physical evidence, give them to your attorney. They may be used as evidence down the road. Once again, err on the side of caution and let your attorney decide what is worth preserving. Many times, some issues that were never being contested become issues way down the road.

TRAFFIC COURT
If you receive notice of a traffic court date for the other driver, attend and testify regarding who was at fault. If you receive a subpoena, you must attend. Many times a guilty conviction can be used against the other party at the trial of your case.

CALL YOUR LAWYERS OFFICE WITH ANY QUESTIONS
You hired your attorney to help you and that is exactly what they want to do.If you are not sure of something, call. It is better to communicate and get a clear understanding of what you are wondering about, rather than guess and make a mistake. In school they always said, "the only stupid question is the one that was not asked." The same applies here.

Continue reading " Recently Involved in an Atlanta Auto Accident? Suggestions " »

We hear about it during the busy Atlanta summer travel season. We hear about it during the busy Georgia holiday shopping season. Boys and girls of all ages being seriously injured when their little hands or feet are suddenly sucked into the openings by the moving stairs of escalators. While Marta, the large department stores and airports try to lay blame on the popular Crocs-type shoes, the real culprits are faulty escalators.

For instance, in 1996, long before Crocs were even on the market, a young boy in Houston lost three toes when his tennis shoe was sucked in by an escalator. "If escalators were designed properly and met all the standards, it wouldn't matter that they [the injured children] were wearing Crocs," said Scott Anderson, of Houston, Texas whose 4-year-old son was was seriously injured in the 1996 escalator accident.

Since the beginning of this year, over 140 injury incident reports have been filed with Georgia state regulators, with the vast majority occurring at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, MARTA and the various Atlanta area shopping malls such as Phipps Plaza, Lenox Mall and Perimeter Mall. Although rare, some of these incidents result in severe injuries such as head traumas, loss of limbs and permanent disfigurement. If you or a family member is injured in an escalator accident, you should immediately contact an experienced personal injury attorney and then (through your attorney) report the incident to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC"). The CPSC's web site is www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx or they can be reached by telephone at 800-638-2772.

While not every injury that occurs on an escalator is due to someone else's negligence, many are. If you are seriously injured on an escalator and you suspect that the injury was caused by faulty equipment or negligence on the part of the premises owner/operators (some common premises owners or operators are MARTA, AATC--which operates Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for the City of Atlanta and the Airlines, and the various malls in the Atlanta area such as Phipps Plaza, Lenox Mall and Perimeter Mall).

Robert J. Fleming, P.C. has successfully represented many clients injured on the premises of others. If you have been seriously injured, contact us today for a free initial consultation to discuss the specific facts of your case.

Continue reading " Atlanta Residents Injured By Faulty Escalators " »

For those of you, like me, who live in Atlanta and regularly drive on Ponce de Leon, I wanted to post the attached video. The stretch of Ponce de Leon between Freedom Parkway and Emory University (Clifton Road) is especially dangerous. As the attached video illustrates there are so many accidents here. I travel this road almost every day and I have seen a number of serious wrecks (i.e, overturned cars and serious injuries) right in front of the Majestic Diner. So, please use extra caution.

The Georgia Court of Appeals recently approved the award of attorneys' fees in a case that was appealed from DeKalb County Superior Court. In Roofers Edge Inc. v. Standard Building Co. Inc. A08A1060; A08A2109 (11/17/09), the appellate court found that there was "some evidence" for the jury to conclude that the defendant acted in bad faith and to award attorneys' fees to the plaintiff. In this case, the defendant, Standard Building Co., Inc., failed to pay the plaintiff, Roofers Edge, Inc. for subcontracted metal roofing work on a construction project; then denied the existence of a contract or that Roofers Edge had completed the work. It did, however, admit at trial that Roofers Edge was entitled to payment, less a setoff.

At first blush, this case appears to have little to do with personal injury litigation. However, this case is applicable to all litigation in Georgia state courts and it explains the circumstances under which a plaintiff may be awarded attorneys' fees, in addition to other monetary damages which they may be entitled to.

As the court notes in its decision, Georgia state code OCGA 13-6-11 provides for the award of attorneys' fees to a plaintiff when a defendant "has acted in bad faith, has been stubbornly litigious, or has caused the plaintiff unnecessary trouble and expense. A refusal to pay in bad faith means a frivolous and unfounded denial of liability. Similarly, "stubborn litigiousness," and "causing the plaintiff unnecessary trouble and expense" refer to a defendant's forcing the plaintiff to sue when no bona fide controversy exists." Many Georgia lawyers and judges refer to this as the "so sue me" attitude. Importantly, this issue (whether or not the defendant acted in bad faith, etc.) is an issue for the jury to decide. In other words, the jury decides whether the plaintiff is awarded his or her attorneys' fees and expenses of litigation in addition to the other damages that the plaintiff is seeking in the lawsuit.

Many Georgia lawyers mistakenly advise their clients that they cannot recover attorneys' fees in personal injury cases. Not only is this bad advice, it is not true. At Robert J. Fleming, PC, we routinely keep track of all of our time on every case. This is true, even if the case is being handled on a contingency fee basis (i.e., our firm gets no fee unless we recover money for our client. This is how we prefer to handle most personal injury cases.). The reason is simple, we try to recover attorneys' fees on all types of cases, including personal injury cases such as automobile accidents, trip and falls, and many others.

I recently tried a relatively minor traffic accident case in DeKalb County, Georgia that illustrates my point. The accident was a minor one and the plaintiff was awarded $8,000 for her medical bills and pain and suffering. More importantly though, the jury saw through the defendant's stalling and bad faith tactics and awarded about $12,000 in attorneys' fees.They did this mostly based on testimony from the defendant's own mouth (elicited by me under cross examination) that: (1) he caused the wreck; (2) the Plaintiff had incurred medical bills because of the wreck; (3) he (the Defendant) was very sorry for causing the wreck; (4) but he refused to pay the Plaintiff for her damages.

Insurance companies and large corporations routinely stall the litigation process and deny liability, even in cases where the defendant's culpability and negligence is clear. Robert J. Fleming, PC excels under these circumstances because we are able to "turn the tables" on the defendants that use these antics. Once this is done, it exposes the defendants' true intentions to the jury and enables the plaintiff to recover higher amounts of damages, including in some cases, attorneys' fees and costs of litigation.

For a complete copy of the Roofers Edge opinion, click here