Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog

Published on: May 24, 2011

Americans Want More Safety Laws to Prevent Accidents

A new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety holds no surprises for Atlanta car accident attorneys. The study seems to indicate massive support for more federal and state traffic safety laws that can help prevent accidents. But wait, more laws, more regulations, more governmental interference in our lives. Is this really necessary? Well….maybe.

It seems that most people (or at least the most vocal ones) want less government and less regulations. However, according to the study, 62% of respondents wanted the federal government to get more involved in passing traffic safety laws that could protect motorists by reducing the incidence of undesirable driving behaviors. A further 57% also want states to get involved in traffic safety matters. 70% of respondents said they want traffic safety laws be more strictly enforced.

Besides, there also seems to be plenty of support for stronger graduated driver licensing programs in Georgia. 62% of the respondents wanted new drivers to undergo an education program before they begin driving with a full license. Also, 60% of respondents said they wanted more auto safety features to prevent accidents. I for one, believe that drivers permits and licenses are being issued to teenagers who simply do not have the advanced cognitive brain development to safely drive. While this is not a condemnation of our youth, it is simply a fact that the human brain, and especially the male human brain, does not fully develop cognitive ability until at least the early 20’s. While most young teenagers are simply dying to drive, what would be the harm in pushing back the legal driving age (and the age that they can get driving permits) a couple of years. In my opinion, the down side is minimal, but we could save a lot of lives if we did this, as a state.
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Published on: May 20, 2011

Needless Tooth Extractions Lead to Lingual Nerve and Inferior Alveolar Nerve Damage

by Robert J. Fleming

As an Atlanta Dental Malpractice Lawyer, I encounter many clients who have had asymptomatic wisdom teeth extracted. Not only is this a form of dental malpractice (because it constitutes over-treatment) but many of these procedures result in permanent nerve injuries to the lingual nerve and/or the inferior alveolar nerve. Many times clients have gone to the dentist for a check up and are told that they should have all four wisdom teeth extracted, even though there are no problems associated with these teeth. To be sure, there are times when wisdom teeth should be extracted, but this is not always the case.

Simply put, a wisdom tooth that is not causing any problems, should not be removed. Even “impacted” wisdom teeth should not be removed, unless they are infected or causing another serious dental problem.

Unfortunately, over ten million wisdom teeth (also known as third molars) are extracted from almost 5 million people in the United States every year. This results in hundreds of permanent nerve injuries when the lingual nerve or the inferior alveolar nerve is damaged due to a needle severing the nerve during nerve blocks injections, a root tip ripping the nerve during extraction or a number of other complications related to the drug use to numb the patient or the extraction. I have seen cases in which both of these nerves have been damaged by one extraction.
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Published on: April 29, 2011

High Calorie Diet Could Help Treat Brain Injury

by Robert J. Fleming

Brain injuries are some of the most devastating injuries, and for Atlanta brain injury attorneys, it has always been a matter of concern that there are such limited treatment options for these injuries. However, there have been some studies into the field of traumatic brain injury treatment that have yielded intriguing results over the past few years. One such study now indicates that a combination of calories and proteins, administered within 24 hours after a brain injury, could actually accelerate the process of recovery. While this is hard to imagine or to understand why, it is based on scientific evidence and appear to be peer-reviewed, which tends to lend credence to the results or conclusions of the study.

The study was based on an analysis of several previous studies into the use of nutrition to treat a traumatic brain injury. The analysis was conducted by the Institute of Medicine which had been commissioned by the U.S. military. The military has been especially invested in discovering new treatments for the treatment of traumatic brain injury, because of the large number of vets in Afghanistan and Iraq who are left with serious brain injuries. While the mechanism of the brain injuries are different for those suffered in the military vs. those suffered in car accidents and other incidents which involve the negligence of a third-party, the “take-away” is the same.

The analysis of the studies – none of which was more than 20 years old – indicates that an infusion of calories and proteins administered within 24 hours of an injury can actually help reduce inflammation significantly. The researchers found that the best results could be seen if this infusion of calories and proteins was administered for a period of two weeks after the brain injury. Reducing inflammation, as we are learning more and more recently, seems to the key in fighting a whole host of illnesses and injuries. Now, it appears that this is the way to mitigate the damages of a brain injury, so long as it done soon after the injury occurs.
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Published on: April 25, 2011

Atlanta Children Seriously Injured In Back-Over Accidents

by Robert J. Fleming

Accidentally backing over someone accounts for about 15% of all non-traffic crash injuries. Sadly, children between the ages of 1 and 4 years-old account for half of these tragedies and almost half of these accidents happen in the parent’s driveway or in a parking lot. In fact, over 200 children die each year after being backed into by a car.

Everyone, including parents, must be vigilant when backing up or driving in parking lots. Young children are often not aware of their surroundings. Many times they are too small to be seen in the rear-view mirror and wind up in the driver’s “blind spot.” According to Edmonds.com, recent studies show that close to 57 percent of drivers in vehicles equipped with back-up cameras avoided backing over a stationary object that had been placed behind the vehicle when they weren’t looking. The March 2014 research report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also found that three-quarters of drivers in vehicles with both rearview cameras and audible sensors avoided a back-over accident.

By contrast, 100 percent of drivers in the IIHS study who were operating vehicles without back-up cameras or audible sensors ran over a child-size stationary object that had been surreptitiously placed behind them, according to David Zuby, chief research officer at the IIHS vehicle research center in Ruckersville, Virginia. “Our study adds to the body of evidence that’s been building over several years that cameras will help avoid some of these crashes,” Zuby says.

NHTSA expects rearview visibility systems that meet the final regulations’ standards to be 28-33 percent more effective at avoiding back-over accidents than existing sensor-only systems.

By 2054, when most U.S. vehicles on the road will have rearview systems, the technology should save 58-69 lives a year, according to data NHTSA released with the final rule. By that time, the agency estimates the total benefit from rearview technology to preventing injuries, saving lives and avoiding property should be $265 million to $396 million a year. In coming model years, expect to see automakers adding other types of cameras to cars, SUVs and trucks for maneuverability, better aerodynamics and fun. At 2014 auto shows, Land Rover made a splash with a concept off-road vehicle with a hood mounted camera that captures pictures of upcoming terrain and feeds them to a head-up display at the bottom of the windshield to create a 3-D map.
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Published on: April 25, 2011

Immunity For Medical Malpractice Being Fought By Veterans

by Robert J. Fleming

Since 1950, the law has protected military medical personnel from lawsuits even when they have committed medical malpractice. The law, commonly referred to as the Feres Doctrine, has been widely viewed as unfair and not sound. This is a view shared by many both inside and outside of the military. As a former Army Military Policeman, I cannot fathom a good reason why this should be the case.

Now, the Feres decision is once again in front of the United States Supreme Court, which has asked lawyers from both sides to supply more information prior to deciding whether to overturn the Feres decision. We find a ray of hope in Justice Scalia’s comment in a similar case that was heard in 1987, “Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the widespread, almost universal criticism it has received.”

The synopsis of the Feres decision is:

The United States is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to members of the armed forces sustained while on active duty and not on furlough and resulting from the negligence of others in the armed forces.

(a) The Tort Claims Act should be construed to fit, so far as will comport with its words, into the entire statutory system of remedies against the Government to make a workable, consistent, and equitable whole.

(b) One of the purposes of the Act was to transfer from Congress to the courts the burden of examining tort claims against the Government, and Congress was not burdened with private bills on behalf of military and naval personnel, because a comprehensive system of relief had been authorized by statute for them and their dependents.

(c) The Act confers on the district courts broad jurisdiction over “civil actions on claims against the United States, for money damages,” but it remains for the courts to determine whether any claim is recognizable in law.

(d) It does not create new causes of action, but merely accepts for the Government liability under circumstances that would bring private liability into existence.

(e) There is no analogous liability of a “private individual” growing out of “like circumstances” when the relationship of the wronged to the wrongdoers in these cases is considered.

(f) The provision of the Act making “the law of the place where the act or omission occurred” govern any consequent liability is inconsistent with an intention to make the Government liable in the circumstances of these cases, since the relationship of the Government and members of its armed forces is “distinctively federal in character.”

(g) The failure of the Act to provide for any adjustment between the remedy provided therein and other established systems of compensation for injuries or death of those in the armed services is persuasive that the Tort Claims Act was not intended to be applicable in the circumstances of these cases.

(h) Brooks v. United States, is distinguished.

The fundamental problem with the Feres decision is that it extended the prohibition against military personnel for suing the federal government for battle-field injuries to any injuries “incident to military service.” This was not the intent of the law and this is why so many proponents of veteran’s rights are calling for the change.
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Published on: April 24, 2011

GHSA Motorcycle Accident Fatality Report Has Disappointing Results for Georgia

by Robert J. Fleming

The state of Georgia had 112 motorcycle accident deaths during the first nine months of 2009. That figure had dropped to 98 fatalities during the first nine months of 2010. A small drop like this may not mean much, especially since the sharpest declines were noted during the first few months of the year, when Atlanta motorcycle accident lawyers noted fewer motorcycles on the streets.

The Governors’ Highway Safety Association has released projected estimates for motorcycle accident fatalities last year, and predicts that there will be 4,376 motorcycle accident fatalities in 2010. That is a 2.4% decline from last year, and the agency is warning that motorcycle crash fatalities over the next couple of years could actually increase unless both the federal and state administrations begin taking stronger steps to prevent such accidents. In Georgia, many motorcycle accidents occur on I-75/I-85 going through downtown Atlanta due to the high rates of speed coupled with the numerous lane shifts and merges that occur when Interstate I-75 and Interstate I-85 merge as they go through the Atlanta city limits. While these road conditions may not be the proximate cause of the numerous motorcycle wrecks which occur on our interstate, the road conditions certainly do play a part.

As with every other car accident case, there are essentially four elements that a plaintiff in this situation must prove in order to recover for the negligence of another driver. They are:

The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty to use reasonable care (and every driver owes this duty to all other people);
The defendant failed to do so and breached that duty;
That breach caused the accident; and
The plaintiff suffered damages in the form of personal injuries due to the negligence of the at-fault driver.

While a lawsuit is certainly available to help the injured victims of motorcycle accident recover for their injuries, there is more that could be done to save lives in motorcycle accidents every year. For instance, enforcing stronger helmet laws for motorcyclists would help. The Governors’ Highway Safety Association report is also drawing attention to an unwelcome trend-helmet use of the country is actually down by 15%. In Georgia, we could also invest in awareness among motorists about avoiding collisions with motorcycles.
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Published on: April 17, 2011

Federal Study Indicates Spike in Medication Errors

by Robert J. Fleming

According to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there has been a 50% increase in the number of medication errors reported from around the country. Five years after a report by the Institute of Medicine warned that medication errors contributed to a $3.5 billion bill in medical costs, lost wages and other related expenses every year, the number of medication errors injuring people every year has not dropped, but has actually increased. This should concern any Atlanta pharmacy error lawyer.

What’s worse is that the number of medication errors could actually be higher than the report claims. The report only considered those mistakes that left people ill enough to rush to a hospital or emergency room.

According to the study, most cases of medication errors are related to the use of corticosteroids. These are followed by cancer drugs, hypertension drugs, cardiac medications and blood thinners. Elderly persons above the age of 65 are more susceptible to medication errors. Teenagers and children are also at a higher risk of medication errors than adults. About one in every five patients who suffer from medication errors, is a teenager or a child. People older than 65 were most likely to be hospitalized for side effects or medication-related injuries. However, young people were also at risk. One in five emergency cases related to medication problems were children or teenagers.
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Published on: April 14, 2011

Georgia Appeals Court Clarifies Law on Police Pursuit Case

by Robert J. Fleming

Police pursuit cases can unnecessarily claim many innocent lives and cause thousands of serious injuries every year. Until recently, the defendant police departments have made good faith arguments in court against liability based on these premises:

1) Unless the police car intentionally touched the fleeing suspect’s car, there can be no waiver of liability under Georgia Code Section O.C.G.A. § 33-24-51 for negligence;

2) If the fleeing suspect causes a wreck after fleeing, the suspect’s decision to flee rather than the police officer’s decision to pursue the suspect is, by law, the cause of the wreck; and
3) Negligence and reckless disregard are completely different standards of liability. If the Plaintiffs rely on the negligent use waiver under O.C.G.A. § 33-24-51 discussed above, then the Plaintiff is precluded from establishing the requisite reckless disregard standard under Georgia Code Section O.C.G.A. § 40-6-6(d).

The Georgia Court of Appeals addressed all of these arguments in McCobb v. Clayton County, 2011 WL 1348398, and ruled that none of these arguments are sound.
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Published on: April 13, 2011

Closed Head Injuries in Car Accidents on the Rise

by Robert J. Fleming

Most Atlanta injury lawyers are well-versed in the more common car accident injuries such as orthopedic injuries (broken bones and fractures) and soft tissue injuries (torn or bruised ligaments, muscles or nerves). However, there is an increased incidence of mild to moderate brain injuries (also known as closed head injuries) diagnosed in Atlanta car accident victims.

Many times, closed head injuries are more debilitating than meets the eye yet go undiagnosed at first. The reason is simple: many doctors (and inexperienced accident lawyers) focus on the soft tissue or orthopedic injury because it is more obvious and fail to recognize the severity of the closed head injury.

Most symptoms of closed head injury are easily identified by family members and include brief periods of dizziness, overwhelming fatigue, vision problems, short-term memory problems, and unexplained irritability.
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Published on: April 13, 2011

Dental Malpractice Suit Alleges That Small Smiles Performed Unnecessary Procedures on Children

by Robert J. Fleming

A group of 10 families in New York has filed a lawsuit against Small Smiles/Access Dentistry, a nationwide network of dental clinics that also has a presence in Georgia. The lawsuit alleges that dentists at Small Smiles in Schenectady performed unnecessary procedures on young children. The lawsuit also alleges that the children were physically restrained during these procedures. The company has been charged with fraud, dental malpractice, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and battery.

Some of the children mentioned in the lawsuit include

An eight-year-old girl who had six root canal surgeries and crowns, four dental extractions and three fillings during a single visit. During all these procedures, the girl was physically restrained in a chair.
A one-year-old boy who had four root canal surgeries and four dental extractions while being restrained in the chair.
A four-year-old girl who had a total of eight fillings, four dental extractions and two root canal surgeries during a single visit.
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