Atlanta Injury Attorney BlogBy now you may have heard of the Twitter assault launched by comedian Matt Fisher about Progressive Insurance’s behavior in his sister’s wrongful death civil suit. It has now made the front page of CNN. So what is the real deal with the case? Is Progressive defending his sister’s killer? The answer is “sort of.”
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Georgia Tractor Trailer Companies often Subject to Direct Action Suit
In an ongoing case with Atlanta tractor trailer accident attorneys of Christopher Simon Attorney at Law are tackling a common issue in trucking cases; can you sue the insurance company as a named defendant. In Georgia in normal car accident cases, you must sue the defendant driver but not their insurance company. Insurance lurks in the background, paying for the defense lawyer and paying any settlement or verdict up to the policy limits.
Atlanta Pedestrian Hit by a Car; Case is not What it Seems at First
We got a call from a Georgia State Student this week who was badly hurt when she was hit by a car while crossing Moreland Avenue. She sustained a broken pelvis, tore multiple knee ligaments and has been in a wheelchair for weeks. She apparently had called one of the TV law firms and was told that since she crossed at the intersection, but not in the crosswalk, she was at fault and could not recover from the driver who hit her. This is a typical shallow analysis from certain unnamed firms here in Atlanta. “Oh you got the ticket, well then there is no case.”
Path to Tractor Trailer Tragedy is Paved with Poor Maintenence
I was at the beach last week when I read about 8 year old Cameron Mcilwain losing his life because of debris flying off of a poorly maintained tractor trailer. As a parent of two small children, I cannot imagine what demons his mother is tortured by now given the apparent randomness of the tragedy…but it is not random. This is one of those things that we try so hard as trial lawyers to explain to jurors. When it comes to car crashes and tragedies like this, we know there are very few true accidents without blame. The transmission debris that killed Cameron started falling towards him months before. It started with CW transport’s sloppy maintenance history as documented by the DOT. “Federal safety officials said the company has a worse maintenance record than 94.6 percent of the companies that are of similar size. Its trucks have been cited for loose or missing wheel fasteners, missing or defective axle parts and for failing to secure brake hoses or tubing against mechanical damage” was the judgment of CBS affiliate WGCL.
How Insurance Companies are Forcing injury Victims into the Hands of Attorneys
I have been in the insurance litigation business for 15 years now, 10 of which I spent litigating for and advising insurance companies in Atlanta, and car accident lawyers followed a simple rule then; investigate thoroughly and if the claim had merit offer a fair but discounted for present day value sum. If the injured party or their lawyer was unrealistic, then we litigated all the way to trial. In other words I used my judgment. As the years went by and especially when I worked as counsel for Liberty Mutual, I found that the insurance company would no longer listen and would simply fight for the sake of a tough reputation. Liberty has been taking it on the chin recently with a number of excess limits multi-million dollar verdicts that they could have settled earlier for a fair sum.
Two more modest cases I am handling are illustrative. I met a neighbor at the Chastain park community pool. She had broken a tooth on a rock at a well know high end Mexican restaurant. For a year and a half the restaurant and liberty mutual blew her off. She was asking for $4000 for the tooth surgery to put in a replacement tooth. She is a gracious mother of 2 without dental insurance and given that there should be no rocks in salads, a reasonable request.
Instead, Liberty Mutual refused to pay and claimed we could not win, despite my pointing out that the Georgia Act creates strict liability for foreign objects in food. The case was litigated for two years and on the eve of trial, they finally paid my neighbor $9,000. Why did they waste time refusing to pay a legitimate claim and hire a lawyer only to pay more than twice the requested sum? There is only one answer; lawyers are no longer making liability decision, policy makers with no trial experience are.
In a car accident case pending with State Farm, a 19 rear old smashed into the rear of an suv in suburban Atlanta. Both cars were totaled and both drivers were injured. The victim to the front was badly bruised and ultimately diagnosed with a concussion by Piedmont Hospital and subsequent treating doctors at Peachtree Orhopedics. Her medical expenses came to $22,000 and she still has documented word transposition issues. It is undisputed that the crash was the State Farm drivers fault. What did State Farm offer? Less than the medical bills; $20,0000. We have completed depositions and are preparing for trial. Their lawyers response to my query as to why? “It’s not up to me.” I feel for her because I used to be in her shoes.
Lake Lanier Boat Deaths; Attorney Deja Vu Unfortunately
The AJC is reporting that another boater has been involved in a DUI fatality on the Lake, this time taking the lives of two children, Jake and Griffin Prince. Except for the time of day, this case is all too similar to a case our firm is working from last summer involving Katelynn Smith being life flighted from the lake and the death of her cousin after her Grandfather’s boat was struck by a boater who had been drinking.
Atlanta Wrongful Death Attorneys Struggle with Insurance Limits on Many Cases
There is some justice in the world, but often not enough.
I cannot count the number of times I find myself having to tell clients that. In my darker moments, I will refer to my profession as being a merchant of tragedy and there are aspects of my job that can be described thusly. Every person or family member who walks through my door has experienced serious injuries or the loss of a loved one. They are not in a good place.
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Run Over at Night: a Common Tale of Pedestrian Tragedy
The firm is representing the family of Julie Hernandez in a wrongful death case stemming from a tragic night this year when a car ran her down and killed her. We review around 20 cases a year involving pedestrian deaths and there are usually a few sad facts in common:
DUI, Millionaires, Wrongful Death and a Dramshop Case; What a Tangled Web He Weaved
A drunk billionaire kills a struggling college student on a dark Florida road and walks off into the night. A $46 Million Dollar settlement in a wrongful death suit, a multimillion dollar Dram shop settlement with the Players Club Bar for overserving the drunk driver, and a vehicular manslaughter trial all with enough bizarre twists to be a late night movie. The one thing we can be happy of is that the guilty drunk was convicted was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Aimee Copeland and Eric Sauls Cases Illustrate Two Aspects of the Legal Liability System in Georgia
Two moving stories this past week in the news in Georgia involved or will involve trial lawyers and the question of civil liability. The Aimee Copeland story has gripped a large part of the country, probably because of how hard it is to understand. How can a simple cut on an all American trip to the river make you the victim of necrotizing fascitis? Medical malpractice and bad wound care is the unfortunate answer and I am deeply concerned about the medical care that was administered to her on the first and subsequent visits. http://www.christophersimon.com