Blog Archive - April, 2015

Burns that are experienced by car accident victims after a fire breaks out at the scene can be devastating, especially since they often result in serious and disfiguring injuries and horrible pain. When a person involved in a car accident has sustained burns arising from the crash, it is imperative to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Even if you think that your injuries are minor, failing to obtain treatment may have severe consequences, including chronic pain, infection, and permanent scarring.

Being involved in an accident is the last thing on your mind when engaging in a healthy activity such as bicycling. However, thousands of Georgia bicyclists are seriously and sometimes fatally injured each year in collisions involving other vehicles. This is not surprising since there is nothing substantial protecting you against an impact with several thousand pounds of steel. Unfortunately, injuries associated with these types of accidents can be devastating, even at extremely low speeds.

In general, drivers of automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, and all other types of vehicles are expected to use "reasonable care" when operating their vehicles in Georgia. In other words, all drivers have a duty to drive in a safe and reasonable manner so as to avoid harming others. Failure to do so can result in liability under a theory of negligence, potentially costing the wrongdoer (or typically his or her insurance company) a significant amount of money for any property damage, injuries resulting from the crash, and even wrongful deaths. In order to succeed in a negligence action, an accident victim must prove that the other driver failed to exercise reasonable care, proximately caused the person's injuries, and must prove his or her damages.

On a daily basis, trucks of all shapes and sizes frequent the many interstates crisscrossing the State of Georgia to transport goods throughout the United States. As a result, it is not surprising to learn that trucking accidents within Georgia and across the country are on the rise. In fact, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that there are over 500,000 trucking accidents that occurred last year throughout the country, with 5,000 of these crashes resulting in fatalities. It is no surprise that the majority of these accidents occur due to driver negligence. However, a growing number of accidents stem from poorly designed and maintained roads, where defects create dangerous circumstances that cause or contribute to serious collisions.

Many car accidents involve negligent drivers who are performing job-related tasks when they blow through a red light or slam into a vehicle stopped due to traffic congestion. The potential liability of an employer in such situations can be important because employees may not have sufficient insurance or assets to fully compensate a seriously injured collision victim. Because an employer can be "vicariously liable" for the negligent acts of an employee engaged in employment-related tasks, businesses might dispute the employment status of a negligent employee in an effort to circumvent the powerful tool of vicarious liability.

It's easy to make mistakes in the early stages following an auto accident which can cost you thousands of dollars down the road. One of these mistakes is agreeing to the first settlement offer the insurance company offers you. You may feel lucky that you are getting such a quick settlement offer, but many times the offer is quick because the insurance company is fully aware that you are entitled to more. Their goal is to settle the matter as quickly and cheaply as they possibly can, so beware of quick settlement offers and ask yourself the following questions before agreeing to a quick settlement.

Our Atlanta Auto Accident Attorneys at Montlick and Associates have been tenaciously advocating for victims of negligent drivers for over 35 years, so we recognize the factors that can torpedo a successful claim for damages. Rear-end collisions are one of the most common types of motor vehicle collisions. Liability often is easier to prove when pursuing an insurance claim based on a rear impact crash. However, the task of proving the extent of your injuries can be challenging, especially if there is no apparent vehicle damage.

When motorists travel the streets of Atlanta and roadways throughout Georgia, guardrails are a common safety feature that is designed to prevent roadway departures, life-threatening injuries, and fatalities. However, guardrails can pose a serious danger to those who ride motorcycles. A tragedy earlier this year serves as a tragic reminder that guardrails have the potentail to be far from a "safety feature" for riding enthusiasts.

Being involved in an automobile accident can be a very unnerving experience, at a minimum. Even if your accident is only a minor bump-in in the parking lot, you will likely be left feeling shaken up. If you have been in a more serious auto accident, those feelings will go way up the emotional scale. Then there is the aftermath of your accident—the time when you have to deal with injuries and doctor visits, meeting the costs of daily living while you are off work, taking care of your family, worrying about whether your job will still be there for you when you have healed, and dealing with insurance companies and adjusters.

Defective tires have been the cause of literally thousands of automobile accidents, many of which resulted in severe personal injuries and even death to the passengers. Millions of tires have been recalled in the past decade due to manufacturing flaws, with the most common failure being tread-belt separation in steel-belted radials. Some of the well-known brands which have had specific tires that ended up on the recall list include Goodyear, Firestone, Dunlop, Kelly Springfield, Continental Copper and General Tire.

If you are injured while you are a passenger in a motor vehicle, you generally face fewer obstacles in terms of establishing liability in order to have the potential to obtain financial compensation for your injuries. While a driver who is injured in a collision must prove the fault of the other driver or a third party, passengers can expect that one of the drivers will be liable in most situations. The fundamental aspects of a negligence claim arising out of a car accident require that the passenger  establish include liability (fault), causation and damages (severity of injury).

When you are experiencing intense pain and the emotional distress associated with a car accidents, your judgment can be understandably impaired. Motorists who drive while impaired by an intoxicating substance or while texting on a cell phone can be held financially responsible when they cause crashes that result in injury to another. Since liability is not automatic even if the other driver is intoxicated, the actions an injury victim takes following a motor vehicle crash can have a profound impact on an individual's financial recovery.

Our Atlanta car accident lawyers discuss two separate traffic and pedestrian safety reports that provide an analysis of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. for both pedestrians and vehicle occupants. The good news is that Georgia cities does not rank in the top 10 most dangerous cities for pedestrian accidents. Unfortunately, the rest of the news is mostly bad.

While the most important role of a large jury verdict is to compensate victims for their injuries and other forms of loss, large jury awards against manufacturers of defective vehicles also can promote improved safety standards. A $150 million verdict against Chrysler following the death of a four-year-old, who died in a vehicle fire after his aunt's Jeep Cherokee was rear-ended, has prompted federal regulators to revisit the safety of the gas tanks placement in these vehicles.

While the NuvaRing® is a popular form of birth control, lawsuits, including one filed by an Olympic athlete, allege the device can have extremely serious side effects that cause serious injury and even death. The manufacturer of the birth control device, Merck & Co., paid settlements amounting to over $100 million during 2014 to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging injuries and fatalities caused by the contraceptive device. Many of the lawsuits allege that the NuvaRing® promotes blood clots which trigger potentially deadly cardiac arrest or pulmonary embolisms.

The attention focused on distracted driving has raised public awareness considerably about the dangers of attempting to multi-task while operating a motor vehicle. While traditional distractions like chatting with passengers, adjusting the radio, reading a newspaper and grooming continue to be a problem, most government safety campaigns have focused on the dangers posed by electronic devices like cellphones. Certainly, these types of distractions justify the attention garnered by government regulators and media sources, but parents can face a serious distraction that receives much less attention – their kids sitting in the backseat.

Nearly one in every eight traffic deaths involves a commercial semi-truck, and in the past decade the number of 18-wheelers involved in fatal crashes rose by almost ten percent. Because a 5,000 pound car is no match for a 35,000 + pound truck, over three-quarters of those injured and over 85% of those killed in a large truck collision are driver of the passenger vehicle. Many times the truck driver walks away, relatively unharmed, from an accident, which resulted in fatalities for those in the smaller vehicle.

When a person is physically or sexually assaulted on the premises of a restaurant, nightclub or apartment, the assailant can be both criminally and civilly liable for personal injuries caused by the attack.  A criminal attack that constitutes battery or sexual assault can provide the basis for a personal injury lawsuit, which might result in a broad range of damages, such as medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, impaired quality of life, vehicle damage and/or other forms of compensatory damages.

This is the second installment of our two-part blog discussing important facts about drunk driving accident claims. This second installment focuses on social host and dram Shop liability. If you have specific questions after reviewing this two-part blog post, we invite you to contact our Atlanta personal injury attorneys, so we can answer your questions and advise you of your legal rights and remedies.

If you are one of the many victims of alcohol and drug impaired drivers, you might suffer significant injuries, including broken bones, fractures, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord injuries (SCIs) and other debilitating injuries. Drug and alcohol impaired drivers constitute one of the leading causes of auto collisions both in Georgia and throughout the U.S. Alcohol impaired drivers are involved in approximately a third of all fatal motor vehicle accidents nationally according to the Nationally Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Further, drugs other than alcohol, such as marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription medications are involved in 18 percent of fatal crashes with many drivers under the influence of both types of intoxicating substances according to the NHTSA.

Many people currently suffer from a lung disease that was caused by a hazardous substance. Such lung diseases can affect the breathing mechanisms causing symptoms such as shortness of breath, chronic cough, chest pain and difficulty breathing. When a person is afflicted with this type of disease in their lungs, they may become incapable of enjoying the activities they once did, or working in the same career field. Occupational lung diseases are brought on by workplace exposure.

When an Amtrak train slammed into a tractor-trailer that had become stuck on the train tracks last month, 55 people were injured. Witnesses to the North Carolina crash told federal investigators that the driver of the 127 ton tractor-trailer combination, which was more than half the length of a football field, appeared uncertain about his ability to negotiate a left turn across the tracks. A witness indicated that the truck driver spent 15-20 minutes adjusting the load and moving the rig back and forth before the rail crossing arms were lowered.

According to experts, seat belts constitute one of the most effective ways to survive Atlanta auto accidents and to avoid serious injury. When occupants of motor vehicles buckle up, a seat belt can prevent ejection from the vehicle, which significantly reduces the risk of catastrophic injuries like trauma brain injury, spinal cord injuries, dismemberment and fatalities. Seat belts keep occupants within the protective enclosure provided by a vehicle passenger compartment and prevents an individual from being slammed against a hard surface in the interior of the vehicle. Despite the benefits of seat belts, there are rare occasions when a seat belt can actually contribute to the injury of a driver or passengers. This blog post looks at the dynamics of seat belt injuries, prevention of such injuries and legal issues involving safety restraint injuries.

Our personal injury attorneys in Atlanta report that a deadly 2013 outbreak of CRE an antibiotic-resistant bacteria has raised concerns about disinfection of high-tech appliances like medical scopes. According to a recent USA Today article, contaminated duodenscopes that were disinfected by automatic endoscope reprocessor (AER) units may have spread the CRE infection, which has a disturbing fatality rate of forty percent or higher. The outbreak has affected a minimum of eight hospitals across the U.S. and has been linked to 135 incidents involving infection by the potentially deadly bacteria.

Public mass transit plays a vital role in the lives of many who send their kids to school on local school buses, ride a commuter bus to work or take a long distance bus to visit family in another state. While buses are one of the safest modes of transportation statistically, they also lack fundamental safety equipment found in other types of motor vehicles including airbags and seatbelts. Despite their relative safety compared to other modes of transportation, there is an average of approximately 60,000 bus accidents annually. At Montlick and Associates, we are committed to helping those who suffer serious injuries in a busing accident obtain the compensation they need to rebuild their life and move past their bus accident injuries.

Automobile accidents are increasingly becoming a way by which many people loose their lives or receive very serious injuries. Automobile or car accidents can also cause much more emotional and physiological damages than physical. When an accident happen and victim of that accident decides to go straight home instead of seeking medical attention, this sometimes leads to a serious medical complication. There are many unfortunate deaths resulting from accident victims bypassing medical attention and then later dying due to head trauma or internal bleeding. Whether you were the party at fault or not, we encourage you to seek medical treatment after an accident if you are hurt at all, or go straight to the hospital after the automobile accident.

An 80,000 pound fully loaded tractor-trailer barreling down the highways of Georgia at sixty mph can be an extremely destructive force. The danger increases dramatically when the truck driver is medically unfit. A U.S safety study reported by InsuranceJournal.com previously found that thousands of drivers with a valid commercial driver's license qualify for full disability payment from the federal government. According to the report, many people have been injured or died in collisions caused by truck drivers who experience heart attacks, seizures and other conditions resulting in a loss of consciousness.

Most people recognize that teen drivers cause more fatal traffic accidents than any other age group of motorist. The tendency of teen drivers to multi-task by engaging in conversations with passengers, talking on a cell phone and texting friends increases the risk associated with inexperience behind the wheel and the sense of indestructability that often accompanies youth. While distracted driving is especially dangerous for novice drivers, new research reveals that teenagers drive while distracted at a higher rate than previously estimated.

When manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices receive reports of adverse events or side effects, the makers of these medical products have an obligation to report this information to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA investigates such reports and aggregates data to determine if regulatory action is needed, such as issuing a safety notice, requiring warnings on labels, or mandating a product recall.

Although most motorists recognize that driving while intoxicated is an unacceptable driving practice that endangers everyone on Georgia roadways, awareness of the danger posed by fatigued and drowsy drivers is less widely acknowledged. Whether a driver dozes off or slumps behind the wheel because of intoxication or long hours on the road without sleep, an unconscious driver creates an unacceptable level of risk for pedestrians, bicyclists and other vehicle occupants.

The impact of evidence from social media websites is growing in civil lawsuits including personal injury claims. The law is continuing to evolve regarding the right of insurance companies to obtain information posted on social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and similar websites. While courts in different states have allowed discovery of social media information, the law remains unsettled in many jurisdictions including Georgia. Despite the increasing use of pictures and information posted on social media websites, the appellate courts of Georgia have not produced much authority on this legal issue.