Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Wrongful Death DUI Civil Suit Settled

March 16, 2012 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia who handles a great deal of wrongful death lawsuits from car wrecks and various motor vehicle accidents, I have been watching with interest the coverage of the wrongful death case in Florida involving millionaire John Goodman. Mr. Goodman is currently on trial for DUI manslaughter in which it is alleged he caused the death of another individual in a car wreck while driving drunk. Mr. Goodman, not surprisingly, denies the charges.

Mr. Goodman has well known and highly skilled trial counsel, Roy Black, who represents the wealthiest of the wealthiest Americans when they find themselves in trouble. Mr. Black is presenting a very creative, unique defense, i.e., that Mr. Goodman got drunk AFTER the wreck and was not drunk when the wreck happened and that something malfunctioned with Mr. Goodwin’s Bentley, a very expensive car, causing it to accelerate uncontrollably.

News comes out today that a civil suit against Mr. Goodman by the family of the decedent has settled. This is good for the family of the decedent. It gives them a little sense of closure, to the extent that can ever be had, and gives them a sense of justice, hopefully. In our Civil Justice System, the only justice that can be had by someone wronged is money damages, and there should be no apology made for that, because a jury can not bring a loved one back to life. All a jury can do is to make the wrongdoer pay money damages for justice.

Magnet Toys Are Extremely Dangerous for Children

March 6, 2012 | Robin Frazer Clark

I saw today that a child survived swallowing 37 magnets, so powerful they had twisted and blocked her intestines. These were Buckyballs, which the company says are toys for adults, not children. I doubt children know they are for adults, only. They certainly look like toys that children would want to play with. Even though the company says they are not “toys,” some of these magnets were recalled last year for failure to comply with Federal toy standards.

There simply is no legitimate reason for magnets so strong that they can twist and bind a person’s intestines. These are inherently dangerous around toddlers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 22 incidents involving magnets and children from June 2009 to October 2011, with 11 of those requiring surgery to remove the magnets. This includes the Magnetix brand of toys, which has caused the death of many children who have swallowed the magnets. After it became known that Magnetix magnets were killing many children, the manufacturer, Mega Brands, decided to include a warning on the package that stated: “Caution: do not ingest or inhale magnets. Attraction of magnets in the body may cause serious injury and require immediate medical care.” Does this go far enough? Or does it just touch the surface?

The Consumer Products Safety Commission, cpsc.org, has been warning us for years now about the hazards of magnets, how easily they can be swallowed by a child, and how quickly and irretrievably they can cause such severe damage when ingested. I have mentioned the CPSC before, but it is a good idea to check their website, cpsc.org, on a regular basis to learn about new recalls of dangerous products. Another good source of information on dangerous toys is the Kennan Kids Foundation, created by my good friend, Don Keenan, a fellow trial lawyer here in Atlanta. The Keenan Kids Foundation keeps abreast of hazardous toys available in America and alerts parents to their dangers. It is a very helpful website of up-to-date information about what is a safe toy and what it not.

Traffic “Calmers” Can Prove Deadly

February 2, 2012 | Robin Frazer Clark

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Yesterday was a bad rush hour in Atlanta, with constant rain and poor visibility. Already bad traffic was made worse by the rain. It presented the right conditions for lots of car wrecks. I was heading home a little early but it was still just dusk…still enough light for street lights not to be on, but dark enough to present a real hazard to the Atlanta motoring public, especially with the rain. A driver directly in front of me on East Rock Springs Road in Atlanta, without any warning or explanation, ran right over a traffic calmer that looked similar to the one in the photo above. But this one was not exactly the same, because it didn’t have the proper markings or signage as the one above does. This driver ran right on top of the calmer, flattening three of his tires, knocking various things off his car and causing sparks to fly in the air. He couldn’t have been going faster than 30 m.p.h., because that’s how fast I was going and I was right behind him. That touch up with the “traffic calmer” undoubtedly cost that young man a lot of money in repairs to his car. Not much of a “calmer” to him! Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be injured.

There is a manual that all road engineers and departments of transportation, including the Georgia Department of Transportation, must follow when installing these obstacles in the middle of a perfectly good street. It is the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, known as the MUTCD, and it mandates that traffic calmers must have sufficient markings and signage to warn drivers of its existence. The fact that this unsuspecting driver yesterday drove right on top of the thing suggests this one was not properly marked. There are many ways to mark a traffice calmer to warn drivers, including reflectorized tape around the curb, or even delineator posts, as shown below.

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This accident yesterday I saw harmed only the car, but it is not difficult to understand how these “calmers’ can do the exact opposite of what is intended and actually cause harm to a driver. These things are seemingly being installed everywhere these days. New ones have just been installed on 14th Street and Peachtree Street in Midtown between 14th and 15th. I have to try to avoid running over them every day. One particularly hazardous “calmer” is found on Peachtree Street in Buckhead near its intersection with Piedmont Road. It proved deadly when it lacked any lighting, lacked any reflectorized tape or paint, lacked any delineator posts and had no signage. Drivers at that time didn’t stand a chance against it.

Is Georgia State Trooper Liable for the Car Wreck He Causes?

January 17, 2012 | Robin Frazer Clark

In the wake of the tragic New Year’s Eve car wreck that killed Kathy Porter, the wife of Atlanta Braves trainer, Jeff Porter, many lay folks have asked me, since my practice in Atlanta is exclusively plaintiff’s personal injury, whether the Georgia State Patrol or the individual Georgia State Trooper would be liable for causing this wreck. There seems to be absolutely no dispute the Georgia State Trooper was at fault in causing this wreck. http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/witness-gives-account-of-1283677.html The question arises, however, whether the State of Georgia would be liable for the State Trooper’s recklessness? Or would the State of Georgia be able to avoid liability by asserting the doctrine of Sovereign Immunity, which allows the State in some instances to avoid civil liability completely?

The Georgia State Tort Claims Act (GTCA) allows injured individuals to hold the State of Georgia responsible for their injuries caused by the negligence or carelessness of State actors/employees in limited scenarios. First, the injured party must give the State of Georgia and the agency involved “ante litem notice,” or notice of the intent to bring a claim against the State, within 12 months of the negligent act or incident. Then the negligent act must fit squarely within the types of act for which the GTCA allows liiability; there are many exceptions in the statute itself.

And there are some trade-offs for even being able to bring suit against the State of Georgia. For example, one such trade-off is that the State’s liability for anything, no matter how egregious the conduct, is limited to $1 Million dollars. That means in any case in which a State employee’s negligence results in the death of another human being, the most the family of the decedent can recover is $1 Million dollars. And surely we can all agree that the value of the life of anyone is greater than a mere $1 Million dollars. Another such trade-off is the State of Georgia can never be punished by punitive damages, regardless of how unconscionable the subject incident was. For example, in the Kathy Porter case, there is evidence that this particular State Trooper had caused four prior wrecks. If we were talking about a private corporation’s employee who had caused four prior wrecks and killed someone in his fifth, a jury could decide to punish that corporation for continuing to employ that reckless employee by awarding punitive damages against the employer. Not so against the State of Georgia.

Abandoned Property Is Often An Invitation to Crime

December 9, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

Just hours after I blogged about the killing of little Jorelys Rivera, we all learned that the perpetrator was an employee of the apartment complex where Jorelys lived. The horrible crime occurred in a vacant apartment that perpetrator knew was vacant and had easy access to, especially since he was the apartment’s maintenance man. Before I knew any of this, I had already suggested that whoever had done this horrific deed had access to the vacant apartment and knew it was vacant, essentially giving the perpetrator the perfect placd to committ his crime. How did I know before the GBI ever disclosed these facts to the public? Because this is a fact pattern that often repeats itself and as a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, I see this in the civil premises safety cases I bring for clients.

Now I read in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution online today a story about another hideous crime, this time the rape of two women. I have often represented such crime victims in civil personal injury lawsuits here in Fulton County, Georgia, against the negligent property owners. Property owners, especially commercial property owners like the apartment complex where Jorelys was killed, know that vacant, abandonded property is a haven for crime. These property owners have a duty to eliminate that risk, to use ordinary care to keep the premises safe. These owners cannot claim they had no idea that a unforseen criminal attack would occur on their property, because they absolutely know if they have vacant property that a criminal can easily gain access to, they are essentially aiding and abetting the crime by furnishing the scene of the crime. This is what happened in these two rapes in Atlanta today and this is what happened in the death of Jorelys Rivera. And with so many homes in Atlanta and in Georgia under Foreclosure now, the problem of anbandoned property is growing.

Apartment Complex May Have Civil Liability in Abduction of Seven Year Old Canton Girl

December 6, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

The news this week of the tragedy of the death of seven year old Jorelys Rivera was horrifying. Little Jorelys Rivera had been playing on the playground at her apartment complex, River Ridge, in Canton, Georgia, told friends she was going back to her apartment to get a drink, and never returned. Her little body was found in a nearby garbage dumpster yesterday. There was evidence that Jorelys’ abducter had sexually abused her and stabbed her.

Investigators with Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) now report they found blood in a vacant apartment in the River Ridge Complex. This is crucial evidence, as it perhaps not only indicates the exact place of the death, but also implicates liability on the apartment complex for having a vacant apartment that was accessible to anyone, including Jorelys’ abducter. Further, it indicates her abducter may have known in advance of the vacancy of the apartment and his easy ability to enter it without a key and without any apparent force. Additionally, the playgound from which she was abducted was owned by River Ridge.

Under Georgia law, O.C.G.A. Section 51-3-1, a landowner has a nondelegable duty to keep its premises and approaches safe. This means they can’t pawn this duty off on someone else. Property owners are under a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect invitees from dangers which are foreseeable from arrangement and use of premises. In this context, any renter and any family member of the named renter living in the rented apartment would be considered an “invitee” for these purposes, to whom the landlord owes the highest duty of care, that of “reasonable care.” Thus, from the mere fact that this child’s abducter ostensibly knew of this vacant apartment and knew that he had unfettered access to it away from witnesses indicates to me that the landlord must not have exercised “reasonable care” to keep the premises safe so as not to allow a vacant apartment be used for criminal purposes. Landlords must be trained to be diligent in blocking access to vacant apartments or vacant buildings, as statistics show that criminal abducters are more likely to abduct someone if they know in advance they have access to a place to take their victim.

Talking on Phone While Driving Distracts Georgia Driver, Kills Two Teenagers

August 26, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

I often represent the familes who have lost loved ones in car wrecks on Metro Atlanta roads. It is always a painful time as they share with me the details of their loved one’s death. Last night’s killing of two teenagers by a distracted driver must be one of the worst things these two families have ever gone through and my heart goes out to them. Last night two teenagers were killed while walking in the emergency lane of Georgia Highway 138 in Stockbridge, Clayton County, Georgia. A third teen was struck in the same collision and remains hospitalized in critical condition.

We all know by now that texting while driving (TWD) is illegal. But there is strong evidence that simply talking on a cell phone while driving is just as distracting. In the Clayton County collision last night, the at-fault driver apparently was arguing with her husband on the phone. This argument or “conversation” was distracting enough to cause her to leave the laned highway, go into the emergency lane and strike three pedestrians, hard enough to kill two and seriously injure one. What in the world is going on here in Georgia with distracted driving? This is a problem that should worry us all, whether we’re in another car or pedestrians.

The hitting of pedestrians in Atlanta and Georgia has become all too commonplace. Just two weeks ago a man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for vehicular homocide in striking and killing a pedestrian in Carroll County, Georgia. Earlier this month a Georgian citizen who was a pedestrian was struck and killed by a car on Savannah Highway. Most of us have heard about the mother in Cobb County whose child was struck and killed as a pedestrian crossing busy Austell Road and the Cobb County District Attorney proscecuted the mother for vehicular homocide, even though she and her children were pedestrians.

Precious Georgia Teen Saves Lives Through Organ Donation

August 19, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

In my personal injury law practice here in Atlanta, I have had the honor of representing individuals who are in need of a transplant. The recipients of these vital organs know that while they rejoice in the gift, another family had to suffer a tragic loss for the organ even to be available.

Such a tragic loss occurred to the Dillard Family of Gwinnett County yesterday. Jhrarell Dillard, a fifteen year old junior in high school, died yesterday after eating a cookie that unknowingly contained nuts. Jhrarell had a known severe allergy to peanuts. Jhrarell immediately went into antiphalactic shock and died from eating the cookie. His parents, at a time that must have been excrutiateingly painful for them, chose to donate his organs. Jhrarell has apparently already saved seven other lives through donation of his organs. Truly amazing. I know those seven lucky families are rejoicing today in their gifts of life, but we must continue to hold the Dillard Family in our prayers as they mourn the loss of their son.

Alarming New Study on Georgia Hospital Infection Rates Opens Discussion for Healthcare Law Reform

July 11, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney who handles Georgia medical malpractice cases, it has always troubled me that Georgia hospital infection rates have never been accessible to the common consumer. Patients are left in the dark about which hospitals offer safe environments in terms of deadly infection rates. This may soon change. A new medicare database has recently issued an unprecedented study on hospital infection rates in Georgia that will finally shed light on this controversial healthcare topic.

Georgia currently has no laws requiring hospitals to disclose their infection rates to the public. Instead, the Department of Community Health (DCH) exclusively monitors infections and works with the CDCP to address any issues or causes for concern. This leaves the public completely ignorant and, therefore, incapable of making an informed decision about which hospital can offer the safest facilities.

I will never understand why restaurants are required to post their health inspection scores for all to see, but hospitals, where people entrust their own lives, have the luxury of withholding their uncleanliness and infection rates from the public. I think I speak for many when I say that having peace of mind before entering surgery is perhaps a little more important than having it before eating a sandwich at the local deli.

Georgia State Agency Admits Failure Regarding Day Care Van Death

June 27, 2011 | Robin Frazer Clark

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is drafting an emergency rule change one week after the death of 2-year-old Jazmin Green, according to WSB-TV. My question, as an Atlanta plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer, is this: Why does a child always have to die first before our Georgia Agencies do their job? The job they were created to do in the first place? How many Georgia children have to die before Georgia Agencies like Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) or Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFACS) do what they are supposed to do, i.e, protect Georgia children?

The death of Jazmin Green was a horrible realization that these State Agencies are woefully inadequate and give “protection” of Georgia children lip service. Little Jazmin simply should not have died if DECAL had not been asleep at the switch. Yet DECAL knew of potentially death-causing deviations of the required standards by this day care center, Marlo’s Magnificent Day Care, as evidenced by DECAL’s own inspection reports, and did nothing. A civil wrongful death suit can be brought against Marlo’s, as it should be, for the wrongful death of Jazmin. But no such civil suit can be brought at DECAL due to sovereign immunity. We know, however, that a civil jury would do the proper thing to DECAL to get its attention and tell DECAL what it is doing regarding the safety of our children is not working. A jury made up of mothers and fathers would let DECAL know what it did wrong here, but, unfortunately, that won’t happen. The parents of Jazmin need justice. Her heart has now been sealed for thy courts above. The Courts here in Georgia need to render justice for those Jazmin left behind.