Atlanta Personal Injury Blog

A tort is an instance of civil wrongdoing that falls outside of the confines of contractual obligation. Tort law protects injured parties who suffer damages that are inflicted by another either intentionally, or through an act of negligence. The purpose of these laws is to allow victims redress to collect compensation for damages, and in some instances to impose penalties on guilty parties to act as a deterrent to similar actions by others in the future.

The most common type of cases that involve negligence tort law are personal injury suits that are the result of vehicular accidents. When pursuing this type of tort law case, a personal injury attorney needs to prove that his or her client was injured due to the negligence of the other driver, and he or she will seek compensation for damages suffered by the injured party. Without these tort laws, there would be no legal way for someone who is injured in an automobile accident through no fault of their own to receive due compensation.

Medical malpractice is another type of tort case that personal injury lawyers frequently handle. Once again, when their client has suffered damages due to the actions of a medical professional, the medical malpractice lawyer needs to prove that the doctor or other health care worker acted negligently to cause the damages for which his or her client is seeking compensation.

Other types of torts are product liability cases (though there are overlapping statutory violations involved in many of these), nuisance and trespass torts that involve one party infringing on another’s right to enjoy their real property, defamation of character torts, and a tort law that involves intentionally confining another (false imprisonment).

Basically, the purpose of tort law is to provide people with a legal recourse that enables them to collect compensation when they are injured by another party either intentionally, or due to negligence. The term “tort law” has been bandied about by insurance company lobbyists as though it is some sort of pejorative term, a negative force that needs to be “reined in.” But the fact is that tort law is there to protect people who have been injured due to the negligence of others. Torts are quite necessary, and they exist to protect all of us.

If you have been injured in some manner by the negligent actions of another, whether it is due to an auto accident in Atlanta, or an Atlanta malpractice case, tort laws are on the books for your protection. Call the People’s Lawyer, Bruce Hagen, at (404) 522-7553 or contact him through the website so that you can discuss the matter with a tort law expert and be certain that your interests are being diligently advocated.

About half of American working people live paycheck to paycheck, so for many people, the thought of going even one week without being able to work due to an injury is a very big deal. When you are injured on the job, it is bad enough that you are in pain physically, but you also have to concern yourself with the legalities of the workers compensation system. Many people assume that if they are injured on the job, all they have to do is go to the doctor for treatment and follow doctor’s orders until they are back on their feet and cleared by the doctor to go back to work. They also assume that the system is there to serve them in this unfortunate event, and that they will receive a workers compensation check to help cover their expenses while they are recuperating. Unfortunately, this is a rather naive and unrealistic viewpoint.

The reality is that the workers compensation system in this country has been broken by insurance companies who pressure doctors to slant their findings. They finance examinations that invariably support the interests of the company at the expense of the worker. Certainly that comes as a surprise to you, right? The New York Times reports that the doctors who conduct supposedly “independent” exams are physicians who are found by, believe it or not, “brokers” who are hired by insurance companies, presumably to find doctors who understand who is buttering their bread. Some of these physicians see twenty or more injured workers who are seeking workers compensation benefits in a day. It is, apparently, a sweet gig.

A 75-year-old semi-retired Queens orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Alan Zimmerman, had this to say about the qualifications that one needs to become an independent workers compensation medical examiner:

“Basically if you haven’t murdered anyone and you have a medical license, you get certified. It’s clearly a nice way to semi-retire.”

That is, if you consistently find in favor of the insurance companies and against the interests of the injured workers. What qualities would you think the “brokers” who find these examiners for the insurance companies would be looking for?

“If you did a truly pure report, you’d be out on your ears and the insurers wouldn’t pay for it. You have to give them what they want…that’s the game, baby,” said Dr. Hershel Samuels, who is an independent medical examiner in New York.

If you have been injured on the job and you need to file, or have already filed, a workers compensation claim, you have an uphill battle ahead of you. A good workers compensation attorney can help you to wade through the maze and get you treatment that you need to get well and the financial assistance that you need to pay your bills until you can get back to work with a clean bill of health. Call the premier atlanta personal injury attorney today: 404-522-7553

If the AIG bailout and the obscene excesses of their top executives makes your blood boil, you are certainly not alone. In the minds of the decision makers at AIG, there should be no limit to the amount of compensation that one may receive for guiding a corporate behemoth into financial ruin, but there sure as hell ought to be a limit on the amount of punitive damages a victim of medical malpractice can receive.

AIG has led the big insurance industry lobby that has been pushing for “tort reform” since the 1980s, financing the notion that “greedy lawyers” who file “frivolous malpractice lawsuits” are driving up the cost of healthcare for all Americans. This is pure hogwash.

“The evidence available to date does not make a strong case that restricting malpractice liability would have a significant effect , either positive or negative, on economic efficiency.” — Congressional Budget Office (Source: Non-Partisan Annenberg Political Fact Check)

The man who was calling the shots at AIG before the collapse was their CEO, Mr. Martin J. Sullivan. His resignation became effective on July 1st, 2008. Gosh, you know, we hate to see anybody out of a job, but we sure hope that Mr. Sullivan was able to land on his feet. I suppose the $47 million severance package that he received, (financed by you and me) might help him to weather the storm until he can find something else. I guess compensatory limits only apply to CEOs, not paraplegics.

AIG was gambling with risky securities while paying themselves countless millions of dollars as their lobbyists, and subsequently, our elected officials, were telling us that our health care costs were being negatively impacted by “the lawyers” who were consistently filing “frivolous” lawsuits. In reality, it was trite to think that insurance claims of any kind were relevant at all. The whole “tort reform movement” is nothing less than a disingenuous marketing blitz. The truth is that this phony “tort reform” campaign has never been aimed at the “greedy lawyers,” like the ads try to tell you. It is sad to say it, but big insurance companies like AIG, and the politicians that their lobbyists influence, have been trying their level best to protect their own interests at the expense of the injured parties who are the victims of medical malpractice.

“This liability system, I’m telling you, is out of control. Because the system is so unpredictable, there is a constant risk of being hit by a massive jury award. It’s costly for the doctors, it’s costly for small businesses, it’s costly for hospitals, it is really costly for patients.” — George W. Bush

The next time you hear a politician say something like this, ask yourself, if you lose multiple limbs due to medical malpractice, would you feel as though $250,000 would cover the punitive damages? That is what “tort reform” is all about. When you think tort reform…think AIG.

If you have been a victim of medical malpractice and need an Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer, you need an experienced attorney who is passionate about defending your right to reasonable compensatory and punitive damages. Call The People’s Lawyer, Bruce Hagen, at (404) 522-7553 or simply fill out the contact form on the website and you can be certain that your medical malpractice case will be aggressively pursued and satisfactorily resolved.

There has been a lot of talk over the last several years about carbon dioxide emissions being the primary cause of global warming . Whether this is true or not, as a result, many people have tried to do their part and drive smaller cars that use less gasoline and in turn produce less carbon dioxide. There are others who turned to smaller vehicles to cut down on fuel costs. When the price of gas at the pump skyrocketed last summer to around $4 a gallon, consumer interest in tiny cars rose right along with gas prices.

Minicars like the Smart Car are marketing as being an intelligent solution to several of the pressing problems of the day. They are a green alternative to cars that emit more carbon dioxide, making them a socially responsible choice for the environmentally conscious consumer. On the geopolitical side they help to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. And perhaps most importantly to many consumers, they save you money at the pump.

All of those things sound great, but the flip side of the coin is this: are they safe if you get into a wreck? The automakers say yes, but a study that was just released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that people who drive minicars may be sacrificing safety in exchange for the benefits that come with driving a minicar.

The institute set up a crash test using three different minicars: the Toyota Yaris, the Smart Fortwo, and the Honda Fit. They crashed each of them head-on into mid size cars with each of them traveling at a speed of 40 m.p.h. All three came out of the impact “poorly,” while the mid size vehicles ( a Toyota Camry, a Honda Accord, and Mercedes C-Class) that they collided with emerged from the crash test either “well” or “acceptably.”

The president of Smart USA, Dave Schembri, counters the safety questions that arise by making the point that very few collisions are head-on, and his Smart Fortwo is equipped with front and side airbags as well as an advanced electronic anti-skid mechanism to make the Smart Car very safe.

There is little doubt that a bigger car is going to come out of a head-on collision better than a car that is much smaller and lighter. This study proves what most people would suspect, and that is that you probably don’t want to be in a head-on collision while driving a Smart Car. If safety is your primary concern, steering clear of minicars may be a good idea. There is nothing especially “smart” about being involved in a high speed collision that was no fault of your own without ample protection around you. The Smart Car may be born of noble intentions, but perhaps the realities of the high speed freeway systems that we depend on to get from point A to point B make the minicar impractical from a safety perspective.

Issues like these are sensitive to us here because we care about the environment as much as the next person, but we are also passionate about automotive safety and protecting the rights of those who are injured in wrecks that could have been avoided. If you have been injured in an accident, call The People’s Lawyer, Bruce Hagen, at (404) 522-7553 or contact him through the website so that we can discuss the matter, analyze the facts, and file a claim if it is warranted so that you can be certain that you receive all of the compensation that is due you.