Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog

Our Atlanta law firm has handled many defective design personal injury and crashworthiness lawsuits against the major auto manufacturers. The danger of explosion and fire caused by defective vehicle design has a long history. It began with the Pinto in the 1970's where a bolt was aimed directly toward the gas tank and caused many deadly fires from even relatively minor rear end collisions. The passage of time apparently has not stopped this deadly design danger.

The New York Times reported on June 19, 2011 that crash tests on the Jeep Grand Cherokee have shown that fuel fed fires remain a danger. The Jeep fuel tank was positioned next to the bumper in models built from 1993 to 2004. In 2005 Chrysler moved the tank forward of the rear axle where most competitors placed the tank.

The Center for Auto Safety has called on NHTSA to initiate a recall of these vechiles which can constitute a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Our Georgia product liability injury law firm monitors vehicle defect announcements. These recalls are important to prove defects leading to injuries or death. The period between the announcement and consumers receiving a notice in the mail is also a dangerous time if you have one of these vehicles.

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. issued a press release this week adding over 800,000 additional cars to a recall list for airbag inflator defects. The defect could result in injury or fatality according to the Honda statement. 2001 and 2002 Accord and Civic, 2002 Odyssey; 2002 and 2003 CR-V, selected 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2 CL vehicles are included.

Honda knows of several serious incidents related to the recall. Notices will not be mailed until late May. If you own one of these vehicles take the car to a dealer immediately for an inspection.

Honda owners can also contact www.recalls.honda.com or call (800) 999-1009 and select option 4; Acura owners go to the web at www.recalls.acura.com or call (800) 382-2238 and select option 4. Do not delay. We would much rather have you healthy that as a client.

Nissan has recalled almost 200,000 Pathfinder and Infiniti vehicles that could experience a loss of control while being driven. The recall of these vehicles has been announced due to concerns that road salt and water may cause corrosion leading to loss of steering.

Model years 1996 through 2004 Pathfinders and 1997 to 2003 QX4s are subject to the recall. Customers will be notified in May and the vehicles will be inspected and repaired at dealerships at no cost to owners. At our Atlanta product liability law firm we have seen too many people injured by defective vehicles before warnings ever arrived in the mail. If you have one of these cars do not wait for the recall letter. Go to the dealer and insist that the vehicle be inspected immediately.

Federal regulators have launched a new product safety website where consumers will be able search a database of products and file new reports about safety issues. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) officially launched the SaferProducts.gov website on March 11.

The database collects defect reports and product recall announcements onto one website.for public access. Consumer Reports that are deemed valid will be posted to the website and will be searchable by other consumers.

Easily accessible Information is a key part of successfully reducing the dangers of defective consumer products. Our product defect Atlanta law firm commends the agency on a simple and inexpensive solution to alert the public to dangerous products.

The U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that a car company can be responsible for a dangerous design even if federal regulations permit the unsafe practice. Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc. involves a woman who died from a jackknife injury caused by a lap belt in the middle rear seat of a minivan during a collision. Lap belts have been known to cause death and serious spinal injuries while three point belts protect rear seat passengers. Sadly, the rear seat passengers are often children.

Our Atlanta Georgia law firm has successfully handled these auto defect cases involving the use of lap belts against Toyota, General Motors, Chrysler and other auto manufacturers. Hiding behind the federal regulations is now a thing of the past. It is a simple thing to put three point belts across the rear seats. There has never been an excuse for the dead and injured and the Supreme Court made the right ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that families cannot sue vaccine manufacturers over injuries caused by what they claim are defective and dangerous childhood vaccines. This ruling conflicts with a 2008 decision by the Georgia Supreme Court on this issue..
This decision is a setback to parents who have claimed that their children have suffered injuries such as autism due to these vaccines. The recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court relegates at least a design-defect type of claim to the federal vaccine court, a special compensation system set up by a 1986 federal statute that is supposed to be a no-fault system,but in reality caps recovery amounts. This in our view is extremely unfair to plaintiffs.
The federal vaccine statute provides that vaccine manufacturers cannot be liable for injury or death caused by vaccines in many types of civil lawsuits, "if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warnings." In a ruling in a case in which Atlanta parents claimed their son suffered neurological injuries as a result of the preservative, thimerosal in his immunizations, our Georgia Supreme Court held that design-defect claims over vaccine injuries were not precluded by Federal law. . Now, however, this United States Supreme Court decision raises serious roadblocks for parents in Georgia & throughout the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that all routine vaccines that are recommended for children under the age of six, other than some flu vaccines, no longer contain any more than trace amounts of the preservative thimerosal. The CDC maintains that the evidence does not show a causal relationship between vaccines containing this preservative and autism.Other scientific studies do not agree with this conclusion.
Our lawfirm, pursuing defective product claims (also called product liability cases) is constantly monitoring developments in the law wherever it may effect Georgia citizens.

In these difficult economic times, many people are struggling to make ends meat. Jobs have been lost, benefits cut, houses have gone into foreclosure or sold in a "short sale".
But what about my legal rights if I have been hurt in a automobile or truck collision, or suffered due to medical malpractice, been injured in a slip and fall or because a defective product malfunctioned? What if an insurance company has wronfully denied me compensation or coverage which I am entitled to receive?
The answer is that your legal rights in these circumstances are not effected by a bad economy. Where a legitimate personal injury or wrongful death claim exists under Georgia law, our Atlanta, Georgia personal injury law firm can pursue your case successfully. A poor economy will not hurt your case whatsoever.

Our Atlanta personal injury law firm has gone to court against all the major auto manufacturers. Vehicle design and manufacturing defects often lead to catastrophic injuries on the highways.

Still, it is shocking when a car manufacturer knows of a defect and delays recalls and warnings . USA Today (1/25, Healey) reports, "Toyota says it knew there were problems with accelerator-pedal assemblies from supplier CTS late last year, but not enough to warrant a recall." Toyota announced last Thursday a planned recall of 2.3 million vehicles, back to 2005 models, because the defect trend had picked up." If a defect is known then warnings or recalls should be mandatory.

Georgia and Atlanta cases against Toyota for sudden acceleration issues will be increasing now that the company has admitted the problem. Unfortunately, that will not help the people who were unnecessarily injured or killed.

It has come to light in the national news that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration had conducted a study which confirmed what most everyone knows: talking or texting on a cell phone is dangerous and increases the likelihood of an accident. According to the numerous news reports this federal agency withheld the findings out of concern that it would stir up a hornets nest in Congress. The thinking supposedly was that it would force political decisions about enacting legislation to limit or prevent cell phone use while driving. This follows recent events where train collisions have occurred while operators were supposedly texting.
While political considerations may interfere with safety regulations at the Federal or State level, including here in Georgia, there are no limitations on how this safety issue is handled in our Atlanta, Georgia serious injury truck and auto accident law firm. As part of every investigation we make in vehicle collision cases, we determine if the at-fault driver was distracted by cell phone use. When we file suit, we aggressively pursue this issue in discovery, which includes cross examining the driver and witnesses on the subject, subpoening cell phone records and taking all other measures to see if this played any part in the negligence of the driver.

The New York Times - July 20, 2009

Why should someone in Georgia be injured or die from a dangerous product already found defective? The house judiciary committee in Washington faces that question as they hold hearings on the "Sunshine in Litigation Act."

Do Courts seal too many documents? State and Federal Courts regularly allow documents to be sealed and injured parties silenced by confidentiality agreements when lawsuits are settled. A victim is in a weak bargaining position. A settlement may mean avoiding financial disaster following a life altering injury. Obviously, the manufacturer wants to keep the information from the public. Not a compelling argument for playing Russian roulette with the safety of the next victim of a defective product.

Our Atlanta injury law firm will monitor progress in these hearings and report on the results.

During the presidency of George W. Bush the rule of "Pre-Emption" was aggressively expanded.  This rule prevented many consumers and other citizens from bringing lawsuits for wrongs committed by drug makers, manufacturers and other corporations. The rule of pre-emption basically has held that where a federal agency has enacted a regulation that permitted the sale of a product, this would protect the maker of the product from being sued, even if the product was defective or negligently made, marketed or distributed. Obviously, this was grossly unfair to victims of corporate wrongdoing. The Obama administration has taken steps to overrule this grossly unfair legal priciple. This should now protect the public and allow meritorious lawsuits to be brought against wrongdoers. Our negligence/product liability Atlanta Law Firm has a long history of successfully representing victims in major cases who have been injured or killed through the fault of dangerous and defective products of all types.

Boston Globe - "Obama ends Bush-era lawsuit policy"

 

 

Georgia and U.S. consumers won a tremendous victory for fair compensation when injured by  defective and dangerous prescription drugs today. The United States Supreme Court held in a 6 to 3 decision that Food and Drug Administration drug approval does not prevent consumers from bringing lawsuits for negligent manufacture and labeling of these products. Wyeth v. Levine, No. 06-1249. March 4, 2009

At the same time Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has been pushing a 2009 bill in the Georgia legislature to shield negligent manufacturers from lawsuits. Sonny believes that a 300 year history of common law civil justice and the jury system should be scrapped in favor of defective product manufacturers. He argues that business interests would flock to a State that reduced their obligation to live by the rules of equal protection under the law. No joke!

If a conservative Supreme Court in Washington can appreciate the importance of the rule of law to a functioning society then what does that say about the current Georgia executive? Why not an exemption for drunk driver's on their way home from corporate and business functions? It could really help to lure business to Georgia!

Lawyers USA March 4, 2009

In case Georgia hospitals were not enough of a danger to surgical patients from infections, surgical errors and negligent hospital care there is a new and growing problem. Sudden fires
caused by high tech equipment in the oxygen rich operating rooms are causing an increase in surgical catastrophes.

Medical negligence claims for burn injuries from these deadly and preventable errors are rising in Georgia and across the nation. More technology in the OR means more fire burn injuries where there are high oxygen concentrations such as during general anesthesia. Surgical lasers have ignited oxygen tubing, and MRI machines have burned patients wearing smoking patches.

The problem is even worse due to the number of operations being conducted in centers outside of hospitals and in doctors offices. In these locations even the rules that govern hospitals (Joint Accreditation Commission on Hospital Accreditation) are often ignored.

Our Atlanta malpractice law firm would rather you be an informed patient than an injured client.

In Just a Flash, Surgery Can Turn Deadly Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18, 2009

Traffic and vehicle deaths fell sharply in Georgia and across the country in 2008.  NHTSA and the Governors Highway Safety Association studies found that more than 10,000 lives may have been saved. The reasons are not clear but the Wall Street Journal suggests that improved car safety, government design requirements, safer highway design and gas prices may all play a part.                     

What about all the families and personal injury lawyers who forced safer cars and roads through lawsuits? Their crash worthiness and secondary impact cases have been uncovering defects and forcing car manufacturers to build safer cars for decades making changes well beyond minimal regulatory requirements. Private personal injury lawsuits are one of the most effective safety protections and taxpayers do not bear the direct costs of these cases.     

Manufacturers and the government both had to be dragged to the courthouse by grieving families before seat belts, airbags, and head restraints became standard safety features. Defective door latch, seat back failures, rollover claims, and tire defects were all found by lawyers and their families before any government agency.Our Atlanta Georgia product defect law firm  have represented three families with children under 12 who were paralyzed from injuries in cars with only lap belts in the rear seat when everyone else in the car walked away with minor injuries.
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As our world becomes more complex in consumer, industrial and even financial products the right to a jury trial becomes ever more important to a safer world and civil justice.

Auto Fatalities Decline Wall Street Journal Feb. 9, 2009