November 28, 2011 in Legal, Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Wrongful Death Suit Filed Over University Failure to Read Admission Questionnaire

If a college fields a team of athletes, they need to know if they are healthy. Someone did not read this student’s admission questionnaire.

This reported case is another example of a death that should have never happened. The admissions staff at Western Carolina University did not take the time to properly read each student’s admission form. Because they did not read the forms closely enough, a young football athlete died.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the young man’s family pointed a finger at the university and the coaching staff, stating that they were negligent in regards to the death of their son.

The young man was only 20 years old when he arrived at the university and played as a defensive back. He was told by the university doctor that it was ok to take part in weightlifting and conditioning drills without any limitations. One day later, the young man died during practice. Autopsy results showed he died due to acute lethal cardiac dysrhythmia with other contributing factors such as sickle cell trait and overexertion.

The lawsuit stated that his admission questionnaire relating to athletics indicated he had sickle cell trait. The student signed that form as did his mother. Thus, the university doctor and coaches knew or should have known he had sickle cell trait. Oddly, the university denied the allegations in one breath, and then in another, said the student had completed a form that listed sickle cell trait, which raises the question why they did not make themselves aware of what the disease meant to their athlete.

In this case, the student’s workout was weight lifting, 160 yards of striding two 60-yard sprints, two 70-yard sprints, two 80-yard sprints and two 90-yard sprints. He got into trouble on the last of his 90-yard sprints and subsequently collapsed and died.

When an athlete with sickle cell trait trains intensely, the red blood cells form into a shape like a sickle, which blocks the flow of blood to the muscles, causing lactic acidosis and ischemic rhabdomyolysis with hyperkalemia. The acidosis directly affects the heart by causing ventricular fibrillation, causing a heart attack. While athletes with this condition may play sports, there need to be the right kind of accommodations in place for them to deal it such as longer recovery times between repetitions, a gradually increasing drill time and oxygen on hand.

Will this family succeed in their wrongful death lawsuit? There is a good chance that they will, as the evidence shows the university: failed to make sure coaching and medical staff knew about and understood what exertional sickling was and how to work with it; failed to tell the student how to train safely; and failed to put safety measures in place, among other things.

Families that lose a family member like this should seek legal counsel in the form of an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer. Wrongful death lawsuits are civil cases and subject to a statute of limitations. Calling an Atlanta personal injury attorney as soon as possible will mean justice may be served promptly.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

November 21, 2011 in Legal, Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Even Dermatologists Can Be Sued For Medical Malpractice

When people hear about medical malpractice, they typically think about a doctor or surgeon, not a dermatologist.

Dermatology is not an area of medicine where there are a lot of medical malpractice lawsuits, but they do happen, and when they do, the jury awards in cases like this can be quite high. For medical professionals, including those who practice dermatology, it is vital to clearly communicate with a patient about any treatments or procedures to be undertaken to avoid a lawsuit. If a mistake is made, you need to own up to it and make it right.

While that may not stop a lawsuit being filed, it may mitigate the outcome if the plaintiff has received an apology and the doctor has attempted to make amends. In many instances, all a patient that has been harmed wants is an acknowledgment from the practitioner that they messed up. Saying they are sorry, explaining what went wrong, and attempting to clearly inform a patient goes a long way toward preventing a problem from careening out of control and landing in court with hard feelings on both sides of the courtroom.

Certainly the question of whether or not harm to a patient was caused by medical negligence is an issue and for that reason, should you feel you have a case, speak to a skilled Atlanta personal injury lawyer. Medical negligence or malpractice happens when a doctor (or other medical professional) commits an act of negligence that breaches his or her duty to a patient. Additionally, there must be a direct causal link between the mistake/breach and the harm caused and it must also cause financial harm to the victim.

While many doctors are outstanding physicians with a good track record, there are those that also have a questionable track record putting their patients at risk, injuring them or killing them as a result of a medical error. Dermatologists rarely get slapped with medical malpractice lawsuits, but that still does not lessen the standard of care.

In fact, recent statistics released by the Physician Insurers Association of America show that the practice of dermatology only had a 1 percent rating for closed malpractice claims and a 1 percent indemnity for all medical specialties in 2010. That being said, even though the lawsuit rate is lower, the settlement rate and jury awards tend to be higher. Jury awards for medical negligence in melanoma cases where dermatologists misdiagnosed or mistreated are often higher because they are more serious than other procedures they perform.

Typically, other procedures they carry out on patients are largely aesthetic, and as such, have little value in terms of malpractice claims. This is because when assessing a malpractice claim, the seriousness of the mistake is taken into account in combination with how the error affects a patient’s ability to work. If a procedure is largely cosmetic and went awry, awarding damages for lost work is sometimes difficult. This is not to say that it cannot be done, but juries do tend to view cases like this in a different light.

For those who have had a bad experience with a dermatologist, make a call to an Atlanta personal injury lawyer for advice to get various options on how to proceed if your case is solid.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

October 28, 2011 in Criminal Defense, Legal, Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Multimillion Jury Award Hinges on the Definition of Nurses Aides Versus Health Care Providers

When you have a family member in long-term care, the individual deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. The care should be just as if you would be looking after your loved one. Shockingly, the reality is often entirely different, as this reported case shows.

This case really points out the denigration of plaintiffs claims with the application of medical malpractice caps. What happened in this instance is that the mother of Mr. Doe filed a lawsuit stating that the nursing home where she was staying killed her by not giving her enough food and water for a period of three weeks. How horrendous is that?

In addition to this fact, the mother also suffered from dementia. Mr. Doe’s mom was 87 years old and met her death because the aides did not keep her properly hydrated. You do not need a medical license to provide a person with basic needs such as water.

When this case got to trial, the jury was rightfully horrified and handed down a $91.5 million award, which the nursing home is planning to appeal on the grounds that the amount may be subject to the state medical malpractice cap of $500,000. In other words, the jury award of $91.5 million for an egregious case of negligence, may be reduced to $500,000 in non-economic damages. Does this seem fair, given the facts of the case? Many would say no quite emphatically. It is obvious the jury thought it did not take an advanced degree to make sure someone got enough water on a daily basis either.

The man’s lawyers are aiming to keep the jury award as is by pointing out that the nurses aides at the nursing home are not considered to be health care providers as defined in the medical malpractice cap definition. Certainly this is an issue for the court to decide on, and if successful, this may open another avenue for medical malpractice cases to be treated with the respect and financial compensation that they deserve.

Medical malpractice cases are often very involved and complex, and certainly need the qualified assistance of an Atlanta personal injury lawyer. If you think you are the victim of medical malpractice, or your senior relative is a victim, get in touch with an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer and find out what you can do.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

October 14, 2011 in Legal, Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Study Highlights Medical Malpractice Lawsuits and True Amount of Medical Errors

The hot debate over tort reform usually involves frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits. If a medical negligence case goes to court, it is not frivolous.

It may sound incredibly simple to just state that medical malpractice lawsuits can be frivolous. This however, comes from a point of view of someone who has no idea what it involves to take a medical malpractice case to court. The enormous amount of time needed to vet a medical malpractice case, study the patient records, line up expert witnesses, and more instantly signifies that a case is not frivolous.

Medical malpractice lawyers do not waste their time on cases that are merely bad outcomes with a doctor. They do however, take cases that involve medical negligence that harmed someone permanently, and they take a case because they know it has merit, and the court needs to hear it. Lawyers are also seeking justice for the patient who ended up with a life they no longer recognize as a result of medical malpractice.

If you do not believe either side of the hot debate over tort reform, take some time to track down and read the study published by the New England Journal of Medicine a few short years ago. It has information in it that will pique your interest. In particular, it answers the question regarding how many patients bring a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The basis of the study involves five malpractice insurance companies across the U.S. and examines 1,452 different claims. The claims include medication errors, surgical errors, obstetrical mistakes and other issues such as delayed or missed diagnosis. Those are the main areas that comprise roughly 80 percent of all of the medical malpractice claims in the U.S. today.

Perhaps the most interesting fact gleaned from the statistics is that filing a claim and the subsequent litigation tends to show whether an error really did occur. In other words, it is not so much that lawyers take shaky cases to court, but that it is becoming increasingly difficult for plaintiffs and attorneys to figure out what really happened to the patient before a claim is filed. This has a down side as you can imagine, in that medicine is becoming more and more complex, thus increasing the number of chances for something to go wrong. The question then becomes how it went wrong and who caused the error.

Overall, the researchers in this study concluded that the oft-used political cry of frivolous lawsuits is exaggerated. What seems to be the real issue is that when a case did land in court and the dust settled, there was no medical error. That means the attorney took the case in good faith and was certain there was an issue to be settled. Only later when all the documentation was on the table for examination did it turn out there was no medical error, but instead a bad outcome without doctor negligence. The statistics are very clear though that the major portion of malpractice costs were spent litigating and paying for errors that did happen.

The other interesting find is that the justice system does a good job of booting out medical malpractice cases that have no merit. In other words, if the system really has a glitch in it, then the glitch is in favor of the plaintiff (arguably a good thing).

There is no question that litigating medical malpractice is expensive, but one way or the other, they bring justice where it needs to be served.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

August 28, 2011 in Business, Legal Articles by jferris

Scissors jack crushes man’s head

This gruesome case demonstrates what a family goes through when they file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of a deceased family member.

This reported case involved the wrongful death of a man by a defective car jack. To be more precise, a scissors car jack that was woefully inadequate in holding up the weight of the car the man was working on. The jack gave way and the vehicle landed on the man’s head, crushing it instantly.

The family chose to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Ford Motor Company for making a defective jack that could not bear the weight of the vehicle. The case told a heartbreaking story of their husband and father, attempting to make repairs to the family Ford Windstar minivan. He used the scissors jack, an original piece of equipment that was made to go with the van. He was working on the right side of the van to remove the right front tire.

He was a careful guy and took the time to put chocks behind each tire, made sure the van was on a flat surface and put the jack in precisely the location indicated in the vehicle manual. The jack failed, dropping the van on his head. The lawsuit stated that Ford, the defendant, was negligent, had sold a defective product, and was accused of a manufacturing defect, design defect, marketing defect, misrepresentation and breach of implied warranty of merchantability.

The suit also contended the scissors jacks that came with the vehicles were badly constructed, far too short and were not capable of lifting the weight of the van. The lawsuit asks for damages for the deceased’s physical impairment as a result of the van dropping on his head, for the sheer agony he endured, the mental anguish he felt, the medical bills, the death expenses and funeral costs. As a family they are seeking damages for pain and suffering, loss of income, loss of consortium, mental anguish and court costs plus interest.

Will the family win this case? There is a good chance they will, given the nature of the evidence. If there is further proof that the jack sold with the van was defective, the jury will likely award the family a decent settlement. This wrongful death lawsuit will not be easy for the family, who saw what happened the day of the accident. They fought back the horror of the injuries to help their husband and dad, realizing that he was in serious trouble. Despite their hopes, he did not survive this horrific trauma. His family now needs financial compensation to be able to move forward with their lives.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

August 27, 2011 in Business, Legal Articles by jferris

Middle Class Americans Caught In The Middle Of Tort Reform

In an interesting turn of events, a Harvard law professor suggests it’s about time lawyers did something about how they are perceived. Too much time is spent protecting jurisdictions instead of solving problems.

Unfortunately, there is a prevailing myth that lawyers are ambulance chasers and take frivolous cases to court to get paid big bucks. There are a number of things wrong with that thought. First, most lawyers do not chase ambulance for business. Most of them have more than they can handle at any given time. Secondly, while there may be some cases that seem questionable on first blush in terms of being successful in court, typically, a lawyer takes a case because there appears to be merit in it and/or a point of law.

As for making big bucks, that is not the case. Many lawyers get a portion of a settlement on winning for a client; a portion that goes right back into the firm to help it represent other clients who need them. Granted big cases sometimes have big wins, but it should be remembered that a big firm with a big case and a big track record for winning, will also have big office overhead.

But back to the concept that lawyers need to change how they are perceived. There may well be some truth in that observation. The law professor went on to point out that not much time is spent preventing problems in the justice system, because everyone is too busy protecting their behinds. How does that impact on lawyers? If you want the justice system to work in any given state, the money to do that has to come from the legislature. If the legislature perceives lawyers as money-grubbing talking heads out just for fame and fortune, state courts will continue to face underfunding and staggering case loads.

Justice is needed at all levels of the legal system, but as it exists right now, the middle class are slammed between a rock and a hard place when it comes to medical malpractice lawsuits. In many states, there has been med mal caps implemented that are designed to cap damages for victims of medical negligence. For those plaintiffs who are so severely injured that they need care for the rest of their lives, capping medical malpractice damages is an outrageous travesty of justice.

What is even more frightening is that there are also some states that are currently contemplating bringing in a loser pays law. Think about that for a minute. The seriously injured victim goes to court with a medical malpractice case and for some reason, the case is lost. The loser pays approach would mean the victim would pay the price, twice. Once as a victim of medical negligence and for the second time as a severely injured victim who lost a court case. And the victim gets huge sums of money from where?

What is happening here is that these kinds of restrictive laws are trying to scare victims away; victims that don’t have the ability to access money to pursue a valid claim in court. What does that say about the justice system?

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

August 3, 2011 in Business, Criminal Defense, Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Wrongful Death And Medical Malpractice Lawsuits May Go Hand In Hand

Often, death due to medical malpractice results in a wrongful death lawsuit.

In this case, a medical doctor was sued for wrongful death and malpractice in the death of a well-known professional golfer. The father of the deceased, on behalf of her estate, filed the complaint. After a year-long investigation into the suicide of the young woman golfer, the father indicated in his lawsuit that he felt the doctor was directly responsible for his daughter’s death because of what he did and did not do; meaning he did things he should not have done and did not do things he should have done.

Evidently, although the woman also played golf with the doctor named as defendant in the lawsuit, she was also a patient of his. He was the last person to see the woman alive, and even though he called 911, he removed all drugs from her premises and also took her suicide note. The woman had been on multiple prescription drugs, including anti-anxiety meds, pain meds, and cough and headache medications. The coroner ruled her death a suicide due to asphyxia and the overload of drugs she had in her system at the time of her death.

The doctor pled guilty to obstruction of justice for taking evidence from the scene and was sentenced to a year’s probation and 40 hours of community service. None of this would bring the young woman back, and the family, hoping that this would never happen to anyone else, chose to file a wrongful death lawsuit on the heels of the man’s criminal conviction.

Wrongful death is not usually about getting even with the person or persons involved in the death. It is usually about the family not wanting anyone else to experience what happened to their loved one. It is about closure and moving forward in the memory of the deceased. It is also about insurance money that will help the family cope financially and be able to get on with their lives. They have sustained a significant loss emotionally and psychologically with the death of their daughter. They need not also suffer a financial loss to compound their devastation.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

August 2, 2011 in Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Business Law Is Far More Important Than You May Realize

You do not realize how important business law is until you have a contract dispute. Business is the backbone of America.

If you stop to think about it, one of the main things that keeps society functioning and on track is business law, especially business transactions, contracts, agreements, the building of new companies, corporations, etc. Governing all this commerce is business law; call it overseeing the world of business if you will.

Without business law in place, the world would be a much tougher place to regulate and run because there would be no contracts and no one to uphold contracts and hold people to their word. It would mean business would run without any repercussions or consequences for those who did not live up to their promises. Unfortunately, even though a lot of people would follow through on their promises, they are just as many more who would rip the system and others off. This is why you need business law.

You may know business law as commercial law. Its usual definition is that it governs business and commercial transaction and is a branch of civil law, handling issues in the public and private sectors. Under this umbrella you will find an enormous range of legal issues and lawyers that deal with things like white-collar crimes (a criminal issue, not civil) and insider trading.

On the other side of the business/commercial law fence you would have corporate contracts, hiring practices and the manufacture/sales of consumer goods, etc.  When dealing with contract law, unarguably the largest arena in business law, you would typically be writing contracts, supervising their signing, ensuring they are worded correctly and filing a lawsuit if there is a breach of the contract. Just about everything we do today involves a contract of some sort, whether it’s buying a house to renting a carpet cleaner.

When it comes to hiring, this is one of the trickier areas of law, particularly if a business has to let an employee go. In situations like this, if you do not have a carefully worded hiring/firing policy, you could be open to a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal. Even with a handbook in place, you may still have legal issues. This is why you need the advice and counsel of a skilled Atlanta business lawyer.

Then, consider the world of manufacturing. It is not just the company that makes the product that has a part in the chain of commerce; there is also the designer, the shipper and the seller. Each link in the chain has contracts with the other links in the chain, and so it goes. Although they are largely invisible, those contracts are what glues everything together; keeping industry and commerce running smoothly and accountably.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

April 27, 2011 in Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Medical Malpractice May Involve Overdosing A Baby With Nutrients

There are a number of ways to commit medical malpractice. Overdosing a baby with too many nutrients is one of them.

Medical malpractice is a highly controversial subject in America. On one side of the fence there are those who feel the damages awarded in a med mal case should be capped at a certain figure. On the other side of that same fence are the proponents in justice for the victim of medical malpractice. This particular case is one of those kinds of cases where justice for the victim should be paramount, but given med mal damage award capping, the innocent child victim may not have what she needs to move forward with her life.

This case made headlines across the nation for its inconclusive financial outcome for the victim. Ultimately, the jury in the case awarded the family $19.2 million to care for their blind daughter with cerebral palsy. The now three and a half year old was born prematurely in 2007, and for some reason the hospital gave her a dose of nutrients that was 100 times what the amount should have been.

That mistake sent the baby into cardiac arrest and caused other serious side effects, including cerebral palsy and blindness. The devastated family chose to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital. Their daughter would never be the same again and will remain in a wheelchair and need diapers for the rest of her life. She will never be able to feed herself.

The hospital argued in court that the reason the baby went into convulsions was due to her being premature. The jury did not agree and awarded the family $19.2 million. However, since the family lives in a state where there are liability caps, the award may be limited to $200,000. It is a struggle to think that would be fair compensation in a case like this.

Not all states have med map caps so before you choose to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, it is a wise investment of time to consult with a skilled Atlanta personal injury lawyer. You will need to know your rights, whether or not there is a med mal cap in your state, what documents you will need to move forward and what damages you may or may not expect. Do not wait too long, as there is a statute of limitations on medical malpractice cases; another thing you need to discuss with your Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.

April 26, 2011 in Legal Articles, Personal Injury by jferris

Driving While Distracted Causes Two Car Personal Injury Collision

Today’s drivers have more than enough distractions to keep their minds off the road, making driving while distracted an accident looking for a place to happen.

While you would like to believe that everyone out on the road is careful, cautious, alert and paying attention to what they are doing while driving a large and potentially deadly vehicle, that is not always the case. Consider the circumstances involved in one really bizarre case where a woman relied on her global positioning system for instructions instead of paying attention to where she was. The result was an accident that could have been avoided.

Sure, GPS systems have their place in driving, but what if the GPS system, as may be the case here, is not accurate? If you are not watching where you are going and what you are doing, you too could have an accident, and not necessarily a minor one.

You may recall the story of a woman who was walking while distracted and followed the instructions of a GPS to take a route right down the middle of a freeway to get to her destination. She was hit by a car. Walking while distracted and driving while distracted have the same potential to be deadly, the same potential to result in personal injury accidents and the same level of personal distraction that has a serious impact on others.

In the case of the driver relying on a GPS system that provided erroneous directions, the woman was on her way to her daily workout and made a left turn when she was told to by her GPS. What happened was, instead of ending up in the parking lot of the gym, she turned left into the path of another car.

The accident was bad enough that both drivers needed to be treated for injuries. She was two-tenths of a mile from where she should have been and incurred physical injuries to her body and complete embarrassment over how those injuries were inflicted.

Luckily, the GPS driver in this story was not seriously hurt, but then again, the jury may still be out on that issue, as seemingly insignificant injuries often turn out to be worse than they look. As for the whole story itself, either you believe the GPS did the deed of providing lousy instructions that caused an accident or you believe that the woman just was not paying attention and caused the accident without the help of the GPS. Should this case go to trial, the outcome may be interesting.

For accident victims who have been in a crash and sustained personal injuries as the result of someone else’s negligence, make it a point to discuss your case with an Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

Robert Webb is an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in Atlanta personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law. Learn more at Webbdorazio.com.