Personal Injury

How Punitive Damages Work

March 31, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

You’ve probably heard of punitive damages before, most likely through a high-profile verdict against a defendant who is seen by the public as having deep pockets. Punitive damages are controversial because the purpose of a civil action is to compensate the plaintiff, not to punish the defendant. Punishment of defendants is usually reserved for the criminal courts. However, punitive damages are intended to do just that–to punish the defendant when their behavior has been particularly vicious by awarding the plaintiff monetary awards that are greater than the amount necessary purely for compensation.

To understand how punitive damages work, we’ll need to take a quick look at how damages are awarded in a civil lawsuit.

Compensatory Damages

What is Contributory Negligence and How Can it Affect My Damage Award?

March 30, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

In most personal injury lawsuits, the reason why the plaintiff was injured usually boils down to negligence. Negligence requires a showing of a duty owed to the plaintiff, a breach of that duty, causation, and damages. In most cases, the duty owed is that of a “reasonably prudent person.” When the defendant’s conduct falls below that standard, he or she has breached this duty. Once the plaintiff establishes that his or her injuries were caused by this breach, a case of negligence has been established.

The compensation the plaintiff receives—known as “damages” in legal parlance—is the amount of money necessary to compensate the victim for the injury and to make him whole, as if the accident had never happened. However, this classic conception of negligence assumes that the defendant was totally at fault for the accident and that the plaintiff was blameless. What happens if the plaintiff was also partially at fault for the accident? In these cases, the courts developed the legal doctrines of contributory negligence and comparative negligence.

Contributory Negligence

The Most Common Types of Car Accident Injuries

March 29, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Driving is an inherently dangerous activity. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over three million people are injured every year in vehicle accidents in the United States. Some of these injuries are fairly minor, but, depending on the severity of the accident, can require extensive hospitalization and recovery time.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common types of injuries that can arise from car accidents.

Whiplash

When to Hire a Lawyer After a Car Accident

March 29, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

No one is ever truly prepared for a car accident—you’re simply driving along, maybe listening to your favorite song, and out of nowhere your life changes in an instant. Although every accident is different, there are some important steps you need to take after you’ve been involved in one to make sure that the police and insurance companies have all of the information they need to make a determination of fault and compensate the victims. If an accident is particularly serious, you may even need to hire an attorney.

Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take immediately after an accident and when you might want to consider hiring an attorney.

What to Do After a Car Accident

How Auto Insurance Works in Georgia

March 20, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

All 50 states and the District of Columbia require registered drivers to carry auto insurance. This is to guarantee that anyone injured in an auto accident will be appropriately compensated. Georgia’s auto insurance system is based upon fault, meaning that at-fault drivers are liable for personal injury or property damage resulting from an accident, and the at-fault driver’s insurance company will satisfy the liability. This is in contrast to “no-fault” systems, in which each driver’s insurance covers its own policyholder, regardless of fault

If you are injured in an automobile accident, there are three ways to seek compensation:

File a claim with your own insurance company, which will then seek compensation from the at-fault driver’s insurance company

What Causes Vehicles to Roll Over, and How to Avoid It

March 14, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Any type of car accident can be potentially deadly, but vehicle rollovers are among the most dangerous. While they are relatively rare, accounting for only about three percent of all crashes, they account for about 30% of people who are killed while riding a vehicle. Many people believe that rollovers only affect SUVs and large vans, but a rollover can happen in any vehicle under the right circumstances.

How it Happens

As we said above, any vehicle can roll over but these types of crashes are much more common to tall, narrow vehicles like SUVs, vans, and trucks because these vehicles have higher centers of gravity than sedans and coupes. Rollovers are most common in turns because what happens when a car rolls over is essentially a pendulum effect. When a car makes a turn, sideways forces shift the center of gravity to one side. The faster you’re driving, the stronger these forces are. If these forces become too strong, they can cause a vehicle to roll over.

The Most Common Types of Car Accidents in Atlanta (and How to Avoid Them)

February 21, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

If you drive an automobile, chances are you’ve been in an accident at one point or another, or at the very least, you know people who have. Getting behind the wheel of an automobile is by far the most dangerous thing most people do every day. In the vast majority of cases, automobile accidents are caused by human error. This can include being distracted, being an inexperienced driver, or being overly confident in one’s abilities and making mistakes.

Let’s take look at auto accidents by the numbers and some of the most common types of auto accidents.

Accident Statistics

Atlanta Bicycle Accident Basics – and How to Avoid Them

February 10, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

When most people think of car accident injuries, they think of injuries caused by two cars colliding with each other. After all, since most of us drive a personal vehicle to commute each day, this is our primary concern. However, riding a bicycle as a form of transportation has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in large cities like Atlanta. While there are several advantages to cycling over driving an automobile, including being healthier, better for the environment, and just more fun all around, safety is not one of them. Cyclists face serious injury or even death when they are struck by automobiles.

Bicycle Accident Liability Basics

Bicycle accidents involve many of the same determinations of fault as auto accidents. In fact, bicycles are considered “vehicles” for legal purposes in Georgia, meaning that the general rules of vehicular traffic apply to bikes on the same basis as motor vehicles. This includes driving on the right side of the road, stopping at stop signs and lights, and using forward and rearward illumination at night.

Atlanta Residents: Be on the Lookout for Drunk Drivers this Sunday

February 3, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

This Sunday, our Atlanta Falcons will take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. In the 51 seasons the Falcons have been in existence, this will only be the second time that they have appeared in the Super Bowl, with their 1996 appearance against the Denver Broncos ending in a 34-19 loss.

In light of this history, you can be certain that a significant number of people in the Atlanta area will be attending parties and going to bars and restaurants this Sunday to watch the big game. Furthermore, perhaps more than any other sporting event, Super Bowl Sunday is strongly associated with party food and the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In fact, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has taken the step of signing an executive order allowing bars to stay open until 2:30 a.m. this Sunday, an action which is in stark contrast to the way that other cities handle Super Bowl appearances for their teams.

All of the factors combine to result in a situation where there almost certainly be more drunk drivers on the road than usual this Sunday. Law enforcement authorities shares this view, with Live5news.com quoting the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety being as saying “You will see our presence and you can expect that you might come upon a sobriety checkpoint.”

An accident could happen today

August 4, 2016 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

John woke up on a Tuesday morning, like every other day. His coffee was brewing as he was awake and ready for the day when the sun came up over his breakfast of eggs and sausage. As he looked out the window to the back yard, he thought of the dreams he shared with his wife and the week of work he had ahead.

His daughter was getting her driver’s license soon, and his son would be graduating high school in a few short months. His supervisor at work had recently given him a long list of tasks to accomplish, some of them outside his area of expertise. But, as he normally did, John faithfully adopted his new tasks and made a plan to accomplish them.

He finished his breakfast, cleaned off the table, and began gathering his things for the day. He kissed his wife goodbye as he picked up his bag and headed to the car.