Personal Injury

Lawnmower Accidents are More Common (and Dangerous) than You Think

June 27, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Now that summer is officially upon us, it means that yard work has started to become a major priority for many people. One of the most ubiquitous summertime yard work tasks is mowing the lawn. In fact, the average American mows his or her lawn about 30 times a year, which adds up to a significant amount of time. Although mowing the lawn is a fairly mundane task, it can also be quite dangerous, especially for children. In 2011, 83,291 people were treated in US hospital emergency rooms for lawn mover injuries, including 3,780 children. This is due to the fact that it is very easy for children to get caught in the path of a lawnmower, often with devastating results.

Common Lawn Mower Injuries

For most people, lawn mowers are the biggest and most powerful piece of machinery they use besides their vehicles. Although modern lawn mowers are designed with very advanced safety features, this does not negate the fact that the primary moving part of a lawnmower is a sharp blade that is designed to slice through everything in its path. Some of the more common injuries from lawnmower accidents are as follows:

Summer is Boating Accident Season in Georgia

June 19, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Once the weather warms up, many Georgians are eager to get out on the lake. After all, what could be more fun than a day of boating, swimming, and sunbathing? However, boating accidents can and do happen, and their consequences can be severe. For example, an Atlanta man was recently charged with first degree homicide by vessel, serious injury by vessel, and boating under the influence after a deadly boating accident on Lake Blue Ridge. The accident occurred when two victims were being pulled in a tube behind the boat when the tube struck the shoreline. Although not every boating accident will carry criminal liability, boat operators can be held liable for injuries to their passengers and others through personal injury suits.

Liability for Boating Accidents

Liability for most boating accidents is very similar to liability for car accidents on land, and is often based in negligence. To win a personal injury suit for a boating injury based on negligence, the plaintiff must show that the boat operator failed to operate the boat as a reasonably prudent boat operator would have operated it and that this failure caused an injury to the plaintiff. This can include any conduct that falls below the standard of care that a reasonable boat operator would exercise–such as taking the boat out when weather conditions are not optimal, turning the boat the wrong way into a wake and causing it to capsize, going too fast to avoid hitting another vessel, or failing to provide adequate safety equipment. Boat operators can also be held civilly liable for personal injuries arising out of criminal conduct, such as boating under the influence.

How Social Media Can Affect Your Personal Injury Claim (6/14/17)

June 15, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Over the past decade, the rise of social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and a multitude of others have transformed the way we communicate with each other and, by extension, the way we live. Social media allows us to let others know what we’re up to and also gives us a chance to stay connected with friends and family we might not see as often as we would like. Social media has has managed to seep into almost every aspect of our culture, and the law has not been immune from its effects. When you are the plaintiff in a personal injury case, every move you make on social media can affect your claim. Below, we’ll examine a few ways that social media usage can harm your personal injury claim.

It Could Create Inconsistencies

Whenever you suffer an injury, especially a severe injury, you will get involved with a wide range of professionals, including doctors, medical personnel, insurance adjusters, attorneys, members of law enforcement, and more. The reason why all of these professionals are involved is because they are trying to help you document what happened so that you can present a clear picture to the judge or jury about exactly what happened to you. If you post about your injuries on social media and your description of them does not align exactly with the officially documented version of events, a defense attorney could seize upon these inconsistencies to diminish your case.

Does Georgia Place Caps on Damages in Personal Injury Cases?

May 26, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

If you are injured in an accident and prevail in a personal injury suit, you will be compensated in the form of monetary damages.The purpose of damages in a personal injury case is to compensate the victim so that they are in the same position they would be in had the accident never occurred. Thus, damage awards are compensatory—the plaintiff receives one the amount that will make him or her whole again.Because compensatory damages are awarded on a sliding scale relative to the plaintiff’s needs, damage awards can reach into the millions of dollars. In order to cut down on damage awards that many view as excessive, many state legislatures have enacted caps on the amount of damages that juries are able to award.

How Damages Caps Work

The main argument behind damage caps is that the United States is an excessively litigious society and that too many view personal injury lawsuits as a get-rich-quick scheme. Damage caps are thus designed to discourage lawsuit-happy litigants from filing frivolous lawsuits and clogging up the court system. The main argument against damage caps is that they unfairly limit the recourse available to injured parties and that judges already have the power to either decrease or increase unreasonable damages awards. The way damages caps work is fairly simple—they are a creature of state statute, wherein the state legislature places what they consider to be a reasonable limit on the amount of money a jury can award. Some states limit damages based on the type of action that is brought in the court—for example, the damages cap may only apply to medical malpractice or wrongful death. Other times they apply to certain categories of damages, most commonly to noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, and punitive damages.

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

May 25, 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.

What Happens if You are Injured on an Airplane?

May 24, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Airline employees are trained professionals whose job is to ensure that passengers are safely transported from point A to point B. Since flying is widely known as the safest way to travel, most of the time these journeys go off without a hitch, but, unfortunately, injuries do happen. Injuries sustained by airline passengers have received quite a bit of pubic attention over the past few weeks, leaving many to wonder–what can you do if you are injured by an airline employee or another passenger?

Below, we’ll take a look at how airlines can be held liable for injuries to their passengers.

Airlines are Common Carriers

Should I Use an Auto Insurance Tracking Device?

May 15, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

If you’ve ever applied for a new auto insurance policy, you’ve probably been given the option to install a device in your car that tracks your driving habits. These devices are known as “telematics” and almost all major insurance companies now offer them to their customers in exchange for potentially reduced premium rates. The devices attach to the vehicle’s OBD-II port and collect data from your car’s computer. Insurance companies can program them to monitor different metrics, but some of the most common are:

Time the car was used
Distance driven

Do Pedestrians Always Have the Right of Way?

May 11, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

You’ve probably heard the very old, very common saying: “Pedestrians have the right of way.” While it’s a good idea to always give pedestrians a little more leeway than you would ordinarily give to vehicles, it is not true that pedestrians always have the right of way. Laws regarding pedestrian right of way vary by state, but below, we will take a look at how the law works in Georgia.

When Pedestrians Have the Right of Way

Crosswalks: Pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks. In Georgia, drivers are required to come to a full stop (not just yield) when a pedestrian is within a crosswalk that is on the half of the roadway upon which the car is driving, or when the pedestrian is approaching and is within one lane of the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling or turning onto. “Half of the roadway” in this case means all traffic lanes carrying traffic in one direction of travel. So if you are driving on a road that has five lanes (two going in each direction with a turn lane between them), and a pedestrian enters from the far side of the road walking across your path, you must stop as soon as they enter the turn lane–this is the lane that is within one lane of the half of the roadway on which you are driving.

When to Hire a Lawyer After a Car Accident

May 5, 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

Pedestrian Accidents in Atlanta

April 26, 2017 | by Slappey & Sadd, LLC

Traveling by foot is not terribly common in the United States. In fact, only 11% of transport happens on foot, yet pedestrians are involved in 13% of vehicle-related fatalities. Each year, more than 4,000 pedestrians are killed in collisions with automobiles, while another 70,000 are injured. These are shocking statistics , but what is even more shocking is that the majority of pedestrian accidents are not caused by the behavior of drivers, but by the pedestrians themselves.

Causes of Pedestrian Accidents

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration , 73% of pedestrian fatalities occur in urban areas, which is to be expected, since foot travel is more common in more densely populated areas. Thus, being a pedestrian in an urban environment alone increases your risk of being involved in an accident, but there are a few more specific causes of pedestrian accidents. Some of these situations are the fault of the pedestrian, while others are the fault of the urban environment.