Personal Injury
Worksheet
(PDF)
AUTO ACCIDENTS |
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
| CHILDREN’S CLAIMS
| PREMISES LIABILITY
|
NEGLIGENT SECURITY
| WRONGFUL DEATH |
PRODUCTS LIABILITY
AUTO ACCIDENTS
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Thousands of people are injured every year by
automobile accidents. Most automobile accidents are
avoidable and are the result of the negligent
operation of a motor vehicle.
Perrotta, Chan & Prieto, P.C. is comprised of
defense attorneys for numerous insurance companies
and have an inside understanding of the decision
making process utilized by the insurance industry to
evaluate and prosecute your claim.
What You Should Do After An Accident
Call the police immediately and ensure that an
incident report is prepared;
Get the license plate of all vehicles involved in
the wreck and all potential witness vehicles;
Obtain information about the driver of the vehicle
including driver's license number, address, phone
numbers, and insurance information;
Get contact information for all persons involved in
the accident and all witnesses to the accident;
Take photographs of the damaged vehicles and of the
scene of the accident;
See a doctor immediately, regardless of your
perceived condition, in order accurately identify
the extent of your injuries;
Take pictures of your injuries; and follow the
doctor orders.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
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Doctors, dentists and other medical specialists have
an obligation to conduct themselves professionally.
When they do not, patients in their care can be
seriously injured. Gone are the days when hospitals,
doctors and nurses could do 'No Wrong'. Sadly,
today's fast pace and focus on volume, rather than
quality, often lead to sub-standard medical care.
Many mistakes are simply swept under the carpet with
the hope that they will go unnoticed. Patients are
commonly discharged with negligently caused
infirmities and told "... sometimes these things
just happen." Physicians, nurses, and hospitals are
not perfect. They make mistakes just like the rest
of us. Therefore, like the rest of us, they should
be held responsible for their mistakes.
Common instances of medical malpractice include
wrong-site surgery, objects left inside patients,
medication errors, and failure to diagnose time
sensitive illnesses until it is too late.
Unfortunately, such errors are often avoidable and
result from medical professionals who are
inadequately trained or just too busy to be
thorough. In a medical malpractice case we must
prove that the medical provider did not meet the
applicable standard of care in your or your loved
one's particular case in order to recover monetary
damages.
Georgia law requires us to produce an expert who
will confirm under oath that your medical provider
did not meet the applicable standard of care
required under the specific circumstances. Our trial
attorneys will find the appropriate medical experts
who have the expertise to make such a determination.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
CHILDREN’S CLAIMS
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Children are our greatest assets. They carry on our
hopes, dreams and aspirations. The death or serious
injury of a child is an event that impacts not only
the present and future life of the child, but also
the lives of those who care for him or her.
We understand the need to determine the responsible
party and hold that party accountable for your
child's loss as well as your own. Under Georgia law,
two separate and distinct claims exist when a child
is injured:
The child's claim for physical and mental pain and
suffering, and future medical expenses and income
loss that will occur after the child turns 18; and
The parents' claim for all medical and other
necessary expenses related to the injury of the
child up to age 18, and loss of the child's services
The wrongful death of a child vests a cause of
action jointly in the parents of the deceased as
long as the child was not married or otherwise
legally emancipated. It is extremely important to
seek professional counsel familiar with the
particulars of handling an injury to a child.
Often, an attorney who deals primarily with adult
personal injuries will not be aware of the probate
issues involved with handling a child's claim.
However, at Perrotta, Cahn & Prieto, P.C. we have
lawyers who have a vast amount of experience in all
probate matters.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
PREMISES LIABILITY
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Premises liability encompasses injuries arising out
of a dangerous condition on someone's property; such
as injuries caused by slips, trips or falls,
inadequate security, lead poisoning, construction,
farms, swimming pools, fires, explosions, exposure
to hazardous materials, athletics, animal bites, and
workplace injuries are far too common.
Owners and occupiers of property have a duty to
protect persons lawfully on their property from
injuries resulting from hazardous conditions that
the owner or occupier knew or should have know
existed. When owners or occupiers of property act
irresponsibly by failing to adequately protect
persons from such hazards, they should be held
accountable.
A thorough understanding of the ever-changing and
fact-specific law regarding the various and numerous
incidents that result in premises liability is
essential to successful legal representation.
For example, under Georgia law, merely owning or
occupying land does not make that person liable for
injuries sustained on the property. There must be
some form of negligence on the part of the owner or
occupier of property before there can be any
liability. In order to understand the duty owed by
an owner or occupier of land, it is necessary to
understand the difference between the owner of the
property and the occupier of the property and their
relative liability.
Likewise, it is necessary to understand the three
different types of people who may be on the property
because the degree of responsibility owed by an
owner or occupier varies according to the status of
the person who is injured. These types include:
invitees, licensees, and trespassers.
Generally, it is easy to determine who owns a
particular piece of property. An occupier of the
property is anyone who exercises some form of
control over it. This form of control includes a
tenant who leases the property but it may also
include other, less traditional, forms of occupancy.
For example, a contractor who comes onto the
property for purposes of constructing a home,
commercial building, or other structure, may become
an occupier of the premises by exercising control
over the property.
An invitee is someone who comes onto the property by
the express or implied invitation of the owner or
occupier of the property (such as a customer in a
store). It is the duty of the owner or occupier to
keep the premises in a safe condition. The liability
of the owner or occupier to the invitee is based
upon the duty of the owner to make a reasonable
inspection of the premises for the protection of
invited people. A social guest at a residence is
generally a licensee.
Someone who is not an invitee is generally a
licensee. An owner or occupier of property is liable
to the licensee only for willful or wanton injury.
The owner or occupier has a duty to warn the
licensee of any known dangerous conditions on the
premises that create an unreasonable risk of harm to
the licensee, and where the owner or occupier knows
the licensee is unaware of the condition and is
unlikely to discover it. However, the owner or
occupier has no duty to a licensee (unlike the
invitee) to inspect for defects or to repair known
defects. An owner or occupier simply has the
obligation of not acting willfully or wantonly with
regard to the licensee.
A trespasser is someone who comes on the premises
without the permission of its owner or occupier. A
trespasser may be on the property by mistake. The
duty owed to a trespasser by an owner or occupier of
property is less than that owed to an invitee or
licensee. Kids will be kids. Sometimes they wonder
off into dangerous place where they are not supposed
to be. However, under certain circumstances owners
and occupiers of land have a responsibility to
anticipate a wondering child and must be held
responsible if the child is injured on their
property as a result of their negligence.
For example, if a child wondered onto the property
because he or she was enticed by some inherently
dangerous and attractive man-made thing on the
premises, that thing may be considered an
"attractive nuisance". By creating or being aware of
the attractive nuisance, the owner or occupier
should anticipate the presence of children on the
premises and impliedly consent to the presence of a
child on the property. This changes the child's
presence from the status of trespasser to licensee,
thus the owner or occupier of the property is
obligated to maintain a greater level of
responsibility.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
NEGLIGENT SECURITY
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Everyone has an natural instinct to try to avoid
dangerous situations. We should all vigilantly
protect ourselves from senseless and violent crime
by acting prudently. In the same sense, owners and
occupiers of property have a responsibility to guard
against foreseeable crimes on their property.
Foreseeability, rather than the relationship between
the landowner and the person criminally assaulted,
triggers liability in cases involving negligent
security. For example, if an owner or occupier knows
of burglaries on or near the premises, he or she
must to take reasonable precautions to protect
persons coming on the premises from burglaries and
will be liable to victims of burglary if he fails to
do so. If the owner or occupier fails this
responsibility, he or she will be held liable for
monetary damages to the person injured by the crime.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
WRONGFUL DEATH
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In Georgia, compensation for a wrongful death is
calculated as the "full value" of the life of the
deceased, from the viewpoint of the deceased. It
includes both economic damages (lifetime income,
with no deduction for living expenses or income
taxes) and intangible factors such as the enjoyment
of the experience of living. The full value of the
life is determined solely by the enlightened
conscience of an impartial jury. When someone's life
is wrongfully cut short due to the negligence of
another, the negligent party should be held
accountable.
Unlike some states, Georgia wrongful death law
includes no statutory formula or limit on damages.
However, Georgia juries generally follow the state
motto of "wisdom, justice and moderation" in their
exercise of this broad discretion. The economic
component of the value of the life may be reduced to
present value, but the intangible aspects of the
value of the life are not reduced to present value.
A surviving spouse has the right to sue for wrongful
death, but must share the recovery equally with
surviving children of the decedent. Where the
surviving spouse is required to share a wrongful
death recovery with the decedent's minor child, the
child's share up to $15,000 may be held by the
child's natural guardian without posting a bond. If
a minor child's share of the recovery is $15,000 or
more, a guardian of the child's property must be
qualified in probate court, and a bond posted. The
bond requirement may be avoided if the probate court
approves an structured settlement with annuity
payments going to the child after attaining age 18,
with the cash held by the child's natural guardian
remaining less than $15,000.
If there is no surviving spouse, the right goes to
surviving children. If the surviving spouse is
missing, a court may permit the children to pursue
the death claim alone. If there is neither a spouse
nor child surviving, then the decedent's parents
have the right to sue. If the parents of a deceased
child are divorced or living apart, the trial court
has full discretion to allocate the wrongful death
recovery between them, considering any pertinent
factors. There have been cases of an absentee father
being limited to as little as three percent of
recovery for the wrongful death of a child. In the
absence of a surviving spouse, child or parent, the
administrator of the decedent's estate can sue on
behalf of the next of kin. Even if the next of kin
is a minor, e.g., a sibling, current law requires
that the administrator file suit within two years
from the date of death.
In addition to the wrongful death claim for the full
value of the life, the administrator or executor of
the decedent's estate has a claim for the decedent's
medical and funeral expenses, and for conscious pain
and suffering before death.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
PRODUCTS LIABILITY
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A "product" is anything that is sold, except
services and real estate. Machinery used in
industry, in the office, on the farm or in the home
is frequently the cause of injury and litigation.
The same is true of food products sold in
restaurants, groceries sold in supermarkets and drug
products sold over-the-counter or by prescription.
When a consumer is injured by the proper use of a
product, the manufacturer should be held
accountable. Manufacturers and sellers of defective
products or products whose labels or instructions
fail to warn you of the likely hazards of improper
use are responsible for any injury caused by such
products.
When a consumer is injured by the proper use of a
product, the manufacturer should be held
accountable. A seller or manufacturer can be sued
for negligence or strict liability. Strict liability
means that a consumer has the right to not be
injured if he uses the product the way it was
intended to be used and according to the
manufacturer's instructions. Typically,
manufacturers will defend their product by claiming
improper use, failure to heed warnings or follow
instructions, or alterations by the purchaser. It is
extremely important to seek professional counsel
familiar with the particulars of handling a product
liability case.
Product liability counseling and effective
representation in product liability litigation
requires an understanding of often complex technical
issues concerning the nature of the product in
question and the industry that produces such
products. In addition, thorough knowledge of the
developing law in the product's area is essential.
If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact us. You may send us an email, or call us at
(770) 382-8900. We will be happy to inform you of
your rights with a free consultation.
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