Month: March 2009

Riding a motorbike is usually the pride and joy of the owner who does his or her best to keep the bike looking spiffy. To enhance bikes, many owners use aftermarket parts, a decision that may cost them their lives.

While aftermarket parts for bikes and cars are certainly less expensive, there is something to be said for the axiom, “You get what you pay for.” Of course not all aftermarket parts are defective, but there have been more than enough motorbike accidents as a direct result of defective aftermarket parts, that this is a concern for bikers.

It is also a concern for motorcycle crash attorneys who deal with the hundreds of hours of minutia it takes to put together a successful wrongful death case. Robert Webb of Webb & D’Orazio, Atlanta, Georgia, handles motorcycle crash injuries and deaths, and has seen a fair number of problems with defective aftermarket motorbike parts.

“The usual problem with aftermarket parts,” outlined Webb, “is that they may cause vibrations, instability in the suspension, or other problems that cause the rider to lose control of the bike.” The results of a motorbike crash are never pretty and the rider often suffers severe injuries or death. When an accident is caused by a defective aftermarket part this becomes a wrongful death litigation, requiring the expertise of a highly seasoned lawyer such as Robert Webb.

“We know how to litigate aggressively on behalf of a rider who installed aftermarket parts trusting that they were safe,” stated Webb. The major reason parts like this fail is mostly attributed to either poor initial design, the way the part was manufactured, or the materials used to make that part. “The bottom line is that if the manufacturing process is negligent and a part is defective, and that part is installed on a bike hitting speeds of over 55 mph or higher, the results may be a devastating crash,” indicated Webb.

Manufacturers of defective aftermarket parts need to be held accountable for the lives of people who died using their products, thinking they were safe to install on their motorbike. A highly qualified wrongful death attorney, such as Robert Webb, will be able to find justice for the biker’s family.

To learn more, visit http://www.webbdorazio.com.

Medication malpractice, also known as pharmacy error, is another leading cause of injuries and death in the U.S. today. This is something that Robert Webb of Webb & D’Orazio, personal injury attorneys in Atlanta, Georgia, knows.

Statistics on pharmacy errors in the U.S. are quite chilling – more than 1.3 million people have experienced and will experience the consequences of this type of error yearly. Of that 1.3 million total, close to 100,000 die. Those numbers are staggering and certainly make one take a close second look at the prescription they just picked up.

It’s not just injuries and/or death that is the expected fall out from being given the wrong medication, it’s the cost of treating these kinds of errors that should also give patients pause for thought. Treating these kinds of errors costs taxpayers, on average, over $72 billion a year. All this because someone was given the wrong medications.

Pharmacy error isn’t just the result of the druggist giving out the wrong medications, although that is one of the possible errors. No, this error is also the result of being prescribed an incorrect dose. “There are any numbers of ways for errors like this to occur, and they include an improperly labeled drug, a dangerous combination of a variety of drugs and/or doctor or pharmacist negligence,” said Robert Webb of Webb & D’Orazio, personal injury attorneys in Atlanta, Georgia.

One of the other more common errors is usually the result of either a sketchy knowledge of abbreviations for dispensing the drugs or the abominable handwriting of the doctor. It’s not unusual for doctors to hurriedly write out a prescription that vaguely resembles chicken scratches.

Unless the pharmacist is familiar with the doctor, or takes the time to call, errors may be made in the proper dose of a required medication. For example, if the medication is to be taken two times a day (denoted by bid) and the handwriting appears to be a q (qid – 4 times a day), then the patient may wind up over dosing.

“Pharmacy errors are preventable to a certain extent by double-checking the medication with the doctor once the prescription is filled,” added Webb. Try and make sure the handwriting on the prescription is legible before taking it to a drugstore, and write down the dose and medication before having the drug filled at a pharmacy. This allows cross-checking to ensure what the doctor prescribed is what was dispensed.

To learn more, visit http://www.webbdorazio.com.

Personal injuries may vary from a dog bite to a slip, trip and fall, but in all these instances the commonality is an injury to the person – hence the term personal injury.

While there may be a great number of personal injuries that plague people during the course of their lives, such as a minor sprained ankle that meant you missed work for a couple of days, these things are taken in stride as “life happens.” Other categories of personal injuries, such as those as a result of a bad car crash, may carry hidden grief for years to come.

Car crashes inevitably cause a seemingly endless list of injuries from whiplash to a dislocated kneecap, from broken ribs to traumatic brain injury, and yes, even paralysis or death. The point is that in the case of vehicle collisions, not all the injuries are readily apparent within the first few days. It may take a longer period of time for the true consequences to show up.

Along with serious injuries or death comes traumatic stress, either for the injured person or for the family of the deceased. There are also countless medical bills, loss of income issues, loss of services, and of course pain and suffering, and/or funeral expenses. Personal injury cases with this kind of complexity require the services of a highly skilled personal injury attorney with extensive experience in the area of personal injury law.

Competent legal representation will make the world of difference when a case is taken to court, or even in the event of an out of court settlement. The problem is not many people truly understand that they have the right to claim compensation from a person or company responsible for their injuries. This is why if you are the victim of a personal injury, you need to speak with a personal injury attorney who will assess your case and discuss how to ensure justice is done.

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.

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While it would be nice to think that medical malpractice (med mal) was a thing of the past, the truth is it seems to be escalating.

Doctors are human beings and from a certain point of view, are also subject to making mistakes just like everyone else does. However, because they are doctors, they have a much higher standard of care to live up to because people rely on their judgment when it comes to diagnosing illness and recommending treatments.

Statistics on the number of med mal deaths across the U.S. tend to vary, but the most common figure seems to hover about the 100,000-person fatality mark. The frightening thing about that number is that less than half a percentage of those responsible for the deaths – doctors who have made errors – are called to justice for the mistakes. This is mind boggling, as one can only imagine the number of other personal injuries that go unchallenged because “The doctor said it was OK.”

Deviation from accepted medical standards by a healthcare provider is called medical malpractice, or medical negligence. Furthermore, such deviation may result in injuries or death. You should be aware that there is a fine line here between med mal and diagnostic errors. Diagnostic errors may or may not constitute negligence.

In order to be able to prove med mal in a court of law there are normally four things that have to be proven. The first criterion is that there was an actual duty that existed for the medical provider or hospital to offer appropriate care to a patient. The second criterion is that there was a failure in that duty to provide the appropriate care – “to the accepted standard.”

The phrase “to the accepted standard” is often one that means many different things to different medical expert witnesses in a med mal lawsuit. What is acceptable to one doctor may not be acceptable to another. In other words, this often may boil down to differences in opinion.

A perceived breach or deviation from a healthcare provider’s duties must be the direct cause of a patient’s injuries or death in order to launch a med mal lawsuit; and the damages being sought in court are specifically for the injury or death that was a consequence of malpractice/negligence. While this may sound fairly straightforward, the plaintiff, who carries the burden of proving all of the four points, is facing a significant struggle if there happens to be dueling expert medical witnesses called.

Having a competent and highly qualified med mal attorney to launch a med mal lawsuit isn’t just an option, it is a must have proposition. Without this kind of legal expertise at your disposal, you would not stand a chance in court. Only a thoroughly knowledgeable med mal attorney has the ability to marshal all the relevant evidence and present it in a compelling manner.

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.

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