Month: December 2010

Boating and drinking do not mix. This case is a prime example of what not to do when boating.

“This is a case that we heard about involving drinking and boating, ultimately resulting in a wrongful death. It’s a case that has a lesson in it for people who operate machinery while under the influence, whether that is a car or another form of transport,” said Robert Webb, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio in Georgia.

The husband of the deceased woman filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2009, after his wife was killed by the driver of a boat that sent her and another woman crashing into a dock. The boat’s pilot was traveling fast over the lake just prior to the accident and he was towing an inner tube carrying two women; the deceased and his own wife.

Evidently, just before the boat’s pilot took a very sharp turn, he shouted out for everyone to watch what he was about to do. As a result of his sharp turning maneuver, both women on the inner tube collided with the dock and were ejected into the air. The boat pilot’s wife survived with serious injuries. The other woman sustained a crushed leg and ribs in addition to severe internal injuries. By the time she was transported to hospital, she was pronounced dead.

The results of tests taken after the accident showed that the boat’s pilot had a blood alcohol content of .16; twice the legal limit for driving, never mind boating. A jury ultimately convicted him of manslaughter and jail time. The wrongful death lawsuit was a civil suit filed after the criminal case and his time was served.

“Drinking and driving isn’t just something that people do when they drive a car. Unfortunately, it also happens when they are in control of other kinds of transportation, including motorcycles, quads, ATVs, snow plows, boats and jet skis, etc. Needless to say, the end results of DUI in any circumstances may not be pretty. If you have been in a situation like this and you have personally sustained severe or life altering injuries, call our office, we’d be pleased to discuss how the law applies to your case,” Webb said.

In cases like this, a plaintiff needs the assistance of a seasoned Atlanta personal injury lawyer, or they may miss out on compensation that should be awarded. The law is complex when it comes to wrongful death cases and unless there is an experienced lawyer handling the case, there is a risk of the defendant getting off free.

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

It seems cell phone bans have not made the roads any safer. One wonders what is in store for the future.

“This is an interesting conundrum that we ran across just recently from another jurisdiction, but yet, it may well be applicable in many states. It seems that in Ontario, Canada, the Ottawa city police have come to the conclusion the cell phone ban implemented a year ago doesn’t make the drivers any safer,” said Robert Webb, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio in Georgia.

In order to crack down on cell phone use while driving, traffic enforcement being what it is these days, the police have a good bird’s eye view of just how many drivers are out there violating the law. This happens in just about every U.S. state as well. In Ottawa, the police regularly hand out 400 fines a month for driving while distracted and do not see any decline in the use of cell phones while driving.

“In Georgia, distracted driving accidents have sharply increased since the advent of various electronic devices that drivers use, such as cell phones, GPS navigation devices, PDAs and iPods. In fact, driving while distracted accounts for over 80 percent of all wrecks. However, when it comes to DUI, it’s only 33 percent. As you can see, this is a major problem,” Webb said.

Shockingly, there are recent studies that show that at any point in time during the day, there are almost 800,000 people driving while using a cell phone to either talk or text. It should come as no surprise then that those who drive and talk on a cell are four times more likely to get into a wreck and those who text while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a collision.

The odd thing is that since the bans on using cell phones and texting while driving have gone into effect, the accident rates have shot up, along with the fatalities.

“Unfortunately, the likely reason is that people are now hiding their behavior or disguising what they are doing; behavior that will result in even more accidents,” Webb said.

It should also be no surprise that enforcing “no texting while driving” is extremely difficult. It’s not easy to see a driver texting, unless they are blatantly open about it. Some do it with their cell phone on the seat beside them or on their laps. Couple difficult law enforcement with a low Georgia fine ($150) and just one point on a person’s driving record and texting drivers do not really have an incentive to stop their habits.

“A car weighs up to 4,000 pounds and can do a lot of damage when involved in a crash. For the sake of another’s life and your own life, don’t text or talk on a cell phone while driving. Think about the consequences. It could save you a lot of grief in the long run,” Webb said.

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

People may have a bad medical experience, but that may not be medical malpractice. Find out what medical malpractice is before talking to an Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

Did you know that there are not that many suspected med mal cases that actually make it to court? This is largely due to the fact that many patients don’t really know exactly what goes into making a med mal case versus what general complications of a medical procedure happen to be. In other words, they don’t know what really constitutes medical malpractice and what constitutes a general and likely expected complication of a certain treatment, procedure or surgery.

Knowing what the basics of a med mal claim are before you try to file one is a good idea, largely so you don’t waste time pursuing a case that isn’t a case. The first thing you need to know is that when it comes to figuring out if there is medical malpractice afoot is whether negligence was involved in your injury. You need to be able to show that the doctors or other medical professionals in charge of your care were negligent in their duties to you and because they were, they caused you harm.

The negligence we’re talking about here may come in many forms. The most glaringly evident one would be if a surgeon left a sponge inside your body after an operation. A far more subtle one would deal with misdiagnosis of cancer. In the case of a doctor leaving something in your body, you have a fairly solid case to work with, because there is plenty of evidence that shows the instrument or object inside your body. It is evidence like this that an Atlanta personal injury lawyer would use in court while representing a medical malpractice plaintiff.

On the other hand, misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose is a different can of worms. These are difficult cases to prov because the field of medicine is fraught with all kinds of what ifs, alternatives, diseases that mimic something else and human error. For a misdiagnosis, you need precise and very clear evidence that the medical professional didn’t recognize the signs of your condition and also failed to do something about it or failed to implement the proper or right treatment/medication(s) to deal with the issue. In cases like that, you will need an expert medical witness who combs through your medical history in depth and who will testify for you in court.

One thing you need to remember is that if the jury finds that a doctor did everything they possibly could to provide the absolute best outcome for your treatment or procedure, they will often find for the defense, even if your condition is not fixed. This is why you really need to speak to a skilled and competent Atlanta personal injury lawyer about your case. If however, there is obviously gross negligence in the handling of your case, this is another story altogether.

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.

You don’t want to be apprehended and charged with DUI in Georgia. Their laws are just about ironclad.

Driving while under the influence is, unfortunately, more common that we would like it to be. For some reason, people who drink and drive think they are immortal. They also think nothing will happen to them and that it is safe to drive. It is not safe to drive and the statistics show a high number of deaths related to those who drink and drive – killing themselves and killing others.

DUI in Georgia is no picnic. Usually, the repercussions are losing your drivers certificate and driving privileges. Yes, you can certainly ask for a new one, but you will need a good DUI Atlanta criminal defense lawyer to get this done. He or she will be able to help you through the administrative driver’s license postponement process. Unfortunately, that also means you will be cited in one of two ways: with a per se violation or a less safe driver violation.

For the less safe driver violation, you are dealing with the police officer’s judgment at the time of your apprehension. In other words, there isn’t any scientific verification of the officer’s assessment that you were DUI. Their notes may show your speech was slurred, you reeked of booze, couldn’t walk a straight line, etc.

On the other hand, the per se violation is a proven fact; the fact that your blood alcohol content was over the official limit. What is the permissible limit in Georgia? In drivers over the age of 21, it’s .08 percent. Those over that limit face a variety of penalties such as 24 hours to 12 months in jail for a first offense. There may also be fines involved ranging from $600 to $1,000 and you may find yourself serving, at the very least, 40 hours of public service. There are a variety of other penalties, all of which need to be discussed with your Atlanta criminal defense lawyer in order to get the best possible outcome for your case.

Most criminal defense lawyers will tell you right upfront not to talk to the police and to say nothing until you make contact with a lawyer. The only person who needs to hear the whole story about what you were doing drinking and driving is the lawyer.

The main reason for this is that if you voluntarily start talking about why you were out drinking and what you were doing, this information will wind up in court later. If you do say things you were better off not saying, you significantly hamper your lawyer’s ability to help you mitigate the charges or get them thrown out. Also, it is best to remember that if you choose to continue to drink and drive and rack up charge after charge, the penalties get increasingly stiffer. Ultimately, you could have an ignition interlock device on every vehicle you own.

Think twice about drinking and driving in Georgia for two reasons; if you’re caught, your record will dog you for years to come and drinking and driving kills. Do you really want to become another DUI statistic?

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.