Month: June 2011

Offline paper contracts are based on established case law. Unfortunately, the Internet has changed things drastically when it comes to online contracts.

“There is a whole history of established precedent for contract law; the kind of law based on a written contract, when both parties signed it and agreed to what was in the four corners of the document. They is also such a thing as verbal contracts, but they’re harder to prove if one of the parties denies the existence of a verbal contract,” said Robert Webb, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law.

There are four things needed to form a legally binding contract: the consideration involved; the intention to create a legal relationship; an offer and an acceptance. The consideration means that that parties will each benefit in some manner.

“The intention to create a contract is generally fairly clear in most cases, largely because the two individuals are negotiating something. What’s tricky is figuring out if the contract is legally binding and has an offer and acceptance part,” Webb said. Put another way, people cannot accept an invitation to treat and an invitation is distinctly different from a contract.

With the usual kind of a written on paper contract in the offline world, the two people involved sign it and agree to all the terms etc. Some of the issues covered would include the time the contract was entered, the specific terms and the jurisdiction the contract is relevant too. In the online world this is slightly different and negotiations are done via the web and emails and other e-methods.

Emails mimic paper correspondence sent my regular mail and, generally speaking, once someone offers something via email and accepts via email, the deed should be done. However, the difficult part about online offers and acceptances is that often, there are questions about the validity of the acceptance. Precisely, what online is the equivalent to snail mailing a letter? There is no clear definition of that – yet.

“If you thought business dealings offline had their touch and go moments, dealing with online offers and when an acceptance has been tendered is even trickier. Generally speaking, that would ultimately depend on each case or situation that arose. If you find yourself in a sticky situation involving an online contract, give us a call and we can discuss the situation with you,” Webb said.

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

Often, death due to medical malpractice results in a wrongful death lawsuit.

In this case, a medical doctor was sued for wrongful death and malpractice in the death of a well-known professional golfer. The father of the deceased, on behalf of her estate, filed the complaint. After a year-long investigation into the suicide of the young woman golfer, the father indicated in his lawsuit that he felt the doctor was directly responsible for his daughter’s death because of what he did and did not do; meaning he did things he should not have done and did not do things he should have done.

Evidently, although the woman also played golf with the doctor named as defendant in the lawsuit, she was also a patient of his. He was the last person to see the woman alive, and even though he called 911, he removed all drugs from her premises and also took her suicide note. The woman had been on multiple prescription drugs, including anti-anxiety meds, pain meds, and cough and headache medications. The coroner ruled her death a suicide due to asphyxia and the overload of drugs she had in her system at the time of her death.

The doctor pled guilty to obstruction of justice for taking evidence from the scene and was sentenced to a year’s probation and 40 hours of community service. None of this would bring the young woman back, and the family, hoping that this would never happen to anyone else, chose to file a wrongful death lawsuit on the heels of the man’s criminal conviction.

Wrongful death is not usually about getting even with the person or persons involved in the death. It is usually about the family not wanting anyone else to experience what happened to their loved one. It is about closure and moving forward in the memory of the deceased. It is also about insurance money that will help the family cope financially and be able to get on with their lives. They have sustained a significant loss emotionally and psychologically with the death of their daughter. They need not also suffer a financial loss to compound their devastation.

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.

In some places in the country, doctors may not be sued for making mistakes. Lately, medical malpractice cases have taken on a different twist.

“At one time, in certain states, if a doctor saw a patient in the ER complaining of chest pains, he or she would take a history and do some basic tests. If the tests showed no indication of a heart problem, the person would be sent home. That would be viewed as practicing good medicine and the doctor could not be sued if the patient died later of a heart attack,” said Robert Webb, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer with Webb & D’Orazio, a law firm specializing in personal injury, malpractice, criminal defense, and business law.

These days, things are changing in some states, enough so that doctors feel they need to practice defensive medicine to prevent being sued. The same patient from the first example going to the ER in another state would be admitted and run through an endless battery of tests, ostensibly to avoid a lawsuit.

“But really, does it avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit? The answer is, ‘No, it does not,’ and that is largely because no matter how many tests are run, if the person interpreting them makes a mistake or misreads them, there may still be a medical malpractice case filed due to a bad medical outcome,” Webb said.

The dilemma today is that many doctors feel they are boxed into a corner when it comes to diagnosing issues and are bordering on the paranoid about ensuring they do all they can in their power to get things right and help a patient. However, legally speaking, the frantic due diligence that may be performed by doctors not wanting to be sued for med mal is a waste of time, money and resources. The fact is that sometimes bad medical outcomes happen, no matter what a doctor does. This is what makes med mal cases as tricky as they are.

“Typically, malpractice is and should be, about deviating from an approved medical standard. Meaning, if a doctor doesn’t live up to the set standards of their specialty and doesn’t have an explanation as to why they did deviate from the accepted norm and something awful happens, they need to face the consequences,” Webb said.

On the other side of the fence, and this is where the great debate gets going, if a doctor does everything right and something bad happens, they feel they deserve to be protected. Life is life and sometimes bad things happen, despite good medical care. Therein lies the dilemma; one that has no right or wrong answer, but does result in troubling lawsuits.

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