Stephen M. Ozcomert » Blog

Hit and Run Accident Kills Toddler and Family Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit

jferris — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:33:42 +0000

Cases that involve kids are the toughest ones to handle. This accident story is heartbreaking.

Often in cases like this one, there are two elements you need to keep in mind: the criminal side and the civil side. In this reported case, there was the criminal element of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, driving without a license and felony hit-and-run causing a death.

The 22-year-old man, driving through a crosswalk, hit and killed a four-year-old pedestrian. Rather than stopping and remaining at the scene of the accident for the police to arrive, the driver left the area. The man probably knew he was going to be in deep trouble, compounded by the fact he was driving without a license and left the scene of the accident.

While the criminal side of this case will come first, the family can most definitely file a wrongful death lawsuit. Was there negligence involved? Yes. Here is a man driving without a license that gets involved in a hit-and-run accident, kills a small child and flees the scene. Whether or not the individual was also under the influence, distracted, speeding or whatever other reason he may have offered for why he hit the child is not relevant. The facts speak for themselves, or in the words of the law, “Res ipsa loquitur.”

While criminal accountability is vitally important, the other element, the civil wrongful death lawsuit, is equally as important. It is a way for the family to seek some form of compensation for that gut-wrenching loss of a family member; a toddler who had his whole life before him, but for the negligence of the 22-year-old driver who hit and killed him. Criminal courts decide if a person intentionally committed a crime. Civil courts figure out if wrongful conduct should be accountable, financially speaking.

The fact is that in civil wrongful death cases, the whole focus of the case is obtaining compensation for those wrongfully harmed. If you have been in a similar situation, seek expert legal counsel to handle your case. Only an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer has the requisite skill to ensure you get the compensation you deserve to move on with your life. While cases like this are never easy, a seasoned Atlanta personal injury lawyer has the strength and compassion to help you make it through your ordeal.

Tim Anderson writes for Atlanta Personal Injury attorney, Stephen M. Ozcomert. The firm specializes in personal injury, malpractice, motorcycle accidents, and wrongful death. To learn more about Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Stephen M. Ozcomert, visit http://www.ozcomert.com.

It Is No Surprise that 18-Wheeler Accidents Are on the Increase

jferris — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:33:31 +0000

The next time you are out on the highway, look around you. There are far more potentially deadly big rigs on the road than there ever used to be.

No one wants to hear that there are more accidents every year on the highways involving semis. Unfortunately, though, it is a hard, cold fact. In 2010 alone, close to 500,000 commercial trucks were in wrecks in the U.S. That overall figure includes at least 100,000 injuries and more than 5,000 deaths. In 2009, there were only 3,200 fatalities, says the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

If these figures were not dismal enough on their own, the Institute predicts an increase in commercial trucks on the roadways by 20 percent by 2012. You do not have to think too hard about what that means in terms of accident statistics. What causes trucking accidents?

This is a question that many people ask when they see this kind of a wreck; the same question hundreds of police officers, lawyers and victims ask in the ugly aftermath of this kind of accident. Interestingly, and not an astounding surprise, the biggest issue in big rig accidents can be traced directly to the behavior of the trucker. If you are interested in finding out more information on this issue, do an online search for the results of the Large Truck Causation Crash Study.

This particular study closely examined 120,000 18-wheeler accidents between 2001 and 2003, ultimately selecting 963 that involved a large truck and one passenger vehicle. The 963 crashes included 243 deaths and 1,654 injuries. As a part of this study, the timing and what was happening at the moment the inevitable crash took place was put under a microscope. The conclusion? That there were at least three catalysts for the wrecks:

The big rig drifted out of the travel lane and either went into another lane, or off the road entirely
The trucker lost control of the rig
The truck rear-ended another vehicle in the truck’s path

The study went several steps beyond these initial classifications and identified the critical event, or cause, of an accident: the trucker, the vehicle and the environment. One could likely surmise that an accident could also be caused by all three of the critical events at the same time.

What do all these events have in common? The driver. Thus the study broke out the driver category into other classifications that included:

The driver was impaired in some way, physically or mentally, i.e. alcohol or sleep deprivation
The driver was inattentive or distracted
The driver made a poor decision
The driver did something like overcompensating after a turn

The statistics are very clear, and the researchers concluded that truckers were at fault at least 55 percent of the time, which is a frightening conclusion. That means your life is in the hands of the person behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound behemoth, and you had better hope they make the right decisions to keep that rig on the road.

18-wheeler wrecks can be catastrophic. There is no other word to describe them. Their impact on people’s lives is never-ending, often fatal, and if a victim survives, their life is often altered in unimaginable and devastating ways. This is the main reason you need qualified legal counsel to handle your personal injury case. Without the assistance of a skilled Atlanta personal injury lawyer, you may not get the compensation you need to live out the rest of your life.

Do you want to take the chance of trying to deal with an insurance company on your own when an Atlanta personal injury lawyer knows how to handle them and get you the compensation you need to live? If you have been in a big-rig truck accident, do not second guess your future. Call an Atlanta personal injury lawyer right away.

DUI Charge in Wrongful Death Case Results in Unusual Sentence Provision

jferris — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:10:29 +0000

The courts are looking for unusual and innovative ways to make a point that it does not pay to drink and drive.

This reported case may sound like just another drunk driving conviction, but this one has a twist to it. This story started when a young 24-year-old man doing duty as a designated driver was taking his friends home from an evening out on the town drinking. After dropping the last one off, he headed home, but never made it.

In the middle of an intersection, another car driven by a 26-year-old woman ran a red light and slammed into the side of the man’s car. His family was in deep shock when they heard the news. That shock also turned to anger when they found out that her blood alcohol level was 0.229, and the legal limit was 0.08. The family sought legal counsel and filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Before the civil action was launched in court, the woman was criminally charged and convicted o driving under the influence, first-degree vehicular homicide and reckless driving. The court ordered her to begin serving a five-year prison term, with another five-year term spent on probation. The unusual twist to this case is that the mother of the deceased requested the court to order the woman to always carry a picture of her dead son with her during her sentence, and the court acquiesced to the request in the hopes it would drive home a point – that her negligence killed someone.

It never ceases to be a source of disappointment that people still drink and drive. It has been proven over and over again that driving while drunk kills. Sadly, those who drink and drive, and think that they will get home alive are being thoughtless, and may also wind up as dead as the innocent victim they run over because they wanted to get drunk.

Have you been in a wreck with a drunk driver? If you have, contact an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer and start asking questions about how you can recover compensation for your injuries. You will need to know your legal rights and how a case may proceed should you file a lawsuit with the assistance of an Atlanta personal injury lawyer. Do not wait to make that call. Your recovery may depend on it.

Dentist Sued for Wrongful Death of Teen

jferris — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:10:14 +0000

For most people, going to the dentist is stressful. For the 13-year-old girl in this reported case, it resulted in her death. The young girl was having teeth removed during oral surgery in the dentist’s office, when she stopped breathing. The autopsy revealed that the death was the result of complications from anesthesia, given prior to surgery.

The devastated family elected to file a wrongful death lawsuit, which was settled out of court by the dentist’s insurance company and negotiated by the state’s Dental Board. The most interesting aspect of this case were the remarks made by the Dental Board once the settlement had been negotiated, commenting, among other things, that it was the task of the Board to ensure unsafe dentists, or those that were likely a threat, either took further training to remediate deficient areas in their practice or, in the alternative, stop practicing.

The upside of this case was, in addition to the negotiated settlement, that the doctor agreed to retire. On the surface, this may have been a stunningly good idea, given the man’s age. Digging deeper revealed that it was not the first time that the doctor had been sued for wrongful death. In 1997, a 57-year-old woman died from similar complications with anesthetic. At that time, the dentist would have been 67-years-old. That case was also settled out of court.

The state Dental Board was also heard to say that this case was a prime example of how hard it was to regulate dentistry, an admission that makes one cringe when thinking about their next dental procedure. For the most part, dentists are careful, skilled and caring, and provide their patients with excellent care. And then, there is always the odd bad dentist. This of course raises some very serious questions about the liability of the Board and the dentists they license, as they do not appear to regulate all that closely or well.

Did the family of the 13-year-old girl have a good case? Yes, and the sad fact is that her death may not have happened had the state Dental Board taken action about the dentist’s license in 1997, and made sure he was safe to be licensed and still practice. Certainly “what if’s” will not bring the girl back, but they may raise this issue to a level where someone does something about it, so that questionable dentists do not keep practicing.
It is quite likely that this was one of the reasons this case settled out of court as well.

If you feel you have been the victim of dental malpractice, seek legal counsel from an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer. If you want justice and compensation for injuries you may have suffered, the only way to get your case settled or into court is with the assistance of a knowledgeable Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

Wrongful Death Suit Reasons

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Wrongful death suits can be filed for many reasons and aren’t limited to vehicle crashes.

Although every state has its own wrongful death statute and the requirements to file a wrongful death lawsuit under the auspices of that statute vary, the reasons for filing such a suit tend to remain the same.

Cases vary and have many components to them like the case involving a man whose wife died as the result of a car crash in July of 2009. In this instance, the van the couple was driving was rear-ended and forced off the road, rolling over several times before coming to a halt. The husband was permanently and severely injured, and the wife died as a result of her injuries. In consultation with a skilled personal injury attorney, the husband decided to file a wrongful death suit against not only the driver of the other vehicle, but General Motors and a seatbelt manufacturer.

If you’re familiar enough with personal injury law from reading articles like this, you will realize that the wrongful death suit’s foundation lies in negligence (of the other vehicle’s driver) and product liability (the maker of the van and the seatbelt manufacturer). When the case winds up in court, it will allege that in combination with the negligence of the other driver failing to control her vehicle, that the seatbelt in the van was defective and failed, ejecting the wife.

The plaintiff, the severely injured husband, will further claim that General Motors and the makers of the seatbelt knew, or should have known the belt design was defective and that it stood a good chance of failing under accident conditions. The plaintiff’s attorney will present evidence that close to 19,000 vans of the same type the couple was driving when hit, were recalled due to defective right rear seat belts. The problem? The belts had a propensity to separate during a crash, causing severe passenger injuries.

While this may sound like an open and shut case on first blush, there are all kinds of other issues that may arise. This is one of the major reasons that if you are in a car accident involving severe injuries or death you should immediately speak to an experienced personal injury attorney. You need legal assistance to get compensation for your injuries and to obtain a settlement in a wrongful death case. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do this on your own. There is too much at stake to be your own advocate in cases like this.

Tim Anderson works with Atlanta Personal Injury attorney, Stephen M. Ozcomert. The firm specializes in personal injury, malpractice, motorcycle accidents, and wrongful death. To learn more about Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Stephen M. Ozcomert, visit Ozcomert.com.

Rare Head-On Crash Between Two Motorcycles Kills Two and Injures at Least Four Others

jferris — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:30:37 +0000

It is not often that two bikers are involved in a head-on collision with each other. It was a clear day and the group of riders headed out the popular, scenic highway to take in the sights. The first group had four riders, all of who were very experienced with bikes and affiliated with a church. The second group of four riders was not so experienced and was also younger too.

Just because the second group of riders was younger and not as experienced does not necessarily mean they lacked good judgment. Unfortunately, however, one rider did not follow the rules of the road and was speeding while heading south on the highway. He lost control of his bike, crossed the median into opposing traffic and hit the lead biker from the church group. Both riders died an unnecessary death, because of the negligence of the biker who was speeding.

Certainly the 19-year-old rider likely thought he could do anything and be just fine, no matter what. Chances are he had never seen a bike accident and had no concept of death. However, he miscalculated on this ride and lost his life because of it. The tragedy is a double one because two lives were lost due to speeding when the young man did not having the skills to handle a bike at such high speeds.

It is highly likely that the man’s wife, who was badly injured but survived the wreck, will want to consult with a personal injury lawyer to find out what her rights are in this situation. If she were to talk to an Atlanta personal injury attorney, she would find out that she likely had a case and could sue the 19-year-old’s estate for compensation for the death of her husband.

She should be able to recover, among other things, compensation for pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of companionship, loss of benefits, loss of inheritance, funeral burial expenses and (in some instances) punitive damages. An Atlanta personal injury lawyer will also explain the differences in jurisdictions and awards to the family, as wrongful death laws vary greatly from state to state.

Drunk Pedestrian Ran Over and Wrongful Death Suit May Follow

jferris — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:27:53 +0000

Death comes to people in many strange ways. The man in this case was run over while lying in the middle of the road.

This reported case is very odd for a number of reasons. The main reason for this is that the victim was lying in the middle of the road; drunk but alive until the defendant ran over him and killed him. The defendant is a former state trooper, who, one would think, would have a higher degree of awareness about driving safely and would not leave the scene of the accident.

The trooper was off duty at the time of the accident, was in the car with his girlfriend, and heading home from a party when he struck and killed John Doe. For reasons only known to him, he chose to leave the scene and continue on his way home. His girlfriend did however speak to the police after the man was hit. Investigators on scene were able to determine the dead man had been alive prior to being hit and had a blood alcohol content of 0.20.

As it turned out, John Doe had a substantial record for alcohol offenses, including a two-year prison sentence for DWI, his third in four years. He had hit a 14-year-old girl on her bike in 2000 and an 11-year-old child in 2004. He stopped driving when he was let out of prison in 2006, likely figuring it was safer to walk home drunk to his wife and two small kids. It was a decision that cost him his life.

Other sheriffs that went to the trooper’s home to conduct interviews noted that the sheriff agreed to take an alcohol prescreening. It was determined he had not been drinking. Ultimately, after the investigation was complete, there were no criminal charges and the felony charge for leaving the scene of an accident was dismissed by a grand jury.

The reason the criminal charges were dismissed is that the district attorney indicated the purpose of the law is to ensure drivers who get into personal injury accidents call the police and admit their guilty by giving their name and contact information. The off duty trooper’s girlfriend did call them from the road and both met law enforcement at the trooper’s home later on.

Evidently, the interpretation of the statute does not outline, specifically, the amount of time a driver has to report the crash if there is no one at the scene to report to, and the law does not mandate a driver to remain at the scene if there is no one present to get into details about how a report should be made. While this may deal with the criminal charges, this does not mean the family of the dead man might not wish to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Would they be successful in filing a wrongful death lawsuit? It is likely that they would, given that it is hard to miss a body lying in the road when you are driving, given that the man was a trooper and subject to a higher standard of conduct and care and should not have fled the scene.

If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, do not wait to call an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer. Time is of the essence in cases like this, and in order to ensure all the relevant evidence is collected and understood in its proper context, your Atlanta personal injury lawyer needs to act fast.

Drunk Biker Wrecks Motorcycle and Severely Injures His Passenger

jferris — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:35:54 +0000

Drinking and driving is ridiculously stupid, but drinking and driving on a motorcycle is even riskier.

You would think that someone who was drunk and could not walk straight, let alone see properly, would not go ahead and hop on his motorcycle, invite a passenger to travel with him and then take off figuring nothing could possibly happen to him. Yet this biker did just that and caused his passenger severe, life-altering injuries, including brain shearing, a dislocated shoulder and a broken femur.

As it turned out, the biker in this reported case, had a lengthy rap sheet when it came to having his name on the police blotter. At 32 years old, the man had already been charged by police, just a month prior to this wreck, with three counts of DUI involving crashes that resulted in the death or injury of another and aggravated assault with a vehicle.

Apparently, the man was heading east on the interstate at about 10 p.m. when his bike hit a pile of debris that he had not seen. He lost control of the motorcycle and as it started to slide sideways toward the ditch and flip, the passenger, a 26-year-old woman, was thrown off the bike. EMS crews got her to the nearest hospital for treatment, where doctors said she was lucky she had been wearing a helmet, or the brain injury she sustained could have been worse.

Evidently the man’s charges for this accident will also involve driving without proper vehicle registration, driving without insurance and driving with an expired license. One of the questions involved here is whether or not the woman was aware the biker did not have insurance or an expired license and still chose to ride with him. She certainly chose to ride with him drunk.

Many juries are less than enthusiastic about plaintiffs filing lawsuits against drunk drivers if they voluntarily rode with them, despite being aware they were inebriated. In this instance though, there are more than enough other charges and evidence to prove the biker was reckless with his behavior, and that it is likely the woman would not have a clue about his license issues.

If you have ever been in an accident like this one and want to know what your rights are, call an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer. You need to know where you stand, how you may recover compensation for your injuries and what to expect should you proceed to settlement or the courts.

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Car Accident Causes Bizarre Motorcycle Crash and Serious Injuries

jferris — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:33:48 +0000

The strangest things happen when you least expect them. This accident caused people to shake their heads at the reckless driving involved.

Many people love riding a motorcycle because they are less expensive to operate than a car, and you feel the freedom of the road even more. But in this instance, a motorcyclist was out for a ride, and saw a speeding Volkswagen that lost control and hit a power pole.

If that is not bad enough, when the car hit the pole it snapped in two and the power lines landed in the street – but not before they slapped the biker across the neck and chest, causing him to lose control of his motorcycle.

Interestingly enough, the police on the scene of this reported accident decided to treat each accident as being separate. The biker might just want to pursue a case with a personal injury lawyer.

If the car was not speeding, then the accident would likely not have happened, unless the driver was texting, talking on his cell phone or fiddling with something on his dashboard. Given those various scenarios, it is entirely possible that the car driver was distracted while driving and the biker’s severe injuries would have been prevented.

The police report would give an Atlanta personal injury lawyer details on what was found at the scene of the accident. This could be a live cell phone with an open connection to someone or a partially completed text message. And, if booze was involved, this would be a whole other issue. Nonetheless, the plaintiff motorcyclist has the right to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover costs for his medical and other expenses as a result of the accident.

Have you been in a similar accident and do not know what to do? Call an experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer who knows what it is like to recover from an accident and what injuries may affect you in the long-term.

Motorcycle Helmet Debate Continues as Injuries and Deaths Still Occur

jferris — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:14:51 +0000

The debate over whether to wear a helmet on a motorcycle never ends. Some want wind-tousled hair, others desire safety. It does not matter who you talk to as everyone has an opinion about motorcycle helmets. They save lives. They do not save lives. Largely, the question boils down to what kind of helmet the biker was wearing and the nature of the accident, because honestly there will be some accidents that leave a biker dead, helmet or not. The most important thing to remember though is that there are solid statistics that show helmets do reduce the severity of brain trauma if they are the safety rated and approved ones.

This great helmet debate has been around just about as long as motorbikes have been, although some states do not have helmet laws or age based helmet laws. Michigan, for example, just passed a law that would make it illegal for bikers under the age of 21 to ride without a helmet. The ramifications of that will certainly make an impact in ERs across the state.

What is at the root of this debate? On one side are the bikers who see being forced to wear a helmet as a personal affront, treating it as their right to strike a blow against insurance companies and medical groups who both insist that repealing the helmet law would result in more fatalities. In actual fact, the number of accidents may remain the same, but the outcome of those accidents may vary according to the safety orientation of the biker.

Closer to the truth is a nugget of biker wisdom that says helmets or not, bikers are still dying and getting hurt and the only way to really not meet the Grim Reaper is to not get into an accident. That is a bit of a “duh” statement, as it is a well-known fact that if a motorcycle gets into a crash with another vehicle, the biker is not going to fare well in the outcome, helmet or not.

This is not to say that helmets do not reduce the severity of brain trauma, because they do. It just means, accidents will still happen, helmets or not. People will still die, helmets or not. However, the severity of the head injuries may be reduced, thus offering a biker a second chance. Often that is worth gold to the surviving biker.

Nationally there were more than 2,000 bikers still alive at the end of the year thanks to a helmet. On the other hand, in states where the motorcycle helmet law was repealed entirely (Texas, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky and Louisiana,), bikers deaths rose.

Will medical costs rise as a result of a repealed helmet law? Will insurance companies pay out more money as a result of more crashes involving bikers without helmets? These are interesting questions to take into consideration. Perhaps the true key to this conundrum is slowing down, taking care to avoid accidents and be alert at all times. Unfortunately, not everyone drives safely.

Have you been in a motorcycle accident and do not know what your rights are? Do not wait to find out. Get on the phone and contact a skilled Atlanta personal injury lawyer. You can ask as many questions as you like in the first consultation. It is the best thing you could possibly do for your peace of mind.