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What to Know About Ride-Sharing Accidents in Georgia

December 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

Gone are the days of standing perilously close to a busy city street and hailing a yellow taxi to take you to some other location uptown or downtown. Now, you can “hail” a cab from the comfort of your own home and convenience of your smartphone. The two most popular applications for ride-sharing services are Uber and Lyft, and each app handles millions of transactions each day.

With so much traffic (vehicular and digital) flowing through these apps, auto accidents associated with the apps are bound to happen. In a typical fender-bender, the at-fault driver typically has to pay up through his or her insurance carrier—usually a fairly straightforward process. What happens, though, when a driver for one of these ride-sharing companies (classified as an independent contractor) is involved in a serious car wreck? The fallout is fairly complicated, but we lay out below what you should expect.

What Happens if you are Injured by a Ride-Sharing Driver?

4 Possible Defenses in a Personal Injury Case

October 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

Through all the pain, turmoil, stress, and financial distress you go through after suffering a serious personal injury due to someone else’s negligence, you would think that getting compensation for your troubles is easy. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Defendants in personal injury cases will try anything (within reason) to either avoid paying you, the plaintiff, or, at the very least, decrease the amount they have to pay you. This blog will cover four common ways defendants may contest their liability in a personal injury case.

You didn’t take actions to mitigate the damage to your health and wellbeing. The defendant, more or less, admits that their negligence or actions caused harm to you. However, this defense is activated when the defendant claims that you didn’t take reasonable actions to mitigate, or lessen, your injuries. For instance, you might encounter this defense if you waited a day or two to get medical attention after a serious car accident.
You assumed the risks involved (assumption of risk). To successfully use this defense in a personal injury case, the defendant must convince the judge or jury of three things:

After a Serious Car Accident, What Can You Recover?

September 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

Most car accidents result in either minor injuries or no injuries at all to the drivers and passengers involved. This information is useless to individuals who, unfortunately, are involved in serious crashes that require urgent medical care. Even worse, more than 100 people in the U.S. die every day due to negligence on the road.

If everything goes as it should after an accident, the insurance company of the at-fault party will pay out the amount that victims (or their families) are entitled to. Sometimes, though, if the insurance company isn’t being fair, litigation may be necessary. If you have to pursue justice in court, you need to be aware of the types of damages (compensation) you may receive.

Economic Damages

5 Steps to Take After a Car Accident

August 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

In the hazy aftermath of a car accident, it can be difficult to determine how to behave and what steps to take. Besides getting to safety, you also have to worry about preserving your eventual claim with your insurance company. This blog will cover some of the important details you need to know if you are involved in a serious auto accident in Georgia.

Call the authorities and get necessary medical attention. This is crucial even if you haven’t suffered any visible injuries. Many health problems, like traumatic brain injuries and other internal wounds, are often not immediately visible. Besides taking care of your health and wellbeing, getting medical care for any injuries is important for your eventual claim (documenting medical expenses). Generally, it is also against the law to leave the scene of an accident.

Take pictures, interview witnesses, gather (and preserve) evidence. Unless it is unsafe to do so, take out your cell phone and take a copious amount of pictures at the scene. Be sure to get closeups of the damage to your car and any visible injuries. When emergency vehicles get to the scene, they will clean everything up fairly quickly, so time is of the essence. Get contact information for anyone you think may have witnessed the accident; you don’t necessarily have to put them on the spot and interrogate them about what they saw. It can be useful to get a binder or folder so all documents pertinent to the accident can be in one place.

4 Parties Who May be Liable in a Trucking Accident

July 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

Auto accidents among passenger vehicles, especially when they occur on the interstate or freeway, can have devastating consequences for those involved. When an accident involves a large truck or tractor-trailer, though, this potential goes up exponentially. The average tractor-trailer is at least 20 times heavier than the typical passenger sedan and takes much longer to come to a complete stop.

In addition to the increased possibility of serious injury or death with a trucking accident, there is also an increase in the number of liable parties. Who might be responsible for a trucking accident, and who will have to pay the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit? This blog will explore four possible parties.

Truck Driver. In an investigation following a trucking accident, the focus usually begins with the actions of the driver. Was he texting on his cellphone? Was he making telephone calls or in a telephone conversation? Was he or she speeding or driving recklessly at the time of the accident? Was there an effort to stop the truck right before the collision? Was the driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs or suffering from lack of sleep? These are some questions that need to be answered in an investigation.

What Are the Three Duties of Care in Premises Liability Cases?

June 20, 2020 | Robin Frazer Clark

One important aspect of many personal injury cases is the duty of care that the defendant owed at the time of the plaintiff’s injury. That is, how responsible is the property owner or manager for the injuries suffered by the victim? To help answer this question, Georgia courts generally classify plaintiffs into one of three categories: invitee, licensee, and trespasser.

Say you slipped and fell due to standing water outside of a business. How liable is the business for your injuries? What if your slip-and-fall occurred at your friend’s house? This blog will explore the three duty-of-care types and what it means for your personal injury case.

Invitee. This first duty of care provides plaintiffs with the greatest chance to succeed in their personal injury case if the invitee classification does apply. An invitee is someone who has either been “expressly” invited onto a property or received an implied invitation to occupy the premises for business purposes. Patrons of a retail store and residents of an apartment complex are all considered to be invitees.

The Overwhelming Emotion of a Trial

April 16, 2019 | Robin Frazer Clark

Recently, I was in a courtroom in Fulton County, Georgia watching a medical malpractice trial. I was not involved in the trial; I was just a trialwatcher. When I have time, I still enjoy watching trials, both civil and criminal, for the real life drama on display. No movie or play can capture the sheer, raw emotion of a trial. A jury’s decision can be life-altering. In a civil trial for money damages, a verdict for the plaintiff can give the family of the injured person or decedent a sense of Justice and much needed closure. A verdict for the defendant can give a defendant a sense of vindication. The whole trial process is designed to find the truth. In fact, the word “verdict,” in Latin, means “to speak the truth.”

I have often seen normal laypeople who are testifying realize, on the stand, they have underestimated the emotional pressure that the formality of the courtroom imposes on them. There is something about the utter dignity and formality of the Courtroom, with the judge sitting high on the bench, with a court reporter taking down every word uttered, with 12 citizens sitting in judgment, with a Deputy Sheriff at the door, that brings the enormity of it all into crystallized focus. In this medical malpractice trial I was watching, there was a moment with one of the defendants on the witness stand when he simply broke down during his testimony. He began to tear up on the stand and the began to cry, and the plaintiff’s attorney quickly asked the judge for a break. But it was too late. The defendant began crying uncontrollably, and literally fell down on the floor from the weight of it all. His attorney had to go help get him off the floor and then out of the courtroom as the bailiff quickly took the jury back to the jury room. It was clear that the defendant had suffered something so strong emotionally that he could not go on. We were all worried about his mental well-being. I knew his attorney and knew he would make sure his client was supported emotionally and not left alone. I believe his attorney was sincerely concerned about his client’s ability now to go on with the trial and meaningfully participate in the trial and assist his attorney. In speaking with several of the attorneys in the case, both plaintiff and defense, not one of us had ever seen something like that happen in a trial before. Most of us had practiced for over 30 years. Meanwhile, the plaintiff’s attorney felt just as strongly that the defendant’s outburst of emotion directly in front of the jury was so overly prejudicial that the jury could not help but sympathize with the defendant, regardless of any instruction the judge might give to the contrary. Telling a jury they may have no sympathy for either side is easier said than done when a witness has just broken down in front of their eyes. Discussion was had by all counsel with the judge in the judge’s chambers, and I was not privy to what they discussed and argued. Eventually, the defendant who had broken down on the stand reappeared in the courtroom. He looked shaken and seemed to be trembling. He was visibly trembling as he took sips out of a water bottle. There was no question in my mind that this was sincere and beyond his control. I felt empathy for him. After about an hour, though, the judge and all counsel came back into the courtroom and the jury was brought back into the courtroom. The judge declared a mistrial and thanked the jury for their work and instructed the jury they were no longer needed and that their jury duty had been fulfilled.

Wow.

Is Your Son’s Life Worth it? Should 16 Year Olds Be Sent to Prison?

April 11, 2017 | Robin Frazer Clark

I read with interest the news today that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the State of New York will no longer send 16 and 17 year olds to prison for criminal offenses. Instead, they will be sent to special newly created youth courts for felonies and to family court for misdemeanors. This new law is called “Raise the Age” initiative. Kudos to New York. And kudos to the other states that have raised the age for incarceration in state prisons. Since 2009, seven states have raised the age of adult proscecution to 18 and five more have tried during their 2015-16 legislative sessions. Here in Georgia, Representative Mary Margaret Oliver, Representative from the 82nd District, filed proposed legislation that would raise the age of adult criminal prosecution to 18 and enlarge the jurisdiction of Georgia Juvenile Courts to include 17 year olds. House Bill 53 was attempt by Oliver to treat juveniles under age 18 as just that…juveniles. “There are only six states that allow minors to be treated as adults for the criminal prosecution of all crimes,” said Rep. Oliver. “HB 53 is intended to bring Georgia into the mainstream so that 17-year-old minors will no longer be prosecuted as adults, but will be adjudicated in the juvenile court. Expanded juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-years-old children is a needed reform.” If passed, HB 53 would adjust the juvenile court’s jurisdiction to include children under the age of 18. This jurisdiction includes the investigation and examination of delinquent acts committed by minors. Under current law, only children under the age of 17 are included in the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. HB 53 was read on the House Floor, but unfortunately, never received a vote. In fact, there was other legislation filed in the Georgia General Assembly that would lower the age for criminal prosecution for certain offenses rather than raise it.

Many advocate groups are joining in the fight to raise the age for criminal prosecution. For example, the Campaign for Youth Justice, based in Washington, D.C., is focused entirely on ending the practice of prosecuting, sentencing, and incarcerating youth under the age of 18 in the adult criminal justice system. Statistics show that every year in the U.S., as many as 200,000 youth are put into the adult criminal justice system, most of them for non-violent offenses. In 22 states and the District of Columbia, children as young as seven can be prosecuted as adults. Each year 95,000 youth are held in adult jails and prisons. Research shows that youth in adult jails and prisons are at a higher risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse than their peers in the juvenile justice system. Advances in behavioral and brain science show that adolescent brains are different from adult brains. Consequently, the judgment “exercised” by youths is different than that exercised by adults. The American Bar Association recently reported on this in its February 2017 Journal. The article interviews Dr. Judith Edersheim, co-director of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at the Massachusetts General Hospital. As Dr. Edersheim explains it, “there are three widely agreed-upon differences between adult brains and adolescent brains. One is that during adolescence, kids actually lose “gray matter,” the brain cells that do all of the brain’s computation. This “pruning” of gray matter is especially concentrated in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for self-control, planning, decision-making and other executive functions.At the same time, Edersheim says, teenagers get more “white matter,” the cells that pass messages between parts of the brain, which increases processing speed. Scientists think these two changes make the brain more efficient, even though it also loses some computational ability. This process of brain maturation continues after the body matures; some scientists think it ends as late as age 25. But perhaps the most conspicuous difference, Edersheim says, is that adolescent brains have more circulating dopamine—a neutrotransmitter that scientists believe governs rewards and learning—and more receptors in their brains to pick it up. Dopamine is released when a person receives many kinds of rewards, including new experiences, as well as things such as food and sex. This predisposes teenagers to seek out rewards and novelty. The thinking, Edersheim says, is that this helps push adolescents out of the nest and into the world. And what kids learn during this process, she says, helps determine what parts of the gray matter get pruned. That means a kid’s environment matters a lot, and adult prison isn’t the best environment. “If you don’t provide an adolescent with an opportunity to develop a social competency or self-esteem, if you don’t put them in contact with pro-social peers, then you’re setting trajectories which actually might persist through adulthood,” Edersheim says. “Adolescents are really these neurologic sponges for their environment.””

One of the reasons I am interested in this legislation to raise the age is because I represent the mother of a young man who was incarcerated in adult state prison here in Georgia at the age of 16. At the age of 17, he attempted to kill himself by hanging from his bedsheet. He now remains in a constant minimally conscious state in a nursing home in South Georgia due to the brain damage he suffered during the suicide attempt. He is 19 years old. I firmly believe that had he not been sent to an adult prison at age 16 he would be a healthy 19 year old now, looking forward to rehabilitation for the offense he committed. That will never happen now.

How Much Is Your Life Worth?

November 22, 2016 | Robin Frazer Clark

Two fairly interesting court opinions were issued this week, one by a trial court judge in a bench trial, and the other from the Georgia Court of Appeals, both of which place a dollar value on the life of someone and both of which are, strikingly, very close to each other in amounts. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at them, as the value of a life is something I ponder quite often as a trial lawyer, and it is something I often have to ask juries to do in wrongful death trials. I am currently gearing up for the trial involving the wrongful death of a 23 year old young woman who was a kindergarten teacher in Gwinnett County. The trial will be taking place in Fulton State Court. So the value of a life is at the forefront of my thought these days. Let’s take a look at the wrongful death cases from this week.

The first case involves the wrongful death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Bobbi Brown and Whitney Houston. I am sure you are familiar with the incident surrounding her death. It was a tragic case. This week, Judge Jackson Bedford of the Superior Court of Fulton County, issued an award of $36 Million for the full value of the life of Bobbi Kristina. You may recall that, like her mother, Bobbi Kristina was found face down in a bathtub full of water. She survived on life support systems in a hospital for several months. The award was made against her life-partner, Nick Gordon. Mr. Gordon was not present at the trial of this case and it appears he may have been in default in the civil suit, meaning he never filed an answer to the lawsuit which would entitle the plaintiff to a trial on damages only, which is, apparently, what occurred. The young woman’s family blamed Gordon, accusing him in the lawsuit of giving Brown a “toxic cocktail” before putting her face-down in the water. Gordon, an orphan three years older whom Houston had raised as her own, has not been charged with a crime. Brown had referred to Gordon as her husband. Investigators with the medical examiner’s office were unable to determine exactly how Brown had died. An autopsy showed she had morphine, cocaine, alcohol and prescription drugs in her body. But the medical examiner couldn’t determine if she killed herself, if someone else killed her or if her death was accidental. Regardless of the amount of the award, it is unlikely that the Brown Family will ever collect a penny of it from Mr. Gordon. It is my understanding that he has no personal assets and could always file bankruptcy against the award. It is important, however, to note that a very seasoned trial judge, Judge Bedford, when faced with placing a dollar value on the life of a person, deemed $36 Million an appropriate number. Judge Bedford has presided over many wrongful death trials and is well versed in the law of wrongful death and what factors go into that decision of what is the value of life from the deceased’s point of view. Interestingly, under Georgia law, when determining the value of a life for wrongful death purposes, the jury is instructed they must value the life from the deceased’s point of view, meaning did the person who died value his or her life? The only “tool” the jury is to use to help them with this endeavor is their “enlightened conscience.” What was his life worth to him? What was her life worth to her? Judge Bedford decided $36 Million was the value of the life of Bobbi Kristini Bown. That may seem like a lot of money, but ask yourself this: If it was your daughter who had died, have they printed enough money to compensate for the loss of her? Name a dollar figure you believe adequately reflects the full value of the life of one of your children. It’s hard to think about, isn’t it. Now put yourself in the jurors’ shoes.

The second case this week involves the wrongful death of a little boy, Remington Walden, who burned to death in a fiery car crash when he was a passenger in a 1999 Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee. Two amazing trial lawyers, a father and son team, Jim Butler and his son, Jeb Butler, tried this wrongful death back in April 2015 in Decatur County (Bainbridge) Georgia. The plaintiffs alleged the 1999 Chrysler Jeep was defective due to the placement of its fuel tank in the rear of the Jeep, making a fuel-fed fire highly likely in a rear-end collision, which is what happened in this case. Unlike the Bobbi Kristina trial, which was a trial in front of a judge who decided the case, this was a good old-fashioned jury trial. The Decatur County jury found for the plaintiffs in the amount of $120 Million. That’s right…$120 Million. The trial judge then reduced or “remitted” the verdict, which is a power the trial court has, in lieu of a new trial. The trial judge reduced the $120 Million verdict to $40 Million , which the plaintiffs’ accepted. Chrysler did not, however, and appealed even the reduced verdict to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Well, the Georgia Court of Appeals this week affirmed the trial court, meaning it agreed with the trial court’s decision to reduce the verdict to $40 Million. Chrysler lost their appeal but has vowed to consider its options to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. I’ll be watching for that appeal. There was evidence in the trial that Remy, the little boy, burned alive for 60 seconds. It may seem that the jury thought $2 Million for every second of burning alive was appropriate. Who could argue with that? Who could even argue with $40 Million for that kind of death? Chrysler, I suppose. Chrysler still refuses to accept any responsibility for their defective product and refuses to accept any responsibility for the death of Remy Walden. Contrary to the Bobbi Kristina verdict, the plaintiffs stand to collect every penny of this verdict, plus interest, assuming it is affirmed on appeal by the Georgia Supreme Court.

10 Things That May Affect the Value of Your Case (In No Particular Order)

March 30, 2016 | Robin Frazer Clark

In the 28 years I have practiced plaintiff’s personal injury law here in Georgia, I have handled hundreds of cases, each one with a unique set of facts. I am often asked by clients what affects the value of their case? Many, many things, some reasonable and fair, some irrational and unpredictable, affect the value of a case. But they all matter. Below are just 10 such things that affect the value of a personal injury case, in no particular order. And this list of 10 items is NOT exclusive.

Did you leave the scene by ambulance? If you left the scene of a car wreck by ambulance, that suggests you knew right then you had suffered a severe injury, severe enough that you needed immediate medical treatment. If you did not leave the scene by ambulance, insurance adjusters and even jurors may tend to think perhaps your injuries were really not that bad. After all, you didn’t even need to go to the emergency room.
Did you or anyone call 911? See #1 above. Calling 911 suggests it is a true emergency, someone (you) are really hurt and you really need help right away.