Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Deference to the Trial Court? Complete Submission or Polite Respect?

December 9, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

As many of you know, I have tried a lot of cases over the last 25 years as a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer here in Atlanta, Georgia. I also have appeared numerous times (37 at last count) in Georgia’s appellate courts and as a trial lawyer I handle my cases through completion, including the appellate process. I have had two appellate arguments this year, one in the Georgia Court of Appeals and one in the Supreme Court of Georgia, our state’s highest court, and so it is natural, I suppose, to have the issue of deference to a trial court by appellate courts on my mind and heart.

Appellate courts are courts that correct errors of law made in the trial court, sometimes called “the court below” in an apparent nod to hierarchy among our courts. As a trial lawyer, I believe I must win my case for my client in the trial court. I do not subscribe to the opinion, as some lawyers do, that, worse comes to worse, I can always win it in the appellate court. I want to win a verdict in the trial court and then hold on to that verdict, thus, I go out of my way to ensure there is no error from which the defendant could appeal in the trial. This strategy takes both extreme foresight and planning but also lightening speed decision-making in the trial.

Appellate courts must use certain “standards of review,” i.e., a specific framework in which to judge what happened in the trial court, according to the posture the case is in when it lands in the appellate court’s lap. These standards of review are well known and almost taken for granted, as if every lawyer and every judge in Georgia agrees to their meaning. The Georgia Court of Appeals even lists them on its website for easy, quick reference. But even though we can state the standards of review very plainly, it is not true that all lawyers and all judges readily agree on their meaning and application. That is when it gets fun.

$35 Million Dollar Verdict Returned in Cobb County

November 21, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

Following up on my blog from a few days ago regarding the Joshua Martin v. Six Flags trial, the jury returned a verdict last night in favor of Joshua for $35 Million. The jury apportioned 2% fault to each of the four gang members who plead guilty to some criminal charge in relation to the beating of Joshua, which means Six Flags Over Georgia is responsible for roughly $32 Million of the verdict.

Joshua Martin v. Six Flags: A Landowner’s Nondelegable Duty to Keep Its Property Safe

November 19, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

The case of Joshua Martin v. Six Flags Over Georgia is being tried this week in Cobb County State Court before the Honorable Kathryn Tanksley. You may recall the sad incident in which a gang beat Joshua severely to the point of putting him into a coma at Six Flags of Georgia. Joshua suffered a traumatic brain injury from the beating but survived. Unfortunately, he will never be the same as he was before the beating. Joshua is very ably being represented by trial attorneys Mike Neff, Gil Deitch and Andy Rogers.

The case is being tried because Six Flags Over Georgia has refused to accept any responsibility for the beating. In a written statement, Six Flags officials say the attack did not happen on their property but they are helping authorities in the matter and they strive to keep visitors safe. So Six Flags is denying any responsibility. This is true even though one of the gang members who ultimately pled guilty to aggravated assault, Brad Johnson, was an employee of Six Flags at the time. I was in court yesterday when Mr. Johnson testified after I had ridden up to the third floor of the Courthouse with him in the elevator. He testified under oath yesterday that he had stored a pair of brass knuckles in a flower bed at Six Flags as he came to work that day and retrieved them when he left with several other gang members. He gave the brass knuckles to another individual who used them in the beating of Joshua Martin. One of Mr. Johnson’s jobs at Six Flags was to maintain that particular flower bed so he knew, apparently, that his brass knuckles would be safe until he wanted to use them. So for his role he plead guilty to aggravated assault, received a sentence of 10 years to serve two, which means he spent less than two years in prison and now is on probation for 8 years.

Other startling testimony from the trial yesterday was that this gang intended to beat a man who was in the parking lot with his family, and then, as a whim, just decided to beat Joshua instead. The former President of Six Flags Over Georgia also testified yesterday and said the beating of Joshua occurred on a corner of an a dirt walkway that both patrons and employees used to walk from the CCT and MARTA bus stops to the Six Flags entrance way. Yet Six Flags still maintains it’s defense that it’s not responsible because it didn’t happen on Six Flags property. The Six Flags President also remarkably testified that Six Flags didn’t try to warn or alert the public that this had occurred right at the mouth of Six Flags because “she didn’t see the need for that.” I was watching jurors’ reactions to her testimony and several jurors showed outright disbelief at this testimony.

Waiting on a Jury

October 3, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

Well, I am writing from the witness room next to Courtroom 2F of the Fulton County State Court, Atlanta, Georgia. This has been my home-away-from-home for the last two weeks. I am waiting on a jury. This may be the most gut-wrenching time of a trial, although there are many. Trying personal injury cases in front of a jury is not for the feint-of-heart. This case is a medical malpractice case against an Atlanta hospital for the negligence of their nurses in inadequate monitoring of a 31 year old, post-surgical patient who had severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The nurses failed to put a CPAP on him while he slept, even though there was an doctor’s order for a CPAP, then gave him a 3 mg. shot of Dilaudid, the strongest narcotic a nurse can deliver to a patient bedside, then the nurse went to lunch, leaving their patient completely unprotected without any monitoring. No pulse oximetry, no telemetry, no dedicated trained observer. You guessed what happened next, didn’t you? He obstructed, meaning his airway became completely blocked, due to the lack of the CPAP. He died. A 31 year old father of two boys and husband to my client.

The jury has deliberated now for a solid day. We are back for day #2 of deliberations after 7 days of trial. I have always said I trust the jury. And I do. But I can’t help but be nervous that justice is done for my client. The defense attorney is nice and good at his job. He never makes unforced errors so there are no gifts handed to you from a legal standpoint in such a trial. The judge, although a rookie, is great. She has done a fantastic job and if the jury doesn’t go our way it is not the judge’s fault. As trials go, this has been certainly a pleasant experience, right down to an extremely nice court reporter and Deputy who has made sure the judge and all of us, including our jurors, have been safe at all times. Thank you, Deputy! I appreciate you!

Medical malpractice cases are hard anywhere, but particularly hard here in Georgia. The deck is stacked against the plaintiff, legally, culturally and politically. Several things work against a medical malpractice plaintiff under Georgia law. The first that comes to mind is a presumption that doctors and hospitals acted with due care. No other profession and no other person gets the benefit of this type of presumption. It is special treatment for Georgia medical providers. It is unfair. The judge actually reads this presumption to the jury as Georgia law, even though the plaintiff has already rebutted the presumption by an affidavit of a qualified physician at the time the lawsuit is initiated with the Complaint. Presumption rebutted. The plaintiff further rebuts it with testimony from competent, qualified expert witnesses during trial. This is an evidentiary requirement in medical malpractice cases. Presumption rebutted. And yet the doctor still gets to have this law read to the jury as if there still may be some doubt that Plaintiff hasn’t yet rebutted the presumption. It is wrong and it is unfair.

Jurors Should Walk a Mile in Your Client’s Shoes

September 20, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, I have tried many personal injury cases on behalf of very deserving clients. My job is to persuade the jurors my client is deserving of money damages to compensate them for the injuries they have received that may be permanent, something they’ll have to deal with the rest of their lives. The best way to convey this message, quite simply, is to ask the jurors to put themselves in your client’s shoes and see how they would feel, right? But did you know in Georgia, in personal injury cases, I am forbidden from even making that argument to the jury? Doesn’t make alot of sense, does it? But Georgia Law limits what I can say and it would be error for me to use what is often referred to as The Golden Rule, i.e., asking the jurors “how they would feel” if this horrible injury had happened to them.

Now that’s in a personal injury case in which your client survived whatever tragedy befell them. In a wrongful death case in Georgia, it’s different, because the law in Georgia regarding the measure of damages in a wrongful death case is “the full value of the life of the decedent, from the decedent’s perspective.” So this necessarily means I must ask the jurors to see things from the perspective of the person who died to be able to place a value on his or her life.

Defense attorneys often attempt to limit my argument in a wrongful death trial citing The Golden Rule. They often cite a Georgia case for authority for their position, Myrick v. Stephanos, 220 Ga. App. 520 (1996), which is not a wrongful death case. It was a tractor-trailer wreck case involving severe personal injury to the plaintiff. But the plaintiff lived. The measure of damages in a personal injury case are different than in a wrongful death case. Damages in a personal injury case in which the injured plaintiff is living is not measured from the perspective of the plaintiff. This is why the Myrick court reversed the trial court on the basis of the “Golden Rule” argument made by Plaintiff’s counsel. The Myrick court note that such an argument in a personal injury case “is improper because it asks the jurors to consider the case, not objectively as fair and impartial jurors, but rather from the biased, subjective standpoint of a litigant. 75A AmJur2d, Trial, § 650 (1991).” Myrick v. Stephanos, 220 Ga. App. 520, 522, 472 S.E.2d 431, 435 (1996).

Swimming Pool Pumps Need Emergency Cutoff Switches

August 16, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

Recently, in Atlanta, Georgia, there has been a lot of media coverage of the near-drowning incident of Usher’s son in a private swimming pool. Apparently, the child’s arm became stuck in a drain at the bottom of the pool and he could not free himself. Audio contractors who were working in the house came to his aid after hearing the screams by his Aunt for help and were able to jump in the pool, pull the child off the drain, administer CPR and save the child’s life. The last report I heard on the child’s recovery is he was doing well, which is wonderful news.

Still of great concern, however, is that pool drain and why the child could not get free from it. There should have been an anti-entrapment drain cover on this pool (photo of a drain cover is above) and an emergency pump cutoff switch, which would have broken the suction power of the drain. The suction power of a swimming pool drain is enormous and can be deadly. There have been numerous cases of children being stuck on a drain in a swimming pool, hot tub or spa and being unable to get off the drain by themselves due to the enormous suction power. In many horrific cases, sometimes the children caught by these drains are eviscerated, i.e., the suction from the drain literally rips their intestines out of them and they are killed or disabled. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been investigating these incidents since the 1970’s. In 2007, for all age categories, there were 74 reports of circulation entrapments. Individuals in the 5- to 9-year-old category had the highest frequency of entrapment reports. You may never have thought of that possibility until just now. I am writing to make sure you are aware of this deadly potential and, if you are a pool owner, to take action now to install an emergency cutoff switch to the pump that supplies this unbelievable suction power, and if you are merely swimming in someone else’s pool or hot tub, to inquire about the existence of such a emergency cutoff switch and to warn your children to stay away from drains.

There is now in place a Federal Law that requires all public pools and hot tubs to have an anti-entrapment drain cover or other life-saving measures. Passed in 2007, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (PSSA), named after the granddaughter of James Baker, III, who died after being caught by a drain in a hot tub. As of December 18, 2008, all public pools and spa were supposed to be in compliance with this act. Although this law applies technically only to public pools, private pools in 2013 really should also be in compliance. Older pools can easily be retrofitted by any pool management or maintenance company. Please check any pool you own or any pool your child swims in for these life-saving devices. Unless you are a personal injury trial lawyer, you may never have even thought of this potentially deadly incident, but the incident involving Usher’s son is a wake-up call to be vigilant so that your loved one is not injured or killed.

Hit and Run Motorcyle Wreck in DeKalb County Creates Uninsured Motorist Claims

July 17, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

I was just reading about devastating wreck in DeKalb County caused by two racing motorcycles. The photographs from this wreck make it clear this was an horrific wreck. The victims are lucky to be alive. It is also unbelievable that one of the racing motorcyclists, who, apparently, slid up under a car, was able to get up and leave the scene of the wreck. His leaving the scene of the wreck violates Georgia law. He was required to stay there and actually render aid to his victims until Georgia law enforcement arrived.

Georgia Code Section 40-6-270 states:

Duty in accidents involving personal injury to or death of person or damage to vehicle

Seizure Causes Fatal Car Wreck in Clayton County

June 3, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

On Saturday, a head on collision in Clayton County left one dead and another in critical condition in Atlanta Medical Center. Mookie Blaylock, former Atlanta Hawks All-Star, drove over the median into southbound lanes on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, GA and ran into a van head on, killing the passenger of the van. Blaylock remains in the hospital under critical condition. It is unknown what caused Blaylock to cross the median into oncoming traffic. Blaylock has recently been treated for seizures, and although this is not a confirmed contributing factor in the accident, people who have had seizures may not be safe to drive, nor allowed by Georgia law. In fact, a person with epilepsy may obtain a license to drive cars and trucks weighing less than 26,000 pounds if he or she has been seizure-free for 6 months. [GA. COMP. R. & REGS. r. § 375-3-5-.02(2)(c) (2010); GA. CODE ANN. § 40-5-35(a) (2010)] People that experience nocturnal seizures, seizures that occur at night, may obtain a restricted license for day-time driving only. There are 6 states (California, Delaware, New jersey, Oregon, and Pennsylvania) that require physicians to report people experiencing seizures to a state agency, usually to the Department of Driver Services. Georgia law does not require physicians to report such cases, but GA doctors are permitted to release medical records if they believe the patient is incapable of operating a motor vehicle. It is imperative that epileptic people use caution concerning driving as seizures may return at any time. Many physicians believe at least 12 months is necessary to be sure it is safe to drive. People that experience an aura before a seizure are at a much reduced risk of accidents as the aura may act as a warning that a seizure may be coming. If you have epilepsy or have experienced a recent seizure you may want to look up your legal standing pertaining to your driving eligibility.

DeKalb County Bicycle Wreck Results in Death

May 30, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

Traveling on a bicycle can be extremely beneficial to ones health and environment, but can be exceptionally dangerous, particularly in a busy city filled with anxious, and often careless drivers such as Atlanta. Drivers are multitasking constantly, and with so many other tasks to complete, looking out for bikers and pedestrians while driving is often neglected. A bicyclist is allowed to operate in the middle of the traffic lane if the bicycle lane is obstructed or if the road is too narrow to provide a specific bike lane. The Georgia Drivers manual states, “The law requires a driver to allow at least three feet between the driver and bicyclist wh en passing.” Often this is when most bike accidents happen, some very avoidable.
Over this past Memorial Day weekend, a 14 year old boy was killed in a bicycle accident in DeKalb County. While traveling east on Casey Cove Road, the boy crossed the center line and struck the front of an oncoming Honda CRV, headed westbound. The collision knocked him from his bike to ground where he was struck by an F-150 Pick up truck, also headed westbound. The boy was taken to Dekalb Community Hospital where he later died of brain injuries. The boy was a football player and just graduated the 8th grade, soon headed to high school. This young man didn’t even outlive his maternal great grandmother, a reminder that any of our lives can be taken whilst still unfulfilled, and at a moments notice.

Simple precautions when riding a bike may prevent the chance of an accident. While many accidents are out of the hands of the bicyclist, it is important to prevent the ones you can, but prepare for the ones you can’t. Robin Frazer Clark has handled many bicycle-car collision cases similar to this one, and fights to obtain justice for those whose lives have been significantly altered by the carelessness of others.

Your Uninsured Motorist Coverage Covers You When You Are a Pesdestrian and Hit by a Hit and Run Vehicle

May 7, 2013 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney who handles a wide variety of car wreck cases in Atlanta and the surrounding Metro area, I am sometimes, though not that often, asked to represent people in hit and run incidents. I say not that often because I don’t think many people know that their own car insurance may provide coverage to them when they are involved in a hit and run incident, especially when they are hit as a pedestrian. That may come as a surprise to you. It does to many people, including even other lawyers and judges. Unless you routinely handle car wreck cases as a lawyer, you may not be aware that your uninsured motorist coverage (UM) that you have purchased on your own vehicle also provides insurance coverage when you are hit while a pedestrian by a hit and run car.

But the insurance carriers know it, and once you try to make a claim on your car insurance policy for injuries sustained while a pedestrian, that’s when the insurance carriers go into full press mode to trot out every excuse in the book to deny you coverage. It’s wrong on many levels, especially when you were the one who paid the premiums exactly for that situation. It may even border on fraudulent, because they certainly don’t explain that to you when you are paying them the premiums!

This unjust situation came to mind recently as I read a story about a young UGA student who was hit by a hit and run driver while she was a pedestrian in Athens. She was severely injured in the incident. It also came to mind because next month I will be arguing this issue to the Georgia Court of Appeals in which I represent a client who was also severely injured by a hit and run driver while he was walking across Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta. State Farm Insurance Company denied his claim on his own policy on the basis that he did not report the incident to State Farm immediately. Did you know your car insurance policy, regardless of the carrier, has a provision in it that you must report an incident to them immediately. Which begs the question: what if you don’t know it’s an incident that might be covered by the policy? What average person would think that their insurance policy that covers their car would provide insurance coverage to them when they are on foot? That doesn’t even make sense, does it?