Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

America’s New Deadly Obsession: Texting While Driving

January 16, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

My consistent readers know I have been on a crusade to eliminate Texting
While Driving (TWD) here in Georgia. I will be offering my assistance to Georgia Legislators interested in passing that bill this session. Seems lots of folks are getting on the TWD bandwagon now, including Oprah. This is wonderful news because Oprah seems to have the Midas Touch…she makes things happen. Please watch Monday’s Oprah at 4:00 p.m. on WSBTV (Channel 2) entitled “This Show Could Save Your Life: America’s New Deadly Obsession.” As I was traveling down I-85 South coming home from my daughter’s basketball game this morning, I saw a woman in a red Chrysler Sebring hard-top convertible going about 75 m.p.h., texting with her arms outstretched stuck through her steering wheel. Scary!! I hope she will be on watching Monday.

Texting While Driving Proposed Legislation in Georgia Legislature

January 15, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

Many of you know that texting while driving has been one of my pet peeves for awhile. Studies have shown that texting while driving makes a driver about as impaired as if he or she were intoxicated. Unfortunately, unlike drinking while driving, texting while driving is not (yet) illegal in the State of Georgia.

Check out House Bill 23, a proposed piece of legislation that would make it illegal to text while driving. I intend to work with the sponsors of this bill to help it move forward. It passed the Georgia House last session and now is sitting in the Georgia Senate. I will keep you updated on its progress during the Georgia General Assembly 2010 session.

The Alaimo Way: Georgia Federal Judge One of the Greats

January 14, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

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I have written often in the past about Judge Anthony Alaimo, a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Georgia, who the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association honored with its first Anthony Alaimo Guardian of Justice Award last year. Judge Alaimo passed at the end of 2009. Put simply, there will never be another person like him. Below is a column that appeared in the Augusta Chronicle about this Great American.

The Alaimo way

Groundbreaking federal judge set a gold standard for the bench

Giovanni Santos Gets New Kidney Through Paired Donor Program

January 13, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

Finds Compatible Donors Across The Country

Read Comments (1)Recommend Print Article Email Article Larger Smaller Updated 1/12/2010 6:21:02 PM

Marc Pickard

Georgia Physicians Shouldn’t Get Special Treatment Over All Other Georgia Citizens

January 11, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

How many hoops should you have to jump through to get justice? It’s a fair question that many people struggle with. Recently, the CEO of a Georgia medical services company suggested in a guest column in the Atlanta Journal and Consitution on Friday, January 8, 2010, that to be really sure that Georgians who have been harmed by negligent medical care are worthy of justice we should subject them to one more hoop. Not coincidentally, it’s a hoop that benefits only medical professionals and insurance companies – the only two interest groups that profit when injured patients are prevented from securing justice.

What this CEO has proposed is that, instead of allowing victims of medical malpractice the same Constitutional Right to Trial by Jury enjoyed by all other Georgians, people harmed by medical malpractice would have to get permission to have a jury trial from a “screening panel” comprised of members of the medical and insurance industries, the same entities that want to avoid compensating injured patients. This approach is wrong and adds an unnecessary, ineffective layer to our civil justice system.

The fact is all medical malpractice cases brought in Georgia have already been through multiple screening hoops. The first hoop is that you have to have had something very bad happen as a result of malpractice. Your next hoop is that you have to find a lawyer willing and able to take your case. That lawyer will tell you that there is another, special hoop that protects only professionals charged with negligence. In order to pass through that hoop, the patient must find a medical professional willing to publicly criticize their colleague and sign a document swearing that malpractice happened. So far your case has been screened three times: Something bad happens. You find a lawyer who will invest in helping you find justice. And, you find another doctor who agrees that there was malpractice and is willing to say so. Then there’s a fourth screening before you can have a jury hear your case: the judge must screen the case, too.

Paired Donor Program for Kidney Transplant a Miracle

January 5, 2010 | Robin Frazer Clark

Some of you may remember a blog post I wrote several months ago about Giovanni Santos, a young man here in Georgia who desperately needed a new kidney. Giovanni has been undergoing dialysis every day to keep him alive until a donor kidney turned up for him. Well, today is the day. Through the remarkable “paired donor” program, Giovanni will receive a kidney from a non-relative somewhere in Texas who matches Giovanni and simultaneously, the family in Texas will receive a kidney from Michelle Santos, Giovanni’s mom, whose kidney didn’t match her son’s but did match the person who needs a new kidney in Texas. Amazing, isn’t it? Please keep the Santos Family and their surgeons in your prayers so that all goes well and keep the Texas Family in your prayers, also. Below is an article published by 11Alive.com on the surgeries occuring today in two states.

You can learn more about the paired donation program at the Paired Donation Alliance. In 2009 People Magazine honored 20 individuals as the People Most Unselfish Heroes of the Year who created the longest kidney donation chain ever. Another amazing story!!

He’s Finally Going To Get The Healthy Kidney He Desperately Needs

Don’t Drink and Drive on New Year’s Eve: Take a Cab!

December 30, 2009 | Robin Frazer Clark

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Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve, a night when those who have had too much to drink from celebrating the New Year will, undoubtedly, be out on the road. This is known to be such a dangerous night to drive that a funeral home in Rome, Georgia is actually offering a free burial to anyone who dies from driving drunk tomorrow night. No joke! I can assure you the Georgia State Patrol is preparing for tomorrow night. They will have various random road blocks to check for possible DUI’s and they will arrest plenty of intoxicated drivers.

December is “Drunk and Drugged Driver Awareness Month” in Georgia as holiday parties can increase the number of impaired drivers on the state’s roads. Leading into the Christmas and New Year’s weekends, Georgia State Troopers and officers with the Motor Carrier Compliance Division will concentrate on intercepting impaired drivers on the roads before they can cause a traffic crash. In what is one of the more morbid activities performed by the Georgia State Patrol, the GSP predicts during Holiday driving periods how many Georgia drivers are likely to be killed in motor vehicle accidents. For example, The State Patrol predicted 16 people would die

during the Christmas holiday weekend, which turned out to be safer than expected on Georgia roads. Twelve people were killed during the 78 hour period. Likewise, The Georgia State Patrol predicts that 16 people will be killed in wrecks over the 78 hour New Year’s holiday period, which begins at 6 PM Thursday. Many of those traffic fatalities will involve drinking. Roughly one-third of the traffic deaths each year in Georgia involve an alcohol or drug impaired driver. The Georgia State Patrol has “Nighthawks” division, the Nighthawk DUI Task Force, which was recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police as the outstanding DUI team in the nation in 2005. The Nighthawks patrol the roads of Georgia looking to find DUI drivers and get them off our roads.

Window Blinds Recalled

December 15, 2009 | Robin Frazer Clark

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled over 50 Million window blinds due to the potential for choking small children. Parents and grandparents who have blinds in their homes, in my opinion, should immediately remove them. If you want to be certain that the brand of blind you have in your home has been recalled (and there is a good chance it has) you may check the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website to confirm this.

That window blinds pose a threat of strangulation to small children has been widely known for years. Just ask the group Parents For Window Blind Safety. There are other potential strangulation hazards in every home you must be concerned with. You may remember that the young daughter of the former professional boxer, Mike Tyson, recently was killed by strangulation by a looped cord on a treadmill, in a similar manner that these window blinds strangle children.

I think the bottom line is that we cannot wait for the CPSC to act on dangers to our children. That commission simply waits too long to act. Check your home for dangerous blinds now and remove them.

Robin Frazer Clark Announces Candidacy for Secretary of State Bar of Georgia

December 4, 2009 | Robin Frazer Clark

I am proud to announce my candidacy for the office of Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia. This is an important election because it will determine the direction the State Bar takes in the next few years. I believe my experience working with the Georgia General Assembly as President of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and in the years since then, will greatly help the State Bar’s effectiveness with the Legislature, which I believe will be crucial in the coming years.

Below is my letter announcing that I am running for Secretary that I sent to the Executive Committee of the State Bar and to the Board of Governors:

Dear Friends:

Use Caution With So-Called “Herbal Remedies”

November 23, 2009 | Robin Frazer Clark

Have you been taking so-called “herbal remedies?” BE CAREFUL. I am particularly interested if you have been taking a homeopathic drug called “Tobacco Addiction,” the manufacturer of which boasts can eliminate your addiction to smoking. If you have been taking that homeopathic drug, please call me. This is a drug made right here in Georgia which many Georgians may be taking unawares.

There appears an interesting article at cnn.com , “Herbal Remedies Need Real Scrutiny” about herbal remedies or homeopathic drugs and they remain unregulated in the United States, even though many of these drugs have been known to cause severe side effects and don’t do what they say they will do. These drugs are not monitored by the DEA whatsoever, and may be causing real harm to users. In fact, if you search the Drug Enforcement Agency’s website, http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.htm for “homeopathics,” nothing even mentioning homeopathics is found. You will find helpful information about these drugs at the National Institute of Medicine’s website: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html The United States Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs held a hearing—Body Building Products and Hidden Steroids: Enforcement Barriers—late last month, during which both the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency were soundly criticized for not doing more to regulate either the dietary supplement market or those illicit players fielding steroids illegally sold as supplements.

I would urge consumers to consult their physician before taking any of these herbal remedies. Make sure they don’t interact adversely with whatever prescription medications you may be taking right now and make sure they have not been reported as causing harm to users, e.g., kidney or liver failure. Report any adverse reactions immediately to your physician AND to the DEA.