Marietta Injury Lawyer Blog

Last week tragedy struck south Georgia when five people were killed and one person seriously injured when a 2002 Toyota collided head-on with a van near Rochelle, Georgia. The Georgia State Patrol is still investigating what caused this crash that took the life of a mother and her three children, ages, 4, 7, and 9, as well as the life of the 68-year-old passenger of the van. The Red Cross is notifying the childrens' father currently serving overseas with the U.S. Navy. The driver of the van was seriously injured and taken to Macon hospital.

There have been no reports as to the cause of the collision at this time. However, Georgia product liability lawyers and other consumer advocates will be watching closely to see if the investigation reveals whether there were any defects with the Toyota that caused this tragic collision. At least 34 deaths have been linked to Toyota unintended acceleration problems. With more information becoming available about Toyota defects every day, more law enforcement and family investigations are looking to the vehicles for answers in these unusual tragic collisions.

Yesterday, a Clear Creek District Court awarded an $18.5 million dollar verdict to an Idaho Springs man for the catastrophic personal injuries he suffered in a automobile collision with a drunken driver. On the date of the accident, Paul Savage was at his home in his driveway changing the oil in his car when he was crushed by a jeep owned by Justin Guy and driven by Kevin Ruszkowski. Mr. Ruszkowski and Mr. Guy had been driving on mountain roads after a day of drinking and smoking marijuana. Mr. Savage is confined to a wheelchair due to his paralysis and incurred $4.3 million dollars in medical bills and is expected to have another $4.9 million dollars in future medical bills.

Included in the verdict was an assessment for punitive damages against Ruszkowski, which were assessed for "driving the Jeep while drinking and smoking marijuana and for fleeing the scene of a collision amid the screams of his victims." As is common in cases like this, Mr. Ruszkowski escaped with very little criminal punishment. After pleading guilty he was sentenced to 4 years of probation following completion of boot camp.

As a DUI Victims lawyer, I was pleased to see the victim obtain such positive civil justice. Hopefully, this verdict will help mend the physical, emotional, and financial harms Mr. Savage and his family have suffered and will likely continue to suffer into the future.

Proponents of civil justice are celebrating and insurance companies are fuming in the wake of yesterday's decision by the Illinois Supreme Court. Illinois' highest court ruled capping damages for victims of medical malpractice violated the State Constitution's separation of powers clause by imposing decisions reserved for judges and juries. That is a huge win for the citizens of Illinois.

I've defended a huge number of doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice lawsuits, I have doctors in my family, and I have a really high opinion of the medical profession. As a Georgia medical malpractice lawyer, I recognize healthcare is a problem in our country. However, caps on medical malpractice damages are not the answer. Unless the question is how do we further victimize those that have been catastrophically injured by medical negligence.

For those that don't know, medical malpractice caps mean this: No matter what a doctor or hospital does to you. No matter how egregious the malpractice. No matter if the consequence is death, dismemberment, or disfigurement. You CANNOT recover what the judge and jury think your case is worth if it exceeds the arbitrary cap. In Georgia the cap is $350,000. If you are a housewife, retired, or unemployed and killed by a doctor's negligence the judge and jury cannot decide what your life is worth, $350,000 is the max. If a checked-out doctor cuts a baby's penis off during circumcision, refuses to acknowledge her mistake, and the baby is forced to live a life disfigured, the jury's verdict will be reduced to the arbitrary cap. Caps on damages were created by insurance companies to erode the civil justice system of trial by jury. For all its flaws, the American system of justice is still the best system in the world.

Thankfully, Illinois was protected from these caps by the State's Constitution and their high court's willingness to enforce it. The Supreme Court of Georgia is expected to rule soon on our medical malpractice caps. I, like many others, hope and pray Georgia will soon also be free from the injustice of caps.

The family of a 34 year old, Trina Renee Harris, filed a wrongful death suit against Toyota this week. Mrs. Harris died when her Toyota sped through a stop sign and crashed into a cement wall. The Harris case is believed to be the third acceleration related wrongful death lawsuit filed against Toyota. Toyota is also being sued for unexpected acceleration related deaths in California and Michigan. Toyota has refused to comment on the pending litigation. However, Toyota recently announced a fix to the defective gas pedal problem.