Claim It, It's Your Right

Many people choose not to pursue an accident claim. The reasons range from knowing the insurance company will settle; to they don't want the legal hassles and expense.

The bottom line is that putting in a claim for compensation for personal injuries after an accident is pretty much an accepted right in the U.S. "While it may take some work to get the compensation for damages, it may well be worth it in the long-term, particularly if serious injuries have been sustained and a person's life has been significantly altered because of it," commented Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury attorney.

"Keep in mind that even though an insurance company may settle on a claim without anyone having to do too much to get it done, the settlement is generally much lower than it could be if the case were taken to court," explained Ozcomert. This is why most lawyers will advise their clients not to take the first settlement offer that comes along. Insurance companies want to accomplish one thing, closing the case and spending as little as they can to accomplish it.

Most accident claims do require some work to obtain compensation, but if the injuries are serious enough, the work will be well worth it. The first thing an attorney will need to do is be able to prove that the other person in the accident was the party "at fault." Use a cell phone at the scene of the accident, if need be, to get clear pictures of the damage. They may come in handy in court.

Remember to get all the information needed from any eyewitnesses, report the accident to the police, and also get a copy of the accident report. Don't assume there are no serious injuries, as many of them may be silent and not manifest themselves until a later time with drastic consequences. If an ambulance is needed, call one immediately and then contact an Atlanta personal injury attorney.

While the accident may have been partially the fault of both drivers involved, the party laying the claim for compensation may still claim and receive some damages. "The proportion or percentage of negligence in cases where both drivers are at fault is usually determined by the courts using the doctrine of contributory negligence. That may mean compensation won't be 100%, but instead a proportion thereof," explained Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury attorney.

There a great many other details that go into mounting a personal injury claim, so ensure the lawyer hired is big on aggressive representation for their clients to obtain justice.

To learn more about Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Stephen M. Ozcomert or Atlanta personal injury, Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Atlanta personal injury attorney, visit Ozcomert.com.

Malpractice Versus Negligence

Malpractice means so many different things to different people, that the term when used in a legal setting really needs to be expanded upon for the sake of clarity.

The most crucial thing is to be able to distinguish between malpractice and other kinds of negligence. "Generally speaking the term malpractice refers to a set of circumstances when a professional (doctor, lawyer, dentist, accountant, etc.) fails to use the proper level of skill, diligence or care to perform their professional services. In failing to perform properly, this causes harm to patients or customers," said Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

In general, a professional may be sued if s/he fails to perform their "professional" duties using the accepted standard of care, level of learning and skill one should reasonably expect from a person in their particular position. "Or to put this in simpler terms, the professional's performance is held up in comparison to the performance standards of other professionals in the same field. So, if the level of performance is of a lesser standard than others, that person may be accused of malpractice," added Ozcomert, who practices Atlanta personal injury law.

What a patient or customer needs to do to prove malpractice is show that they suffered an injury, damages or a loss because the person didn't do their job properly. Malpractice charges may be laid against those practicing in a profession that is licensed or regulated by the state, which would include lawyers, surgeons, dentists and accountants. "There are other categories of professionals that cannot be held liable for malpractice, but may be held accountable for negligence," outlined Ozcomert.

If someone feels they have been a victim of either malpractice or negligence, contact a highly qualified malpractice attorney and discuss the details of the case. "The lawyer will know the rules and regulations that need to be followed to file a proper malpractice lawsuit against another professional, even if it does happen to be another attorney," commented Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer.

To learn more about Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Stephen M. Ozcomert or Atlanta personal injury, Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Atlanta personal injury attorney, visit Ozcomert.com.

Medical Errors May Cost Lives

Every year there are more deaths across America chalked up to medical errors. This is when a health care professional doesn't offer the patient quality care, and injuries or death may result.

Medical malpractice/medical errors don't just happen in the hospital, although this is the association that many people have when they think about this term. In addition, it's not just physicians that may make the errors. Those who may make an error in medical management include surgeons, dentists, nurses, hospital workers, eye doctors and general practitioners.

If you have questions about the statistics, then make it a point to check out the Journal of the American Medical Association. One of their most notable articles indicates that roughly 12,000 deaths happen yearly thanks to unnecessary surgery. Close to 7,000 fatalities were the result of medication errors in hospital and nearly 20,000 deaths were the end result of other errors in a hospital setting. The dollar amount that goes along with these errors is astronomical.

You may be wondering what kinds of errors happen in a hospital setting besides medication errors, which typically leads the list of mistakes. In fact, a recent study done by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies shows that at least 1.5 million people a year are harmed as a result of errors in medication.

There are actually a large number of things that may go wrong in a hospital, including surgical errors, medical experimentation, anesthesia errors, birth errors, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, wrongful death, and failing to take the correct medical action deemed appropriate. This is just the tip of the medical error iceberg too.

If you've been the victim of a medical error, you may stand to lose your job, lose wages, perhaps suffer a permanent disability which may affect the quality of your life, loss of future income, ever increasing medical bills, chronic pain and much more. These are also some of the things you may be able to seek compensation for when you speak to a qualified medical malpractice lawyer.

An experienced med mal attorney will strive to ensure you recover appropriate compensation for the various losses we have discussed in this article.

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 or Atlanta personal injury, Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Atlanta personal injury attorney, visit Ozcomert.com.

Whoops – that Fall Hurt

Premises liability law has been around for a lot of years, but still, many people don't really understand what it means.

To put this simply, premises liability is all about someone falling and injuring themselves due to the carelessness or negligence of a business or property owner. If this happens, the victim has a right to pursue compensation for those injuries.

Typically, the person who owns a business or operates it, is liable for dangerous conditions that they know about and either don't deal with them, and/or don't warn people about the potentially dangerous situation. The other side of the coin is that they "should" have known about the dangerous condition by regularly inspecting the property.

There is such a big emphasis on knowledge because it is critical to the imposition of liability. So in the above example, the notice a landowner/business gets may be constructive or actual. For instance, if the owner of the property is the one who creates the dangerous situation, they are deemed to have actual notice of it, because they created it.

On the other hand, if the owner/operator or the workers don't create a dangerous situation, they may still be liable for constructive notice of the danger. This means that the bad situation was there for such a long time they should have seen it or done something about it by doing regular inspections.

Let's use the example of someone spilling hot coffee on a floor and it is not cleaned up. The actual proof of how long that spill has been there lies in the condition of the spill. If it's partially dry or has footprints tracking through it, it's obviously been there for some time, and therefore, the owner/manager should have known and done something about it. This is a good example of constructive notice.

Of interest, is that the most common mistake a business owner makes is in not warning people that come to his or her property that there may be an unavoidable danger. Some businesses, just because of the nature of what they do, are considered to be inherently dangerous.

Those businesses need to have the premises posted with warnings. If the venture is something like a swimming pool and they have a wet deck all the time and warn people about it, then they are not necessarily required to fix the situation (difficult to do if it's a pool deck).

There are many other rules and exceptions when dealing with premises liability law, including third-party liability, so it's best to speak to an attorney who is intimately familiar with the ropes. They will help you build a solid case.

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 or Atlanta personal injury, Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Atlanta personal injury attorney, visit Ozcomert.com.