Georgia Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog

In July of 2008, Francine Ehrlich began residing at a Georgia nursing home owned by the Emeritus Corporation. She needed help with her daily routine because she was suffering from Alzheimer's and mild dementia. At the time she took up residence in the nursing home, Mrs. Ehrlich was mobile with the assistance of a walker and otherwise healthy and fit.

On August 28th, a nursing home employee noticed a pressure wound on Mrs. Ehrlich's right buttock. Mrs. Ehrlich's daughter, Barbara Woods, requested that Ms. Ehrlich be transported to a hospital on September 2nd; there a doctor examined Mrs. Ehrlich, treated her and released her. Two days later a home health care company called Staff Builders was contracted to provide nurses that would monitor and care for Mrs. Ehrlich's wound on-site at the nursing home.

Over the course of the next two months, the pressure wound became large, deep and infected, all while Mrs. Ehrlich's mental and physical health rapidly deteriorated. On October 3, Mrs. Ehrlich was examined at another hospital's wound treatment center, then immediately transferred and admitted to yet another hospital because of her wound's severity. It was classed as a 'large Stage IV Decubitis ulcer' and was so deep that Mrs. Ehrlich's sacrum bone was visible. Mrs. Ehrlich required debridement surgery and antibiotic therapy, which she did not respond well to. On November 5th she was discharged from the hospital and transferred to the home of a family member where she received hospice care until dying on November 15th.

In July of 2010, the deceased woman's children -Barbara Woods, Howard Ehrlich, and Kenneth Ehrlich--brought suit against Emeritus Corporation, et al. (the owners of the nursing home) and Tender Loving Health Care Services of Georgia, et al. (the parent company for Staff Builders), saying that Emeritus was liable for the negligence of their mother's caretakers, both on-staff and hired in. They also asserted that the nursing home knew that their mother required a transfer so as to receive a better level of care, and alleged violations of state and federal laws dealing with nursing home operations and patients' rights.

Continue reading "Georgia appellate court decides patient/plaintiffs do not have to allow defense counsel ex parte meetings with doctors, but what about GA workers' comp claimants?" »

Most people don't consider their automobile insurance often, and some don't have a good understanding of what their policies cover or mean. I want you to think about taking the time to review your own coverage so that if an accident should arise, you are well-informed and secure in the knowledge that you have what you need. Do you really have 'full coverage'? Do you really have coverage that suits you? What your insurance agent defines as full coverage is typically liability insurance (both bodily injury and property damage), collision coverage, and comprehensive coverage. My question to you, though, is even if you have what is commonly termed 'full coverage', is your coverage in adequate amounts?

About every six months you should get a declarations page from your insurance company. This contains your policy information. It more than likely lists the types of coverage you have, as well as the dollar amounts of each of them. If you don't have a current declarations page, then you can typically find one via the internet if you handle your insurance account(s) online.

Usually the first type of coverage listed will be "Liability/Bodily Injury"; it's one of the most valuable aspects of car insurance. When you have liability and bodily injury coverage, if you are in a collision with someone and a person is injured, this type of insurance will pay toward their medical expenses.  For instance, let's say you have $25,000 of coverage. If someone you were in a car wreck with files a claim with your insurance agent, then the insurance company will pay the claim up to that $25,000. If the other party decides (for whatever reason) to sue, then your insurer will provide you with an attorney free of charge under the 'duty to defend' in accordance with your insurance contract with them.

The second type of coverage listed is typically 'Liability Property Damage'. This coverage is responsible for any damages you may cause to the property of others. You might run into a neighbor's wall or another driver's car. Your insurance company adjuster will investigate, appraise any damage, and pay for it up to your policy limits.

So you see, liability coverage is just to protect your pockets when you have caused harm to a person and/or their property with your vehicle. I recommend that you have a minimum of $100,000 in coverage per person.

Also listed will be 'Comprehensive and Collision', and these are frequently misunderstood. Collision coverage pays for repairs to your own vehicle and is required on all vehicles that you've financed or leased. With collision, you pay your deductible and the insurance company pays the rest up to your policy limits. If you set a higher deductible for yourself, you'll save a good bit of money in premiums while still protecting yourself against huge financial risk.

Comprehensive coverage is protection against a variety of damages and circumstances. When you have comprehensive coverage, you are insured in case of things such as theft, vandalism, and acts of nature like flooding, hail or other storm damage. Comprehensive is typically only recommended for cars that are less than ten years old or high in monetary value.

There are a couple of other types of coverage that I would recommend on your policy; I'll go into detail about those another time. If you have any questions about insurance coverage, or if you need an Atlanta injury attorney to help with your car accident claim, give us a call, and we'll discuss your case.

The law is intimidating and confusing to most normal people (but not me, because I'm exceedingly brilliant). Because I am mostly an awesome guy, I like to help others. Because I love the law, I want you fine people to be as familiar with and comfortable with it as possible. That's a big part of the reason why I maintain this website and try to relay as much information about the law as I can through anecdotes and current events.

You might want to have a basic understanding of civil litigation in Georgia, so I will cover the basics of it today. I would like you to feel less intimidated by the law and any civil cases you may be presented with in the future. You may even be facing one now, and that's how you found this Georgia law blog.



Other than that, though, they're systems of justice addressing totally different parts of our society. Georgia workers' compensation attorneys work in a specific subset of law governed by Georgia workers' compensation law. There's an administrative law board rather than jury trials; case law and rules of evidence are different than for criminal law.

Criminal law is a type of law whose basic function is to decide between what are and are not criminal actions. It deals with things as seemingly small as a driving citation and things as large as murder, as well as every shade of law-breaking in between. The Plaintiff (the person or people bringing about the lawsuit) in the case will always be a government entity; the sole aim of the case is to figure out the guilt or innocence of a Defendant (the person the lawsuit is against) and an appropriate punishment if they are found guilty as charged. So then: Criminal law is pretty much solely about crime and punishment.

Okay, in every case the government --at any level: Federal, State, City, etc.-- as the Plaintiff files suit against an individual or group. This individual or group is the Defendant in the case, and is then charged with the crime. They then have the option of hiring a criminal defense lawyer, having a criminal defense lawyer appointed by the court if they can't afford an attorney on their own, or representing themselves.

The Plaintiff has the burden of proof. It's the government's job, then, to bring evidence in the form of testimony, photos, or documents to trial in order to convince a jury of the Defendant's guilt. Burden of proof in a criminal case, incidentally, is much higher than in a civil case. Enough evidence must be brought to prove to that jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant is responsible for the crime they are accused of. If you were to represent this
in percentages, the jury would have to be something like ninety percent (!) convinced of a Defendant's guilt.

I hope I've brought about a basic understanding and comfortableness about the differences between criminal and civil proceedings for you thus far. I don't want to throw too much information to you all at once, so in my next post, I'll discuss criminal law procedure further.