Marietta Personal Injury Lawyer Helping You Recover Physically and Financially

Car Accidents

Car accidents can result in catastrophic injuries. In most cases, an at-fault driver’s insurer will try to limit a victim’s recovery to avoid paying them the full amount that would compensate them for their injuries. An adjuster for an at-fault driver may try to settle your claim too early, before the full extent of your injuries is known. Our founding partner, Benjamin S. Persons, IV, is a former insurance defense attorney who understands the tactics that insurance companies may use to avoid paying the full amount that you need to recover from your injuries. In order to establish liability for a car accident in the Marietta area, a personal injury attorney will most likely need to show negligence by a preponderance of the evidence. We will need to show that you were owed a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances, the defendant failed to use reasonable care, causation, and damages.

Trucking Accidents

Trucking accident litigation can be more complex than car accident litigation. If you were a victim of a trucking accident, you will need an attorney who understands the federal and state regulations that apply to trucks, the electronic technology installed in large commercial vehicles, and how to deal with multiple insurers. Often, injuries in a truck accident are catastrophic; there may be many accident victims. Therefore, it is crucial to bring in all of the parties that may be responsible for the accident, including the trucking company. Often, the trucking company will have a team out to the scene in a short period of time, looking for ways to limit its liability. With the help of a skillful Marietta personal injury attorney, you may be able to not only hold the truck driver responsible but also hold the trucking company vicariously (indirectly) or directly liable.

Drunk Driving Accidents

Drunk driving is a crime in Georgia. However, you may also be able to bring a separate personal injury lawsuit if you were injured by a drunk driver. Civil liability is expressed in monetary damages. By bringing a personal injury lawsuit, you may be able to recover for past and future medical bills, past and future lost wages, and pain and suffering. You may be successful in a personal injury lawsuit even if a prosecutor was not able to get a conviction in a DUI case in criminal court. The standard of proof is lower in civil litigation; you need to show that events more likely than not happened as you say that they did, whereas in criminal cases, the standard of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Wrongful Death

After a loved one passes away in an untimely fashion, you may be filled by grief, hurt, and turmoil. The impact may be devastating. Still, there are practical considerations, such as paying for a funeral and burial, paying for medical expenses, and covering other expenses without a second income. In Georgia, a wrongful death is a negligent, criminal, intentional, or reckless act that causes another person’s death. A personal injury lawyer in the Marietta area can help bring a wrongful death lawsuit in connection with a car accident, a truck accident, a dangerous product, DUI, or medical malpractice, among other incidents. In Georgia, the spouse has the first right to bring a wrongful death action and represents the interests of any minor children of the decedent. When there is no spouse or child, a wrongful death lawsuit may be brought by the personal representative of the estate or the decedent’s surviving parents.

Premises Liability

All property owners owe a duty to invitees to keep their property reasonably safe. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1, if an owner or occupier of land leads or induces others to come onto the property for a lawful purpose, they can be liable for injuries caused to those invitees by a failure to use ordinary care in keeping the premises safe. If you are injured in a slip and fall or trip and fall or as a result of negligent security on someone else’s property, you may be able to recover damages in a premises liability lawsuit. It can be challenging to prove that you were injured by a dangerous condition on the property, which means that it is important to take a picture of any substance on which you slipped or any other dangerous condition that caused you to be injured. You should consult an experienced Marietta personal injury lawyer right away, since some retail stores and establishments have video surveillance but reuse the videotapes in a relatively short window of time.

Dog Bites

You may be able to assert liability against a dog owner after an attack. O.C.G.A. 51-2-7 is Georgia’s dog bite statute. In order to establish a dog owner’s liability under this law, you will need to establish that the dog was dangerous or vicious, the owner was negligent with the dog or permitted it to go at liberty (such as allowing it to go off-leash), and the injured person did not provoke the dog. This law covers any pet and any kind of pet behavior that results in injuries to someone who is not the owner. Dog owners who are sued for dog bites may raise defenses such as reasonable care, provocation or teasing by the victim of the dog bite, or a lack of knowledge about the dog’s viciousness.

Uninsured Motorist Claims

Sometimes an at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured, given the types of damages suffered by an accident victim. Georgia law requires drivers to carry $25,000 per person for bodily injury, but not all drivers actually have this mandated coverage, and in some cases, this minimum amount does not cover the full scope of the injuries. In other cases, an accident victim may be left injured in a hit and run and may be unable to hold responsible the driver whose negligence caused the accident. In that situation, an accident victim must turn to his or her own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage and bring a claim with the assistance of a personal injury lawyer in the Marietta area. Unless you rejected this coverage in writing when you bought the policy, you should have this coverage on your policy. There are two types of uninsured motorist coverage: traditional (or nonstacking) and excess (or stacking) uninsured motorist coverage.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle accidents can result in catastrophic or even fatal injuries to motorcyclists. Sometimes these accidents are caused by the negligent driver of a larger vehicle. Negligent conduct by a driver of a larger vehicle that could result in serious injuries to a motorcyclist includes following too closely, speeding, failing to obey traffic signals, or failing to yield. Often, insurers are biased against motorcyclists and try to find ways in which a motorcyclist was at fault for the accident. In Georgia, courts follow a modified comparative negligence rule. This means that you can recover damages as long as you were not more than 50% at fault for the accident. Your damages will be reduced by an amount proportionate to your percentage of fault.

Pedestrian Accidents

Many people prefer to walk in Georgia. Unfortunately, pedestrians have no protection or buffer if they are struck by a larger vehicle. If you were hit by a larger vehicle, you may need to establish the driver’s negligence by a preponderance of the evidence in order to recover damages. Another common kind of pedestrian accident is a slip and fall. In that case, you may need to show that the owner of the sidewalk or the place where you fell knew or should have known about the dangerous condition that caused your injuries but failed to provide warnings or repairs.

Consult an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney in Marietta

Ben Persons has been recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer, rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell, and rated “10 out of 10, Superb” by Avvo. Since he started the Persons Firm a decade ago, he has used his insights into insurer strategies to recover over $33 million in verdicts and settlements for injured accident victims. Mr. Persons and his firm represent people who suffer injuries in accidents throughout the Atlanta area. Call us at 770.424.5125 or complete our online form to set up a free consultation. We represent clients on a contingency fee basis, which means that we do not get paid unless we make a recovery for you.