Atlanta Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Lawyers

Serious Personal Injury Attorneys

In 1992, we formed the Atlanta, Georgia law firm of Slappey & Sadd, LLC to represent individuals in serious personal injury and wrongful death claims for people in need. We began our legal careers in 1986-87 in large, well-respected law firms in Atlanta. We have been fortunate to gain invaluable experience over the last 30-plus years as attorneys in our own law firm, which is devoted to taking only serious and clearly valid cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, and other situations involving substantial loss.

We are absolutely dedicated to being the best lawyers we can be. We realize that there are many law firms from which to choose, and we work every day to make the choice clear and comfortable for our clients by providing thoughtful and experienced professionalism to our work.

Personal Injury Lawsuits

Personal injury lawsuits allow accident victims to recover damages for losses sustained as a result of injuries caused by someone else. In Georgia, most personal injury lawsuits are brought under a theory of negligence. This means that a plaintiff and their attorney will need to prove that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, the defendant did not use the appropriate care, the accident resulted from the defendant’s conduct, and the plaintiff incurred actual damages. A lawsuit usually must be brought within two years of an accident. (But there are some exceptions.)

Car Accidents

Georgia is a fault state for the purposes of auto insurance claims. As a car accident victim in Georgia, you can file a claim with your own insurer, file a third-party claim directly with another driver’s insurer, or sue in court. To establish the fault of another driver, you would need to show that their unsafe driving caused the accident. Many car crashes result from behaviors such as texting while driving, speeding, unsafe lane changes or turns, or failures to obey traffic signals or stop signs. Our Atlanta personal injury attorneys can help victims recover damages for their medical bills and lost income in addition to other forms of harm, such as pain and suffering.

Truck Accidents

Truck accidents often cause catastrophic injuries and deaths due to the weight and size of trucks. Sometimes these accidents are caused by negligent truck drivers. Negligence by a truck driver could involve an improper wide turn, overloading a truck, failing to check a blind spot, driving while fatigued, and driving while drunk or on drugs. Often, parties other than the driver may have contributed to an accident, such as the trucking company or a truck manufacturer. For example, the trucking company may be held liable for negligently hiring or supervising a driver. It also may be held vicariously liable if it employed the driver, and the driver caused a crash while they were on the job.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcyclists have no buffer shielding them from an outside force in a collision. When they are injured in a motorcycle accident, they may sustain permanently disabling or fatal injuries involving their spinal cord, head, and internal organs. A motorcyclist who is catastrophically injured or the family of a motorcyclist who is killed may recover damages from an at-fault driver. Drivers of larger vehicles may fail to pay attention to a motorcyclist near them or drive especially aggressively in their presence, causing an accident. To make sure that you recover all of your damages, you should retain a personal injury attorney in the Atlanta area who understands how to present a persuasive case to an insurer or jury.

Workers’ Compensation

If you are injured on the job, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, which include medical, rehabilitation, and wage replacement benefits. When a worker dies on the job, his or her family may receive death benefits. Workers’ compensation is a system of benefits that does not depend on showing that any specific person or entity (such as your employer) was at fault for your workplace injury. You are supposed to give notice of your injury to your employer within 30 days to start the claims process. In some cases, a worker may have an additional third-party personal injury claim if someone other than their employer contributed to the accident.

Premises Liability

In Georgia, if you are injured on someone else’s property, you may be able to recover damages through a premises liability case. Dangerous property conditions include negligent security against crime, broken stairways, missing steps, rotting beams, cracked sidewalks, and spilled liquids or foods on the floor. You will need to establish that the property owner knew or should have known about the dangerous property condition that caused your injuries. Most often, plaintiffs need to establish constructive knowledge, meaning that the defendant should have known about the dangerous condition because there was a prior history of similar accidents, the condition lasted for a very long time, or the defendant did not have a reasonable inspection program. Often, property owners argue that a hazardous property condition was open and obvious, such that a plaintiff should have avoided it. Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers can help victims ensure that the blame is not unfairly shifted to them.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice may occur in connection with a failure to diagnose, a misdiagnosis, a surgical error, a failure to provide the right treatment, a prescription error, or other avoidable medical mistakes. It occurs when a health care provider deviates from the professional standard of care, causing injuries. In order to recover damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit, a plaintiff will need to comply with certain unique procedural rules that were developed specifically for medical malpractice lawsuits. One of the requirements involves filing an expert affidavit with the complaint. The affidavit needs to be prepared by a qualified medical expert who states at least one negligent act committed by the defendant health care provider, along with facts to support that opinion.

Birth Injury

Birth injuries can be highly traumatic for both the child who suffers them and for his or her parents. The injuries can be catastrophic and may result in permanent disabilities. Errors can occur during pregnancy, labor or delivery. For example, an OB-gyn’s failure to perform a C-section when a fetus is suffering distress during labor could result in the death of the baby or serious injuries like cerebral palsy. A personal injury attorney in Atlanta can help families hold hospitals liable for the negligence of their employees or for any failures in their procedures and safeguards.

Nursing Home Abuse

When you put your loved one in a nursing home, you expect the staff to take good care of them. Unfortunately, understaffing, inadequate training, and other conditions can result in nursing home negligence or abuse. Potential signs of nursing home negligence include bedsores, unexplained falls, fractures and bruises, dehydration, malnutrition, and injuries sustained while wandering. Nursing home abuse can include overmedication, the improper use of restraints, assault and battery on a resident, and sexual assault on a resident. Georgia residents of nursing homes have certain rights that always need to be protected while the resident is in a home. If a resident suffers injuries, the nursing home can be held accountable in a lawsuit.

Product Liability

Product liability lawsuits are used to hold a manufacturing or distributing company legally accountable for damages caused by dangerous products. Companies owe a high standard of care to consumers, and they need to make sure that their products are safe to be used as intended. In Georgia, you can hold a manufacturer strictly liable for injuries caused by a defective product. Products can be defective in terms of their marketing, manufacturing, or design. To show liability, a personal injury lawyer in the Atlanta area will need to prove that the product had a defect, the defect caused the victim’s injuries or death, the product was in the same general condition as it was when it left the manufacturer, and the victim used the product as intended by the manufacturer.

Construction Accidents

You have a right to be safe when you work at a construction site. Construction accidents can be catastrophic. They may include falls, trench collapses, dangerous chemical exposure, scaffolding accidents, crushing accidents, wall collapses, and cave-ins. There are numerous OSHA regulations that need to be followed at a site. It can be vital to investigate whether any OSHA regulations were violated and whether a violation caused the accident. Generally, workers’ compensation is limited, and it will not cover your pain and suffering. But it may be possible to recover additional damages by bringing a third-party lawsuit against a responsible party other than your employer.

Dog Bites

Animal attacks can result in very serious or even fatal injuries. Under O.C.G.A. 51-2-7, it may be possible to hold a dog’s owner liable for a dog bite with the assistance of a personal injury attorney in Atlanta. This law also covers other injuries caused by animals. There are two ways in which you can hold an animal owner or handler accountable for injuries caused by an animal. First, you can try to show that the dog was vicious or dangerous, and the defendant knew this, but the defendant carelessly managed the dog or allowed it to go at liberty despite that knowledge. In addition, you can hold a dog owner liable if the dog was not on a leash as required by a local ordinance, and the defendant either managed the dog carelessly or allowed it to go at liberty.

Consult a Personal Injury Attorney Focused on Client Satisfaction

At the law firm of Slappey & Sadd, we hold an AV rating by Martindale Hubbell, which shows that we have the highest level of skill and integrity among lawyers. We are also members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and have been named among Georgia’s Super Lawyers in Atlanta Magazine and Georgia Super Lawyers Magazine. The U.S. News and World Report has named us among The Best Lawyers in America. We represent people throughout Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, Muscogee, Newton, Richmond, Troup, Walker, Walton, Whitfield, and all other counties in Georgia. Call us at 404.255.6677 or toll-free at 888.474.9616, or contact us through our online form to set up an appointment with a personal injury lawyer in the Atlanta area.

Thank you for considering our law firm.
Scott Slappey and Jay Sadd