It is an unfortunate truth that sometimes a personal injury which results from the act of someone else is something that your loved one never recovers from. It may take days, weeks, months or longer, but serious injuries can become fatal ones. Losing someone in your family is hard enough to cope with; losing that person because of the act of someone else is harder still. What can make matters even worse is when the consequences of your loss start making themselves felt: medical expenses and funeral expenses can be just the beginning. What if your loved one was key to your family’s ability to earn a living? You were counting on his or her ability to sustain your household, and now that is gone, too. We at the Dozier Law Firm know very well, based on our nearly 50 years of experience with helping our Georgia clients to recover…

According to statistics released by the federal government, more than 150 billion text messages are sent each month in this country. It should not come as a surprise that 20 percent of teenagers and 10 percent of adults admitted to engaging in extended text messaging conversations while driving. Georgia has enacted several laws aimed at making highways safer by restricting activities by drivers that put other people at risk of serious injury in an auto accident. For example, school bus drivers in Macon and in other communities are prohibited from using their cellphones for talking or texting while driving. This ban also applies to drivers who are younger than 18 years of age. Drivers 18 years of age and older are prohibited from texting and driving. These cellphone laws are primary violations under state law. As a primary violation, a police officer may stop a motorist who is in violation without…

At any given time there are many drivers on Georgia roads who are under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or both. Studies that have been done concerning the effects of each of these drugs suggest that they have different effects. This post covers some of the findings of these studies. Cognitive and automatic functions: Alcohol has a stronger influence on cognitive functions, which include motor skills and concentration in activities like steering, braking, signal detection, hazard perception, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination. Marijuana affects automatic functions. These include the ability to stay in the lane of traffic or to keep speed constant. Marijuana also degrades the ability to make decisions quickly, thereby affecting the ability to react to external cues like changing traffic signals or the presence of an obstacle in the road. Over-and-underestimation of driving ability. Marijuana makes drivers more likely to underestimate their driving abilities. Pot smokers tend…

A central characteristic commercial trucks is that if you find yourself involved in an accident with one, the odds are good that it was engaged in a business purpose. The significance of this observation becomes apparent when after the accident the time comes to identify the responsible parties against whom to pursue a legal claim for damages. Under Georgia law, the doctrine of vicarious liability can enable you to establish a cause of action against the business that owns the truck and not just the driver. Vicarious liability must be specifically alleged in a legal complaint, and you will need to include specific elements to prevail on this claim. These elements need to establish the existence of a business connection between the truck involved in the accident and the owner of the truck (or the company that has hired or contracted with the driver), as well as how the truck…