Georgia & South Carolina Personal Injury Attorneys

Personal Injury

Most personal injury lawsuits require a plaintiff to establish a defendant’s negligence. Showing negligence means proving that it is more likely than not that the defendant was required to act with a certain level of care, the defendant did not use the required care, and the defendant’s carelessness caused the injuries. The duty varies depending on the circumstances. Generally, car accidents, slip and falls, construction accidents, and other accidents are governed at least in part by principles of negligence. Some circumstances may require a victim to prove more than negligence. In a slip and fall or premises liability case, for example, they will also need to show actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition to a defendant property owner. If we can establish a defendant’s liability, we can recover economic and noneconomic damages for you. These damages may include medical expenses, lost income and earning capacity, pain and suffering, and more.

Wrongful Death

Georgia law defines a wrongful death as a death that is caused by another party’s negligent, intentional, or reckless conduct. Often, a wrongful death is a result of negligence. For example, if a driver is driving drunk and drifts into oncoming traffic, the result may be another driver’s death or a passenger’s death. Our Savannah injury attorneys would show that the drunk driver breached the duty of reasonable care, thereby causing the victim’s death. Wrongful death claims are brought by a decedent’s family members (such as a parent or spouse) or by a personal representative of the decedent’s estate.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice occurs when a medical provider commits professional negligence. Unlike with ordinary negligence cases, you would need to show that the medical provider breached a professional duty of care and thereby caused injuries or death. The professional standard of care comprises the accepted practices and standards utilized by similar medical professionals to diagnose or treat similar patients, so it can vary depending on the unique characteristics of the patient. An expert must be retained to testify on the professional standard of care, whether it was breached, and causation.

Defective and Recalled Products

You can hold manufacturers liable for dangerous products through a product liability lawsuit. There are three types of flaws that can make a product unreasonably dangerous and cause an accident: marketing, design, or manufacturing. Among the types of dangerous products that may give rise to a lawsuit are dangerous drugs and dangerous medical devices. An injury lawyer in the Savannah area can help you retain an expert to testify that the product is defective, show how it is defective, and explain how your injuries were caused by the defect. It is important to closely examine cases arising out of dangerous drugs or medical devices to also determine whether a doctor’s malpractice contributed to your injuries.

Car Accidents

After a car accident, you may be able to hold an at-fault driver financially accountable. Most often, car accident lawsuits allege negligence. You have two years after suffering injuries in an accident to sue an at-fault driver for compensation for your injuries. However, in many car accident lawsuits, the defendant alleges that the plaintiff was partially or fully to blame. The jury will look at the evidence and arguments and determine the damages, but the damages may be reduced by the victim’s percentage of fault in some cases.

Truck Accidents

Commercial truck accidents can be particularly devastating due to the size and weight of commercial trucks. Truck drivers spend many hours on the road, and if they work in interstate commerce, they need to follow detailed regulations in connection with hours of service, maintenance, logbooks, and inspections. Also, after a truck accident, our Savannah injury lawyers will look at whether any other parties were at fault, such as the trucking company or the truck manufacturer.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

A traumatic brain injury often arises as a result of a violent jolt or blow to the head. However, it can also arise as a result of an object penetrating brain tissue. For example, if the skull is partially shattered, the penetration may be a traumatic brain injury. While a mild traumatic brain injury can affect your brain cells temporarily, more serious brain injuries may have long-term, permanent consequences or even cause death. Traumatic brain injuries can be expensive to treat over a lifetime, costing millions of dollars, depending upon the victim’s age and severity of the brain injury. When they are serious, the person who sustained them may need lifelong medical and nursing care, plus other services. If you can establish that another person or entity’s negligence caused your traumatic brain injury, you may be able to recover compensatory damages to cover the economic and noneconomic losses arising from the brain injury.

Insurance Claims

Consumers sometimes pay insurance premiums faithfully for years, only to find that their insurer does not act responsibly when it comes time to pay a claim. If an insurer denies coverage inappropriately, you may have a basis to sue for bad faith. Every insurance contract includes an implied obligation to act in good faith. Insurer bad faith can include denying, withholding, or delaying policyholder benefits that are based on legitimate claims that arise under a valid insurance policy. Our firm has fought insurance companies that improperly denied uninsured or underinsured motorist claims, disability insurance claims, property and casualty claims, fire and flood insurance claims, and life insurance claims.

Discuss Your Case with an Injury Attorney in the Savannah Area

Suthers & Harper has relationships with experts in many different fields and devotes its time and resources to maximizing the compensation recovered by its clients. If you were injured in a serious accident in Georgia or South Carolina, you should consult the attorneys at Suthers & Harper. Call us toll-free at 1.800.320.2384 or use our online contact form to set up a free consultation.