Anytime someone slips and falls, they are at risk of suffering serious injury, even if the fall happens on even ground. When a fall occurs on a staircase, the potential injuries often become much more severe. The National Safety Council (NSC)¹ reports that more than 1 million individuals suffer injuries from falls on stairs on an annual basis in the United States. Furthermore, an estimated 12,000 of those fall victims do not survive their injuries. Even if a fall victim survives, he or she could face a long road to recovery or even a permanent disability due to the serious potential injuries that may occur.

Common Injuries in Staircase Falls

The following are only some of the injuries that victims can suffer after a fall on the stairs:

• Broken or shattered bones
• Internal organ damage
• Internal bleeding
• Dislocations
• Neck and back injuries
• Traumatic brain injury
• Spinal cord injury²

Many fall victims lose consciousness and may be in a coma for a period of time. Additionally, many of these injuries require immediate emergency medical care and prolonged hospitalization that may involve surgeries and other costly and complicated procedures.

How Can Victims Recover?

Every property owner has a legal responsibility to keep their property in reasonably safe condition to avoid injury to visitors. Stairways are no different and should always be properly maintained to avoid falls and injury whenever possible. At times, people will trip and fall down the stairs simply due to lack of coordination or a misstep. In other situations, however, victims may fall because of a dangerous condition that the property owner allowed to remain on the stairs. Such conditions may include:

• Rotted or weak stair boards
• Loose or wobbly stair boards
• Stairs that are too narrow or too steep
• Inadequate lighting
• Not having sturdy or adequate railings

If a property owner allows a dangerous condition to exist and an injury occurs, the owner should be held liable for his or her negligence. You may also be able to have a FHA emotional support animal.

Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer Today

Suppose you have fallen down the stairs and sustained injury due to a dangerous. In that case, you should not delay in calling the experienced Atlanta personal injury attorneys today at (770) 744-0890 for a free consultation.

1. https://www.nsc.org/pages/home.aspx
   
2. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spinalcordinjuries.html

Posted in Slip and Fall Accidents | No Comments »

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding lists the four most common ways that the insurance company tries to avoid paying proper amount after a motorcycle accident in Georgia.

In this video, I’m going to give you the four common ways that the insurance company tries to avoid paying you a proper amount after a motorcycle accident.

Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial attorney, and I’m the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law.

So what are those four ways? Number one, by trying to get you to do a recorded statement. I’ve heard all kinds of lies that adjusters give to people to try to get them to do a recorded statement. Don’t do it, not with the at-fault party’s insurance company, certainly.

Number two, they try to get you to settle early, all right? They throw $1000, $2000 at you within 24 hours of the wreck. Why? They’re trying to do this before you potentially find out you’re severely injured and your claim is worth a lot more than that. So be mindful of that.

Number three is they try to get you to sign a medical release so they can get all of your medical history, not just related to this wreck but trying to dig to find sports injuries or something else in your past that they can point to to say, “Oh, we’re going to say you were actually injured well before this and here’s why.” Don’t give them that medical release, all right? It’s the last thing that you should be doing.

And the last one I have is, ultimately, if you don’t settle early, they may try to drag out your claim, try to get you to run past your statute of limitation which is two years in the state of Georgia. That way you lose your rights forever. So they’ll drag it out, drag it out, drag it out. Be mindful of that. Do not violate that two-year statute of limitation.

So those are four ways that they’ll try to avoid paying you just compensation after a motorcycle injury.

I hope this answers your questions. If you have any others or you have a claim or case that you would like to see if my firm can handle, please comment to this video below. Go to our website, spauldinginjurylaw.com. We have a contact form on there that you can fill out. Or give me a phone call. Two phone numbers for you, 770-744-0890 or 470-695-9950.

Thanks so much for watching this video.

Posted in Motorcycle Accidents | Comments Off on 4 Ways The Insurance Company Tries To Avoid Paying You After A Motorcycle Accident

Thousands of children in the Atlanta area walk at least part of the way to school every day. While walking to school can be a good source of exercise and allow children a little additional time to socialize, it also exposes them to the risk of being involved in a pedestrian accident. Data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration¹ (NHTSA) indicates that of the 69,000 pedestrians who were injured in 2011, 11,000 of them were children aged 14 and younger.

Children are at particular risk for injury in a pedestrian accident, due to their smaller size, unfamiliarity with traffic laws, and inability to judge speeds and distances as well as adults. Fortunately, there are certain steps that parents can take in order to reduce the risk that their child will be hurt in a traffic accident. These include the following:

• Choose the safest possible route and practice walking it with your child – Choosing the safest possible route involves using streets that are not particularly busy and that have lower speed limits and limiting the amount of times your child needs to cross the street. In addition, choose a route that has sidewalks if one is available. Finally, practice walking the route you determine is safest with your child, taking special care to point out areas that may be more dangerous than others.
• Make sure that your child wears brightly colored clothing or is otherwise visible – Drivers are unable to avoid what they cannot see. By making sure that your child wears brightly colored or retro-reflective clothing, you can help make sure that motorists will be able to spot your child from a safe distance. In addition, children who walk during non-daylight hours can be made even more visible by carrying a flashlight.
• Teach your child proper crossing techniques at intersections and driveways – It is important to instill good pedestrian safety habits² at an early age. Teach your child to look to the left, right, and then left again prior to crossing a street. In addition, it is important for children who walk in residential areas to learn to check to see whether there are drivers in parked cars who may be getting ready to start moving.

Contact an Atlanta Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Today to Schedule a Free Consultation.

Traffic accidents are bound to happen even under the best of circumstances. Fortunately, Georgia law often allows people who are injured in pedestrian accidents to recover from their injuries. To schedule a free consultation with one of our pedestrian accident lawyers, call Spaulding Injury Law today at (770) 744-0890.

References:

1. https://www.nhtsa.gov/Pedestrians
2. https://trafficsafety.ny.gov/tips-pedestrian-safety

Posted in Pedestrian Accidents | No Comments »

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding explains how Spaulding Injury Law personally assists victims of car accidents in Georgia. 

Welcome to the Spaulding Injury Law website. Thank you for coming. I hope you learn more about your car accident case and more about our firm, our attorneys, our staff, and our philosophy in handling Atlanta, Georgia car accident cases. Hi. I’m Theodore Spaulding. I’m the founder and one of the trial attorneys here at Spaulding Injury Law. Our motto at the firm is real lawyers helping real people. Well, what does that mean and what does it mean in the context of a car accident case? Well, we think the most important aspect of that motto is real lawyers. What we mean by that is we are car accident trial lawyers at the end of the day. If we cannot convince the insurance company or companies to offer you fair compensation for your damages from the car wreck we will try your case to a jury of your peers to get that compensation.

We think that’s really important. We know you have a tremendous amount of options out there when it comes to picking an attorney. You have attorneys on billboards, you have attorneys on television, on radio, on the internet where you found us, how do you select the right car accident attorney? Well, in our opinion we think it starts with finding an attorney that is willing to ultimately try your case to a jury if it’s necessary. We think that’s how you unlock just compensation for your car wreck case, very, very important to us.

What else do we do? Well, we do things differently than a lot of attorneys. We are not interested in taking a volume of cases, passing them off to case managers, having the client never really hear from their attorney, settling the case without having to file a lawsuit, and moving on to the next one. We care about each and every one of our cases because it’s a client, it is a person behind the scenes that has suffered, that has gone through a tremendous loss. That is important to us. So we take on every single case as if it’s the only one that we have.

You hear from us on a monthly basis at the very least. Yes, we have paralegals and legal assistants that help us as well with the auto accident case but they aren’t the only ones that you’re hearing from. We work as a team collectively so the attorney can ultimately try that case if it’s absolutely necessary. So please look at more into our firm, look at the Google reviews that we have out there to hear from actual past and present clients, and reach out to us to talk further about your car wreck case, see if you feel like we’re a good fit for your particular case. Again thank you for coming to this website. We hope to hear from you. Have a great day.

Posted in Car Accidents | Comments Off on How Our Atlanta Car Accident Lawyers Can Help You

In this video, personal injury attorney Ted Spaulding details 5 things you need to know if involved in a Georgia motorcycle accident.

In this video, I’m going to give you five quick things that you must know if you’ve been in a motorcycle wreck in Georgia.

Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer. I’m the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law.

So, let me give you these five tips. Number one, do not give a recorded statement. Only person you have to give a recorded statement to is your own insurance company, but do not give it to the at-fault insurance adjuster. They’re going to try to use it against you.

Number two, always follow your doctor’s advice. They tell you not to lift certain things over a certain poundage, don’t do it. They tell you not to ride your motorcycle, don’t do it. Follow your doctor’s advice.

Number three, collect all insurance. In motorcycle cases, there’s multiple insurance policies, at the very least. You got to know this and you’ve got to put them all on notice, especially yours in very quickly.

So, this falls into number four, which is talk to a motorcycle injury attorney. Even if you’re not gonna hire an attorney or you’re skeptical about hiring one, call a good one that will at least give you some advice regardless of you hiring them so you know how to protect your rights. Then you can make a decision whether you want to hire this lawyer or another lawyer. And you may not need a lawyer, but at least talk to a lawyer.

And the final one is don’t settle too early. Insurance companies will try to throw a couple thousand dollars at you, especially in a motorcycle wreck, because they’re assuming there’s going to be some big injuries and let me get out in front of it before the injured party knows there’s a lot of value in the damages that this person has and will suffer. So, they’ll throw some money at you early to get you to settle quickly. Don’t do it. That’s my advice. That is what I tell my clients is don’t settle too early. Be mindful of your statute of limitation, which is two years in Georgia, but don’t settle too early.

So, those are my five quick tips if you’ve been in a motorcycle wreck here in Georgia and you’re injured. I hope this answers some of your questions. If you have any others or you have a claim or case you would like to see if my firm can handle, comment to this video below. Go to our website, spauldinginjurylaw.com. We have a contact form on there that you can fill out or give me a phone call. I’ve got two phone numbers, 770-744-0890 or 470-695-9950. Thanks for watching this video.

Posted in Motorcycle Accidents | Comments Off on 5 Things You Must Know If In A Motorcycle Accident

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding answers whether or not a helmet is required when driving a motorcycle in Georgia.

Are motorcycle helmets required in the State of Georgia? Keep watching this video to learn the answer to this all-important question. Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta motorcycle accident lawyer. And I’m the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law: Atlanta Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyer. So this is an easy one. Yes, Georgia law requires you to wear a helmet. If you’re a passenger on a motorcycle, you’re required to wear a helmet. But it goes beyond that. Georgia law says you must follow federal law. So, we are talking federal motorcycle helmet law, which is DOT-compliant helmets. So, it is not enough just to be wearing a helmet, you must wear a DOT-compliant helmet. So, you need to make sure you’re wearing one. Be mindful of those novelty ones out there that have the little DOT sticker that are not DOT-compliant helmets. That will come out if you’re in a wreck and it’s not the proper helmet. So, yes it is Georgia law that you wear a DOT-compliant helmet at all times when you’re driving a motorcycle, or you’re riding a motorcycle. So, wear a DOT-compliant helmet, be in compliance with Georgia law.

I hope this answers your question. If you have any other questions about motorcycle law here in Georgia, or if you have a claim or case you’d like to see if our firm can handle, please respond to this video below. Shoot me an email, look at our website, spauldinginjurylaw.com. You can find my email on there. I’ve got a contact form on there as well you can fill out or give me a phone call. I have two phone numbers, 770-744-0890 or 470-695-9950. Thanks for watching this video.

Posted in Motorcycle Accidents | Comments Off on Are Motorcycle Helmets Required In Georgia

(Gwinnett County, Georgia) — The votes have been counted and the results are in! Spaulding Injury Law is a 2020 Best of Gwinnett® winner in Gwinnett Magazine’s annual readers’ poll. 

Gwinnett Magazine readers and editors have weighed in on the best of everything in Gwinnett, honoring thousands of businesses and organizations in more than 25 board business and community sectors. “It’s everything you love about Gwinnett,” says Publisher David Greer. 

Spaulding Injury Law has been selected as one of the prestigious “Among the Best of Gwinnett” recipients for personal injury firms in the area. 

The process starts with a nomination on the Best of Gwinnett website. Voting remains open throughout the year, with tens of thousands of votes ultimately received. The process culminates with the publishing of the annual Best of Gwinnett issue in March. 

Best of Gwinnett winners and nominees are chosen by a combination of readers’ votes and editors’ input and are vetted through several ranking sites, Better Business Bureau complaint reports, and voting pattern analysis reports. 

Winners are named in hundreds of individual categories, providing Gwinnett Magazine readers with a go-to-guide for the best of everything in Gwinnett. Gwinnett Magazine recognizes three levels of winners: The Best, Among the Best, and Ones to Watch. Within each category, there are multiple honorees named in each tier, depending on the size of the market sector.

You can view the full list of Best of Gwinnett winners here or visit BestofGwinnett.com.

Gwinnett Magazine has been sharing the good news of Gwinnett with readers for 25 years, as the publisher of Gwinnett Magazine, Best of Gwinnett, and the Guide to Gwinnett. 

Gwinnett Magazine is also the creator of the #LoveGwinnett initiative, encouraging the community to Be Positive. Buy Local. Help Others. Learn more at GuidetoGwinnett.com. 

About Spaulding Injury Law:

The Lawrenceville personal injury attorneys of Spaulding Injury Law are committed to helping accident victims recover full and fair compensation for injuries caused by others’ negligence. The firm’s lawyers have more than 25 years of combined legal experience. They have worked tirelessly to help clients recover millions of dollars in compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering after serious accidents. The firm’s respected attorneys are recognized in the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and on Expertise.com’s list of Best Personal Injury Attorneys in Atlanta 2020.

Media Contact:

Theodore “Ted” Spaulding

Spaulding Injury Law

223 Scenic Hwy S #202

Lawrenceville, GA 30046

(678) 541-8841

https://www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/lawrenceville

Posted in Firm News, Lawrenceville | Comments Off on Spaulding Injury Law is a Best of Gwinnett® Winner

Much like an airplane, most commercial trucks have an event data recorder,¹ also known as a “black box,” that records important information regarding the performance of the truck. Some of the information recorded includes the following:

• GPS information regarding the truck location at a certain time
• Communications between the driver and trucking company
• Engine RPMs
• Hard braking
• Tire pressure
• Whether the driver engaged the clutch
• Speed of the truck

Interpreting the information recorded on a truck’s black box can be simple in some cases, such as simply knowing that a truck driver was exceeding the speed limit when the collision occurred. In other instances, however, a deeper analysis by a truck accident attorney may be done to identify negligence.

Hours of Service Violations

One common act of negligence that may be identified using black box information is fatigued driving. Because of the dangers of driving while fatigued, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) limits² the number of consecutive hours and days a driver may work, and drivers are required to keep accurate records of their hours logged. However, drivers have been known to falsify their logs in order to cover up hours of service violations. In such cases, the black box will reveal how long a driver was on the road and whether he violated federal regulations. This can indicate that fatigue likely played a role in the accident and can serve as evidence in your case.

An Experienced Atlanta Truck Accident Attorney Can Help You

Trucking companies are not the easiest of legal adversaries, but they’re no match for our truck accident attorneys. These companies know the risk of injury that comes with deploying large numbers of massive trucks out onto the highways on a regular basis. As a result, they have legal teams and insurance agents all working to avoid legal liability after truck accidents. An experienced Atlanta truck accident attorney will know how to use resources such as the truck’s black box in order to investigate and identify any signs of negligence that caused the accident. If you have suffered an injury in a truck accident, contact a truck accident lawyer at the law firm of Spaulding Injury Law for assistance today. Our truck accident lawyers offer free, no-obligation consultations, so please call us at (770) 744-0890 today.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_data_recorder
   
2. https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-of-service

Posted in Truck Accidents | No Comments »

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding explains how Spaulding Injury Law: Atlanta Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyer manages personal injury cases in the surrounding Atlanta, Georgia area and what the process looks like for clients

Welcome to this Ted Spaulding website. I hope you find this website informative, you learn more about your case or claim, and you learn more about our firm, our lawyers, our staff, and our philosophy in handling personal injury claims.

Hi. I’m Theodore Spaulding. I’m the founding member of this firm and I’m one of its trial lawyers.

So our motto here at Spaulding law firm is real lawyers helping real people. Well, what does that mean? Real lawyers means we are, at the end of the day, trial attorneys. We will take your case or claim and we will try it to a jury of your peers, if that will unlock just compensation for your injuries. We think that’s really important. There are a ton of lawyers out there. You see them on TV, on billboards everywhere, advertising. But what you don’t know is will they really try a case if it’s necessary? We think that’s important. Insurance company knows which attorneys will try cases and which won’t. You want the lawyer that is gonna unlock the most value for your case possible.

What does it mean representing real people? Well, our clients are real everyday people that have been severely injured by the negligence of another party here in the state of Georgia, and that’s really important to us. We only take a small amount of cases. We are very, very focused on customer service, on treating every client as if they’re the only case we have. We do not pawn off your case to case managers and you never hear from your attorney. That is not our philosophy here at Spaulding Injury Law.

So again thank you for coming to this website. I hope it’s informative, I hope you’ll reach out to us and have a conversation with us about your potential case or claim, see if we’re a good fit for you. Look at our Google reviews, see what clients, past and present, are saying about us. Really investigate whether we will be a good fit for you. We hope we will. We hope we get a chance to have a conversation with you. Again thank you for coming to this website.

Posted in Personal Injury | Comments Off on How We Handle Personal Injury Claims

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding explains the standard process for Atlanta police responding to car accident calls, and what to expect if this happens to you. 

Hi. Just last week, the Atlanta police department came out with a directive that they are not going to be responding to car accidents in Fulton County anymore unless there are injuries reported.

Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer, and I’m the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law. Keep watching this video to find out what this really means on the ground as this policy is being rolled out for injury victims and car wrecks.

So I’m gonna give you a real life example of what we’re seeing regarding the effects of this new policy by the Atlanta police department. So I got a call the other day from a lady who was in a wreck in downtown Atlanta, and she called the police. She was injured and she told them, you know, she was okay, no one was severely injured. They think they’re gonna be all right. The cars are drivable. The operator said, well, we’re not gonna be able to respond to the wreck then because no one has severe injuries, life-threatening injuries. So even though they’re reporting to the public that they’ll still show up if there’s a report of injuries, apparently what’s really happening is it’s got to be severe injuries for them to be willing to show up.

This is very problematic, quite frankly, for both sides of the equation in a car wreck case. For us, the plaintiff side, very problematic because it lends toward fraud. In this case with this lady, it became a he said she said as to who was at fault in what otherwise was a clear car wreck case of liability of the at fault driver, not her. So fraud is a big issue, both sides, quite frankly, but for us and our plaintiffs, it’s very concerning without a police officer investigating, talking to both sides, getting the story, documenting it, how do you prove fault? So we’re very, very concerned about this, especially now that we’re hearing on the actual ground that it’s not just reporting of injuries at all, it’s reporting of severe injuries.

So what can you do other than continuing to call and report that you have injuries, and really explain that, even if you don’t think you have a lot of injury, you’re gonna have some sort of injury. See if that gets them to come out. Otherwise everyone’s got phones. What I would suggest is you gotta do a better job of taking photographs immediately after a wreck right where the cars are of the entire scene of both vehicles showing in essence how the wreck occurred. I would also recommend that you speak the at fault driver and record it on your phone. I think that is very, very important going forward because you’re not gonna have someone who can document what the other driver says happened to then prove that see they were at fault.

So this is becoming very problematic. We’re hoping this won’t last very long. We’re sad to see that what the Atlanta police department has told the public is not what’s actually bearing out there on the ground on a day to day basis. Again, hopefully this resolves sooner than later and they’re back responding to every call of a car wreck in the Atlanta area.

If you have any comments, issues that you have seen, please respond to this video below. If you’ve got questions, concerns, if you’ve got a potential claim or case you’d like to see if my firm can handle, please reach out to us. Again, comment to this video. Go to our website, spauldinginjurylaw.com or give me a phone call. Two phone numbers for you, 470-695-9950 or 770-744-0780. Thanks so much for watching this video.

Posted in Atlanta, Car Accidents | Comments Off on Atlanta Police No Longer Responding To Most Car Accident Calls