FAQ
The below summary of personal injury law is by no means all-inclusive and is not legal advice. For the latest information on personal injury laws and for legal advice, please call us at (404) 467-1155.
Speaking with an attorney at Conley Griggs Partin LLP is absolutely free. Call us today at (404) 467-1155 to get an honest opinion on whether you have a case.
We charge on a contingency fee basis, meaning you will not pay us anything up-front. We only get paid if we help you obtain a favorable a settlement or a winning verdict at trial. Typically, when we win your case, we take a percentage fee of the total case recovery, in addition to case costs.
Conley Griggs Partin LLP, has attorneys licensed to practice in Federal and State Court in the state of Georgia and West Virginia. However, because of our level of experience and expertise in certain areas of law—primarily products liability—we often find ourselves representing clients throughout the country. We frequently travel to other states on a case-by-case basis and, working with local counsel in those states, are handling or have handled cases for clients with cases in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, New York, Missouri, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and New Mexico.
No matter where you are, please call us for a free consultation. If we are unable to help you, we know attorneys in every state who can.
We do not collect a retainer or any other type of advance payment for our services. We charge on a contingency fee basis, meaning you will not pay us anything unless there is a settlement or a winning verdict at trial. Typically, when we win your case, we take a percentage fee of the total case recovery, in addition to case costs.
Personal injury is a broad term describing a wide range of circumstances where an individual is harmed by the wrongful actions of another person or company. Someone can sustain a personal injury in a number of ways, including in a car accident, a workplace mishap, a slip and fall in a store, or because of a defective product. You can find out whether you have a personal injury case by talking to any of the attorneys at Conley Griggs Partin LLP.
If you or a loved one are ever involved in an accident of any kind, get medical attention first. At the same time, if you are able and can safely do so, begin to create a record to document what happened. Call the police and file a police report. Also, get the names and contact information of any witnesses to your injury. DO NOT rely on the police or your employer to collect information on potential witnesses. Also, have someone you trust take photographs of the scene. Once you have received proper medical attention, write down exactly what happened as soon as you are able. Finally, call an experienced attorney to get advice on how to proceed, what kind of records you should be keeping, and how to handle any phone calls you may received from the other party’s insurance company.
Aside from receiving medical attention, the most important thing in a potential products liability lawsuit is to know where the defective product is. If you are injured by a defect on an automobile, such as a blown or separated tire, do not allow your insurance company to take title of the vehicle and destroy it. If a household product injures you, do not throw it away or otherwise dispose of it. If any company asks you to return the defective product for any reason, refuse the request. If at all possible, maintain possession of the product and take photos of the product, your injuries, and any scene evidence which may help support your claim. Then, call an experienced products liability attorney, such as Conley Griggs Partin LLP for a free consultation.
Assessing the value of your personal injury case isn’t an exact science, and it is impossible to give you an accurate definite value up front. You should be wary of anyone who tries to tell you the value of your claim at an early stage. However, we can weigh the various factors to give you an overall picture of the strengths and weaknesses of your case. These factors include the nature and extent of your personal injuries; the amount of your medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and other financial losses; pain and suffering; and present and future disability. Even when those factors are considered, there are significant variations in the value of a personal injury claim based on the amount of insurance involved or the assets of the defendant, any partial fault on the part of the injured person, the victim’s willingness/ability to invest a long period of time in litigating the claim versus the need for a relatively quick settlement, and more. Of course, the ultimate decision to accept an insurance company’s offer of settlement or to allow a jury to determine the value of your injuries is always up to you.
Insurance companies are mainly concerned with their own interests rather than your best interest. An attorney that represents you is ethically and legal bound to represent ONLY YOUR interest. The business of an insurance company is to take in as many premiums as possible while paying out as few claims as possible. Their representatives may be trained to minimize or outright deny your claim, and they typically employ a variety of tactics to accomplish that – sometimes even pretending to be on your side and want to help you get your claim resolved quickly. If you are unprepared to deal with an insurance company, you stand a very large risk of not receiving the true value of your claim. An attorney at Conley Griggs Partin LLP can help you fight through the confusing paperwork and bureaucracy of an insurance company and help you obtain true compensation for your injuries.
There are a number of scenarios where you may end up negotiating with your own insurance company for compensation of injuries that you have sustained. This can occur with automobile insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, and many other forms of insurance. In any of these circumstances, it is always in your best interest to consult an attorney at Conley Griggs Partin LLP. Adjusters work for the insurance company — not for you — and their job is to settle the matter for the lowest possible expense to the company. Since a consultation is free, it won’t hurt to ask us if we can help. We often find that an insurance company has intentionally offered a settlement far lower than what is reasonable. When this occurs, the insurance company may have acted in “bad faith.”
“Bad faith” refers to unreasonable or unfair conduct by an insurance company. An insurance policy is considered a contract between you (the Insured) and your insurance carrier (the Insurer). Bad faith insurance is any matter regarding an insurance claim by an Insured that is wrongfully denied by the Insurer. This contract requires that your Insurer acts in “good faith” toward you. This means that they must offer you an amount that is reasonable and in compliance with the terms of the contract that you both agreed to. When an Insurer unreasonably withholds the benefits of the policy from its Insured, it is considered to be in “bad faith,” and may be penalized for doing so. An attorney at Conley Griggs Partin LLP is able to speak with you for free to determine if an insurance company has dealt with you in bad faith.
It depends on whether a person dies as a result of the injuries or from unrelated causes. If a person injured in an accident subsequently dies because of those injuries, that person’s heirs may recover money through a lawsuit in a “wrongful death” claim. Even if a person with a personal injury claim dies from unrelated causes, the claim survives in most cases and may be brought by the executor or personal representative of the deceased person’s estate.
Each state has different rules regarding who is entitled to bring a wrongful death suit. It may be only a spouse and children; or grandparents or other relatives may also be allowed to bring a lawsuit. Moreover, even within a state certain situations vest the authority to bring a claim in different people. Call an attorney at Conley Griggs Partin LLP, for more information and a free consultation at 404-467-1155.
Every state has certain time limits, called “statutes of limitations,” which govern the amount of time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. In some states, such as Tennessee, you may have as little as one year to file a lawsuit arising out of an automobile accident. In others, like Georgia, you have two years to bring a claim. However, there are also “statutes of repose,” which may shorten the amount of time that you have to bring a claim. For example, in Georgia, you have ten years from the date of first sale to bring a products liability claim. Therefore, if the product was first sold on January 1st, 2005, you would not be able to file any claim related to the product after January 1st, 2015—even if you were injured by it on December 30th, 2014! As you can see, it is important to call an attorney as soon as practicable after an accident to protect your rights. A consultation is free at Conley Griggs Partin LLP so there is no reason not to call.
You should bring any and all documents that might be relevant to your case. Police reports, for example, contain eyewitness information and details about the conditions surrounding auto accidents, fires, and assaults. Copies of medical reports and bills from doctors and hospitals will help demonstrate the extent and nature of your injuries and will allow us to quickly seek additional medical records related to your claim. Information about the insurer of the person who caused your injury is extremely helpful, as are any photographs you have of the accident scene, your property damage, and your injury. The more information you are able to give us, the easier it will be for us to resolve your claim favorably. If you have not collected any documents at the time of your first meeting, however, do not worry; your lawyer will be able to obtain them in his investigation of your claim.
