In addition to criminal law and business litigation, the lawyers in Macon at Noland Law Firm are also prepared to represent you and take on any civil litigation case you may need assistance with. You might need representation for a civil case regarding an insurance claim, a class action lawsuit, a personal injury/wrongful death case, or an appeal.
However, some clients are not sure which category their case falls under. Civil litigation occurs when there is a dispute between at least two parties, and one is looking for payment or action from the other. Your local lawyer in Macon at Noland Law Firm wants to assist you in any way possible with your case from beginning to end. Here we explain the types of cases that fall under civil litigation, which may be of help...
Insurance Claims
A case involving an insurance claim falls under civil litigation. Insurance claim cases arise when there is a dispute between insurance coverage. Noland Law Firm is experienced in representing both the insurer and the insured throughout the course of the insurance claim case.
Class Action
A class action lawsuit occurs when a large group of people are represented by an individual or a smaller group and are searching for compensation from another party. This usually happens when a group of customers or clients have the same type of issue with a single person, company, or facility. Some examples of a class action lawsuit include pharmaceutical fraud, sexual abuse, nursing home neglect, and human rights violations. For a class action lawyer in Macon, contact Noland Law Firm.
Personal Injury/Wrongful Death
A personal injury or wrongful death claim is filed when a person is injured or killed as the result of another party’s negligence. Car accidents, truck accidents, slip-and-fall, medical malpractice, defective products, and wrongful death cases are common issues that warrant the need for a personal injury lawyer in Macon. Some damages that a personal injury client is entitled to include medical bills, pain & suffering, loss of income & benefits, and funeral & burial expenses. A personal injury lawyer in Georgia will be able to help you navigate the state laws and statutes during a time where you may be injured or have lost a loved one. A lawyer in Macon like the Lawyers at Noland Law Firm are ready to take on your personal injury case.
Appeals
A court appeal can be filed if a client is unsatisfied with the initial trial court’s decision of a case. Whether or not a lawyer handled your initial case, your local Macon Lawyers, here at Noland Law Firm are prepared to file a court appeal on your behalf. If you are in search of a lawyer in Macon to appeal a court’s decision, contact the Macon attorneys at Noland Law Firm.
In representing both plaintiffs and defendants, we believe that all parties deserve the best possible representation, and we strive to provide it. This separates us from firms that serve the cause of special interests on one side or the other. We serve our clients no matter who they may be. We are “client-centered” rather than “cause-centered.” We are confident that our clients benefit from this balanced approach. For excellent representation during any civil litigation matter, the lawyers in Macon at Noland Law Firm are the ones you can trust.
For your free consultation contact us today.
Noland Law Firm in Macon, GA is home to a small team of business law experts. Business litigation lawyers provide business owners peace of mind when it comes to handling and resolving conflict that comes along with starting, owning, and/or running a business. The lawyer in Macon at Noland Law Firm provides the expertise to resolve business litigation disputes.
When it comes to business litigation, there are countless scenarios that may warrant the need to hire a business lawyer. Here are some examples:
Starting a Business
Starting a business can be an exciting feat. However, when it comes to local and state compliance, the laws in your state might be difficult to understand. If you are in the beginning stages of starting a business, you should contact your local lawyers for help in order to make sure your business is compliant with state and local laws. Noland Law Firm can explain the laws in Georgia and help you find answers to owning and running your business with ease.
Internal Conflicts
Internal conflict is when disputes arise within the business. Conflicts between employees, or owners and employees, are internal conflicts when it comes to business litigation disputes. An example of an internal conflict would be if an employee is unhappy or breaches their employment contract. A lawyer in Macon at Noland Law Firm can help you resolve these conflicts through mediation or litigation.
External Conflicts
An external conflict is a dispute between a member of the business and his/her client or customer. A common example of external conflict for a business owner is a dispute between a landlord and a tenant. This could be due to issues with the property, rent payments, leases, or other more specific issues. Any time a contract is involved, a business lawyer can help you navigate the unfamiliar terrain of business law and litigation. The lawyer in Macon at Noland Law Firm, William Noland is more than happy to look at handling your business case.
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If you are searching for a lawyer in Macon, the lawyers at Noland Law Firm have you covered for all things business related. Whether you are starting a business, and need to handle internal disputes or have external conflicts, the lawyers in Macon have the knowledge and expertise to handle your case for you.
William H. Noland is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer, having tried dozens of cases to verdict in both state and federal courts and argued appeals in the Georgia Court of Appeals, Georgia Supreme Court, and Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Hire a business lawyer from Noland Law Firm to relieve the stress of business law and litigation and to represent your business in a professional manner!
Need help with any aspects of Business Litigation? We can help by offering you a free consultation.
Call us today at 478-621-4980 to set up an initial consultation at our Macon, Georgia, office, or contact us online.
Following a personal injury incident, it’s conceivable for victims to wonder about the amount they are likely to receive as compensation. It’s hard to tell without knowing the exact circumstances surrounding your accident.
A good rule of thumb is that the value of your claim depends on the nature of your injuries and their impact on your life. Typically, the amount of your personal injury settlement will factor in three types of damages that the personal injury may have caused you:
Economic damages
These damages are awarded to victims based on the verifiable monetary loss brought about by the injuries. They may include medical bills you incurred in seeking treatment for your injuries, as well as income lost while you were recuperating.
Also considered under economic damages is the future income lost as a result of your injuries. For instance, if your work involved manual labor, which you can no longer execute due to your injuries, your potential income lost will likely figure into the settlement amount.
Non-economic damages
Pain and suffering, as well as mental anguish arising from your injuries, will also likely be figured into the settlement offer that you receive. All these are covered under non-economic damages, including loss of consortium and a lower quality of life. Such damages aren’t easily quantifiable, but that does not mean they are not included in the settlement.
Punitive damages
Depending on the circumstances of your case, you may also be awarded punitive damages. In most cases, they are not meant to compensate you. Instead, they are supposed to punish the defendant’s conduct in the lead-up to your injuries. Punitive damages may not weigh in much on the value of your personal injury settlement since they do not depend much on your losses.
There is no actual figure for all personal injury cases
Every case is different, and the amount of compensation varies. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that the compensation you demand is enough to cover all of your personal injury damages. Knowing more about the kind of injuries brought resulting from your accident will put you in a better place when it comes to receiving adequate compensation. It’s the best form of justice you can get.
Many different factors influence your risk of a crash. Timing plays a role, as wrecks are more likely at certain times of day than at others. There are also seasonable changes in different kinds of crash risk, like drunk driving crash risk and the possibility of a wreck involving a motorcyclist or a pedestrian. Drivers who know the most dangerous times to drive can make smart choices about when they drive.
They may also need to consider where they drive. Location is also a key factor in someone’s risk for a car crash. Some places are much safer for surface travel, while others leave drivers with a higher risk for collision. In Georgia, you can look at the crash data from 2020 on a county-by-county basis and start to see a clear pattern about who has the most risk on the road.
What counties are the least safe for drivers?
Given that there are 159 counties in Georgia, drivers might hope to live and drive someplace that reports a low number of traffic deaths. Bibb County was among the ten counties with the highest number of traffic fatalities. However, with 28 traffic deaths, it came in seventh on that list. Fulton County had 129 traffic deaths, Dekalb County had 80 and Gwinnet County saw 61 traffic deaths in 2020.
The size of the local community seems to have an impact on the risk of fatal collisions. Decatur, Atlanta and Lawrenceville are all relatively large municipalities with high population density, especially when compared with Macon. Cobb, Clayton, Chatham and Hall Counties all also reported more fatalities in traffic in 2020 than Bibb County.
What does that information mean for you?
Recognizing that traffic density and local culture influence your risk of getting into a crash can help you make better decisions about your travel habits. From adding extra time to your schedule so you can keep the focus on safety when you visit these bigger metropolitan areas to planning a slightly longer but much safer route that bypasses the higher risk locations, little steps can help you protect yourself and the people you love out on the roads.
Learning more about modern motor vehicle collisions will help you reduce risk on the road and better handle a claim if you do experience a crash.
Any time you’re in a collision, there are things that you should or shouldn’t say. Depending on how you handle yourself after a crash, you could hurt your chance of getting the compensation you need.
Saying the wrong thing could even end up having the unintended effect of making it seem like you were to blame.
To protect your right to a claim, here are three things you shouldn’t say after you’re in a crash.
- I’m sorry
The first thing to avoid saying is that you’re sorry for the crash. You may be used to saying you’re sorry even though you’re not at fault, but now is not the time to do so. If you apologize, the other driver or people around you may mistakenly believe that you caused the crash.
- I didn’t see you
The next thing to avoid saying is that you didn’t see the other driver. Even if you didn’t see them coming, it isn’t a good idea to let others know that you couldn’t see them coming. When you say that, it sounds like you weren’t paying attention, and others may believe that you’re to blame as a result.
- I’m fine, don’t worry about it
Finally, don’t say that you’re okay until you’ve gone through a medical exam after a crash. You might feel fine at the moment, but the reality is that many people develop symptoms within 24 to 48 hours after the collision (and sometimes even later than that).
Protect yourself by not making any claims about your health. Let a doctor check you out first.
Following these tips helps you protect your claim
If you follow these tips, you can protect your right to a claim. It’s not your responsibility to prove or disprove fault, so it’s better not to make any claims when a crash happens. Let the insurance companies do their work, and focus on doing what you need to do to protect yourself and get the medical care you need.
Later, your attorney can help you file a claim against the other driver for the injuries you’ve suffered.
The average American household doesn’t have that much in savings. If one of the wage-earning family members suddenly loses their income because of a car crash injury, there may only be enough money in savings to cover your mortgage for one or two months.
You will be reliant on auto insurance coverage to help your family cover your cost of living expenses and handle the practical consequences of a car crash. While you may have good coverage on your vehicle, the Georgia motor vehicle insurance system focuses on liability. Your coverage won’t necessarily protect you when another driver is at fault for the crash. Instead, you will depend on what insurance the other driver carries.
How much will the other driver’s policy pay for after a crash in Georgia?
Every driver in Georgia needs two primary forms of liability coverage. They need property damage liability coverage to help repair vehicles and other property damaged in the crash. They also have to carry bodily injury liability coverage that pays for people’s injuries and secondary expenses related to injuries, such as lost income while someone is in the hospital.
A driver can legally operate a vehicle in Georgia with just $25,000 in property damage coverage and another $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage. That amount of bodily liability coverage does double if two or more people get hurt in one wreck. However, many people will find that a basic policy without supplemental coverage amounts will be far less than the total expenses they suffered because of a car crash.
Serious injuries or substantial damage to a vehicle could push the costs of the wreck well above the $25,000 threshold, and the insurance company may try to offer even less than that when negotiating a settlement.
What about your own policy? Perhaps you have one paid for extensive coverage on your own policy. You may have collision coverage that protects you or underinsured motorist protection. You can make a claim against either of these kinds of coverage after a crash. Sadly, your liability coverage will have no impact after a crash caused by another driver. Understanding the way car insurance works in Georgia can help those injured in a crash make good decisions about their finances.
The risk for a crash is always there no matter how safe you try to be. However, there are certain driving habits that add to your overall collision risk far more than other behaviors.
You likely already recognize how dangerous drunk driving or texting while driving is. You may even avoid driving when you feel tired or when you have a cold. However, it is not just your physical condition when you get behind the wheel but also the choices that you make while in control of a vehicle that determines your overall risk for a crash.
The maneuvers that you make can directly contribute to your collision risk or reduce it in some cases. There is one driving maneuver that has a strong correlation with car crashes and even traffic fatalities.
Left-hand turns leave you and approaching traffic at risk
The flow of traffic determines the risk involved in different driving maneuvers. Traffic in the United States stays on the right-hand side of the road, which means that right-hand turns create minimal risk and exposure to oncoming traffic.
Left-hand turns, on the other hand, take longer to complete and expose the entire side of your vehicle to approaching traffic. There is a strong correlation between turning left and significant motor vehicle crashes.
In fact, the correlation is strong enough that big companies like UPS intentionally create routes for their drivers that try to eliminate left-hand turns if possible.
Do you have to avoid turning left at all costs?
Companies trying to plan routes that don’t involve left-hand turns may have their workers complete a more circuitous route to repeat the same location. Should you also make a habit of going around the block or taking a less direct approach every time you drive somewhere?
The truth is that avoiding left-hand turns simply isn’t practical for the average person. Instead of trying to never turn left, you may want to pay closer attention to the traffic around you before starting a left-hand turn and also make a point of double-checking for people turning left in front of you as you drive.
While these habits won’t eliminate your crash risk, they can help reduce the likelihood of being at fault for a major car wreck because you turned left.
Macon sees its fair share of traffic. The roads fill up during rush hour every weekday afternoon, and thousands of people drive through the area in late November and early December because of the incredible Christmas displays. These tourists are particularly dangerous drivers because they don’t know the roads and may look at displays more closely than traffic conditions.
Both local and tourist traffic can benefit the community by increasing interest in the area and causing people to spend money at local businesses. Unfortunately, whenever there are more vehicles on the road, your risk of getting into a crash increases.
What are some of the concerns that affect your safety when traffic is particularly heavy?
Heavy traffic increases your overall statistical risk
After years of declining collision rates, crashes and traffic deaths have increased in the United States. Your overall risk is already higher than it was two years ago, and traffic conditions can increase your risk even more.
There is the possibility for any vehicle driving near yours to crash into you. The more other vehicles you encounter, the more statistical risk you have. Not only are you at higher risk for a crash, but more drivers mean a greater chance of encountering someone without insurance, someone texting at the wheel or someone driving while drunk.
Heavy traffic can lead to bad driving decisions
When there are many vehicles on the road, the flow of traffic may slow down. Rather than becoming more cautious, many drivers become more unsafe at such times.
They may distract themselves from their boredom by handling their phone or get aggressive and start to tailgate the vehicles around them. Not only could driving aggressively make someone unable to prevent a collision, but it could also lead to road rage incidents.
How can you protect yourself when sharing the road with many vehicles?
The easiest way to reduce your risk of a crash during times of heavy traffic is to stay off the road. However, you can’t just stay at work all evening to avoid rush-hour traffic or all December to avoid people who want to look at the lights.
If you do go out on the roads when traffic is heavy, take less popular roads and leave extra space between your vehicle and the others near you in traffic. Recognizing the risks of heavy traffic and adjusting your habits accordingly can help you avoid a motor vehicle wreck or at least causing one.
Following a personal injury incident, it’s conceivable for victims to wonder about the amount they are likely to receive as compensation. It’s hard to tell without knowing the exact circumstances surrounding your accident.
A good rule of thumb is that the value of your claim depends on the nature of your injuries and their impact on your life. Typically, the amount of your personal injury settlement will factor in three types of damages that the personal injury may have caused you:
Economic damages
These damages are awarded to victims based on the verifiable monetary loss brought about by the injuries. They may include medical bills you incurred in seeking treatment for your injuries, as well as income lost while you were recuperating.
Also considered under economic damages is the future income lost as a result of your injuries. For instance, if your work involved manual labor, which you can no longer execute due to your injuries, your potential income lost will likely figure into the settlement amount.
Non-economic damages
Pain and suffering, as well as mental anguish arising from your injuries, will also likely be figured into the settlement offer that you receive. All these are covered under non-economic damages, including loss of consortium and a lower quality of life. Such damages aren’t easily quantifiable, but that does not mean they are not included in the settlement.
Punitive damages
Depending on the circumstances of your case, you may also be awarded punitive damages. In most cases, they are not meant to compensate you. Instead, they are supposed to punish the defendant’s conduct in the lead-up to your injuries. Punitive damages may not weigh in much on the value of your personal injury settlement since they do not depend much on your losses.
There is no actual figure for all personal injury cases
Every case is different, and the amount of compensation varies. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that the compensation you demand is enough to cover all of your personal injury damages. Knowing more about the kind of injuries brought resulting from your accident will put you in a better place when it comes to receiving adequate compensation. It’s the best form of justice you can get.
Sometimes, injuries sustained following an accident may affect other aspects of your life beyond the physical and mental spheres. For example, these injuries might have adverse effects on your relationship with the people closest to you. An example would be the bond between you and your spouse, which may be strained or broken down due to your injuries. In such a case, you can seek remedy for the deprivation of family relations by making a loss of consortium claim.
Below is more of what you should know about a claim for loss of consortium.
What does a loss of consortium entail?
Loss of consortium is not restricted to physical interactions between you and your spouse. It stretches to everything you used to do as a couple that you can no longer engage in due to your injuries, such as household chores or the occasional date nights. Other examples that may amount to a loss of consortium include:
- Not being able to participate in social activities with your spouse due to your injuries
- An inability to communicate properly as a result of your injuries
- Increased stress levels that take a toll on your spousal relationship, among others
Virtually anything that you customarily did with that loved one before your accident that you can longer enjoy doing afterward could warrant your filing a loss of consortium claim.
What the law in Georgia says regarding loss of consortium
While children and dependent parents of the personal injury victim can claim loss of consortium in some states, the law is different in Georgia. Only the spouse can claim loss of consortium, and for the claim to be available, the couple must be married. In addition, the law in Georgia does not place a cap on non-compensatory damages.
It may be a bit difficult to quantify loss of consortium claims. Insurance companies or the courts may weigh various factors, such as the contrast in your marital relationship before and after the accident before deciding whether you have a valid claim and the financial loss associated with it. You may unknowingly suffer a loss of consortium after an accident, which is why it is essential to look out for your rights and get the justice you deserve.