Contents:
- When do I need a lawyer?
- Are medication errors really that common?
- What are the advantages of mediation?
- What is collaborative law?
Despite the advancements in vehicle safety today, most of us will be involved in an automobile accident at some point in our life. You and your loved ones may find yourselves victims of a negligent driver, and learn all of the personal hardships that can follow an accident. Aside from damage to or total loss of your vehicle, you may also have injuries resulting in ongoing physical pain , emotional stress, medical bills and lost income due to time missed at work. All of these factors can put an overwhelming strain on you and your family's daily life Should you attempt to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company? After all, you believe you were not at fault, and should be compensated accordingly! 
In reality, the insurance company has an experienced legal team quickly at work, highly paid to know the fine details of the law, ensuring that their company remains profitable by compensating you with as little as possible. Any statement made by you could later be used in their favor should you decide to pursue your case in court. An experienced personal injury attorney can relieve you of these worries, battling the insurance company to ensure that you are fairly compensated. Even after the deduction for attorney's fees, your settlement could far exceed what an insurance company would offer you, if anything, as "fair" compensation. The law office of Paul D. Hermann has been helping clients financially recover from injuries all over the state of Georgia for over 25 years. Our staff includes years of legal experience and medical training to help determine what you are entitled to. You do not have to battle an insurance company by yourself. Call our office to schedule a free consultation today!
Are medication errors really that common?
Is it completely outrageous to think that you could be the victim of a medication error every day during a hospital stay? The Institute of Medicine doesn't think so. According to a report printed by the IOM in July 2006, this is entirely possible from a study of related statistics. Their study showed that as many as 1.5 million Americans suffer from an illness, injury or death each year due to mistakes in the prescribing, dispensing and taking of prescription drugs.
One of the best ways to avoid being victim to a medication error is by simply improving the communication between you and your doctor. Always discuss new and existing medications as well as dosage with your doctor. If you are concerned with mistakes in the interpretation of your doctor's handwriting, always ask for clarification before leaving your doctors office or the hospital, and write it down yourself. When you receive your prescription from the pharmacy, double check the label and ask to speak to the pharmacist if you are still unsure. Typically, the manufacturers of most prescription medications provide resources online, including typical recommended dosages. If you are concerned about the dosage you are taking, you can use this resource for comparison and discuss it with your doctor if you feel they made a mistake. Always be involved in your health care and never be afraid to question your doctor. Mistakes can be made, and unfortunately, frequently are.
What Are the Advantages to Mediation?
(http://www.abanet.org/publiced/courts/mediation_advantages.html)
Informality:
Mediation is a much less intimidating process than going to court. Mediation is a more flexible solution that does not include strict rules of procedure in finding the best way to reach an agreement. Mediation effectively handles complicated legal disputes involving multiple parties and a variety of issues at once. For example, family mediation often deals with entire families at one time rather than settling the dispute in court.
Faster than going to court:
While trial can often take years to settle, a mediated agreement may only require a couple of hours or a series of sessions over the course of a few weeks.
Less expensive:
The court process as a whole is not inexpensive. Also, the costs may unfortunately except the benefits. The money that would otherwise go towards the court process may be used more effectively towards repairing damages, solving the problem more directly, or repaying debts. Mediation is often available at a low cost for certain types of cases.
Takes into account emotions:
In the mediation process each party is free to tell their own story in their words. This acknowledgement of emotion makes it easier to move towards a final settlement. The combination of legal and personal issues promotes a more holistic and personal understanding of both yourself and the other party involved.
Higher rate of satisfaction:
Mediation has proven to generate higher satisfaction among participants than those who go to court. Because participants are highly active in the process, they are more committed to upholding the settlement than those who have a judge decide for them. 70-80% of the time mediations end in agreement.
More private:
Mediations are confidential and are not considered matters of public record.
The decision is yours:
In mediations the authority and responsibility of reaching an agreement lies with the people who have the conflict. The legal dispute is approached as a problem to be solved through mediation. The mediator does not have the authority to make a final decision and there is no need to leave it in the hands of court. Oftentimes the participants prefer to make their own decisions in such complicated matters rather than giving that authority to a judge. It is important to understand your legal rights so that you can make decisions based on your own self interest.
Preserves relationships:
One major strength of mediation is that in many matters the parties involved, whether they be in the same family, live next door, work together, and so on, have to cooperate in order to preserve their relationship. Court can often act as a dividing factor in such relationships, so mediation offers a solution that looks to the future in order to solve the problem without damaging the relationship.
What is collaborative law?
Collaborative law is a form of settlement in which the parties involved attempt to reach a fair settlement through a series of meetings, often called ‘joint sessions’, between each party and his or her lawyer, and when necessary, other neutral experts. In these meetings the goal is to clearly identify the interests and priorities of the parties as well as to help them reach a settlement that is consistent with those interests and priorities. Collaborative law has quickly become a preferred way to resolve issues regarding families, such as divorce, because of the process’s tendency to preserve relationships between the parties more than disputes settled in court.
Why choose collaborative law?
The main reason people choose collaborative law is simply to preserve relationships. Here is a list of additional reasons people choose collaborative law:
- Client involvement: The client is crucial to the settlement process and is more involved in the decisions which affect their lives than in litigation.
- Support: Each party receives support from their attorney in a way that allows the attorneys to work with one another in resolving the dispute.
- Less expensive: In general the collaborative process is less expensive as well as more efficient than litigation.
- Positive climate: The collaborative process produces a climate that is more positive for both parties. This process makes a “win-win” settlement a possibility.
- Efficiency: The speed of the collaborative process depends solely on the schedules of the parties involved rather than the court’s schedule, so it is almost always a faster process over all.
- Creative problem solving: The collaborative process implements and encourages creative solutions in resolving the legal dispute.
- The client is boss: The decision making process rests in the hands of the clients.
- Less stressful: The collaborative process is much less stressful than Court Proceedings. The parties involved are free to focus on the issue at hand rather than dealing with the anxiety of possibly “going to court”.
Who practices collaborative law?
In collaborative law professionals from several fields come together to resolve the dispute. All the professionals involved are trained in the collaborative process and withhold the Standards of Conduct and follow the Guidelines of Practice established by the Collaborative Law Institute of Georgia.
- Lawyers are trained in family law.
- Mental health professionals have a working knowledge of family systems.
- Financial professionals are trained in cash flow analyses, implications of support payments, asset division, and the guidelines of child support.
For more information on the specifics of collaborative law, please visit the Collaborative Law Institute of Georgia website.
Our dedicated firm, located in downtown Atlanta is specialized in handling a large range of legal needs, including automobile accidents, medical malpractice, nursing home injury or death, medical device product liability, prescription drug liability, personal injury, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, and professional negligence & breach of trust. We are proud to have served the state of Georgia for over 25 years.
