Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog

Contaminated food can cause injury or even death to consumers and cause expensive, costly lawsuits to sellers, making it very important that food is produced and stored in sanitary conditions. Yesterday federal agents seized food products from a rat infested warehouse in East Point Georgia, owned by the United Food Service Company. Close to one million dollars of contaminated food was confiscated.

U.S. Attorneys issued a statement stating: "The insanitary conditions alleged to exist in this warehouse where food is stored are simply unacceptable," and that "This office has moved quickly to prevent the FDA-regulated products stored in this rodent-infested warehouse from being sold to unsuspecting consumers.

According to authorities, the Food and Drug Administration inspected the warehouse and documented an active and widespread rodent infestation, photographing and videotaping multiple live rats, dead rats, and rat nesting sites.

In Georgia, liability for knowingly or negligently selling unwholesome provisions has been imposed by statute since 1863. The seller has a duty to know the condition of the food that he sells, because contaminated food can seriously injure or even kill a consumer. And because the seller is in the best position to know the food, he is the one who will be held liable.

The plaintiff does have a duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid getting injured by consuming the bad food. The plaintiff must prove that the food was unwholesome and this is not established by the mere fact that the plaintiff became sick after eating it. However recovery is possible based on circumstantial evidence that rules out every other reasonable hypothesis that could be an explanation for his or her illness.

Continue reading "Good Georgia Lawyer Needed When Hospitalized Or Severely Injured By Bad Food" »

Injuries or deaths are caused each year by SUV rollovers, faulty airbags, bad brakes, and more. Just this past year Toyota has recalled over 10 million cars and trucks all over the world for a variety of problems that included floor mats that trapped accelerators, brake problems, and faulty gas pedals.

Unfortunately for Toyota consumers, the misfortune continues as they recently announced a new recall of 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the United States and Japan for fuel pump and brake fluid problems.

Toyota announced today that it would call back 740,000 cars in the U.S. alone. Just two months ago, Toyota recalled 1.33 million Corolla and Matrixs, bringing the total around 10 million. hatchbacks in the U.S. and Canada

In Georgia, automobile manufacturers like Ford, Toyota, or Lexus would be held strictly liable in products liability torts action. The Georgia legislature drafted these laws in order to protect consumers by shifting the burden of the loss or injury to the wrongdoer, i.e. the manufacturer of the product defect that caused the harm. The basic elements of this legal claim are: first, the manufacture of the product (Toyota manufactured the cars); second, a defective product (the vehicles are in fact defective hence the recalls); third, an injury to a natural person proximately caused by the defect (multiple automobile owners have suffered harms due to defects); fourth, a sale of the product as a new product (Toyota dealers sold these new vehicles off their dealership lots); and fifth, the existence of the defect at the time the product left the manufacturer's control (the defect was present when Toyota sold the car to consumers.)

Continue reading "Good Georgia Lawyer for Car Crash, Automobile Accident Defects Warns Consumers Of More Toyota Recalls " »

Two million strollers from the Atlanta-based Graco Children's Products Inc. are being recalled because of strangulation and entrapment risks.

The recall comes after four strangulation deaths have resulted from the strollers. Children also have become trapped in the strollers and injured with cuts and bruises. Infants who have not been harnessed have slipped through the opening between the seat's bottom and tray, and the infant's neck has become entrapped and strangled.

The recall includes older versions of Graco's Quattro Tour and MetroLite Strollers and travel systems sold between November 2000 and December 2007.

The strollers were sold all across the country at stores including: Kmart, Walmart, Target, Sears, Babies 'R' Us, Burlington Coat Factory, Meijers and Sears.

For more information about the recall and to find out the specific models visit: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml11/11015.html

To avoid stroller injuries, make sure that you do not use recalled strollers and always make sure your child is strapped in properly. If babies aren't strapped into the strollers carefully, they can slip through the opening between the stroller tray and bottom of the seat -- where they can get stuck and be strangled.

Continue reading "Dangerous Strollers Recalled Due To Child Deaths, Strangulation" »

How do you protect your business brand name and trademark? Naming a business or a product is usually one of the more fun parts of a startup. It might be time consuming, but when you come up with the perfect name for your company or product, it's much more satisfying than filing incorporation paperwork. Once you have that name, it's important to protect it.

The first step in protecting your name is to make sure no one else is using it. You want to protect your business from an expensive trademark suit by another company.
You should conduct a full search to make sure no one else is using the name. It is crucial to make sure no one is using the name in your industry or any other related industries. Do a google search of your name. Check the trademark filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office Check the trade name registrations with the Georgia Secretary of State , and with the Secretary of State of states in which you plan to sell your product. Conducting as full a search as you can will save you from being sued for infringement by someone who was using the name first.

You can also pay for a trademark service to do the search for you. While these services are expensive, they are fairly comprehensive and can give you peace of mind that no one else is using your name.

The next step in protecting your brand and product is to register your trademark with the US PTO and your state registry. Registration gives you the exclusive rights to use your name without interference and confusion by use of anyone else, and to sue for damages in federal court if anyone else does use your name. Federal registration presumptively establishes that the trademark is valid, and that you are the owner of the mark, which is not confusingly similar to any other registered mark. This gives you an advantage in any litigation, shifting the burden of proof to infringers or potential infringers to prove that the presumptions are incorrect. The owners of unregistered marks first have to prove the validity of the mark, ownership, and first use.

This protection is quite beneficial when building a brand. While you may not want to pay the fees to register each product name, you should register your brand name, as well as any product names that are gaining in popularity.

Continue reading "How To Protect Your Business Brand Name, Trademark and Property: Georgia Business and Intellectual Property Law " »

How can I protect my company's secret information making sure my employees keep it confidential? This is a question that we are often asked by business owners in Georgia.

You established your business because you have a great product, technology, or service. You want to tell the world about it, but it is also important to protect your idea from competitors, particularly in the development stages of your business.

When you are looking for investors, working with others to develop a product, or otherwise turning your idea into a business, it is important to be careful about sharing information. You do not want to disclose confidential information and have it land in the hands of your competitors or be used against your interests.

It is important to be aware of what information you disclose and how it gets disclosed to outsiders. Do not share nonpublic information, such as business plans, customer lists, marketing strategies, pricing, product designs, or development plans without first entering into a non- disclosure agreement ("NDA").

NDAs allow parties to explore business relationships while protecting important information about the business. NDAs create confidential relationships, and restrict unauthorized disclosure or use of your proprietary information.

The NDA can be unilateral (where only the disclosing party's information is protected) or mutual (where both parties' confidential information is closed). The NDA can also specify that the relationship itself is to be kept confidential. Mutual NDAs are generally preferred, because, during most business discussions, both parties disclose information even though mutual disclosure might not have been contemplated at the beginning of the relationship.

Several key points NDAs should cover are:

Definitions: The definition of confidential information should be as broad as possible if you are the one disclosing the information, but, narrower if you are receiving the information.

Exceptions to Confidential Information: NDAs should clearly define exceptions to confidential information, such as information that is in the public domain or which is required to be disclosed by a court.

Treatment of Confidential Information: NDAs should provide for how all information is to be disclosed, and how to deal with information disclosed orally. Other treatment issues to consider are: whether photocopies will be allowed, how confidential information is to be stored, who will have access to the information, and what will happen with information once the relationship has ended. It is important to be aware of all burdens placed on both the disclosing party and the receiving party.

You should discuss your specific business needs with your attorney to draft a NDA that will protect your business information. Contact Williams Oinonen LLC today for more information about how to protect your proprietary information.