North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

North Carolina State Senator Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg County recently introduced Senate Bill 33 which seeks to limit the amount of money that can be awarded for pain and suffering to victims of medical malpractice to a mere $250,000, and make emergency medical providers, such as the emergency department in a hospital, immune from liability unless found guilty of "gross negligence, wanton conduct, or intentional wrongdoing." Under the present law, the medical malpractice victim must show that the medical provider did not meet the standard of care among medical providers with similar training and experience.

This bill comes on the heels of a recent study which found that a person has a 20% chance of being harmed by medical care in a North Carolina hospital. The study, which was conducted by Harvard Medical School and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on November 25, 2010. In addition to reporting a significant risk of becoming injured as the result of medical care, it also found that almost 14% of the injuries resulted in life-threatening injury or death. Most significant, however, was the finding that over 63% of the injuries caused by medical care were preventable.

What does this mean to the North Carolina hospital patient? It means that if you or a family member becomes one of the more than 4,000 deaths are preventable each year, or suffers one of the 6,000 preventable permanent injuries, your North Carolina lawmakers want to prevent you from recovering anything, if the medical malpractice was committed by an emergency medical provider, or limit your recovery to $250,000 if malpractice was committed in a non-emergent situation.

What can you do about it? The injury attorneys at Auger & Auger, and urge you to contact your North Carolina State Senator as well as your Representative, and tell them to vote "NO" on Senate Bill 33.

How do I know who my senator and representative is? Go to North Carolina General Assembly . Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your zip+4 zipcode. This will bring up links to your North Carolina State Senator, Representative, and our Congresswoman. From there, you can email, call or write your elected officials and tell them to vote "NO" on Senate Bill 33.

Greensboro Police Officer Randy Ector suffered serious injuries Sunday when he was involved in a motorcycle accident and was struck by Glenda Brown. Ector was off-duty when he was riding his motorcycle in the right-of-way when Ms. Brown, driving an older model Pontiac, pulled from a side street into an intersection, striking Ector. Brown caused $9,500 damage to Ector's motorcycle, and $2,500 to her car. She was charged with Failure to Yield the Right Of Way.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 41% of the nearly 2,400 fatal accidents in 2008 involving a vehicle and a motorcycle occurred when the motorcycle was going straight in the right-of-way and the other vehicle was either turning left in front of the motorcycle, or passing the motorcycle.

All motorists have a duty to maintain a proper lookout and to yield the right of way. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured or killed in a motorcycle accident, call an experienced lawyer for a free consultation.

A motorcycle that police say was traveling at a high rate of speed crashed into an SUV Saturday, killing both the driver and passenger of the motorcycle, and seriously injuring the driver and passenger of the SUV.

According to Matthews Police, Gloria Escobar was making a left turn from Independence Boulevard into a parking lot when motorcyclist Craig Anderson, with passenger Tiffany Johnson, was traveling westbound on Independence Boulevard at a high rate of speed, and crashed into Escobar's vehicle. The force of the impact caused Escobar's SUV to overturn, trapping Escobar and her husband, Alfredo Morales, inside.

Police say that Anderson and Johnson were killed on impact, and that Escobar has been hospitalized and is in serious condition. Morales has also been hospitalized.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 35% of fatal motorcycle wrecks in 2008 involved speeding, compared to only 23% for passenger vehicles. NHTSA has also found that for every mile traveled in 2007, a motorcyclists was 37 times more likely to die in a crash than an occupant of a passenger vehicle, and 9 times more likely to be injured.

The motorcycle accident attorneys at Auger & Auger urge you to exercise caution while riding.

A seriously injured motorcycle accident victim in Charlotte, North Carolina succumbed to his injured and died a day following this tragic accident. Retired USCG Master Chief Petty Officer Lyle Atwood died a day after being hit while riding his motorcycle on East Independence Boulevard. According to police, traffic on East Independence was slowing due to a disabled vehicle. A sheriff's car was behind the disabled vehicle with its blue lights activated so as to alert drivers to slow down. As Amanda Augello tried to slow her vehicle, she swerved to the right, sideswiped Davenport on his motorcycle, and then overcorrect to the left, causing her SUV to flip.

The posted speed limit in that area is 55mph. Augello left 114 feet of skid marks in the roadway before striking Davenport, and then she traveled another 105 feet before coming to a final rest, upside down in her flipped SUV, indicating that speed may have been a factor. The accident remains under investigation by Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Major Crash Investigation Unit.

Augello has subsequently been charged with Misdemeanor Death by Vehicle.