Atlanta Attorney

We look forward to becoming your Atlanta personal injury attorney. Call an Atlanta attorney at our office at (404) 870-9114 if you would like to talk to an attorney about your case immediately.

Personal Injury Car Accident Truck Accident Wrongful Death and Premises Liability

Welcome to the Law Offices of Daniel Frehiwet, LLC. We provide personal injury legal services in Atlanta, Georgia. Our attorneys are proud to represent people who have been injured as a result of the negligence of others. Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers are versed in the tactics of the insurance industry of trying to minimize your recovery from your personal injury claim in order to maximize their profits. If you have experienced a claims adjuster rushing you to settle quickly, even before your injuries have been evaluated by a medical professional, then you understand why you need an experienced attorney on your side.

We know that an Atlanta personal injury claim takes the experience, knowledge, and skill of an Atlanta attorney at our office to get you the right results. Our Atlanta attorneys pride themselves on their aggressive representation of your personal injury claim by refusing to settle quickly and early if it compromises the results that your case deserves. Your Atlanta attorney at the law firm will not hesitate to file suit if they feel that the insurance company/adjuster is using their common tactic of undervaluing your personal injury claim. As your Atlanta attorney, we refuse to let an insurance adjuster make a career out of denying you the compensation that you deserve for your injuries. Please read through our site for more information about our practice areas, our lawyers, and the underhanded tactics of the insurance industry that will likely be used against you in seeking justice.

Atlanta Attorney Daniel Frehiwet will personally review and evaluate your Personal Injury case.

Call us at (404) 870-9114 for a free initial consultation. We can setup an appointment to meet and discuss your case at our office with an Atlanta attorney - but, our attorneys are also willing to travel to visit you at your location.

Car Accidents

Our practice focuses on representing people injured in Atlanta car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents. Our lawyers have handled accidents resulting in a catastrophic injury or death, but we are also experienced in handling less serious car accidents and other motor vehicle accidents. Unlike many law firms, your Atlanta personal injury attorney will represent you regarding your property damage. That damage includes damage to your car, personal belongings in the car, loss of use of your car, and the diminution of value of your vehicle after the accident. Ask an attorney at our office for more details on how we can help with with your property damage claim.

Truck Accidents

Unbeknownst to many, semi-tractor trailer accidents are very different cases from ordinary car accidents. Your Atlanta attorney understands the ins and outs of the often complex and rule laden area of truck accident law. Click our truck accident link to learn more about this area of law and discuss your case with an Atlanta attorney.

Premises Liability

Premises liability claims stem from the negligence of a property/premises owner. This includes slip and fall accidents where there is an unreasonable hazard that causes injury. These claims also include negligent security claims where you are injured due to the negligent lack of security or the negligent enforcement of security that causes you injury. These injuries occur at places of business and dwelling such as apartment buildings. Visit our premises liability section to find out more information and talk with an Atlanta attorney.

Governor Perdue's Proposed Immunity for Pharaceutical Companies an Insult to All Georgia Citizens

I continue to be dismayed at Governor Perdue's apparent disdain for his constituents, the hard-working Everyday Georgians. His proposal to eliminate the right and ability of Georgia citizens to hold Georgia pharmaceutical companies responsible for injuries they cause here in Georgia is INSULTING and a slap in the face of every Georgian. Not to mention the fact that it is probably unconstitutional, as it would limit only the rights of Georgians to seek justice, not of other Americans' ability to sue Georgia pharmaceutical companies. Imagine that! Governor Perdue is ready, willing and able to throw away your rights because you live in Georgia, but he can't take away the rights of someone living, say, in Alabama who has been injured by a Georgia pharmaceutical company. What a joke! But, unfortunately, Governor Perdue, in his continued shortsightedness and misunderstanding of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Georgia, will be attempting to get the Georgia General Assembly to pass such an insane law.
My good friend and fellow trial lawyer, Jay Cook, wrote an op-ed column in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution today. It is reprinted below. Jay, like me, is a Past Preident of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association. Jay is also a former President of the State Bar of Georgia and now continues the fight to protect the inalienable rights of all Georgians. Good job, Friend! And Fellow Georgians, please contact Governor Perdue's office and let him know you are not going to take it any more. Also, please contact your State Senator and State Representative and ask them to vote against the Governor's proposed limitation of your rights.
Should Georgia limit liability for drug companies? CONOur safety needs to be defendedBy JAY COOK
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
A little over four years ago, a veteran Federal Drug Administration scientist rocked the pharmaceutical industry with Senate testimony that exposed a legalized conflict of interest that was endangering the health and safety of the American public: the FDA’s funding depends largely on the success of products of the industry it regulates. “The FDA is incapable of protecting America from unsafe drugs or from another Vioxx,” Dr. David Graham warned.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has introduced a bill promising freedom from liability to Georgia-based pharmaceutical companies that sell FDA-approved drugs and devices. The bill would make it nearly impossible for Georgians to sue for injuries caused by these products. He claims it will lure more businesses to Georgia and “protect Georgia companies from personal injury lawyers.” But who will protect consumers from pharmaceutical companies that care more about profits than people? Obviously not the FDA.
Gov. Perdue calls his bill “tort reform.” But it’s got “rulebook rigging” written all over it. Rulebook rigging is my term for industries or special interest groups that try to game the system so they can legalize putting profits ahead of public safety.
Unfortunately, rulebook rigging isn’t limited to the FDA. The Consumer Products Safety Commission, OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency, among other public safety watchdogs, also have been cut to the bone or reconfigured to cater to the industries they’re supposed to be policing.
If we need evidence (beyond Vioxx, Rezulin, fen-phen and Bextra) of the disastrous consequences of allowing industries to neuter their own government watchdogs, we need only look to Wall Street.
But even without such preferential oversight, consumers have only one place to turn when something goes wrong: our civil justice system.
But that protection, too, is being undermined thanks to tort “reform” — another rulebook rigging scam. To date, the powerful special interests pushing these “reforms” have spent more than $1 billion to brainwash us (and get a tax deduction) with contrived horror stories about how lawsuits are driving up insurance rates and putting good doctors out of business. The truth is that lawsuits, which have no impact on insurance rates, don’t put good doctors out of business — but, thanks to “reform” — lawsuits can’t hold bad ones accountable, either. Meanwhile, health care costs and insurance rates are still skyrocketing.
Our elected state representatives, who capped damages on medical malpractice lawsuits four years ago, seem to have forgotten that the civil justice system is there to enforce the rulebook of fair play, to keep America and Americans safe and to deter and punish wrongful behavior that injures others. Or have they?
The founding fathers must be rolling in their graves. They handed down government regulations and impartial civil juries for a reason: to promote public trust and safety and to keep our rights from being trampled by tyrants with too much power and money and too little humanity. They understood that America needed more than the free market economy to enforce the practice of fair play because they knew that not everyone plays fair. As James Madison, father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, wrote: “If men were angels we would need no government.”
It may not be too late to preserve our legacy. But first we must stop listening to the fear-mongering flim-flam of rulebook riggers and start seeing the game for what it really is: a con to pocket higher profits at the expense of our safety and our sacred right to liberty and justice for all. Shouldn’t the American Dream be about more than money?• Jay Cook is president of the board of directors of the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation and a past president of the State Bar of Georgia.

Governor Perdue's Proposed FDA Immunity A Slap in the Face of Georgians

As you know, Governor Sonny Perdue has proposed legislation that would grant any Georgia corporation that manufactures drugs complete immunity from any civil liability if that company's drug harms a user as long as the FDA had approved it. This is a slap in the face of all Georgians and we need to tell the Governor we are not going to put up with it. Can you imagine the insanity of this proposal in light of the FDA debacle in Blakely, Georgia with the Peanut Corporation of America and the salmonella outbreak? Obviously, the FDA is a joke and can't protect us from peanut butter, much less from dangerous pharmaceuticals. This is the same FDA that missed 12 prior positive tests for salmonella at the Peanut Corporation of American plant before the salmonella outbreak.
The Governor's office made some feeble attempt to justify this slap in the face of Georgians yesterday and to distinguish the horrible peanut situation from his proposed FDA legislation: “The ‘F’ in FDA is much different than the ‘D’ in FDA. Our legislation is specifically targeted at drugs and medical devices that go through a rigorous approval process, which is totally unrelated to the FDA’s food regulation process,” said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley. (The entire article is reprinted below).
Can you believe he said that? This sort of hyper-technical and meaningless distinction is tantamount to the Governor's treating Georgians like second class citizens. We deserve better. Use this link to tell Governor Perdue enough is enough, and when it comes to the safety of Georgians' food and drugs, we deserve grades of "A's" and "B's", not "F's" and "D's." Give Governor Perdue's proposed "get out of jail free" card for corporate wrongdoers an "F."
How peanut butter might gum up a Perdue bill
Thursday, January 29, 2009, 01:47 PMThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Capitol can be a highly insulated bubble, but reality occasionally imposes itself.
Two years ago, the massacre at Virginia Tech threw a wrench into legislation backed by the National Rifle Association to permit employees to keep guns in cars parked on company lots.peanut.jpg
We may be witnessing something similar right now. Even if you live in a bubble, you know about that peanut-butter factory in Blakely:
A federal report released Wednesday on the salmonella outbreak fueled outrage and calls for a criminal probe into the South Georgia plant that officials said made the peanut butter that is linked to the food crisis. Georgia legislators vowed to sharpen laws regulating food-processing plants as federal officials announced an expanded product recall.
The report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detailed how the Blakely peanut butter plant failed to control contamination and retested tainted products before shipping them to market.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced he would introduce legislation that would protect drug companies and medical device manufacturers in Georgia from lawsuits over products approved by the FDA.
Said Perdue:
“As we continue to attract new investment in biotechnology, we can secure our position as a leader in this industry by enacting laws that respect the role of the federal Food and Drug Administration as the regulator of the safety of drugs and medical devices.”
The governor’s legislation hasn’t manifested itself yet. But litigators who oppose the measure are practicing their lines, and the Blakely peanut-butter factory has quickly become a major part of the script.
“If the Food and Drug Administration can’t protect citizens and consumers from peanut butter, do we really want them to be the only line of defense for drugs and medical devices?” asked Bill Clark, director of political affairs for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
We asked Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle this morning if the Blakely incident might sour the mood of the Capitol toward the governor’s bill.
Too soon to tell, Cagle said. He’d like to see the legislation.
But a spokesman for the governor said Perdue’s bill is to peanut butter what apples are to oranges.
“The ‘F’ in FDA is much different than the ‘D’ in FDA. Our legislation is specifically targeted at drugs and medical devices that go through a rigorous approval process, which is totally unrelated to the FDA’s food regulation process,” said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley.Further, Brantley said, the governor’s measure would protect companies from complaints against design defects of drugs and medical devices, not manufacturing defects. “If a drug manufacturer had salmonella in their factory and people got that from the taking the drug, this bill would not protect them,” he said.

Savannah Suger Refinery an Example of More Georgia Corporate Irresponsibility

Just like the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia, the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah, Georgia knew of the dangers its plant exposed its employees and Georgia citizens to and did absolutely nothing. In an article today in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, it is obvious the sugar corporation deliberately exposed its employees to the very real chance of death by ignoring an expert consultant's report warning the corporation's executives of the danger. Which brings to mind the question: What is wrong with Corporate America? Has corporate greed become so all important that dollars over safety is a corporation's creed now? Or is it that the past administration of the last eight years has permitted Corporate America to thumb its nose at corporate responsibility for the sake of unregulated profit such that even when human life hangs in the balance, the Almighty Corporation gets by with murder?

It is clear that in the case of the Savannah Sugar Refinery, the fourteen employees who died in the explosion and the dozens of other Georgians injured in it were asked to sacrifice too much for corporate greed. These Georgians are left with nothing but inadequate workers' compensation claims now as the Imperial Sugar Refinery is protected from the rough justice of twelve jurors in the Georgia Civil Justice System by the "exclusive remedy" of the workers' compensation system. And that is a crime.