Where Can I Find the Best Airport Accident Lawyers in Atlanta?

Knowing what caused an airport accident allows our personal injury lawyers to determine fault. Our more than three decades of litigating experience for airport accident cases has given us a list of the most common cases handled by Atlanta airport accident lawyers.

Car Accidents

You face the risk of an accident before you step foot inside an airport. The parking lots at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport bustle with activity throughout the day. Passengers in a hurry make poor decisions when entering and exiting airport parking lots. Although an airport is not always legally liable for a parking lot accident, a judge or jury might find it legally liable if the airport failed to install adequate traffic and directional signs.

Terminal and Concourses

The next time you visit Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, take note of the numerous obstacles that present a potential danger for fast-moving visitors and passengers. Obstacles such as luggage placed in high-traffic areas can cause visitors and passengers to trip and fall to the floor. Slick floors have the potential to produce slip and fall incidents. The management team assigned by the airport authority to run operations might be legally liable for failing to maintain a safe terminal and concourses.

Escalator

Escalators pose huge safety issues, especially for passengers that do not pay attention to the movement of the devices. Although a passenger running up or down an escalator cannot seek compensation for the injuries caused by the bad decision, the airport can assume responsibility for failing to operate an escalator safely. Just a piece of clothing that catches in one of the small grooves located on an escalator step can trigger a terrible personal injury incident.

Businesses

Accidents happen at an alarming rate inside airport stores and restaurants. Food courts present a particularly dangerous location for travelers and visitors because of the high risk of slip and fall incidents. Spilled beverages on already slick floors frequently cause incidents that produce serious injuries such as head trauma and fractured wrists. Retail stores introduce the dangerous element of protruding bookshelves and bunched carpeting that causes trip and falls.

Baggage Claim

The chaotic scene at the baggage claim area is the ideal location for airport accidents to occur. Fast-moving travelers needing to make connecting flights sometimes do not make decisions that benefit public safety. The baggage carousel also is potentially dangerous because of the strong and fast-moving conveyor belt that is located just below the spinning carousel. Luggage placed throughout the baggage claim area poses safety threats as well.

The best Atlanta airport accident lawyers prove a defendant committed one or more acts of negligence that caused a visitor or passenger injuries. The Georgia-licensed personal injury attorneys from Morgan & Morgan must demonstrate four elements are present to prove negligence for an airport accident case.

Measurable Harm

The first element for negligence involves proving our client suffers from injuries. You cannot link an act of negligence with injuries unless we first demonstrate you suffer from one or more injuries. The medical records provided by your doctor establish you suffered from measurable harm.

Causation

The next element to prove for negligence at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is to link an act of negligence to your injuries. For example, if you slipped and fell at an airport restaurant and the incident caused a severe ankle sprain, we link the slip and fall to your sprained ankle. At this stage, we do not assign fault for the incident. We simply link an act of negligence with a sprained ankle.

Duty of Care

The best Atlanta airport accident lawyers know how to establish a duty of care. For the slip and fall incident at a restaurant, the restaurant owes you a duty of care by taking reasonable steps to prevent you from getting hurt from a slip and fall. This includes quickly placing a Wet Floor sign over a super-slick section of flooring.

Breach of Duty

This element closes the book on an airport accident case. By not placing a Wet Floor sign over the area of the slick floor, the restaurant violated its duty of care. Breach of duty assigns legal liability to the restaurant for committing the act of negligence by not warning customers about the slick floor.

Many states have established a law that protects government entities against the filing of civil lawsuits. Referred to as sovereign immunity, the legal protections granted to government entities might apply to the Atlanta Department of Aviation. The Georgia Sovereign Immunity Law provides a wide variety of protections. However, airport employees do not receive sovereign immunity. Instead, Georgia law grants employees qualified immunity.

In some cases, plaintiffs can receive a waiver for sovereign immunity. The burden for gaining a waiver for sovereign immunity lies with the plaintiff seeking monetary damages. Because receiving a waiver requires considerable legal knowledge, one of our highly rated Atlanta airport accident lawyers will determine whether you should seek a waiver for sovereign immunity.

How you react after an airport accident goes a long way towards determining the success of filing an insurance claim and/or a civil lawsuit. Keeping your composure should be the first thing you do because you need to remain calm to complete the other steps that are required after an airport personal injury incident.

Contact Airport Management

The managers at the Atlanta Department of Aviation respond to airport accidents. Contacting the management team is important because the manager assigned to your case completes and submits a comprehensive incident report. However, this does not mean you do not have to record your version of events. The report issued by the management team at the Atlanta Department of Aviation might be biased in favor of the airport.

Collect Evidence

Photographs taken from your Smartphone play an important role in getting an insurance claim approved, as well as gaining a favorable legal judgment. You should take photos of your injuries and the scene of the incident. Getting the names and contact information from witnesses allows your personal injury attorney to have resources to lean on when investigating your case. You also should get the names and contact information of every airport employee that witnessed your personal injury incident

Seek Medical Help

Even if you suffered minor injuries, you should seek medical attention from your physician. Some injuries do not develop symptoms right away. This is especially true for whiplash and head trauma injuries. Getting medical help leaves a paper trail of evidence that documents the value of your medical expenses. If you suffered one or more serious injuries, you need to get immediate help from the closest healthcare provider.

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney

One of the biggest advantages of working with a personal injury lawyer is to receive legal support during a time when you are highly vulnerable to making poor decisions. Meeting with one of the best Atlanta airport accident lawyers for the first time should establish a plan for getting you the compensation that you deserve. Most personal injury attorneys operate on a contingency fee basis, which means you do not pay upfront fees to receive the best legal support.

You have a limited amount of time to file a personal injury lawsuit in Georgia. The airport accident lawyer that you hire from Morgan & Morgan will ensure you meet the statute of limitations of two years for filing a personal injury claim. Two years seems like plenty of time to build a persuasive case, but you should act with a sense of urgency and file your lawsuit as soon as possible after an airport accident.

If you fail to meet the deadline of two years for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Georgia, the court handling your case will dismiss it.

Litigating an airport accident case represents one of the most difficult personal injury cases to litigate. Airports employ high-powered attorneys to defend them against civil lawsuits. You also might have to address the difficulty of assigning fault in your case. One of the experienced personal injury lawyers from Morgan & Morgan will help you navigate the legal process, with the primary goal of winning you a favorable legal judgment.

Contact Morgan & Morgan to set up a free case evaluation.