June 2014

Recent news stories of tragedies when young children were left in hot cars have generated passionate debate in metro Atlanta and across the country.child asleep in car seat

Certainly any parent who intentionally leaves a child in a hot car to suffer and die should be prosecuted and harshly punished. As a former prosecutor, I find myself wondering whether, if I were the District Attorney in Cobb County,  I would seek a sentence harsher than life without parole. Certainly I envy any prosecutor who tries such a case with strong forensic science to back up the charge.

Some people cannot understand how any

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen is recovering following surgery to stabilize her spine after her spinal cord was severed at the T-11 vertebra during an all-terrain vehicle accident in Scottsdale, Arizona last week.

The latest report is that she is out of ICU and looking forward to rehab in Denver. Demonstrating a resilient spirit like most of the spinal cord injury survivors we have represented.

Following the accident, the 41 year-old six-time Olympic gold medalist told emergency personnel she had no feeling in her legs or toes, according to The Associated Press, which reported that she severed

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that the Twitter profile of Kevin Roper, the Wal-Mart truck driver who had been awake 24 straight hours before a fatal crash in New Jersey, had included the phrase, “move or get hit.”

This illustrates what my friend Andy Young in Ohio pointed out to me last year about the practical values of Twitter in trucking accident litigation.

A Wal-Mart public relations spokesperson was quoted saying, “It is our belief that Mr. Roper was operating within the federal hours of service regulations.” I don’t know what the evidence will show regarding driver logs

The Georgia Supreme Court on June 16, 2014,  in the case of Department of Corrections v. Couch, held that attorney fees awards for plaintiffs under the Officer of Judgment / Offer of Settlement statute (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-68) cannot be based solely upon the plaintiff’s contingent fee agreement. Just what would be sufficient remains somewhat unclear.

The Supreme Court reversed in part a Court of Appeals decision holding that the contingent fee was a sufficient basis for the fee award as no fee was actually incurred until the contingency occurred, that is when the tort recovery is obtained.

In the case of Hartley v. Agnes Scott College, the Supreme Court addressed the question “whether a campus police officer employed by a private college qualifies as a “state officer or employee” who may assert immunity from tort suits under the Georgia Tort Claims Act.” Last year, a plurality decision of the Court of Appeals concluded that the defendant Agnes Scott College police officers were entitled to immunity. Agnes Scott College v. Hartley, 321 Ga. App. 74 (741 SE2d 199) (2013).

In reversing the Court of Appeals, Associate Justice David Nahmias, a Harvard Law graduate who clerked for U.

On Monday, General Motors recalled another 3.16 million vehicles built between 2000 and 2014. This was because those vehicles have ignition switches that “may inadvertently move out of the ‘run’ position if the key is carrying extra weight and experiences some jarring event.”

That comes on top of last weeks’ defective products recall in which every Chevrolet Camaro built since General Motors re-launched the car in 2010- about 511,508 cars globally because drivers could accidentally turn the car off with their knees.

This was the same problem at the recall of the deadly Chevy Cobalt last month.

As in most

A Georgia tractor trailer driver for Wal-Mart who had been continuously awake for 24 years caused a deadly pile-up early Saturday morning in New Jersey.  Although details are still emerging about the crash, we do know a Georgia truck driver is charged in the New Jersey crash that killed comic James McNair, 62, of Peekskill, New York.

Kevin Roper, 35, of Jonesboro, Georgia, was operating a truck “on the New Jersey Turnpike without having slept in excess of 24 hours,” according to the complained filed in Middlesex County Court. Roper failed to see traffic slowing in front of

It was a Friday evening in Gainesville Georgia. Three-year-old twins John and Koraleigh were in their grandparents’ front yard with teenage brothers and their girlfriends. The teens had brought a television from inside and were planning a “movie under the stars.” Mom was at her home next door but assumed the children were being watched as she could hear their laughing and playing. Now she says, “Had I known, I would have never assumed, never have assumed.”

Like many a three-year-old, John had slipped past the fence behind the grandparents’ house and through the gate. Although the gate door was

There is good news at the beginning of Georgia’s summer boating season.  The Georgia Department of Natural Resources reported Wednesday that there were ten less Boating Under the Influence (BUI) arrests this Memorial Day weekend compared to last year.

In 2013, the legislature passed and Governor Nathan Deal signed into law legislation lower the blood-alcohol content limit for boaters from a .10 to a .08, the same as the limit set for automobiles. The law also incrased penalties for those caught boating while intoxicated. The law went into effect May 15, 2013. This led to an increase in enforcement activity