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Most bright middle school students probably have a working knowledge of the concept of hearsay, simply as gossip.  “He said she said” does not mean the statement is true.

Hearsay as a legal rather than merely social concept is part of the law of evidence. The Georgia rule on hearsay will change on January 1st, when the new Evidence Code becomes law.

The new Georgia Evidence Code, based more or less on the Federal Rules of Evidence, will go into effect on January 1, 2013. The new Evidence Code was a long-time project of the State Bar. Sponsored…

Do advocates of more “loser pays” rules offer a solution in search of a problem?

Are people unaware of the “loser pays” sanctions that are already part of Georgia law?

As discussed in previous posts, Georgia already has five statutory “loser pays” rules, four of which passed in tort reform legislation during the time I have been practicing law, and one we have had since the Civil War. Georgia needs a sixth “loser pays” about as much as it needs a sixth law school at a time when graduates of the existing law schools have a really hard time finding…

Brig. Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb, father of Georgia’s first “loser pays” statute”

The oldest of the five “loser pays” rules in existing Georgia law has been in effect for nearly 150 years, having first appeared in the Code of 1863.

That Code was largely the work product of Thomas R. R. Cobb, son-in-law of Chief Justice Lumpkin and a foremost Georgia legal scholar of his day. He was a Confederate brigadier general who died at the Battle of  Fredericksburg only a couple of weeks before the Code for which he was largely responsible went into…

Advocates of tort reform often call for “loser pays” legislation. Georgia already has five different “loser pays” rules. In earlier posts I have discussed OCGA § 9-11-68, enacted as part of tort reform legislation in 2005, which includes both the offer of judgment / offer of settlement rule and the frivolous claims and defenses rule.

O.C.G.A. § 9-15-14, enacted in 1986, provides for a motion for award of fees and expenses against a party that had asserted a claim or defense “that lacked substantial justification or that the action, or any part thereof, was interposed for delay or harassment, or…

Baseball has been called the great American pastime. We all love an occasional trip to Turner Field to watch the Braves, and nothing can compare with family outings to minor league baseball games in smaller cities. I have nothing but pleasant memories of the spring and summer afternoons and evenings rooting for my son in years of Little League baseball.

Against this cultural background, the news story of a New Jersey lawsuit has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. According to an Associated Press report, Elizabeth Lloyd, a woman in Manchester Township, NJ, has sued an 11-year-old…

In the past 10 days this plaintiffs’ trial lawyer, in the capacity of State Bar of Georgia president, has co-presided over a joint meeting of the State Bar Executive Committee and the Georgia Supreme Court, had a joint press conference with the Attorney General of Georgia and spoke at a lunch meeting that included general counsels of some of Georgia’s leading corporations. In 75 days, I will complete my term as State Bar president and get back to practicing law full-time.

I do not expect any favoritism from anyone as cases must be decided on their merits.  But if a…

The following article appeared in the February 2012 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.

A third of a century trekking between Georgia courts, first in a single rural circuit and then more or less statewide, has made me a minor connoisseur of courthouses, the most visible physical infrastructure of the judicial system. I have tried cases in a courthouse across the street from a railroad track where cross-examination was frequently interrupted by passing freight trains. In courthouses where birds flew through open windows and found perches near the high courtroom ceiling and in courthouses that would have been a…

The State Bar of Georgia communications staff will distribute the following article to all Georgia newspapers this week:

Tough on Crime, Smart on Crime

By Kenneth L. Shigley

My first job after law school was as a prosecutor in a rural judicial circuit. Soon after joining the district attorney’s office, I assisted in a death penalty trial for the rape and murder of a young girl.  In such cases I looked into the heart of evil, prosecuting dangerous criminals from whom we needed to protect decent citizens.

In other cases, it also became apparent that perhaps 85 percent of those…

A year goes by awfully fast when you’re working two full-time jobs. With only 81 days remaining in my term as State Bar president, I look forward to the ability to just focus on my clients and my law practice.  For now, however, I find myself working late into the night to catch up on case files, juggling a very complicated schedule and returning calls from the road at odd hours and a little slowly.

I believe all the networking in the bar presidency will strengthen my work for clients after my term is finished.  While no one can or…

(The following President’s column appeared in the December 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.)

My first job after law school was as an assistant district attorney in the small town where I had graduated from high school. I was 26 but in blue jeans rather than a suit could have passed for a decade younger. We covered four mostly rural counties. Abe Lincoln might have recognized the circuit-riding aspect of that life, but for the fact that I traveled by ’73 Dodge Dart instead of by horse.

The veteran DA was in his last term. Once when…