Tag Archives: Atlanta Georgia
What is the law in Georgia on negligent hiring and retention of a truck driver?
Often in a catastrophic truck crash, the trucking company admits that the truck driver was negligent and was in the course and scope of employment. That is a smart tactic to attempt to focus all blame on two seconds of driver negligence rather than months or years of corporate conduct including negligent hiring of the … Continue Reading
What is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and why does in matter in highway crash cases?
When my father’s generation came home from World War II, many of them carried psychological scars about which they kept quiet. My parents married young, at 21 and 18, the week he returned from combat in 1945. My mother said that dad fought the air war over Europe every night in his sleep for at … Continue Reading
Injury claims against cruise ship lines must be filed in court within one year
Cruise ships are like floating cities with thousands of passengers on board. Usually a lot more fun than the typical workaday city, but probably no less likely to involve accidents and injuries.
Cruise ship lines cannot guarantee that no one will get hurt aboard, but they do have a responsibility to prevent dangerous conditions on board … Continue Reading
Bankruptcy is a bad idea for personal injury plaintiffs
People who have suffered a serious personal injury, and families that have lost the breadwinner due to wrongful death, may be tempted to file for protection of a Bankruptcy Court. However, we warn clients that it is generally a very bad idea. Why is that?
Upon filing of a petition for bankruptcy, control of the personal … Continue Reading
Pit bull attack nets $700K judgment in Douglas County, GA
Douglas County, Georgia, where I graduated from high school and returned for a few years as a young lawyer, is known as a very conservative venue. However, Douglas Countians do not lack the ability to do the right thing when the facts call for it.
Today’s news includes a report that the State Court of Douglas … Continue Reading
Governor Deal appoints Ken Shigley to Criminal Justice Reform Council
While my "day job" involves representing individuals and families in serious injury and wrongful death cases across Georgia, part-time public service is also important. This doesn’t hurt clients, as the time devoted to public service is counterbalanced over time by the exposure and insights gained.
The following article appears in today’s Fulton County Daily Report:
Deal … Continue Reading
Five common sense ideas for reducing the risk of truck driver fatigue
Five common sense ideas for reducing the hazard of truck driver fatigue.
Continue reading…
$5,830,000 verdict in Atlanta against drunk driver who killed young mom
As a trial attorney handling catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases in Atlanta, I continue to see how jurors are able to separate the wheat from the chaff and do substantial justice in serious cases. Frivolous and trivial cases, by contrast, don’t carry much weight with jurors.
This week in the State Court of Fulton County, a … Continue Reading
Trucking companies responsible for making sure employees follow safety rules
As a trucking safety attorney in Georgia, I sometimes find trucking companies trying to disown their driver’s safety violations.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which are designed to protect safety of members of the public, clearly require trucking companies to require their employees to obey the driver regulations.
49 C.F.R. § 390.11 requires: “Whenever . . . … Continue Reading
Causal link between violation of trucking safety rules and truck crashes
In order to use Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation violations to support liability or punitive damages, it is essential to establish that the violation was a proximate cause of the crash.
Some judges don’t easily grasp the obvious connection between extreme driver fatigue and driver error. For example, in one Georgia case the court failed to … Continue Reading