georgia

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You are a great lawyer in your area of practice. You are also smart enough to know when a big case may require prompt action outside your comfort zone.

Just as a trial lawyer may not feel comfortable handling a complex real estate, divorce or estate planning matter, a great lawyer in those fields may not want to risk a client’s rights by trying to figure out how to handle a catastrophic truck crash case.

When you get a call from a friend or client that a family member has been killed or seriously injured in a crash with a…

When my children were riding a bus to elementary school every day, like most parents I trusted the school bus driver to deliver them safely to school and back to our neighborhood. Usually that is what happens as school buses are generally considered the safest means of transporting children to and from school.

But occasionally children are seriously injured or killed in the process of being transported by school buses. We have successfully handled some of those cases.

School bus injury cases are not the same as car wreck cases. Lawyers handling those need to know the legal wrinkles unique…

On a warm October afternoon two years ago, wearing one of the yarmulkes that Jewish funeral directors provide for non-Jewish attendees, I helped shovel red Georgia dirt into the open grave of an old client and friend. As I did so, I pondered the unanswered question whether long-term side effects of her food poisoning a quarter century earlier had contributed to her death after years of internal organ illnesses.

A recent decision of the Georgia Supreme Court on what is required to get a food poisoning case to a jury brought that grim saga back to mind.

In Patterson v.

Much of our Atlanta-based litigation law practice is based upon referrals from other attorneys around Georgia and North America for catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases in Georgia. Most of these are not simple, slam-dunk cases. Often we have to contend with a rat’s nest of convoluted, multi-layered liability defenses. Among those is often the “independent contractor” defense. The company that is the prime mover in an activity may cloak itself behind an “independent contractor” shell game, capturing most of the profits while trying to outsource all the risks of harm to others.

Here is a paper I presented on…

A chain reaction crash involving four big rig tractor trailers on I-285 near Camp Creek Parkway in south Fulton County, GA, killed a woman in a passenger car on June 19, 2018.

According to the Georgia State Patrol, A tractor-trailer was traveling northbound when it struck three other big rigs and the rear of a car, pushing the car underneath another tractor-trailer.

News photos showed that at least one truck’s cab was badly crushed and the roof of the passenger car was caved in.

In addition to the one fatality, five others were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. It…

Proposed new Georgia Judicial Building, future home of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals
Proposed new Georgia Judicial Building, future home of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

It appears that by time he leaves office at the beginning of 2019, Governor Nathan Deal will have:

  • Vastly reformed our criminal justice system;
  • Expanded the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals;
  • Appointed a majority of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals;
  • Appointed a substantial portion of the state’s Superior Court and State Court trial judges;
  • Launched construction of a new landmark Judicial Building near the Capitol building; and
  • Facilitated creation of a statewide electronic court filing system.

Fortunately, he will…

life values

In Georgia wrongful death law, the measure of damages is the “full value of life,” which includes both economic and noneconomic value of the decedent’s life to him or her. Unlike some states, Georgia does not provide for recovery of losses suffered by those left behind, who are deprived of the companionship, advice, counsel, or consortium of the deceased. But unlike other states, in respecting the sanctity of all human life, Georgia does not impose any rigid formula or cap on the value of life.

The economic component of the full value of life include the present value of…

Georgia State FlagOur home state of Georgia has been ranked #1 in business climate, according to Site Selection magazine’s annual ranking of states’ attractiveness to corporate facility investors. The selection criteria included a survey of corporate site selectors, the states’ competitiveness, qualified projects so far in 2013 on a per capita basis and state tax burdens on new and mature firms.

Georgia  is now more economically competitive than states such as Texas that have enacted draconian measures to block access of injured people to their court systems.   Georgia has also become more attractive to businesses than North Carolina  and Tennessee…

Amputees in the 21st century have come a long way from the image of the peg leg pirate and the dull, heavy prosthetic leg of even a few years ago.  Increasingly, technological advances in prosthetic replacements for amputated arms, legs, feet and hands promise to exceed the Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man TV fantasies a generation ago.My job as an Atlanta trial attorney handling serious injury cases in Georgia is to help clients with amputation injuries secure the funds to take advantage of these new advances.

Much of the funding for research and development has come from…

As we ramp up capacity to handle more and larger cases of wrongful death and catastropic personal injury, and prepare to move into new office space in the Buckhead area of Atlanta later in the summer, I am pleased to welcome two new staff members:

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