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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…

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…

Virtues

Versions of this article were published by Ken Shigley as a president’s column in the Georgia Bar Journal (August 2011) and as the chairman’s column in the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section Newsletter (Spring 2016).

James[1] had great unrealized potential. Son of a minister in another Southern state, he won admission to an Ivy League university but washed out during his first year and went home to complete college and law school. A marvelous story teller, his closing arguments could hold juries spellbound. But his cleverness was so unrestrained by mere…

Georgia_State_Patrol_patchThe leadership of the Georgia State Patrol deserves credit for openness in promptly taking disciplinary action and publicly disclosing that a State Trooper’s reckless conduct caused the deaths of two west Georgia  teenagers and injuries to two others last week.

State Trooper Anthony J. Scott, 26, was fired Friday after investigators determined he was driving 91 mph five seconds before a crash that killed Kylie Hope Lindsey, 17, and Isabella Alise Chinchilla, 16, both of whom were back seat passengers and students at South Paulding High School. Front seat occupants Dillon Lewis Wall, 18, and Benjamin Alan Finken, 17, both…

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…

Many prospective clients in serious personal injury and wrongful death claims ask questions about legal fees and litigation expenses in handling their cases. As an Atlanta personal injury trial attorney handling serious injury and death cases across Georgia, and as an individual who remembers very well what it is like to be flat broke and in debt, I am very sensitive to those questions.

The short answer is that in handling personal injury and wrongful death cases for individuals and families, I do not require any money up front from clients whose cases I accept. I evaluate the merits of…

Georgia State Capitol 1904

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce held a forum on tort reform last week. According to today’s Daily Report, Rep. Rich Golick, chair of the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee who is a corporate attorney for Allstate Insurance Company in his “day job,” told the attendees:

“Go talk to the plaintiffs bar. … See if consensus can be struck,” he said. “I beseech you — it’s the middle of August and there is a run-off and a general election — now is a great time for quiet conversation in quiet rooms where consensus

…

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 that can cause serious injury to its passengers. When a cruise ship accident occurs because of poor maintenance, incompetent or  improperly trained employees, inadequate safety equipment or emergency precautions, the cruise  line can be held accountable.

Cruise ship tickets typically have a provision that…

Bankruptcy bad for personal injury plaintiffsPeople 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 injury action passes to the bankruptcy trustee for benefit of creditors of the injury victim. 11 U.S.C.A. § 541(a)(1).

Failure to list an injury claim as an asset in a bankruptcy may result in the injury claim being barred under the equitable doctrine of…