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One of our most inspirational spinal cord injury clients ever is Alyson Roth, who just completed her year as Ms. Wheelchair California. Click here to see her message on Youtube. Coincidentally, one of my wife’s younger relatives was recently selected as Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina.

As an Atlanta, Georgia, attorney focused on catastrophic injury cases, including spinal cord injury, brain injury, burn injury, and other serious injuries, I often find inspiration in the spirit and resilience of clients who refuse to be defeated by devastating injuries.

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 jury returned a wrongful death verdict against a drunk driver who killed a young mother, in the amount of $5,830,000 ($5,115,000 for the value of life and $715,000 for her  suffering before death).

Since the nineteenth century, under Georgia law the measure of damages for wrongful death has been the full value of the life of the deceased. This is consistent with our prevailing respect for the sanctity of human life. 

The economic component of the value of the life includes a projection of lifetime income and benefits, with no deduction for living expenses or income taxes, value of services, etc.).   This figure is be reduced to present value under Georgia wrongful death law, often based on the testimony of an economist or accountant.

The intangible aspect of value of the life includes factors such as the enjoyment of the experience of living and relationships with loved ones. In the case of the death of a young parent, the jury may consider the value to the mother of being around to raise and nurture her children and to grow old with her husband.

The full value of the life is determined only by the enlightened conscience of an impartial jury based on the evidence presented. Under Georgia law, there is no arbitrary formula or cap on the value of a human life. 

The decedent’s husband, parents, siblings, etc., testified about various aspects of the value of her wonderful life. My colleagues Charles McAleer and Nelson Tyrone did a fine job of putting it all together.

As a Georgia trial attorney handling trucking accident cases, I see too many instances of truck driver fatigue and drug usage leading to tragedy.  The pattern is exemplified in a Missouri case.  It has resulted in an $18 million settlement for the deaths of four family members (ages 55, 57, 81 and 94) on the way to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration. 

The truck driver had less than the required amount of rest the night before, according to subpoenaed cell phone records, and  was on eight prescribed medications that warned of possible drowsiness.   Witnesses said he was falling asleep at the wheel before he sped past warning signs and a flagman, slammed into a long line of cars, crossed the median and jackknifed on the opposite side of the highway.

According to a report by Joe Meyer of the Columbia Tribune, a family member said, "The money wasn’t something that we were after.  It was just a way to give a message in this part of town that the truckers should not be out there like that."

Here’s an intriguing video about the problem of side underride and the lack of side underride guards on trailers in the US. In viewing this, imagine what happens when a driver comes upon a tractor-trailer pulling out of a side road or driveway at night at highway speed. I showed this at a trucking litigation seminar in New Orleans last Saturday, and several people asked where they could get copies.
 

A Greyhound bus and a tractor-trailer collided Wednesday near Henderson, NC.  The bus plunged down an embankment and overturned, injuring at least 29 people.  The bus was traveling from Richmond, Va., to Raleigh on U.S. 1 when it collided with the tractor-trailer as a tractor-trailer ahead of it made a turn and the bus failed to slow down.  The bus ran off the shoulder and down an embankment before it overturned.