Tag Archives: wrongful death
Wrongful death claims in Georgia
Wrongful death claims in Georgia are necessarily emotional. When a family member is killed by someone else’s negligence, grieving survivors often have mixed feelings about filing a wrongful death lawsuit for that death. Certainly no amount of money can bring the departed loved one back. However, a monetary award is the only way that civil law … Continue Reading
Why it is important to immediately hire a real trucking trial attorney after a catastrophic truck crash
When a family member is killed or seriously injured in a crash with a tractor trailer, a normal human instinct is to wait a decent interval before consulting an attorney. Then one may be inclined to take one’s time talking with a hometown lawyer who handles an occasional car wreck case along with divorces, criminal … Continue Reading
Death by decapitation when big trucks park on the roadside
Rear underride crash test
Death by decapitation due to trailer underride can result when tractor trailers park on the roadside.
The kneejerk response of most people seeing pictures of these incidents is to simply blame the dead person. But it’s not that simple. When an innocent passenger is killed or maimed, some portion of fault is normally apportioned … Continue Reading
When may a jury award damages for a decedent’s pain and suffering before death?
In handling Georgia wrongful death cases in which the victim had very little conscious survival time, we often have to address the question whether to make a claim for pain and suffering before death.
In Georgia, wrongful death cases may include two separate claims.
First is the wrongful death claim for “full value of the life” which … Continue Reading
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
Georgia School Bus Injuries and Sovereign Immunity
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 … Continue Reading
Food poisoning proof is focus of Georgia Supreme Court decision
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 … Continue Reading
4-year-old killed when driver reaches for dropped cell phone in Paulding County
No words can ever be adequate when a young child is killed. For the child’s parents, grandparents and other family members, it is like having a hole punched in the heart. That wound never really heals. For parents, in the words of Willie Nelson, it’s something you don’t get over but you get through. The … Continue Reading
Tractor trailer merging from shoulder in darkness kills motorist on I-95
An approaching driver’s view of a tractor trailer pulling from breakdown lane into traffic in the dark
A tractor-trailer pulled from the highway shoulder in front of an approaching SUV on I-95 in Jasper County, SC, just north of Savannah, about 9:30 PM Wednesday night, August 8, 2018. The impact killed Raymond Jackson, Jr., driver of the … Continue Reading
Four big rig pileup kills woman on I-285 near Camp Creek Parkway exit
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, … Continue Reading
