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 fills last empty seats on Criminal Justice Reform Council

All 13 members of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform, a panel of legislators, judges and attorneys charged with studying the state’s courts and recommending ways to improve them, have now been named.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s office issued a statement Monday afternoon outlining his appointees, as well as those of the lieutenant governor, speaker of the House and state Supreme Court chief justice.

The members chosen by Deal are his executive counsel D. Todd Markle (to serve in place of the governor); Douglas County District Attorney J. David McDade; Judicial Qualifications Commission member Linda Evans—who is also the wife of former Georgia Republican Party general counsel J. Randolph Evans; and State Bar President-elect Kenneth L. Shigley.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tapped Senate Ethics Committee Chairman John Crosby, R-Tifton; Senate Judiciary Chairman Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton; and Senate Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Ramsey Sr., D-Decatur.

House Speaker David E. Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, appointed Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, an attorney; Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, an attorney and former mayor; and House Special Rules Committee Chairman Willie Talton, R-Warner Robins.

On May 6, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein affirmed that she will sit on the panel and also named Atlanta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Ural D. L. Glanville, a former Fulton County magistrate, and Waycross Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Michael P. Boggs, a former Democratic state representative.

Deal signed House Bill 265, which created the special council, last month in his son’s courtroom in Hall County. The council must report its findings and recommendations to next year’s General Assembly.

“With this council now in place, it is our hope to uncover new approaches to make Georgia communities safer while increasing offender accountability, improving rehabilitation efforts and lowering costs,” Deal said in a written statement. “While this effort should ultimately uncover strategies that will save taxpayer dollars, we are first and foremost attacking the human costs of a society with too much crime, too many people behind bars, too many children growing up without a much-needed parent and too many wasted lives.”

Deal, Hunstein and others already have suggested that the council should consider the effectiveness of accountability courts, such as DUI, drug and mental health court programs that offer alternative sentencing and rehabilitation programs for non-violent offenders, as well as giving judges more discretion at sentencing and thus eliminating some mandatory minimums.

Several of the council members attended a one-day conference on May 6 hosted by the American Bar Association in Washington where they heard strategies from other states that have recently embarked on reform initiatives.

On September 4th in Atlanta, Angel Rivers, 21, was ejected and killed in a fiery crash when the Chrysler in which she was an occupant was rear-ended by a drunk driver.  Witnesses saw Donis Hodges recklessly driving a 2006 BMW M6 just before he crashed into the Chrysler near Hamilton E. Holmes Drive.

Charges  against Hodges include DUI, first-degree homicide by vehicle, following too closely and reckless driving. On Monday, a judge set bond for Hodges at $310,000.  After the hearing, Rivers’ mother, Shatavia Little, told CBS Atlanta she’s angry that the judge allowed bond for Hodges. “This is not like he hit a squirrel. It’s not like he hit a stray dog. He killed a human being. That’s my baby,” she said.

Georgia wrongful death law provides for recovery of the "full value of the life" of the person killed.

Unfortunately, after any such tragic accident, victims’ families are often immediately besieged by "runners" attempting to unethically solicit for lawyers who are willing to risk disbarment.  Georgia Rule of Professional Conduct 7.3 provides, in part: "A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment as a private practitioner for the lawyer, a partner or associate through direct personal contact or through live telephone contact, with a non-lawyer who has not sought advice regarding employment of a lawyer. . . . The maximum penalty for a violation of this Rule is disbarment."