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Ken Shigley
Shigley on board of Institute for Continuing Legal Education

Kenneth L. Shigley , an Atlanta personal injury attorney, continues on the board of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education(ICLE), on which he has served since 2008. Mr. Shigley previously served as Chairman of the Board. He is also a former president of the State Bar of Georgia and received the “Traditions of Excellence” Award from the Bar in 2019.

The Georgia Institute of Continuing Legal Education is a not-for-profit educational service of the State Bar of Georgia and is responsible for providing continuing legal education for…

History is replete with episodes of epidemics  that devastated cities, nations, and civilizations. Bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox and influenza have killed untold hundreds of millions in waves of devastation over the millennia. Now we see the approach of a Category 5 hurricane of a pandemic called COVID-19, praying that it will not be as bad as predicted.

The worst effect will the many deaths and serious but not fatal illnesses. Prediction vary wildly of how many Americans will be infected, how many of those will become ill, and how many will die. But it is becoming clear that for at…

On June 7, 2019, Ken Shigley was presented the Tradition of Excellence Award by the State Bar of Georgia General Practice and Trial Section. It is a lifetime achievement award given annually to four lawyers and judges with long experience. Many  prior recipients of the award were more illustrious and deserving. Mr. Shigley’s acceptance remarks follow:

The Calling to Become a Virtuous Lawyer

Good morning and thank you. Those of us receiving this award may have one thing in common. We have outlived our severest critics as well as many dear friends and loved ones.

Forty-two years ago yesterday, Judge…

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on 11/7/2016 that outgoing text messages found in a cell phone are admissible in evidence as admissions of the person who sent them. However, incoming text messages are inadmissible hearsay, though their admission in evidence was “harmless” under the circumstances of the case. Glispie v. State, decided November 7, 2016.

This ruling arose in the context of the criminal prosecution of an alleged drug dealer. That would have been a great interest in my past life as a prosecutor, though of course cell phones had not been invented when I was sending criminals to…

Few people recall that my undergraduate alma mater, Furman University in South Carolina, once had a law school. In the depths of the Great Depression, Furman closed its law school in 1932.  A North Carolina school that was well-funded by a tobacco magnate, bought the library of Furman’s law school. It was rolled into Duke University Law School, which is now rated number 11 among U.S. law schools.

In the past two decades a boom in enrollments led to a glut in the law school market. Some of this was fueled by easy availability of government-guaranteed student loans.

Moving from…

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 tasks of mourning after death of a family member are all too familiar.

This week in Paulding County, GA, there was a car crash in which a 20-year-old driver was distracted by dropping his cell phone and water bottle. Leaning over to retrieve…

A fiery crash on I-95 at Richmond Hill near Savannah in Chatham County on July 26th caused the wrongful death of a woman and sent her husband to a specialized burn unit in Augusta. It appears all too typical of other truck accident cases we have handled throughout Georgia, including those in the Savannah area and along I-95 and I-16.

According to news reports, as a southbound tractor trailer approached the exit the driver moved from the center lane to the right lane. Approaching a line of cars slowed in traffic, the truck driver then tried to get…

Merle Haggard sang, “The roots of my raising run deep.” So do Ken Shigley‘s.

Ken Shigley’s childhood hone

His rural childhood home was a modest cement block two bedroom, but full of love. His dad and uncle, WWII combat veterans, built it on weekends one pickup truck load of materials per payday. The house included an indoor toilet and a black and white TV by the time Ken started school. As educators his parents tried hard to expose him to academic and cultural opportunities. (Dad was principal of a 12 grade country school and mom…

During a 1964 speech on re-apportionment, Rep. Denmark Groover (D-Macon) nearly fell over the state House railing trying to adjust the hands of the clock to keep it from reaching the mandatory hour of adjournment. The clock ended up falling. MANDATORY CREDIT: Joe McTyre / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stopping the clock in Georgia.  In 1964, Rep. Denmark Groover (D-Macon) hung over the gallery rail to stop the clock from reaching midnight on the last day of the legislative session. (AJC file photo by Joe McTyre)

When an injury or death claim arises from a crime, in Georgia the clock stops on the statute of limitation up to six years when a criminal prosecution is not complete. That extension of the limitation period now applies to other defendants in the civil case, even if the criminal is never caught and prosecuted.

In July 2016,…

chancellorsville 1863Some of the best books for trial lawyers are not about lawyering at all. Over the next few months I will explore some of them in this blog.

Jim Butler is arguably the most successful plaintiffs’ trial lawyer in my generation. He has won numerous eight and nine figure jury verdicts even in the most conservative Georgia counties. Success breeds success, so he is able to pick among the cases with greatest potential, and then has the skill and resources to maximize them.

At a recent Georgia Trial Lawyers luncheon, Jim said that the best book for trial lawyers is…