If you snooze you lose. It is a harsh reality that people who are unaware of the time limits to file suit for a loss may lose all their rights to compensation forever.

Recently, I met with a highly intelligent, well-educated person who completely misunderstood the limitation period. This person thought that the two year statute of limitation for personal injury in Georgia referred only to submitting a claim to an insurance company rather than actually filing suit in court.  Merely talking and negotiating with a claims adjuster does not stop the clock from running. The claims adjuster never would…

As past president of the State Bar of Georgia and a seasoned trial lawyer, I’m impressed by the recent string of jury verdicts in Georgia, two of which exceed $70 million. Several of these were won by lawyers who, like me, have attended Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College programs and closed door, members-only seminars of the AAJ Trucking Litigation Group.

Some of these verdicts will be compromised or cut in post-judgment motions and appeals, and some will be simply uncollectable. Prudent lawyers know that there is no appeal from a settlement, and big verdicts usually result from someone guessing wrong…

At least once a month for years, we have gotten calls from someone complaining about malfunction of an airbag in a motor vehicle collision. Usually it is a matter of an airbag not deploying in a situation in which it was never designed to deploy.

Most front airbags are designed to deploy in a direct frontal impact, and side air bags are generally designed to deploy in direct side impact. There are variations between models as to whether an oblique angle impact would cause an airbag to deploy, but generally a sideswipe collision will not activate an airbag.

Moreover, most…

As our mornings turn cooler and trees change from green to yellow and orange, memories of the sights, smells and pleasures of autumns past come flooding back.

Memories of sights, colors and smells can stir our emotions and a deep, instinctive level.

When I see trees changing colors and the first frost on a meadow, I go back in time to autumns in the forests and fields of Lookout Mountain where we lived and Shinbone Valley where I went to school as a child.

The smells of new mown grass, burning leaves and hot cider stir memories of playing pickup…

Most folks think of creativity in terms of art and music. But creativity is important to breaking new ground in any field.

Ancient people viewed creativity solely as divine inspiration. That is still as important as ever. But by modern times creativity was viewed as a form of human intelligence that bridges the gap between routine productive talent and the vision to develop something new.

Creativity requires the ability to approach problems with both solid knowledge and a fresh eye, combining old principles in new ways. Creativity can be highly productive if it is accompanied by hard work and perseverance.…

Several times recently, I have written about the projected inflation adjustment to minimum liability insurance coverage for interstate commercial vehicles. The process continues.

A few days ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a 14-page Report to Congress, concluding the following:

1.    Current limits are inadequate in covering catastrophic crashes.

2.    Simply adjusting existing limits to adjust for healthcare inflation would require raising limits:

• a.    From the current $750,000 to $3,188,250 for general tractor-trailers, rather than the $4.2 million that was discussed for inflation adjustment since the $750,000 minimum was first set in 1980.
• b.    From the current $1

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