Articles Posted in Civil Litigation

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I often have occasion to speak at events that extend beyond my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I have occasion to work on a number of issues and controversies beyond the scope of my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking accident trial practice.  The following is excerpted from an article by Kathleen Joyner in the Fulton County Daily Report on September 23,…

The following was published in the August 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal, as my president’s column. (If you want to see the end notes, go to the online version of the Journal.) It does not deal with my practice as a personal injury and wrongful death trial attorney focused on commercial trucking accidents.…

The Georgia Supreme Court issued a landmark decision today, in FLORES et al. v. EXPREZIT! STORES, holding that a convenience store that sold a 12 pack of beer to a visibly intoxicated customer could be accountable for the injuries and deaths that resulted. The Georgia dram shop statute, OCGA § 51-1-40, provides: (a) The General…

For many years some lawyers have asked clients to take home videos to help in preparation for depositions. At first they were on VHS format, and later DVD. Now several such videos are available free online, such as the one here.     Ken Shigley is an Atlanta, Georgia, trial attorney. He has been designated…

This month all Georgia lawyers have a new resource for online legal research as a benefit of membership in the State Bar of Georgia. The Member Benefits Committee compared  Fastcase to the online research site that was previously provided to Georgia Bar members, and found Fastcase better in several significant aspects. Here are links to…

As an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer, I have been hearing rumblings about a coming wave of lawsuits against BP arising from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Today a class action was filed against BP in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta. It asks for compensation…

As an Atlanta trial attorney representing people seriously injured in traffic crashes, I seldom advise procrastination in filing suit as cases seldom improve with age. However, there are exceptions. Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court held that the two years statute of limitation for personal injury is (“tolled”) until the traffic court case against the person at fault…

For years both lawyers and insurance claims professionals assumed that a plaintiff could not win a substantial verdict in certain suburban Atlanta counties, notably Cobb and Gwinnett.  Until the past couple of years, I felt the same way. Last week, there was a verdict for $1,937,500 in Cobb County.  The plaintiff was an assistant attorney general…

“Independent” medical exams are commonplace in personal litigation, workers compensation, and disability insurance contexts.  Experience has made us cynical so that we now refer to these as “defense medical exams” or “insurance medical exams.” The New York Times on 3/31/09 carried an investigative article, “Exams of Injured Workers Feed Mutual Mistrust,” detailing abuses of such exams in…