Articles Posted in Injury Law

For the second time in three weeks, the Governor has declared a “state of emergency” due to winter storms. The second, related to prediction of an impending major ice storm, looks more significant than the first. If predictions of power outages are accurate, you may have to read this on your phone or iPad that…

Amputees in the 21st century have come a long way from the image of the peg leg pirate and the dull, heavy prosthetic leg of even a few years ago.  Increasingly, technological advances in prosthetic replacements for amputated arms, legs, feet and hands promise to exceed the Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man TV…

“You snooze, you lose.” The time limit to file a lawsuit in court for personal injury or wrongful death in Georgia is two years. But the time to present a notice of claim to a city government when one is hurt or killed by a municipal government’s negligence or public nuisance — whether due to…

Georgia law on the trial of personal injury cases has for most of my career provided for exclusion of evidence of settlements of claims arising from prior injuries. Now the Court of Appeals has cracked open the door to evidence that in the past has been excluded. In the case of Goforth v. Wigley, 178…

Do advocates of more “loser pays” rules offer a solution in search of a problem? Are people unaware of the “loser pays” sanctions that are already part of Georgia law? As discussed in previous posts, Georgia already has five statutory “loser pays” rules, four of which passed in tort reform legislation during the time I…

Brig. Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb, father of Georgia’s first “loser pays” statute” The oldest of the five “loser pays” rules in existing Georgia law has been in effect for nearly 150 years, having first appeared in the Code of 1863. That Code was largely the work product of Thomas R. R. Cobb, son-in-law of…

In the past week I’ve run across an unexpected convergence between my roles as a trial lawyer handling brain injury cases and as president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia. Last Friday, I attended a program on criminal justice reform at the American Bar Association office in Washington, along with state government representatives. Among the dizzying…

Automobile collision personal injury cases often require the assistance of an accident reconstructionist who is trained to analyze the physics of the wreck scene and determine the movements and speeds of vehicle and communicate those findings appropriately to jurors. The more complicated and controversial the crash, the more important the accident reconstruction expert testimony. Over…

I applaud the decision of the Republicans newly in control of the United States House of Representatives to read the entire United States Constitution on the first day of the new Congress. Everyone in government should keep the Constitution firmly in mind. The commitment of  constitutional conservatives’  to our country’s founding principles is widely known.…

Today the Georgia DOT settled for $600,000 a hotly contested wrongful death case that included claims of negligent right of way maintenance by the City of Hapeville, negligent highway design by GDOT, negligent taxi inspection by the City of Atlanta, and a taxi operating with bald tires on a rain slick roadway. The more significant…