Articles Posted in Tort Reform in Georgia

Ron Ellington, a professor at the University of Georgia Law School, recently spoke to the inductees of Phi Beta Kappa at UGA. His remarks deserve wider distribution.  He points out how the smartest and wisest leaders of a previous generation were dead wrong on one big issue, and suggests how to recognize when we are…

As an Atlanta lawyer handling both defective product and motor carrier cases, I have been troubled over the past several years by a trend of federal agencies seeking to block juries from ever getting a chance to consider the evidence  against manufacturers through the doctrine of federal preemption, often beyond anything expressly intended by Congress.…

In Atlanta, Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington issued an order on Wednesday that the legislative cap of $350,000 for noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering is unconstitutional because it gave special protections to the medical profession. This meant people injured by doctors had less protection than those injured by any other cause. The cause…

It comes as no surprise that the Supreme Court of Georgia rejected constitutional challenges to the Daubert rule on expert testimony in the newly released decision of Mason v. Home Depot.  The text of the decision is copied below. I apologize for formatting errors that may appear. It appears that Georgia attorneys representing injured people…

The downturn in world financial markets bodes ill for people injured by the negligence of others, as insurance companies are likely to ramp up new calls for additional “tort reform” in order to make up for their investment losses. We have seen it several times before.  In the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, insurance companies raised…

Occasionally we get calls from potential clients who are interested in a possible malpractice suit based on alleged malpractice in a hospital emergency room. Even if the medical treatment appears to fall short of an appropriate standard of care, we have to explain to them that as a practical matter there is no case. The…

As a trial attorney handling serious injury and wrongful death cases in  Georgia, I have an intense interest in seeing that my clients are dealt with fairly, that the playing field is relatively level, and that the court system works reasonably well. Currently there is a proposal in the legislature to impose a sales tax…

As a trial lawyer with something of a conservative streak, I keep up with what the tort reform folks are saying, and occasionally even agree on some point. The American Tort Reform Association is highlighting a study of online information about hazards of pharmaceutical products, published by the New York-based Center for Medicine in the…

Towers Perrin Tillinghast is an insurance consulting firm whose annual Update on U.S. Tort Cost Trends has been a highly controversial source of data for tort reform advocates.  Crtiics have long accused Towers Perrin of bias as a shill for the insurance industry providing biased, contorted numbers to support an advocacy position.  Now the company…

My good friend Jay Cook from Athens, a former president of the State Bar of Georgia, wrote a stellar guest editorial that appeared on the op/ed page of the AJC this morning.  Acknowledging that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, I’m reproducing the whole thing here: First it was Vioxx. Then it was poisonous…