Atlanta Injury Law Blog

Ray LaHood, the new US Secretary of Transportation, is apparently focused on infrastructure and air traffic control, but not so much on trucking safety. According to an Associated Press article by Michael Tarm, LaHood is preparing to meet with the state DOT chiefs from all 50 states about plans for road and mass transit projects…

A driver was killed when he struck the rear of a parked tractor trailer on the side of a highway in California on the night of  January 29th.  The news report does not mention whether the unoccupied tractor trailer was properly parked with flashing hazard lights and refrecting triangles deployed to warn drivers of it…

A tractor trailer driver lost control yesterday  morning on I-69 in Indiana, crashed through the high tension barrier cables in the median.  The trailer became detached and killed a man  driving the opposite direction whose car slid under the careening trailer.  According to a report by Rick Yencer of the Muncie Star Press, a state…

If you specialize in truck wreck litigation so you can do research at truck stops, you might be a redneck lawyer. On a long car trip a couple of days ago, I stopped for caffeine at a truck stop that is part of one of the big national truck stop chains. Walking around the store…

On inauguration day, President Obama’s office issued a directive to agency heads directing a 60 day hold on newly issued regulations that had not yet become final. Regarding the trucking industry, three new regulations were published in the Federal Register during the last days of the Bush administration but had not yet become final. Those…

One of the first official acts of the new Obama administration was to put a hold on newly proposed or recently adopted federal regulations until the new team can review them. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s controversial hours of service regulations, which became final the day before the inauguration, was not on the…

The New York Times reports that declining interest rates are devastating funding, though Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) programs, that help fund civil legal services for poor people. We’re wrestling with that in Georgia too. While the Federal government providing some funding through the Legal Services Corporation, all states have adopted Interest on Lawyer…

While Russia is cracking down on jury trials, the modernization of the Chinese economy has led to finding that tort law is really a good thing.  Whatever you may say about the Chinese, you can’t say they’re stupid.  Maybe they have figured out that our tort law system plays a valuable role in our free…

With the Georgia legislature back in session in Atlanta, I am reminded of how some lobbyists and a few politicians distrust their fellow citizens so much that they keep trying to erode the right to trial by jury in civil cases. Never mind that the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution — part of…

In Atlanta this week, Georgia Governor Perdue made a surprise announcement that he will seek another round of tort reform  legislation, including a bill to stop “frivolous litigation.”  I deplore  truly frivolous lawsuits  as much as the Governor does. The language of the Governor’s proposal remains a closely guarded secret at this time. I look forward…