Atlanta Injury Law Blog

As a trial lawyer in Atlanta focusing primarily on trucking cases, I rejoice with my friends when they do well and commiserate with them when they fall short. My father-in-law’s most affectionate comment about his children and grandchildren is that we are “reasonably adequate” — stated with a twinkle in his eye. Those who know…

A tractor trailer making an illegal u-turn on a bridge in pre-dawn darkness caused a Laurens County, Georgia, crash yesterday, as a car became wedged under the trailer, according to a report by Bernie O’Donnell of WMAZ-TV in Macon.  Problems with side conspicuity andtrailer underride are common. When we see motor carrier accidents in the very early morning,…

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.…

Handling trucking accident injury cases in Georgia, I see the aftermath of plenty of crashes that could have been avoided if drivers had a timely “wakeup call.”  Now the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and several corporations are funding  a University of Michigan study of  a high-tech system to help car and…

As a Georgia trial attorney handling trucking accident cases, I see too many instances of truck driver fatigue and drug usage leading to tragedy.  The pattern is exemplified in a Missouri case.  It has resulted in an $18 million settlement for the deaths of four family members (ages 55, 57, 81 and 94) on the…

As an attorney handling trucking accident cases in Georgia, I’ve seen a wide variety of violations of trucking safety rules. It’s a nationwide problem.  In 60,000 random inspections of tractor trailers in Arizona, 31% yielded safety violations serious enough to take the truck out of service. Fully 86% turned up at least one safety violation.…

As a Georgia lawyer representing people who are hurt in trucking accidents – and the families of those who are killed – I see too many cases where it appeared that a truck driver was deeply fatigued, was over the legal hours of service, and had a paper log that was not accurate. A study…

The State Bar of Georgia election ballots have been counted. I will be Secretary of the State Bar beginning in June. When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know somebody put him there.  A lot of hard working Georgia lawyers put me on this fence post.  For them, I will keep my…

Skyrocketing fuel prices have put truckers into a world of hurt.  Now two U.S. Senators have introduced a bill that would require 100 percent of fuel surcharges levied on shipping customers to be passed through to the person actually paying for the fuel, in most cases the truck driver.  The bill was introduced by Olympia…

Friday afternoon about 2 pm, I nearly became a statistic in the kind of trucking accident case that I see too often as a lawyer. Leaving Atlanta for the weekend with my wife, we were on I-285 approaching I-85 at “Spaghetti Junction” when traffic in our lane designated for I-85 North ground to a halt.…