Atlanta Injury Law Blog

An explosion at G&S Metals, which processes aluminum scrap in Manchester, Ga., on the morning of Nov. 29 injured at least seven plant employees. No fatalities have been reported.  The explosion occurred about 8:45 a.m. Manchester is in Meriweather County about 60 miles south of Atlanta. Approximately 20 employees were working at the plant  when an explosion tore…

A Tennessee jury awarded $6.65 million in damages recently to the mother of a 17-year-old girl who died in a tractor-trailer accident. Lindsey Garretson was killed August 8, 2000 when a truck driven by Stuart Foy slammed into the back of her car on Interstate 40. Foy failed to slow the tractor-trailer, owned by KLLM…

U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to reconsider electronic on-board recorders, citing recent high-profile truck accidents in her state.  Feinstein cited the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which claims that a third of drivers omit hours from log books and that the percentage of truckers asleep at the…

The Bluffton University baseball team bus crash last March in Atlanta has led to the introduction of bipartisan legislation in Congress to tighten motor coach safety rules.  Introduced by  U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R., Texas), the proposed  the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2007 would require: • Safety belts…

Undercover investigators for the Government Accountint Office have found that it is surprisingly easy to cheat on random drug tests designed to catch truck drivers who use drugs.  Using bogus truck driver’s licenses to gain access to 24 drug-testing sites, the investigators  found that 75 percent “failed to restrict access to  items that could be used…

So often in my law practice, representing ordinary people who have suffered tragic losses due to someone else’s carelessness, I have to contend with the arrogance of defense lawyers and corporate functionaries who view humble working people as most of us would view gum stuck to the sole of a shoe.  As a “redneck lawyer”…

This week in several states, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) are sponsoring “Operation Safe Driver.” This involves increased enforcement roadside enforcement on commercial motor vehicle rules, including fatigued drivers, seatbelts, etc., and educate non-commercial drivers about sharing the road with trucks. Unfortunately, there can never be…

Yesterday, for the fifth consecutive year, I served as program chair for the Georgia Personal Injury Practice Seminar sponsored by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia.  As always, I followed my father’s advice to “surround yourself with people who are smarter than you” by recruiting as speakers some of the brightest lawyers in…

Though I have not personally encountered it yet, there apparently has been a recent proliferation of a defense tactic of offering to represent witnesses at no charge in order to limit the plaintiff attorney’s access to the witnesses.  This may be particularly a problem in medical malpractice cases but it could occur in any type…

I was pleased to see that Judge Henry Newkirk of the State Court of Fulton County made the “short list” for the Superior Court seat being vacated by Judge Stephanie Manis taking senior status.  While Judge Manis was one of my classmates at Emory Law School, I first met Judge Newkirk at Furman when he…