Our Top 11 Blog Posts of 2013

2013 has been a great year for me. Since concluding service as immediate past president of the State Bar of Georgia in June, I have changed everything except my wife, children and home.

With an energetic new office, a great new staff, my advocacy batteries recharged through Trial Lawyers College, and now training for future adventures with my athletic son, we are poised to make 2014 our most productive year so far.

Back in 1996, I launched the first lawyer website in the Southeast. In 2003, I had the first lawyer blog in Georgia, and soon thereafter was an early adopter of social media. All that involved a lot of groping around in the dark, occasionally getting lucky.

Now, pausing during a post-Christmas visit to my mother-in-law in South Carolina, I'm taking a moment to look back over my blog posts of the past year while setting the course for 2014.

Time to turn all that energy and focus back to my own law practice.

A lawyer is only as good as his or her staff. I now have the best.

An essential step in auto wreck litigation today is to discover the other driver's cell phone number and carrier, and then subpoena records to determine whether the driver was distracted by the cell phone at the time of the crash. Here's how.

Don't change a winning game with unnecessary "tort reform."

Basic but important information.

Georgia's emergency room standard of care is not necessarily blanket immunity.

After raising two active, athletic kids, and handling a lot of brain injury cases, I am acutely aware of the need to heed warning signs of concussion.

This one makes the list partly because of the photo of my daughter flashing the"I love you" sign from the bus window on the first day of first grade 20 years ago. All grown up, she got married in June and now lives in New Hampshire.

This post is primarily for other lawyers seeking to get it right in settling injury claims for children.

Wear your helmet, be extremely visible and follow the rules.

Part of our summer safety series, this post was aimed at anyone responsible for pool safety, in order to prevent tragedies such as the ones I have seen in my law practice.

On May 22, 2018, former State Bar of Georgia president Ken Shigley will be a candidate for election to the Georgia Court of Appeals. The only other candidate is Ken Hodges, a former Dougherty County District Attorney. Ken Hodges was the Democratic Party nominee for Attorney General in 2010.