Atlanta/Fulton County Georgia Truck Accidents

Lawyers handling serious personal injury and wrongful death cases arising from tractor trailer and big rig accidents in Atlanta, Georgia, should have a feel for the history and culture of this community. Ken Shigley has lived, studied, worked in metro Atlanta since 1965.

He has practiced law and tried cases before local juries in metro Atlanta since 1977, and has written a book on Georgia personal injury law practice scheduled for publication in 2010. Now one of the top officers of the State Bar of Georgia, he regularly interacts with a broad scope of the legal profession and judiciary in metro Atlanta. Our office is in midtown Atlanta, within three blocks of most of largest law firms in Atlanta.

Atlanta is the capital of Georgia and core of the 8th largest geographically and 10th most populous metropolitan area in the United States. While the population of the city is only 537,958, the metro population is close to 5.5 million.

Atlanta was founded as “Terminus” in 1837 as hub for new railroads soon after the expulsion of the Cherokee and Creek nations. As the frontier settlement grew, the name changed to “Marthasville” in 1842 and Atlanta in 1847. By the time of the Civil War, Atlanta was a strategic key for manufacturing and railroad transportation in the South. The city was burned by union forces under the command of General William T. Sherman, whose golden equestrian statue stands at the southeastern corner of Central Park in New York City.

Rising from the ashes, Atlanta grew as the hub of the “New South” after Reconstruction. Starting with the founding of early African American colleges after the Civil War, Atlanta became the center of the civil rights movement and a mecca for well educated African American professionals.

Always on the make, Atlanta grew from railroad hub to air transportation center of the South. For most of its history, Atlanta has borne the joke that when anyone dies in the South, whether going to heaven or hell, they have to pass through Atlanta. A culmination of Atlanta’s traditional boosterism came with the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

With three major interstate highways intersecting in downtown Atlanta, and numerous trucking terminals in the area, Atlanta gets more than its share of serious trucking accidents.

The court systems of metro Atlanta are complex, including State Courts and Superior Courts in several counties. Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, the largest county in Georgia. In Fulton County, most civil damages cases are filed in the State Court of Fulton County, which has 10 active judges, one senior judge, and five magistrate judges. Some civil cases are filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County, which has 19 judges.

Many trucking accident cases wind up in federal court because the plaintiffs and defendants are from different states. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, based in Atlanta, has a total of 19 U.S. district judges, including senior judges.