Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Pedestrian Fatalities Down Nationwide but Not in Georgia

April 28, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, I often check Georgia statistics regarding the number of car wrecks, bicyclists wrecks and pedestrian accidents, including fatalities. I noticed that Richmond County, Georgia has initiated a new program that targets jaywalking pedestrians or pedestrians caught not using crosswalks to educate them about the rules of the road for pedestrians and why they are so important to follow. So far this year, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has reported nine traffic fatalities. Four of the incidents involved pedestrian-versus-vehicle collisions. In 2013, police responded to 26 fatal traffic accidents, eight of which involved pedestrians.

Earlier this month, three teens and an Augusta man were struck by vehicles on Richmond County roads. The man and two of the teens died as a result of their injuries. The third teen remains hospitalized.

Unfortunately, Georgia and South Carolina, rank among the worst in the country for pedestrian and cycling fatality rates. And many of these incidents are hit-and-run crashes, where the at-fault driver hits a pedestrian and can easily make a quick get-away as his victim lies helpless and injured on the pavement. I have such a case pending right now in which the current issue is the filing of an uninsured motorist claim against the plaintiff’s own insurance carrier, State Farm Insurance Company, as they have denied coverage in every way possible under the sun. I blogged about this case awhile back and about the fact that when you are on foot and hit by a car as a pedestrian, you have an uninsured motorist claim against your own car insurance. Few people know this and most policies do everything they can to hide the fact that you have such a claim.

Wild Animal Attacks: Does the Premises Owner Have Liability?

April 18, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer who handles premises safety cases on a regular basis, I have been reading with interest an article about a wrongful death lawsuit recently filed in Illinois against a condominium owner regarding the death of a resident killed by black swans on the property. The dead man actually cared for the black swans for the condo and the condo kept them on the property to keep away geese and limit geese droppings on the grounds. You may recall this incident when it first happened, as it was on national news, certainly made news here in Atlanta, and was a shocking event with a rather bizarre manner of death. On the morning of April 14, 2012, one of the swans attacked the man, Anthony Hensley, causing his kayak to topple, according to witnesses at the time. The bird continued to lunge at him as he struggled to make it to shore before he disappeared under water, authorities said after the attack. He was pronounced dead at a hospital after dive crews scoured the 50-foot-deep pond to find him, authorities added.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants “knew or should have known that mute swans are strongly territorial with a dangerous propensity to attack.” Amy Hensley’s attorney, Kenneth Apicella, pointed to Illinois’ Animal Control Act, which says that the owner of an animal that attacks a person in certain circumstances can be held liable for damages.

This case will be an interesting one to follow, but it begs the question: would such a case here in Georgia “fly” (sorry for the pun). My answer is probably not. The Georgia Supreme Court in 2012 decided a very similar case that involved the death of a woman by alligator. The case, The Landings Club v. Williams, 291 Ga. 397, 728 S.E.2d 577 (Ga. 2012) was watched with great interest in the Georgia legal community, as it could have meant enormous liability for landowners in Georgia, which our law have heavily favored since Oglethorpe first founded our beautiful state. In The Landings case, a woman who was visiting her family at a planned residential/golf club community that had several lagoons on the property, which was on Skidaway Island off the Georgia coast. No person had ever been attacked until the night of October 5, 2007, when Williams, who was 83 at the time, went for a walk near one of the lagoons near her daughter’s home some time after 6:00 p.m. The following morning, Williams’ body was found floating in the lagoon. Williams’ right foot and both forearms had been bitten off. Later, an eight-foot alligator was caught in the same lagoon, and, after the alligator was killed, parts of Williams’ body were found in its stomach.

Jury Duty: The Tenet of the American Judicial System

April 7, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

I read with horror the article in today’s Fulton County Daily Report, our legal news organ, about a lawyer who received a summons for jury duty in DeKalb County and who then promptly and arrogantly emailed the judge informing the judge, Hon. Dax Lopex, DeKalb County State Court, that if selected for the jury she would blame the plaintiff and automatically find for the defendant. I find this offensive on so many levels it is hard to know where to start. As the 50th President of the State Bar of Georgia, as the Past President of Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, as an Officer of the Court who swore to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Georgia, and mainly, just as a plain old Georgia citizen, I find this behavior by this Georgia lawyer to be outrageous.

The jury system is the Hallmark of the American Justice System, both criminal and civil. As a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer handling only civil money damages cases for injured people, the ability of my client to seek redress and justice for injury depends on Georgia citizens performing their civic duty in the form of jury duty. Everyone knows it is difficult to reorganize one’s week to attend jury duty and knows it is never convenient for someone to have to serve on a jury. But if you have read many of my blogs, you will already know that once someone has served on a jury (or even gone through the jury selection process) they become even more proud of the American Justice System and are proud for having performed their all-important role in it. For the vast majority of people, serving on a jury turns out to be one of the most meaningful things they have ever done for their community and their State. Very few citizens leave jury duty disgruntled at the process.

Thomas Jefferson said about juries: “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” Anyone who loves our great country would have to agree with that. Even though the jury system is not perfect, it is, without question, the best legal system in the world. Many countries have copied our judicial system. This conduct by anyone of denigrating our jury system would be reprehensible, but it is even more so for a lawyer, an officer of the court who has sworn to uphold the constitution, to do so. It is, frankly, unfathomable. Judge Lopez (rightfully) sentenced her to a night in jail for contempt of court. You would think a night in the DeKalb County jail would get someone’s attention, wouldn’t you? I guess we shall see, because Judge Lopez also referred the matter to the State Bar of Georgia’s Office of General Counsel for potential disciplinary proceedings against her.

Judge or Jury? Which Would You Prefer Decide Your Fate?

March 13, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

I have been watching with great interest news reports on the Oscar Pistorius trial that is going on right now in South Africa. Oscar is known as the “Blade Runner” as he runs on prosthetic legs and was the first person with prosthetics to run in the Olympics, not the Para-Olympics. He is, unquestionably, a celebrity in South Africa and hero there. He is widely loved by the citizens there. The Pistorius trial has proven to be South Africa’s “O.J. Simpson” trial, although we don’t know yet if it will have a similar outcome. The Proscecution alleges Pistorius intentionally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a closed bathroom door in his home during the middle of the night, killing her. There is no doubt that Oscar killed her; the question is, what was his intent? The issue of a criminal trial is often not who did it, but rather what was going on in the mind of the defendant at the time he did it?

It is an intriguing case. One of the things that interests me is that in South Africa, this case is being tried and will be decided by the judge, not a jury. The case has really put the legal system of South Africa in the spotlight. South Africa abolished jury trials in 1969, while the country was under apartheid, due to fears of racial prejudice by white jurors. Pistorius will be tried in a high court in Pretoria by Thokozile Matilda Masipa — the second black woman appointed to the bench since apartheid ended. This would almost certainly never occur in the United States. A criminal defendant can certainly consent to having a judge decide his fate, known as “bench trial,” but that is extremely rare, given that conventional wisdom says a criminal defendant has a better chance with a jury than a judge.

Likewise, for civil plaintiffs in cases asking for money damages for personal injuries, the kind of case I try, the conventional wisdom is to have the case decided by a jury, not a judge. Again, the parties could, by mutual consent, agree to have the case bench tried by a judge, but that would be highly unusual. One of the biggest risks of a bench trial is having the judge, that one person who decides your entire case, is against you? You lose! It sometimes takes four or five years for a civil case to reach a trial, and in one instant, based on who your judge is, you have lost because it was all or nothing…you had to convince one person and you couldn’t do it.

What is the Value of the Life of a Teacher? Is is Worth a Major League Baseball Player’s Salary?

March 10, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

As a plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer in Georgia, I often represent the loved ones of someone who was killed in a car or tractor-trailer wreck. More and more of my trials in Georgia now involve the death of someone due to someone else’s negligence or carelessness (carelessness is simply another word for negligence). In these wrongful death trials I must suggest to the jury a dollar number I feel adequately represents the full value of the life of the decedent, from the perspective of the decedent, which is the Georgia standard on which a jury must decide wrongful death damages.

Recently, while reading about the numerous salary deals various Major League baseball teams have made with players, it made me wonder: is the value of your life worth a Major League Baseball player’s salary? For example, Freddie Freeman, the Braves beloved first baseman, just signed an 8 year $135 Million contract with the Braves. That’s more than $14 Million per year. Craig Kimbrel, the Braves’ awesome closer, just signed a contract to receive $40 Million for four years. If you were asked as a juror to value another Georgian’s life for the purpose of damages and holding the wrongdoer responsible, would you agree a person’s life is worth at least the same amount as an 8 year contract to play first base? What if we asked to value your own life…or better yet… to value the life of your son, or your daughter? They are priceless, right? And yet Georgia law, in a wrongful death lawsuit, says a juror must use nothing more than their “enlightened conscience” of the twelve person jury to decide this dollar figure.

This evaluation of the “full value of the life” of a Georgian includes both an economic component (past and future lost wages) and a noneconomic component (the intangible quality of life damages). I often tell a jury that we know the noneconomic component is worth much more because when a loved one is hurt, what is the first thing you ask? You ask: “Are they OK? Are they hurt? Are they suffering? Will they be OK?” You don’t ask: “How much income will they lose because of this?”

Georgia Supreme Court Rules Against Ford Motor Co. in Wrongful Death Case

February 24, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

In an opinion issued today, in a case in which I represented the Plaintiffs, The Conley Family, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs and against Ford Motor Company and affirmed the trial court’s granting of a new trial to the Plaintiffs. The case is Ford Motor Co. v. Conley, No. S13A1601 (Sup. Ct. Ga. February 24, 2014).

In this important case, the Georgia Supreme Court agreed with the trial judge and found that Ford Motor Co. “intentionally misled the Conleys into believing that Ford had no insurers” which prevented the Conley Family from having a fair and impartial jury hear their case. This case involved a rollover car wreck that occurred in April 2006. Renee Conley’s minor child was severely injured in the wreck and her mother was killed. In this trial, and another trial in the same trial court, Young v. Ford Motor Co., Ford Motor Co. responded in discovery that it had sufficient assets to pay any judgment in response to a question that asked Ford Motor to name any insurers that had insurance policies that might pay any verdict against it. Under Georgia law, litigants have a clear duty to disclose any insurers with whom they have insurance policies that might satisfy any verdict. Ford Motor Co., in both the Young case and the Conley case, did not disclose the name of some 26 insurers with whom it had insurance coverage that might satisfy any verdict against it. The Georgia Supreme Court held in Conley today: “Ford’s responses to the Conley’s initial discovery requests for insurance information affirmatively misled the Conleys into actually and reasonably believing that Ford was entirely self-insured for any judgment in their case….”

In a strong conclusion, the Georgia Supreme Court noted: “there is no indication that other defendants in Georgia civil cases have engaged in Ford’s former practice–we assume it has now been stopped–of customarily indicating that the defendant is self-insured (sometimes with obfuscating objections) when asked for basic and entirely appropriate information about insurance coverage for claims. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we hesitate to broadly attribute a lack of fundamental honesty and professionalism in discovery practice to litigants and lawyers in this State. Moreover, we trust our trial courts to review claims of such misconduct carefully to ensure that the requirement to diligently pursue requested discovery, and to bring complaints about discovery and other matters to the attention of the court in a timely fashion, are not eroded.”

“State of Emergency” Means Immunity

January 30, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

We here in Atlanta, Georgia are digging out from the unbelievable experience of Snow Gridlock 2014. On Tuesday, January 28, 2014, many Atlantans, who normally had a commute of 30 minutes or so, found themselves stuck in a nightmarish gridlock that super-sized their commute to 12 hours or even more, as they attempted to leave the city at the same time that the other 1.2 Million citizens did. The result: an utter disaster. The Governor of Georgia, Governor Nathan Deal, issued an official “state of emergency” for the State of Georgia. And not a minute too soon.

Many people were forced to abandon their vehicles on the side of the road, because they ran out of gasoline or simply because their drivers at some point faced up to the harsh reality that it was better to abandon ship and attempt to find warm shelter on foot. Now, while some much-needed sunshine melts the ice from our streets, the aftermath of nearly 2,000 abandoned cars is setting in. The owners of these cars are in the process today of trying to remember where they left their cars and driving them home. That is, of course, if they haven’t already been towed away. First, the communications director of the Georgia Department of Transportation simply announced the State would begin towing abandoned cars so the GDOT equipment trucks could deice and plow the roads, particularly the Interstate Highways. In this first notice she unceremoniously announced it was unclear whether owners (who had smartly abandonded their cars) would be responsible for paying to retrieve their cars from tow lots. Brilliant!

Then yesterday, the GDOT softens a bit and announces they will just tow abandoned cars to the side of the road and leave them there. This would allow the plowing and deicing trucks to pass. Finally, today, the GDOT says it will actually drive car owners to their cars so they may drive them home. Again, I say Brilliant!

Seatbelts Not Always the Answer

January 27, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

So often in personal injury lawsuits I have filed in Georgia involving injuries sustained during a car wreck, the defense attorney boasts that the plaintiff wasn’t wearing her seat belt, the jury will know it and, voila! Defense verdict! Not so fast!! Many times, even a seat belt won’t prevent a serious or even fatal injury in a car wreck. I was reading some Georgia news about car wrecks recently and came across a tragic incident in which a pregnant mother was killed in a car wreck even though she was wearing her seat belt at the time of the wreck. This happened in Cherokee County, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. The young woman was alive and alert at the scene, but died at the hospital as the doctors there tried to deliver her baby by C-section. She also had a three year old in the car at the time of the wreck who was in a proper car seat, had visible injuries at the scene, and, thankfully, survived.

Many times in my car wreck cases I will hear the defense attorney say that my client must not have had his or her seat belt on or otherwise she or he never would have been thrown from the car, or never would have ended up with any part of her or his body on the outside of the car. But, again, not so fast! The empirical evidence keeps coming in that regardless of wearing a seat belt, sometimes your body ends up being thrown outside of your car during a wreck. For example, recently, in Effingham County, Georgia, a driver was seriously injured . This car wreck involved an overturned SUV in which the driver ended up under his SUV, pinned by it, even though he was wearing his seat belt. We know he was wearing his seat belt because the police officer who came to his rescue had to unlatch his seat belt to get him out. “[Officer] Gideon said the only way to reach the young man was through the back window. Gideon crawled through and released the driver’s seat belt. “He told me his hand was stuck up underneath the roof of the car and said that he was in a great deal of pain,” Gideon said of the driver.”

The fact that Officer Gideon (great name, by the way) had to crawl through the back window of the SUV to get to this driver reminds me of the time 19 years ago now in which I was driving a mini-van and was t-boned by a drunk driver. I was wearing my seat belt and when the van finally came to a stop on Juniper Street in Midtown Atlanta, the van was on it’s side and I was hanging from the seat belt. Several wonderful eyewitnesses walked through the back window of the van and unlatched my seat belt and helped me out of the van. I suffered a pretty severe injury from this wreck.

Remembering a Great Lawyer and Friend: Cliff Brashier

January 9, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

On December 20, 2013, we lost an icon of the State Bar of Georgia, our Executive Director of 23 years, Cliff Brashier. Yesterday, I had the distinct honor of delivering remarks at his Memorial Service held at the State Bar of Georgia Bar Center. Cliff was one of my dearest friends and represented the best that lawyers can be. I miss him dearly. Below are my remarks.

REMARKS AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE OF CLIFF BRASHIER, STATE BAR OF GEORGIA BAR CENTER, JANUARY 8, 2014

Today I consider myself one of the luckiest persons on the face of the Earth. I do this because I was lucky enough to have formed a friendship with Cliff Brashier. Whatever sacrifices I had to make, both professional and personal, to serve as President of the State Bar of Georgia were more than worth it given that my service as President gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to work alongside Cliff Brashier.

Retrial of an Obstetrical Medical Malpractice Case: Better Than Reality TV

January 6, 2014 | Robin Frazer Clark

I have tried numerous medical malpractice cases in Georgia over the last several years. I represent only plaintiffs, the victims of someone else’s carelessness or negligence. Even after trying cases in Georgia for 25 years I still enjoy watching great trial lawyers try cases. It’s better than anything reality TV can show. So I hope I can carve out some time this week to watch part of the retrial in Sutton v. Bauer, in which jury selection started today in Cobb County State Court. This is the retrial of a medical malpractice (remember: malpractice simply means carelessness by a doctor) case that ended in a hung jury at the close of the first trial because the jury could reach a verdict on one defendant but not all defendants. The Court’s decision to enter a mistrial was appealed by the hospital to the Georgia Court of Appeals in Wellstar v. Sutton, 318 Ga.App. 802 (2012) and the appellate court affirmed the trial judge’s decision. Since that appellate opinion, the hospital, Wellstar, is no longer a defendant in this retrial, which, presumably, means there was a settlement between Wellstar and Plaintiff, but that would be probably be confidential. So this retrial is against the obstetrician who delivered the baby. The plaintiff is represented by well-known and well-respected consummate trial lawyer, Tommy Malone, and his son, Adam Malone, is assisting in the trial. I had the distinct pleasure of trying a medical malpractice (also a retrial after a hung jury in the first trial) with Adam Malone as my co-counsel in October of last year in Fulton County State Court. I hope to be able to watch a little bit of the Sutton trial and will give you my thoughts on how the jury and the evidence. Stay tuned….

Second Trial to Start in Cobb for $50M Med-Mal Case

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