Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog

Deposing Expert Collision Reconstructionists in a Georgia Wringful Death Case

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:13:58 -0500

This morning, I deposed Jeff Kidd with Collison Specialists out of Gainseville Georgia. Jeff was hired in a case where I represent the family of a woman who was thrown from her motorcycle when a driver who had been licensed for 10 months got a flat tire and decided to park his car in the middle of I-285. The motorcyle could not avoid the minivan that came to a sudden stop in front of him and the woman was thrown and died.
I talk with a lot of young lawyers who prepare to depose the insurance company's lawyer and believe that they need to attack every conclusion. The fact is that a reasonable and well prepared expert is not going to be "broken" on cross examination. The key to taking a useful deposition is to listen carefully to their conclusions and decide which ones do no harm and which ones need to be attacked. Once you identify the opinions that are harmful, go at the factual underpinnings and assumptions. Normally it is the car accident Reconstructionists assumptions that are the most vulnerable. You can often open play in their opinion by getting them to admit that if other assumptions are true, their conclusions can be significantly off. Georgia wrongful death attorneys practice this common sense approach that is respectful of the expert and the jury.

I'm Being Sued by an Insurance Company for a Car Accident

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:25:49 -0500

For years car insurance companies have decried the "greed" and audacity of personal injury plaintiffs and their lawyers for bringing lawsuits over injuries in car accidents. Now, irony of ironies, these same insurance companies are launching a tidal wave of lawsuits as they go after the uninsured and underinsured.

Let me be clear; there is nothing wrong or immoral about an insurance company seeking subrogation. The concept is sound. What is disguising is their willingness to sue the uninsured into a lifetime of debt. It is a fact that trial lawyers do not personally sue uninsured individuals unless there are substantial assets. Why not? Not only is it unproductive because liquidating meager assets yields little cash but there is a fairness problem. No right minded lawyer wants to sue an average person into the poorhouse over a negligent act.

A Victory for Murder Victims; the Appellate Court Allows Wrongful Death Attorneys to Bring Case

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:39:44 -0500

A fellow lawyer won an important victory at the Court of Appeals last Spring (The Bethany Group LLC v. Grobman 315 Ga.App. 298 (2012) which resulted in a $1.2 million dollar settlement for the family of a taxi driver who was murdered at an apartment complex. What is noteworthy about the development is the difficult facts they had to work with. The victim was a cab driver summoned to the property by a disposable phone. No evidence of at request from a tenant and that is a tough case.

Who Is Legally at Fault for the Tire that Hit and Killed an Atlanta Mother While Driving?

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:06:51 -0500

In a rare and tragic instant Aila Masud was struck and killed by a flying tire while driving on I-85 in Atlanta. Eyewitness accounts agree that the wheel came from a passenger vehicle driving the opposite direction although there is mixed information about the driver trying to avoid something in the road.

My wife read the article and being married to a car accident lawyer, she naturally asked "who is legally responsible for the tire killing the woman?" The sad thing is that our law firm has been through this exact situation before. We recently settled a case in Maryland with co-counsel involving a man struck in the chest while driving by a runaway wheel from traffic going the other direction.

Georgia State Patrol Officer Sentenced in Wrongful Death from New Years Eve

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:27:25 -0500

I wrote over a year ago about the tragic death of a woman on the way to the Peach Bowl in 2011 at the hands of a habitually reckless Georgia State Patrol Officer. The AJC reports today that he has plead guilty to vehicular homicide and will serve 2 years in jail and 8 years on probation. There is some justice in the result but what really bothers me is the lack of punishment for his superiors and their decision making.

Are Car Accident Police Reports Admissible at Trial in Georgia?

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:10:23 -0500

So some bright star decided that after umpteen years of predictability, the guiding lights of hearsay and probative value should be dimmed and we ended up with a new evidence code in Georgia that tracks the Federal Rules of Evidence in many regards. One of the critical issues for good Atlanta car accident lawyers like me is whether the police report of the car accident is now admissible evidence.

Car Accident Statute of Limitations in Georgia Extended by Failure to Appear

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:56:51 -0500

So you may have read our previous post about the Beneke v. Parker decision that confirmed that the 2 year statute of limitations on car accident claims in Georgia is extended for the number of days after the crash that it takes to resolve the traffic ticket. One of the other lawyers came to me with a new client the other day and even though the crash is four years old he claimed that the police records showed that the defendant had not shown up for the hearing and therefore a FTA (failure to appear) warrant had issued.

Failure to Give Notice on a Georgia Uninsured Motorist Insurance Policy

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:21:33 -0500

In an earlier post about Mercury Insurance's Motion for Summary Judgment claiming that their insured had failed to give timely notice within 60 days of a catastrophic crash, I promised I would post the briefs and so here they are. Hope they are helpful. The names have been altered for privacy reasons.

Georgia Insurance Companies and Injury Claims: The Good the Bad and Ugly

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:16:06 -0500

Its been a mixed bag the last two weeks for dealing with accident insurance companies in Georgia. Friends and potential clients alike often wonder what their options are with injury claims. The best way to answer that is through a number of examples that illustrate what we do week to week.

Don't Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Your Georgia Uninsured Motorist Insurance Company Has Counsel, Do You?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:14:17 -0500

We have previously warned about the hidden traps that exist when you try to do it yourself on a significant case and in this post we will examine the battle over an existing case. A client came to the firm more than 60 days after his car accident and it does not appear that he ever told his own car insurance company about the crash. In this particular case, the client has substantial injuries including a fractured pelvis with surgery and over $400,000 in medical bills. The at fault driver only has $50,000 dollars in insurance, so the clients $25,000 in underinsured motorist insurance is important for the client's recovery.

In Georgia Car Accident Cases, Getting Medical Records into Evidence Just Got Easier in Georgia

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:24:09 -0500

The coming of the New Year brings hope for millions and in Georgia it also brought along a seismic shift in the evidence code that means that the plaintiff's prior and post accident medical records are now coming into evidence and going out with the jury. For the uninitiated, laws come from two places; 1) the code (voted on laws) and 2) case law (the accreted body of decisions about the law from the appellate courts).

Wrongful Death Attorneys Point to Raquel Nelson Case as Example of Broken System

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:55:13 -0500

As a law firm that handles numerous pedestrian wrongful death and injury cases, we see the issue of a lack of pedestrian rights over and over again. The tragic case of the death of AJ Nelson and the prosecution of his mother bring these issues to the forefront, where they belong.

Georgia Crashes and Florida Uninsured Motorist Policies; Whose Law Applies?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:25:55 -0500

One of the trickier parts of practicing car accident insurance law comes when the lawyer has to analyze "choice of law" issues, that is lawyer speak for how do you decide which State's law applies when a case involves multiple states. So how do analyze a situation?

First, the Georgia Ground Rules for Contracts:

The remedies laid out by the contract are controlled by the law of the forum ("lex fori") which is the place where the lawsuit is filed. Race to the Court for this one people.

How to Settle Your Soft Tissue Injury Car Accident Case for Top Dollar While Paying Reasonable Fees

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:59:03 -0500

We would all rather live in a world where lawyers were not necessary for car accidents, but the simple fact is that insurance carriers are so aggressive in their handling of legitimate cases that attorneys are a necessity in many situations. What is the best way to settle your Atlanta car accident injury claim for top dollar then?

Trying a Car Accident Case to a Conservative Jury in Gwinnett County

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:16:36 -0500

I spent the past week trying a car accident case in Gwinnett County and am writing to give you an overview of some of the nuances in presenting an injury case to a conservative jury.

The word on the street is that Gwinnett has been growing more and more diverse over the last few years. As Gwinnett's Hispanic, Asian and African American population has grown, so have their numbers in jury pools. I tried a case in Gwinnett in April last year and had a 6 person white and 6 person other jury. That is not always going to be the case though as our trial this past week demonstrated.

Our client was a 22 year old black female from Southeast Atlanta. She is intelligent and well spoken but works in a case based hair styling business with no tax records. She was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her best friend when a HVAC van turned left across her path a 8:15 AM on the drive to work. The driver of the HVAC van was ticketed but plead Nolo so the outcome of the ticket did not come into evidence. The Defense hired an expert reconstructionist to tell the jury that the crash was caused by the driver of the Plaintiff's vehicle, claiming that she was not paying attention and that the crash could have been avoided. We did not hire a recon as liability seemed clear to us and their recon was a awful in our opinion.