Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

GTLA Welcomes New President, Chris Clark of Macon, Georgia

GTLA wishes to thank out-going President Fred Orr for his wisdom and vision over the past year. With him at the helm, many things have been accomplished (including this new website). With Fred as the Immediate Past President, GTLA eagerly welcomes Chris Clark to his new role. Chris' intelligence, leadership style and passion for the Civil Justice System will only serve to make this great organization stronger.

At the President's Gala on Friday night, 250 members of GTLA watched as Fred Orr handed the reins over to Chris Clark-- both of whom received a standing ovation. Congressman Bruce Braley of Iowa, a trial lawyer, a champion for justice in Washington DC and a Past President of his state's TLA entertained and enlightened the crowd with his tales of courage in politics as the keynote speaker. The evening ended with incredible comaraderie found only at GTLA events.

Just like the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia, the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah, Georgia knew of the dangers its plant exposed its employees and Georgia citizens to and did absolutely nothing. In an article today in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, it is obvious the sugar corporation deliberately exposed its employees to the very real chance of death by ignoring an expert consultant's report warning the corporation's executives of the danger. Which brings to mind the question: What is wrong with Corporate America? Has corporate greed become so all important that dollars over safety is a corporation's creed now? Or is it that the past administration of the last eight years has permitted Corporate America to thumb its nose at corporate responsibility for the sake of unregulated profit such that even when human life hangs in the balance, the Almighty Corporation gets by with murder?

It is clear that in the case of the Savannah Sugar Refinery, the fourteen employees who died in the explosion and the dozens of other Georgians injured in it were asked to sacrifice too much for corporate greed. These Georgians are left with nothing but inadequate workers' compensation claims now as the Imperial Sugar Refinery is protected from the rough justice of twelve jurors in the Georgia Civil Justice System by the "exclusive remedy" of the workers' compensation system. And that is a crime.