Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

The Georgia Supreme Court has issued an opinion affirming an Athens-Clarke County jury's verdict of $13 Million to the widower of a woman who burned to death in a rear end collision on Highway 129. This is an important decision because it was based on the fact that Ford Motor Company refused to turn over relevant crash data in the case that it was required by law to provide to plaintiffs. The Georgia Supreme Court, in essence, has said in Georgia, we are going to hold big corporations, including car manufacturers, to the letter of the law. Below is an article from the Athens paper, the Athens Banner-Herald, with more details.

Family closer to award in fiery crash
Ford loses appeal in gas-tank explosion, death
By Walter C. Jones | Morris News Service | Story updated at 11:24 PM on Saturday, March 29, 2008

ATLANTA - The family of a Clarke County woman who burned to death when her car's gas tank exploded during a 1999 rear-end collision is closer to getting a $13 million jury award after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in their favor Friday.

Ford Motor Co. and the maker of a trailer hitch on the woman's car lost their appeal when the supreme court unanimously upheld the verdict of an Athens-Clarke State Court jury.

Anne Marie Gibson died at the scene when a pickup slammed into the back of her 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis as it was stopped on U.S. Highway 129 waiting to make a left turn. Her car was hit again when it was forced into oncoming traffic.

Bolts from the trailer hitch gouged into the car's gas tank, causing it to burst into flames as the passenger doors jammed and Gibson's seat collapsed, dropping her back into the flames.

Gibson's widower, Artumus Gibson, filed suit and won.

His attorney, George W. Fryhofer III of Atlanta, said as many as 50 other people have been killed or seriously burned in similar accidents involving Fords.

"The great tragedy in this case, however, is that Ford's exploding gas tanks continue on the road, and Ford has never warned a soul," Fryhofer said.

The family's long wait for a check should be about to end, according to Fryhofer - the only option for Ford and trailer-hitch maker Draw-Tite to delay the case would be to appeal in federal court, but Fryhofer says there are no federal or constitutional issues to base an appeal on.

"I think this is pretty close to the end of the line for Ford in this case, but that doesn't address the other possible victims," he said.

Ford would not release information about other suits filed about similar cases of exploding gas tanks. It only released a brief statement about the Gibson case.

"We are disappointed that Ford will not receive a fair trial in this case, in which the jury will decide the issues," wrote company spokeswoman Marcey Evans. "We have not decided at this time whether we will seek further review."

In the appeal, Ford was contesting a decision by state court Judge Kent Lawrence to punish the automaker for refusing to turn over records about crash tests it had conducted on that model. Ford contended the documents should remain confidential as attorney-client communications.

Lawrence ruled that if the company wouldn't supply the files, then the jury should consider that an admission that the seats and fuel tank were defectively designed.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Harold Melton, concluded Lawrence was within his authority.

"Specifically, the requested evidence documented past car-to-car crash tests conducted by Ford on a line of vehicles that included the Mercury Marquis, and that had similar fuel tank locations and performance as the Mercury Marquis driven by Ms. Gibson at the time of the incident involving (the other) car," the decision read. "As evidence that could have shown Ford's prior, direct knowledge of fuel system, car door, and seat back design problems in car-to-car collisions such as the one that resulted in Ms. Gibson's death, we cannot say that the trial court clearly abused its discretion in concluding that Gibson had a substantial need for these documents."

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 032908

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The Atlanta Journal and Constitution's Editorial Board came out on Monday in favor of legislation currently pending in the Georgia General Assembly that would toughen penalties for teenagers who are caught not wearing their seatbelts while they are driving or riding in a car. The legislation, HB 924, is currently "dead" because it was not passed by one house prior to "cross-over" day, the deadline for legislation to pass at least one house to be considered by the other house. The sponsor of the legislation, Representative Melvin Everson (R-Snellville), will be looking at other bills still alive to which he could attach his seatbelt legislation.

This legislation is a good idea. As both a personal injury trial lawyer in Atlanta and a mother of a teenager, any law that would stiffen penalities for teenagers who don't wear their seatbelts will save lives. Too often I have sat here in my office with parents who have either lost a child or had one seriously injured because they weren't wearing their seatbelts at the time of a car wreck. Parents often tell me they insist on their children wearing seatbelts while riding with them, but it is a different story when those same teenagers are in a car with their friends. Their parents' rules of wearing seatbelts are quick to fly out the window.

And it has been proven in recent medical studies that teenagers simply don't have the brain development necessary to be able to make good judgment calls, such as always wearing seat belts. These new studies show teenagers are more likely to demonstrate impulsive behavior rather than sound judgments because the frontal lobes of their brains, that area where high thinking or executive functioning takes place, is not fully functional during teenage years. Teens simply don't have the appropriate level of brain functioning to make good judgmental decisions such as always wearing their seatbelts.

Perhaps tougher penalties for not wearing seatbelts would get through to them, such as points on your driver's license? Seems like that would get their attention. I am in favor of any legislation that toughens penalties for failure to wear seat belts. Simply put: seat belts save lives.

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This child never had a chance. Yesterday, in Atlanta, a two month old infant was killed because she was sitting in her mother's lap while her mother was driving a car and hit a telephone pole. The air bag deployed, as it should, and the infant died immediately. The mother was physcially unharmed. As would have been her baby if the mother had simply taken one minute to strap her into a child's car seat.

Parents can learn more about child car seat safety from the National Highway Traffic Safety Admininstration (NHTSA) and its Child Passenger Safety Program. Specifically, for Georgia law on child car seats, parents can have their questions answered at The Governor's Office of Highway Safety.

Continue reading "Car Seats Save Lives~Buckle Up the Ones You Love" »

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An Arizona jury returned a plaintiff's verdict yesterday of a whopping $36.5 Million against Swift Trucking Company for Swift Trucking's driver's negligence in causing a horrible crash that killed the father of eight children. $13.5 Million of the verdict was for punitive damages to punish Swift for not producing their driver's logs in the litigation. Tractor-Trailer drivers are required by Federal law to maintain log books showing how many hours they have driven. At issue in this case, and many others, was driver fatigue.

Swift tractor-trailers are all over the roads of Metro Atlanta and Georgia. For safety's sake, drive as far away as possible from big tractor-trailers. Leave a lane between you and them if you can. Try never to drive in front of them if possible. Some wrecks, like the one in Arizona, are 100% the fault of the truck driver and there is often nothing the victim could have done to avoid the wreck. But it helps increase your chances of not having a wreck with them if you stay as far away from them on the roads as possible.

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Another log truck accident in Milledgeville, Georgia has killed a 12 year old girl and injured her mother. The accident happened on Sparta Highway in Baldwin County. Although much of the Georgia economy depends on logging, these accidents with logging trucks happen too often and, when they do, they are usually fatal. Although the details of this accident haven't yet been made public, my guess based on my experience in handling these types of serious trucking accidents is that logs may have become unstable or lose and may have gone right through the Toyota Camry in which the child was riding. My heart goes out to the mother who was driving and to the child's family. There is nothing as devastating as the loss of a child.

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What could be scarier this Halloween?

Tonight on Anderson Cooper 360° prepare to hear a chilling story of lies and deceit as the story
of two everyday Americans are haunted by undercover agents in their own
church.

Progressive Insurance willingly accepted the premiums that Bill and Leandra
Pitts paid them each month for UM Insurance. After a car crash in Henry
County that left the Pitts with injuries and damages not covered by the
at-fault driver, they turned to their UM coverage to pay for what was
left-the coverage that they had dutifully paid for every month.

Progressive Insurance, in an attempt to save a buck, hired two undercover
private investigators to follow the Pitts in their community and to their
church where the two agents posed as prospective members. Taking the deceit
to incredible lengths, the two agents talked their way into a private
Bible-study held in a private home and were privy to intimate and personal
disclosures of the church members. Progressive hoped that they would
discover something that would free them from covering the damages. But they
didn't.

The Pitts, after hiring GTLA member Wayne Grant, have filed suit against
Progressive Insurance alleging that the company's spooky tactics against
their own clients went too far. Tonight, Anderson Cooper on CNN will look
into the case.

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Here in Georgia, Progressive Insurance Company has admitted to spying on its own insureds in a confidential church group.
Progressive Insurance Company hired two private eyes to spy on Progressive's own insureds by infiltrating the couple's private, confidential church group, lying about their identities and their motives, so that they might be able to find out some kind of personal "dirt" on the insureds so Progressive could use it against them in an uninsured motorist lawsuit. Progressive's CEO has now "apologized." And Progressive has the unmitigated gall to claim "it's all about you" on their website!

It's absolutely appalling and disgusting, but should give you a real life glimpse into the way insurance companies work to do everything in their power, including outright deception and invasion of privacy, to avoid paying legitimate personal injury claims. It's sickening. The Progressive CEO said "What the investigators and Progressive people did was wrong - period," Renwick, head of the third-largest U.S. auto insurer, said in a statement. "I personally want to apologize to anyone who was affected by this." He apologized the day after the article exposing Progressive's deception was published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Sounds like to me the Progressive CEO was sorry they got caught, not sorry they engaged in fraud. This is made clear by the fact that Progressive continues to deny liability in a lawsuit brought against Progressive by the two insureds for invasion of privacy. Seems to me if Progressive was truly contrite it would simply admit the allegations of that lawsuit and take responsibility for its actions. But, as usual, it refuses to do so.

I just want to let the public know that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is beneath an insurance company when it comes to their efforts to avoid parting with money, even when the claims are being made by their own insureds, who have paid premiums for years. Nothing is beneath insurers. Progressive got caught, but their exposure only begs the question of how many other insurers are doing the exact same thing but haven't been caught?

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Teen cellphone use while driving is not illegal yet in Georgia, or in Metropolitan Georgia, but it should be. Too many teens are getting killed or injured, or killing others, while using the cellphone while driving. As a trial lawyer here in Metropolitan Atlanta, I see it all too often, usually while meeting with the grieving parents who have just lost their child at the hands of a teen driver. I have posted other blogs on this in the past, and it continues to be a subject near and dear to my heart, with a thirteen year old son who will want to start driving in a few years and who already is addicted to his cellphone.

I raise the issue again because California's Legislature, in its wisdom, has banned Californians under age 18 from using cellphones, text message devices and laptop computers while driving. When signing the legislation, which goes into effect in 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his own two daughters as examples: "I told my daughters: 'I give you the car. I give you the cellphone, but if I see you one time using both at the same time, both of them are gone,' " he said.

Georgia should have a similar law. Teenagers are dying behind the wheel, and killing others, because of poor judgment. Yesterday in Savannah, a Georgia 17 year old was charged with vehicular homicide for the deaths of three other teenagers who were in his truck with him when he wrecked due to driving erratically. Nationwide, teen drivers have the highest risk of crashing out of any age group.
The Southeast has higher teen-driver fatality rates than any other region in the country. Of the bottom 10 states, half are in the Southeast.

Selfishly, I would like to see Georgia adopt the same law that California did to ban the use of cellphones by teenagers while they are driving. Another loss of a teenager is simply not worth the price.

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Friends, I have been out of the office for the last week or so trying a case in Cobb County Georgia State Court and successfully won my client a $151,000.00 verdict! I tried the case last week in front of the Honorable Judge Katherine Tanksley and she did an outstanding job as a jurist. (During the trial Governor Purdue named Judge Tanksley to the short list for the opening on the Cobb County Superior Court, which is seen as a promotion from State Court. From what I have seen, she would do a fabulous job in Superior Court).

This was a case against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in which State Farm had only offered a measley $10,000.00 before trial. Long-time State Farm defense attorney Blair Craig represented State Farm. This case involved a rather bad car wreck in which my client was hit on his driver's side door. He had initial complaints of left side pain, chest pain, neck pain and tailbone pain. All of the pain eventually subsided after physical therapy and medication, except for his neck pain. His neck pain continued and only got worse, until one day he got out of bed and his arms felt heavy and different. His physician then recommended he see an orthopedic surgeon, who diagnosed a herniated disc in his neck and operated, performing a surgery that is called an ACDF, an anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion. In this surgery a titanium plate and four screws were implanted in my client's neck along with some cadaver bone to fuse those two cervical (neck) vertebrae. After the surgery and six weeks rehab, my client did very well and returned to work full duty.

State Farm defended the case on the argument that the point when my client starts having arm symptoms was a "new" injury for which State Farm was not responsible, even though State Farm really had no evidence or proof of any new event or injury that could possibly explain the onset of these symptoms. Also, your should know that in Georgia, although the case was really against State Farm, Georgia law allowed State Farm to defend in the name of the individual who hit my client in the wreck, and the jury never even got to hear that State Farm, my client's own carrier because this was an underinsured motorist case, was the one who was really not taking responsibility for the wreck.

But I believe in the jury system, and the jury got this one right. The jury saw through the smoke and mirrors put up by State Farm and rendered a verdict that both spoke the truth and gave my client justice. We really can't ask for more. Justice for All: It's a Beautiful Thing.

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The Georgia Department of Transporatation continues to study the feasibility of "trucks only" lanes here in Metropolitan Atlanta. I encourage you to speak in favor of the proposal as it would increase your safety as a member of the motoring public here in Atlanta and in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Transportation invites the public to view I-75/I-575 project maps, plans and displays and to voice their opinions on the expansion at the following meetings. For more information see www.nwhovbrt.com/ or call 404-377-4012.
Statistics in Atlanta show that even now traffic tops 10,000 trucks per day on the north end of I-285 and 30,000 trucks per day on parts of I-75. This represents a potential 40,000 truck and car wreck accidents looking for a place to happen on the roads of Metropolitan Atlanta. The tonnage shipped to, from and through Georgia is forecast to increase by 63 percent by 2025. Freight movement in the state is dominated by trucking, which carries 87 percent of all cargo. More than 100 motor freight carriers serve the Atlanta area alone. Georgia has 35 scheduled carriers, 2,200 intrastate haulers, and 25,000 interstate truckers serving points throughout the state. And we all know that in a wreck between an 18 wheeler and a small passenger car, the 18 wheeler wins. In my tractor-trailer cases I handle in my personal injury law practice, I can attest to the devastation that a wreck with a tractor-trailer can have on a family.
One Georgia possibility to expedite truck traffic is toll-financed truck freeways. When the Reason Public Policy Institute asked trucking companies to propose routes on which they would consider paying tolls in order to operate long double and triple tractor-trailers, the companies came up with 17 possible routes.[20] One of Reason’s tollway recommendations after analysis was the I-75 corridor from the Ohio Turnpike near Toledo south through Cincinnati, central Kentucky and Tennessee, and Atlanta to the northern end of Florida’s Turnpike and Tampa. Reason predicts it would be “a major north-south trucking route of high efficiency and safety.” I think Georgia should continue to explore this option through these public hearings about "trucks only" lanes.

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Many of us personal injury lawyers here in Atlanta, Georgia actively discourage the practice that some lawyers unethically engage in of using "runners," or individuals whose job it is to place accident vicitms with an attorney. These unscroupulous lawyers hire individuals to "run" cases for them, i.e., to go out and find car accident victims and deliver them to the unethical lawyer for the handling of a personal injury case. Then the unethical lawyer pays the hired lay individual, which is, by the way, illegal, for bringing the personal injury case to him. These "runners" often sit and wait in police departments, just waiting until police reports on car wrecks are filed,and then they get your contact information off the police report. These attorneys and their "runners" are truly the "ambulance chasers" of the profession and, unfortunately, have alot to do with giving lawyers a bad name.

Georgia law actually makes this practice illegal under Official Code of Georgia Section 33-24-53, yet anyone is rarely proscecuted under it. There has been at least one instance where an ethical lawyer and his client who had been previously contacted by one of the "runners" helped the Cobb County District Attorney's office in an undercover sting to nab these illegal "runners," and it worked. To watch a short news video about this case, click here. But such instances are few and far between.

If this ever happens to you after you have been in a car wreck in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, or anywhere in Georgia, call the Solicitor or the District Attorney for your county and report it. It is a crime and the use of these so-called "runners" in Georgia is a disservice to the Georgia public. You should not hire an attorney who has used the illegal services of a "runner" either. More than likely, you will not get good, attentive legal representation from any attorney who resorts to using illegal tactics to get cases in. Instead, ask for referrals from friends, families and lawyers you know who may not handle personal injury cases and do some reserach on the internet.

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I was shocked to see that this week another totally innocent Georgia citizen died needlessly in another police chase on Metropolitan Atlanta streets. It all started simply on the basis of a report of a "suspicious vehicle" in front of a home in Cobb County. Cobb County, Georgia officers spotted the vehicle, a Chevrolet station wagon, on Barrett Parkway and tried to pull over the driver. The officers failed at an attempt to "box it in" and pursued the car in a high speed chase. During the chase a big screen tv fell out of the station wagon. The officers continued their high speed chase up I-575, a highly traveled road between Cobb and Cherokee Counties in Georgia. The station wagon sped up I-575 until it crossed over the grass median near Bells Ferry Road, striking a four-door Buick that was southbound on the interstate. The female driver of the Buick was killed and several of her passengers were severely injured. To read the news article on this, click here.

I think part of the real crime here is that an innocent Georgia citizen died, apparently, because some vehicle had a big screen tv in it. To compound that crime, the innocent Georgia citizen's family will, most likely, never see any justice for her needless death. This is because Georgia courts, and even the United States Supreme Court has said that these types of high speed police chases, essentially, are acceptable and that police departments can not be held responsible for the loss of innocent life as a result of these chases, even where such a chase my have violated the police department's own policies and procedures. In a recent Georgia Court of Appeals case, in which fellow GTLA member Dennis Cathey represented the plaintiffs, the Court held the police department had immunity from a lawsuit by the family of an innocent victim of a police high speed chase. More recently, the United States Supreme Court held in a case that occurred here in Georgia, in which the Plaintiff was represented by fellow GTLA member Craig Jones, such high speed chases are allowable, even though they may violate department policies and procedures.

The result of all this is that the families of these innocent victims will never be able to realize any justice from their senseless deaths and streets in Metropolitan Atlanta will only get less and less safe for the law-abiding Georgia citizens. And all for a big screen tv.

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In my plaintiff's personal injury practice, I have learned that tractor-trailers traveling through Atlanta can do a lot of damage in a motor vehicle accident, including catastrophic injury, such as paralysis, or death. Georgia trucking accidents would be reduced if the Georgia Legislature passed a law creating trucks only lanes. After handling so many of these cases in my practice, I have made it my personal preference and habit to stay out of the way of all tractor-trailers, including not traveling in the same lanes as tractor-trailers, if at all possible. A small passenger vehicle stands little chance if hit by a tractor-trailer.

Yet I concede that tractor-trailers are the backbone of American commerce, and a necessary way for goods to be moved across Georgia and across the United States. This does not take away the fact, however, that they can be extremely dangerous on Georgia roads to the motoring public of Georgia.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is considering building "trucks-only" lanes on the state's interstate highways and major roads. The Georgia DOT says it is studying putting in new lanes, not taking over existing lanes on the Interstates. DOT estimates that 940 million tons of freight was moved across Georgia highways in 2004, but in less than 30 years that number is expected to double. Interestingly, truckers questioned about the proposal think it might help them with their work by eliminating passenger vehicles in their lanes. I think it would be beneficial from a safety standpoint to Georgia citizens. Others in Georgia agree.

Continue reading "Trucks Only Lanes Not a Bad Idea in Atlanta, Georgia" »

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In my motor vehicle accident cases, more and more frequently I am seeing cases in which the at fault driver was careless and inattentive because he or she was either talking on the cell phone or text messaging using the cellphone at the time of the accident. As a mother of two and as a personal injury trial lawyer who handles alot of car wreck cases, this increasingly gives me cause for concern.

I saw today where the City of Lynn, Massachusetts wants to make it illegal for teens to drive and text message at the same time. The measure was put together by a city councilor after a run-in with a distracted teenager. The ban would apply to both talking and texting while driving, except in an emergency.

As adults become increasingly more attached to their Blackberries and Treos, I think such a law might not be such a bad idea for adults, too. Car manufacturers can help, too. Car manufacturers have technology available now, for example, that will not allow a car to operate unless the driver is deemed sober after blowing through a tube attached to the seatbelt.

DeKalb County has already imposed an add-on fine to the at-fault driver of a motor vehicle accident if that driver was using his or her cellphone at the time of the wreck. This is a step in the right direction. Scientific studies have shown a person is just as impaired a driver while using the cellphone as if he or she were intoxicated while driving, and yet there are no laws in Georgia against the use of cellphones or hand-held devices while driving. We are talking about the safety of the motoring public and of pedestrians. How many preventable deaths will have to occur on Georgia roads before the Legislature acts to protect the safety of Georgia citizens?

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