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Christopher Simon Attorney at Law will be representing the family of Eddie Ko, a 23 year old University of Georgia student who was killed by drunk drivers on Steve Reynolds Boulevard around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. Eddie was driving his friends home when police allege that Soon Kwon sideswiped another drunk driver, 23-year-old Gho Lee and the car crossed the center line and hit Eddie’s Honda head on. Eddie unfortunately passed away at Grady hospital later that night as did the passenger in Kwon’s car, Se Shin. Kwon has been charged with vehicular homicide.

As we work with the Ko family to seek justice for Eddie’s senseless death, I am reminded of the advice I give to all clients; never driver after 1 a.m.. Through 13 years of litigating serious and fatal car wrecks, I have rarely seen one before midnight. The hours after the bars close are particularly deadly, as this crash illustrates. Gwinnett County jail records indicate Kwon has had a series of minor arrests with the police department and was booked for disorderly conduct as recently as may.

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When you file a lawsuit for injuries after a car accident in Georgia, you have to sue the at fault driver and not the insurance company. Juries get confused and don’t understand that there is only one trial against the defendant with the at fault driver’s insurance company standing invisibly behind them. The insurance company pays for the the at fault driver’s lawyer if they are sued after a car accident and the insurance company will pay any verdict up to the policy limits. Our trial this past week unfortunately showed that juries get confused by the way the law is in Georgia.

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Well, we are on day 3 of our trial against a State Farm insured in Clayton County State Court. The client had a wreck in 2004 and hired another lawyer who had some trouble getting the case onto a trial calendar. She was unhappy that the case had not been reached on the trial calendar after 4 years of litigation. Our firm along with Werner and Associates out of Tucker, Georgia took on the case and pushed the case to trial this week.

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Several consumers have called asking what is the law in Georgia if you are hit by a drunk driver? They have heard of punitive damages, but are not really sure what they are. Our firm sent out a demand on Monday on a DUI case that is illustrative of how these cases differ from the standard case.
The drunk driver in our case blew a .19 for his blood alcohol content after he drove the wrong way down a street and hit our client head on. The client had $24,000 in medical bills from the emergency room alone and spent 3 months in physical therapy recovering from spinal strains and from a concussion. His medical care finished up two weeks ago and we received the medical records last week. .

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The disturbing aftermath of a horrific crash near Bainbridge Georgia involving some of the firm’s clients was captured by a local news crew. We used to have a direct link up to the video but the local newsman did not like that so here is a link to their page with the video. The collision occurred at an outdated “Y type” intersection that is a deathtrap. We can only hope that the eventual wrongful death case will prompt the department of transportation to redesign the intersection.

Please understand that no attorney client relationship is created by participation in this blog.

Congratulations to the firm’s senior partner, Christopher Simon, on his selection to Jezebel Magazines “Lawyers of Distinction” issue out in November 2010.

The majority of the slip and fall inquiries we get involve Publix and Kroger supermarkets, simply because the dominate the market. In the still capture above from surveillance video in a grocery store, you will note one of our clients in mid-fall with her legs going out from under her. This fall resulted in a shattered elbow with surgery to install pins to repair the fracture. This type of fall is usually caused by spilled liquid or leaking equipment. This is a good example of the serious injuries that lead to people calling our firm. When victims call they are anxious about their rights under the law and have a variety of questions so this article will attempt to answer some of the most frequent question. We provide this information because with serious injuries, very few Georgia slip and fall cases get settled without filing a lawsuit.

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The Georgia Family Purpose Doctrine

When a parent gives their child for their use he is legally responsible if they crash and hurt someone. OCGA § 51-2-2. The family purpose doctrine in Georgia provides that “[e]very person shall be liable for torts committed by … his child … by his command or in the prosecution and within the scope of his business, whether the same are committed by negligence or voluntarily.” Clifton v. Zemurray, 223 Ga.App. 756 (1996)

Under the Family Purpose Doctrine, when the family provides a car for the use and convenience of his family, the owner is legally responsible for the negligence of the family member who crashes.

In a front page New York Times story today, a writer decried the decision of a New York Court to allow a lawsuit against a 4 year old child to be considered by a jury rather than be thrown out as a matter of law.

In the New York case, two four year olds riding on bikes with training wheels were racing each other down a Manhattan sidewalk when they knocked down an 87 year old and broke her hip. According to the article the children were being supervised by their parents.

This case is a great example of how hard it is to legislate effectively. On the one hand if you let your kid ride fast down a sidewalk and they run into an old lady and break her hip, you are clearly morally obligated to at least pay her medical bills. On the other hand is the reality that kids will be kids and it is hard to hold a parent liable for something they cannot control.

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In a recent Georgia Court of Appeals decision, Perkins v. The Val D’Aosta Co., Case No. A10A0413 (Ga. Ct. App., July 9, 2010), the Court held that where the injured person had walked across the allegedly hazardous curb several times prior to falling, typically a fatal “prior traverse”, they were still able to take their case to the jury. This decision continues the recent Court of Appeals trend chipping away at the ability of trial judges to take away the plaintiff’s constitutional right to jury trial.

Remember that as we have discussed before on our slip and fall page, the basis for holding a property owner responsible is the information imbalance. If the property owner knows the property better than you do and there is a hazard present that hurts you, then you have a case. However, if you know the area, have walked over it previously or know the conditions for any reason before you fall, you have equal knowledge. Equal Knowledge is deadly to a Georgia slip and fall case; as it should be. Think about it; do we want people suing businesses when the injured person knew about the hazard before they tripped over it? People have to take responsibility for their own lack of care, plain and simple.

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