Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog

I am preparing to file suit in a case involving a complex analysis of the proper parties to bring the case. Georgia has a complicated set of statutes that lay out the family’s rights after a wrongful death. There are two claims under Georgia wrongful death law; the claims by the remaining family members for the value of the life lost and the claim by estate of the victim. These are two completely separate claims although the claim for the value of the life lost tends to be the one focused on the most by juries.

Typically the right to file the suit for the wrongful death follows a strict statutory order:

1) If there is only a spouse, they hold the claim. see O.C.G.A. §51-4-2
2) If there is a spouse and children, then the spouse brings the claim but shares the proceeds equally with the children.
3) If there is no spouse, it is held equally by any children.
4) If none of the above, then the claim is held by the parents of the victim. O.C.G.A. §19-7-1
5) If there is none of the above, it gets complicated.

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We recently got a call from a client who had been hit from behind by a tractor trailer after midnight on the highway. His truck was knocked into a ditch and he sustained multiple fractures that required surgery. That would seem like an open and shut case right? Wrong, and that is where an experienced Georgia tractor trailer accident lawyer can make a world of difference.

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The Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s Office released a directive last December to all of the insurance companies reminding them that when evaluating Diminution in Value, they cannot simply cite the Mabry v. State Farm decision and declare that their formula is gospel. The directive can be found by clicking here.

I frequently have clients ask me how to handle their diminished value claims and have even shot a video on how to handle diminution in value claims in Georgia. The most frequent response that consumers get from the insurers is “sorry but we use the State approved formula” and that is a corruption of the law. This directive makes it clear that each case is different and the Insurance Commissioner has not endorsed any particular diminution formula. If you are arguing with the insurance company and they cite the formula from the Mabry case, be sure to email them this directive.

Many of our client’s receive notice of a Georgia Medical Lien soon after they are discharged from the emergency room and in previous articles, we have documented what your rights are. Some clients move or keep less than perfect paper records and as they near settlement of their claim through their lawyer, they worry that after settlement, they will be sued by a hospital or a doctor for an unpaid bill. Thankfully, there is a free public database to search for medical liens. You should know that experience has proven this database is not perfect and you should still physically go to the Superior Court Clerk’s Office where you live to be 100% sure. Nonetheless, this resource is a great place to start. Here is the link to the free Georgia Medical Lien database.

My family was in a rear-end collision on I-85 on the way home from Virginia last weekend. We were struck by a driver who did not notice that there was construction ahead and two lanes were merging into one. Thankfully we are all “ok” but this crash illustrates one of the most dangerous road operations around. Continue reading

You can fire your Georgia lawyer at any time. After an injury you may hire what you think is the best lawyer in Atlanta and you later come to find out they are a blockhead. So, the question is “can I fire my car accident lawyer?” Is the party over for your lousy lawyer?

As the client, you have a great deal of power, limited only by the contract you sign. For a typical injury lawyer, their contract will provide that they recover a percentage of the the amount they get for you. This is a contingency fee contract. In the contract, it will outline what happens if you fire the firm. Georgia law provides that if you fire the injury lawyer before an offer is made on the case, you owe them for the actual time they put into the case, quantum meruit, as well as any expenses they put up on your behalf. In other words, you have to pay for the their time on the case. If there is already an offer on the table, most contingency contracts provide that the lawyer is entitled to their percentage of the offer on the table. The idea here is that it is not fair to use the lawyer to get the offer and then turn around and try to screw them.

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More than a year after the injury and months of litigation, we mediated and settled a Georgia car accident case for a client yesterday and the client commented to me, “I had no idea it would take this long to settle my case.” While it used to be the exception that a case would go into litigation, it is becoming more and more common due to changing insurance company tactics. The most frequently cited statistics show that 90% of cases settle before trial, but that does not mean they do not get litigated. Many clients want to know “how long will it take to settle my case in Georgia?” Lets go through the steps of a injury case.

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In a stunning decision, the Georgia Supreme Court in Beneke v. Parker held today that for injury cases stemming from the commission of a crime including traffic violations, the statute of limitations is tolled from the date of the accident until the traffic citation is resolved.

Typically, a victim only has two years from the date of the car accident to file suit. The Georgia statute of limitations on injury claims is extremely strict, with only rare exceptions. This ruling is a drastic deviation.

This case stemmed from a car accident where the lawyers filed the suit more than two years after the Georgia statute of limitations on injury cases. The trial judge threw the case out but now the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that the two years is extended by the same amount of time as passed between the commission of the crime and the resolution of the ticket.

When I worked for insurance companies, I was the lawyer that the insurance carrier would hire to defend the policy holder who had been sued and even though I practice exclusively on the plaintiff’s side now, I still field phone calls from panicked consumers. If you have been contacted by a person claiming injury in a car accident in Georgia or if you have been sued, you should follow these five guidelines.

1) Always contact your car insurance company immediately if there was any damage at all. You do not want to give them an excuse not to defend and indemnify you.

2) All car insurance policies, even a minimum limits $25,000.00 policy, will provide you with a free lawyer in the event you are sued .

I had a South Carolina lawyer telephone my office tonight with a question about the Georgia statute of limitations. There were confused under the wording of the statute as to whether you had until the day after the second anniversary of the injury or on the anniversary. As most trial lawyers know, the statute of limitations on personal injury claims runs on the second anniversary of the harm. “Actions for injuries to the person shall be brought within two years after the right of action accrues….” O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. It used to be under the old OCGA § 1-3-1(d)(3), that the statute ran on the day before the second anniversary date but under the revised statute, it was changed to read as follows…

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