Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog

With all of the snow and ice in Atlanta, Georgia over the last few days, many consumers have called asking about who is responsible when they are involved in car accidents due to ice. The answer is rooted in common sense and codified in OCGA § 40-6-180.

Under the Law, a driver may not drive their “vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard for the actual and potential hazards then existing. Consistently with the foregoing, every person shall drive at a reasonable and prudent speed… when special hazards exist with respect to pedestrians or other traffic or by reason of weather or highway conditions.”

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Georgia wrongful death laws are very specific about which family member controls the statutory death claim. I received a call from a daughter in Alaska asking about the death of her mother in a car accident and wondering whether the step-father controlled the case or whether she and her brother took priority on the claim. Given that we only practice in the South, I advised her to contact a wrongful death lawyer in Alaska but the question is an important one. This article will address which family member controls the wrongful death claim in Georgia.

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Many Georgia parents think they are not responsible for the actions of their children once they are over 18 or 21, but that is not necessarily the case. Under the Georgia Family Purpose Doctrine, the test is whether the child “was using the car for a purpose for which the parent provided it with the permission of the parent either expressed or implied.”
Hicks v. Newman, 283 Ga. App. 352, 353 (2007).

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The Bluffton University bus crash that killed seven here in Atlanta has been litigated heavily in Georgia and in Ohio. The injury lawyers here in Georgia representing the families knew immediately that liability and damages would not be the areas where good lawyering would be needed; it was in the area of insurance coverage litigation.

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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.