Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog

If my tree falls and hits my neighbor’s house, am I responsible in Georgia? Let’s assume you have been eyeballing that tree in your front yard for a month now and you are beginning to suspect that it is rotting. Have you stayed up at night worrying about it hurting someone or something and wondering what your legal responsibilities are?

In Georgia, the owner of a tree is liable for injuries from a falling tree only if he knew or reasonably should have known the tree was diseased, decayed or otherwise constituted a dangerous condition. In other words, if you did not have a reason to know it was diseased (full leaves, looks fine) then it is not your fault if something happens. If you should have known, you had better have good homeowner’s insurance coverage.

One Court put it this way: “A landowner who knows that a tree on his property is decayed and may fall and damage the property of an adjoining landowner is under a duty to eliminate the danger.” But a landowner does not have a duty to consistently and constantly check all trees on his property for nonvisible rot; ‘the manifestation of decay must be visible, apparent, and patent.’” Cornett v. Agee, 143 Ga.App. 55, 57 (1977).

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With the recent snow and ice on the roads in Georgia, there have been numerous multi-vehicle crashes including one involving 27 cars. The question arises; who is going to pay for all the property damage and injury claims? I have already been asked this questions several times so we will review the issue today. We will break the topic into two parts; first addressing normal crashes involving ice and black ice in Georgia and second, addressing multi-vehicle collisions.

If you are involved in a car accident in Georgia and ice played a role, just accept the fact that it will be an ugly process. A typical scenario with the recent snow in Atlanta involves one car hitting a patch of black ice and going into a spin or suddenly coming out of their lane and causing a crash. In many of the these situations, the drivers insurance company may refuse to pay for your property damage, claiming that the ice was an “act of God” for which their insured cannot be blamed. To this I say “B.S.” You have to live in a cave not to know that its snowing and sub zero out and that ice is on the roadways. When that happens you have to drive with exceptional care. The Georgia law on driving with ice on the road is OCGA § 40-6-180 which says in part that you have to drive at a speed that is safe for conditions.

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I frequently am the go to resource for friends wondering about certain aspects of the law, including the new Georgia Super Speeder law. What does it really mean? What do you need to know?

1. Purdue pushed the law to raise money; over $20 million by most estimates.
2. Studies show that speeding is not the cause in most accidents, it is crappy driving.
3. The Georgia Super Speeder fine is an additional $200.00 fine on top of the local ticket.
4. If you go over 75mph on a two lane country road, you will pay it.
5. If you go 85mph or over on an expressway, you will pay it.

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As part of our continuing series on what a Georgia 18 wheeler accident lawyer does, today we will look at a video reconstruction of the consequences when a passenger car going 65 strikes a tractor trailer going 35 in the rear. The driver of the passenger car claimed that the tractor trailer truck simply came into his lane.

The video is interesting but the point is that this crash seemed like the truck driver’s fault until the collision reconstructionist measured the skid marks. laser sited the gouge mark in the road, measured the crush damage to the vehicles and compared the crush damage to historical data on similar vehicles.

The damage to the front left of the passenger car was not consistent with a side impact and when the impact velocity was finally known, the math was fed into a computer and this simulation was created to show the jury exactly how the car ended up the way it did.

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When you are in a car accident in Georgia and your car is totaled, if you are “upside down” on your loan you may have to write a big check. As part of my job, I teach my clients that Georgia law provides that a party that damages or destroys property is only responsible for the fair market value of the thing destroyed.

For example: if you own a Ford Fusion and it has a market value of $10,000.00 but you owe $11,000.00 and it is totaled in a car accident in Georgia, the other driver and his insurance company only legally owe you $10,000.00. The gap is $1,000.00 and that comes out of your pocket. The concept is that you were $1,000.00 in the hole while you drove around, it just was not a realized loss yet.

So how do you protect yourself? You buy gap insurance. You can get it through the financing bank or a dealership. It will step in and pay for the gap between the two. Gap coverage applies regardless of whether you caused the crash and your car insurance is paying to total it or if another driver totaled the car.

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Thank you to everyone that put in their edits and comments on the cover. The Georgia Guide to Buying Car Insurance and Handling Car Accident Claims has gone to press and will be up for sale on Amazon just after the New Year! I put a lot of work into this guide and I think it will really help out Georgia Consumers. Continue reading

As an car accident lawyer and a former tractor trailer insurance defense lawyer, I have worked around fatality car accidents for most of my professional life. I have arrived at crash scenes with bodies being removed in pieces and reviewed photos that no one should ever have to see. A lawyer knows that working on these cases and getting to know the families profoundly affects them professionally, but these experiences can also affect the lawyer’s driving.There was a great article in the December 2009 issue of Men’s Health called Dead Man Driving regarding collisions and I thought I would discuss their points and add to it my own impressions.

I view safe driving as 40% your actual driving skill, 40% your decisions on what and when to drive and 20% blind luck. There is nothing we can do about blind luck so we will focus on the other two categories.

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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.