Written by: Glenn E. Jones, Esq. Georgia employers, especially those who hire and employ drivers, have an additional conduit of risk and scrutiny based on a new ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court. Georgia juries may find an employer negligent based on what is found in an employee's driving history, training history, or criminal background. The longstanding rule for negligence cases in Georgia is that a plaintiff may not recover

ATLANTA – November 6, 2020 – Hall Booth Smith, P.C. (HBS) has named six new partners as the firm elevates leaders and recognizes their outstanding service to clients. Joining the firm's partnership ranks are Abe Varner, J. Felicia LeRay, and Paul Trainor in Atlanta; Hank Pittman and J.D. Dean in Tifton; and Spencer Craig Gill in Charleston. Abe Varner's practice focuses on the defense of large hospital systems and healthcare

Written by: Duane L Cochenour, Esq. On Friday, August 7, 2020, Judge Toby Prodgers of the State Court of Cobb County Georgia ordered Cherokee Funding to produce all of its contracts, agreements and any other documents relating to the litigation funding it provided to Plaintiff Patricia Cardona in her personal injury lawsuit. Over the objections filed by counsel for Cherokee Funding, Judge Prodgers found that these documents are discoverable

Written by: Sandro Stojanovic, Esq. and Samuel Samson Sykes, II, Esq. Imagine litigating a case all the way through discovery. Because of your hard work in discovery, you were able to eliminate some of Plaintiff's claims (i.e., punitive damages claim). Once the discovery is over, you prepare a strong Motion for Partial Summary Judgment that is eventually granted by the Court. You are proud of all the hard work

Written by: James Embrey, Esq. and Asya Morgan, Esq. DEPOSITION STRATEGIES FOR ATTACKING  PLAINTIFF'S LIFE CARE PLANNER   FOREWORD So there you sit at your desk, sipping on your 3rd Diet Coke (and it's only 6:24am), dutifully defending your trucking cases.  You think you have it all figured out.  You know the value of your cases based on the strengths and weakness of each one.  You've advised your client of your thoughts

Written by: Sandro Stojanovic The law in Georgia is clear that the failure to use seat belts, or “safety belts”, is not admissible in a civil trial. O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1(d). The statute provision states as follows: “The failure of an occupant of a motor vehicle to wear a seat safety belt in any seat of a motor vehicle which has a seat safety belt or belts shall not be

Written by: Barbara Mulholland, Esq. September 10 – 15, 2018 is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Why in the world should you appreciate truck drivers you ask? Because without them, you would most likely be hungry, thirsty, bare-footed, have no cell phone, computer, furniture or make-up….and you’d be naked. Not a pretty picture. Reciting the statistics that truck drivers travel over 4.5 billion collective miles per year and contribute $738.9 billion

Written by: Sandro Stojanovic, Esq. Self-driving trucks are expected to “hit the road” in the near future. In October of 2016, Anheuser-Busch and Uber Technologies teamed up to deliver 50,000 cans of beers in a self-driving truck traveling a total of 120 miles from Fort Collins, via I-25, to Colorado Springs. While this delivery was a groundbreaking development in the autonomous driving technology, a question of liability must be examined. The

Written by: Sandro Stojanovic, Esq. Traditionally, motor carriers, as all domestic corporations, have been able to remove the venue to the county in which the corporation maintains its registered office. O.C.G.A. § 14-2-510(b)(1). The Court of Appeals has now made that right frail. In Blakemore v. Dirt Movers, Inc., 344 Ga. App. 238 (2018), the Court of Appeals held that when Plaintiff alleges facts to support venue under O.C.G.A. § 40-1-117(b),

Written by: Caitlin Dorné Mattler As of April 1, 2018, state and federal officials can now place truckers out of service for not complying with the FMCSA’s Electronic Logging Device Mandate (ELD). The ELD mandate requires commercial truck drivers to shift from using paper logs when chronicling daily and weekly record of duty status reports (RODS) to solely using electronic systems linked to their engines. Widely considered the biggest regulatory