Auto, truck & boating accidents

Several of our attorneys represented insurance companies earlier in their careers, before moving to plaintiff-side work. That background shapes how we negotiate with insurers on a client’s behalf, in car, truck, and motorcycle claims alike.

This page covers the case types we handle most often, organized by vehicle type, by cause, and, for commercial trucking, by the federal regulations that set the standard a driver and carrier have to meet. A crash with a fully loaded tractor-trailer is a different matter from a fender-bender: multiple companies, drivers, and insurance policies can be involved, and the stakes tend to be higher.

Initial consultation is free. Personal injury matters are handled on a contingency basis: you owe no attorney fee unless we recover for you.

Georgia law requires all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, regardless of age or riding experience. Wearing an approved helmet also matters to a claim: failing to do so can give a defendant grounds to argue that a rider contributed to a head injury.

Motorcyclists must also wear eye protection when the motorcycle has no windscreen, use a headlight at all times, and avoid lane-splitting. As with any collision, liability turns on the specific facts: road and weather conditions, vehicle maintenance, speed, and whether a driver was impaired or fatigued. The firm represents motorcyclists and their families in claims against negligent drivers, including where a defendant disputes fault despite clear evidence.

Bicyclists have little physical protection, so even a lower-speed collision can cause serious injury: traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, broken bones, and wrongful death are common outcomes. Most bicycle accidents trace back to a driver’s failure to yield the right of way, failure to stop at a light or sign, failure to stop before turning right on red, speeding, or driving under the influence.

The police report on a bicycle accident is often incomplete. The firm looks beyond it, at road design, signal timing, and whether a defective product contributed to the crash, to build a full picture of what happened and who is responsible.

Drivers owe pedestrians the same duty of reasonable care they owe other drivers, and a brief distraction (a phone, or something else in the car) is enough to keep a driver from noticing someone in the road in time to stop. Common causes include failure to yield the right of way, running a light or stop sign, turning right on red without stopping first, failure to stop at a crosswalk, and speeding, especially in residential areas.

All-terrain vehicles offer riders little physical protection, and a rollover or collision can cause catastrophic injury.

The firm evaluates whether the vehicle, its maintenance, or another party’s conduct contributed to a crash, and pursues compensation for medical costs, rehabilitation, lost income, and pain and suffering.

Georgia’s lakes and coastal waters see heavy recreational traffic, and a collision, a grounding, or a fall aboard can cause serious injury far from immediate medical help. Alcohol, inexperience, overloading, and failed safety equipment are recurring factors.

These claims can reach the operator, the owner of the vessel, and sometimes a rental or charter operator, and they can turn on state boating law rather than the rules of the road. The firm has recovered for a client injured in a boating incident; the result is listed below.

Bus drivers and bus companies are legally recognized as common carriers, which means they owe passengers a higher duty of care than the driver of an ordinary car. That standard is even higher for school bus drivers, given the special status the law affords children in their care.

Despite that standard, some bus drivers are inadequately trained or drive unsafely, and many buses are not equipped with seatbelts or other restraints, which can make injuries from a bus accident more severe. Local governments and transit or school-bus companies typically defend their drivers vigorously, and we conduct our own investigation rather than relying on the initial accident report.

Train operators and railroad employees must maintain their equipment and follow safety regulations; when defective equipment, such as a non-functioning crossing gate, contributes to a crash, the railroad company can be held liable alongside the operator.

Large commercial vehicles are inherently more dangerous to other traffic than passenger cars. Like any motor vehicle accident, a trucking accident can be caused by negligence, made more likely by the long hours truck drivers spend on the road, or by driving under the influence. A crash can also result from a defective product in the vehicle.

Because trucks are less maneuverable and have a higher center of gravity than cars, a truck can tip over or spill its cargo. Trucks’ large blind spots mean they can strike other vehicles while changing lanes. A fully loaded tractor-trailer can weigh more than 40 tons, compared with a little over 2 tons for the average car: roughly 20 times the force in a collision, which is why injuries in truck crashes tend to be more severe than in a crash between two cars.

The firm holds trucking companies, drivers, and their insurers accountable for negligence and wrongful conduct, including:

• Truck driver fatigue
• Jackknife and rollover
• Brake or tire failure
• Other defective-product failure
• Overloading and cargo spills
• Inadequate safety flagging
• Reckless or drunk driving
• Poorly trained drivers

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates commercial traffic: it sets commercial licensing standards, establishes safety rules, and tracks the safety record of commercial transit companies. Its resources aren’t enough to monitor every truck on the road, but its standards provide the basis for a lawsuit when a vehicle’s operator, owner, or manufacturer fails to meet them.

Effective representation in a trucking case requires knowing the FMCSA’s standards as well as Georgia law, since the regulations governing commercial vehicle safety change regularly.

Commercial vehicles aren’t only large trucks. Cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, buses, single-unit trucks, and taxicabs can all count as commercial vehicles when they’re used for delivery or other business purposes, and different safety regulations apply to them than apply to a private driver. In these cases, a company, rather than only the individual driver, can be responsible for the negligence that caused a crash.

The firm examines police reports, driver logbooks, safety regulations, maintenance records, and witness testimony in commercial-vehicle cases, and pursues compensation for medical costs, lost wages and opportunity, vocational rehabilitation, pain and suffering, disability, and wrongful death.

Rear-end collisions are the most common type of auto accident, and driver distraction is the leading cause. Most rear-end accidents happen at relatively low speed and cause property damage rather than catastrophic injury, but that doesn’t mean the injuries are minor.

Whiplash is a soft-tissue neck injury commonly associated with rear-end collisions, and can include damage to joints, discs, ligaments, muscles, and nerve roots. Some clients also experience memory or concentration problems, irritability, trouble sleeping, fatigue, or depression following the injury. The firm represents clients whose whiplash and other injuries went on to affect their ability to work and live normally, even where the initial impact looked minor.

“Driving under the influence” covers more than alcohol; it also includes illegal drugs and prescription or over-the-counter medications that warn against driving. Alcohol and drugs impair the judgment and motor skills a driver needs to operate a vehicle safely, and a driver who causes a crash while impaired is treated as negligent as a matter of law.

The firm represents people injured by drunk or otherwise impaired drivers, and files wrongful-death claims on behalf of families who have lost a loved one to an impaired-driving crash. Where the facts support it, a claim may also reach the establishment that served the impaired driver: see dram shop liability, below.

Dram shop liability holds bars, restaurants, liquor stores, and other establishments responsible when they serve alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron who then causes an accident. The same principle can apply to a social host serving guests at a private party.

A dram shop claim requires more than proof that the driver was over the legal limit; it requires showing that the server knew, or should have known, the person was intoxicated when they were served. The firm takes witness statements and depositions early to preserve that evidence before it disappears.

Georgia law bans text messaging while driving for all drivers, and bans cell phone use of any kind for drivers under 18 and for school bus drivers. Distraction covers more than phones: eating, reading a map, or talking with passengers can all pull a driver’s attention from the road. Phone use is the cause the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration flags most often, and researchers have found that drivers using a phone react more slowly than drivers at the legal alcohol limit.

The firm investigates distracted-driving claims through police reports, phone records, and other evidence, and holds the responsible driver accountable for medical costs, lost income, and pain and suffering.

Georgia law requires every driver involved in an accident to remain at the scene until their obligations there are discharged. Get medical attention for anyone injured and call the police so they can investigate and file a report; exchange name, license, and insurance information with the other driver and get contact information for any witnesses. Provide the information the law requires, but avoid volunteering additional details or an opinion about fault before speaking with a lawyer.

Injuries from a crash sometimes don’t show up for days. See a doctor even if you feel fine at the scene, and keep records of any care you receive; they matter later, whether the case settles or goes to trial.

Accident reconstruction uses witness testimony and physical evidence, including skid marks and impact damage, to determine how a crash happened and who was at fault. It matters most when liability isn’t obvious, or when a client has been wrongly blamed for causing the accident. In a trucking case, the investigation also reaches driver logbooks, maintenance records, and the carrier’s compliance with federal safety rules.

Insurance companies conduct their own investigations, and they have a financial interest in finding any basis to reduce or deny a claim. The firm conducts an independent investigation, working with accident-reconstruction specialists when the facts call for it, to build a case that holds up under scrutiny.

Liability for a car accident is based on negligence: a driver’s failure to exercise reasonable care, whether through speeding, distraction, impairment, or a traffic-law violation. Liability isn’t always limited to the drivers involved: depending on the facts, a vehicle manufacturer, a government entity responsible for road maintenance or signage, or an employer whose driver was working at the time of the crash can also be held responsible.

In a truck crash, more parties can be liable still: the truck driver, the trucking company, the vehicle’s owner, maintenance personnel, and the manufacturer of a defective part, among them. Determining who is at fault, and building the record to prove it, is often the central task in these cases. The firm draws on police reports, driver and vehicle records, trucking regulations, and, where needed, outside investigators and experts.

Insurance companies routinely open with a low settlement offer, and the adjusters, lawyers, and medical reviewers on the other side are working from the start to minimize what they pay. Document how the accident happened, contact your insurer promptly and accurately, keep a written record of every conversation, and check whether more than one policy might apply. Talk to a lawyer before you accept a settlement offer or sign a release.

The firm has represented auto and trucking accident clients since 1997 and knows how insurers evaluate and resist these claims.

Georgia law requires every driver to carry insurance, but some drivers ignore that requirement, and others carry only the state’s minimum coverage, which is often too little to cover a serious crash. When the at-fault driver has no insurance, or not enough, a client may still be able to recover under their own policy’s uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

Pursuing that coverage means making a claim against your own insurer, and those claims are sometimes delayed, underpaid, or wrongly denied. The firm can evaluate what coverage may apply to a given accident.

The firm has represented clients with the full range of auto and truck accident injuries, including:

• Traumatic brain injury
• Whiplash and other neck injuries
• Spinal cord injury and paralysis
• Burn injury
• Amputation
• Broken bones
• Wrongful death

The medical picture, today’s treatment and its long-term cost, drives the value of a claim. The firm works with treating physicians to document both.

When another person’s negligence contributed to a family member’s death, Georgia law allows a wrongful-death claim. Depending on the facts, a family may recover for medical and funeral costs, lost wages and benefits, loss of companionship, and the psychological toll of the loss. See our wrongful death page for how we approach these claims.

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