Remembering the purposes of the Bar
Today's Wall Street Journal includes a good piece by Peggy Noonan, who was a speechwriter for President Reagan. In "Look Ahead With Stoicism - and Optimism," she makes the point that while many institutions of society have failed in the first decade of this century, we can rebuild them by taking personal responsibility and focusing on the core mission of the institutions in which we labor.
Next Saturday, my name will be placed in nomination for president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia, to serve as president in June 2011 to June 2012. The Georgia Bar clearly is not one of those "failed institutions" about which Noonan writes. It has had a long string of sound leadership and outstanding continuity of sound professional management by top staff.
But no institution is safe if its leaders forget their purpose. We can ill afford for anyone serving as president to drop the baton.
The stated purposes of the State Bar of Georgia are:
(a) to foster among the members of the bar of this State the principles of duty and service to the public;
(b) to improve the administration of justice; and
(c) to advance the science of law.
That is a broad statement of the mission of the organization, but one we should not forget. We must do the things implicit in those purposes, and we must do them well.
"Mission creep" can be the kudzu of any institution. As we review our programs and budget, we should keep the purposes of the Bar in focus. When we consider attractive, idealistic proposals that do not clearly relate to the core purposes of the Bar, we must ask whether they are appropriate uses of Bar members' mandatory dues.
Ken Shigley, an Atlanta attorney, is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. His practice focuses on representing people who are catastrophically injured, and families of those killed, primarily in commercial truck and bus accidents. Mr. Shigley also has extensive experience representing parties in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, has been listed as a "Super Lawyer" (Atlanta Magazine), in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and among the "Legal Elite" (Georgia Trend Magazine).
Mr. Shigley is currently unopposed as a candidate for president-elect, of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia, of which he has served as secretary and treasurer.
For criteria to be considered in selecting an attorney, see The Smart Consumer's Guide to Hiring a Great Lawyer.
Lawyers who directly solicit accident victims are subject to disbarment
Too often I hear of injury victims who were directly solicited by phone or in a hospital by "runners" working for lawyers in Atlanta or elsewhere in Georgia. If you or a loved on is solicited after suffering an injury, you should know that any lawyer who participates in that sort of solicitation is subject to disbarment if caught.
Georgia Rule of Professional Conduct 7.3 provides, in part, as follows:
(d) A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment as a private practitioner for the lawyer, a partner or associate through direct personal contact or through live telephone contact, with a non-lawyer who has not sought advice regarding employment of a lawyer.
Solicitations of accident victims by mail are improper within the first 30 days after the injury. Rule 7.3 also provides:
(a) A lawyer shall not send, or knowingly permit to be sent, on behalf of the lawyer, the lawyer's firm, lawyer's partner, associate, or any other lawyer affiliated with the lawyer or the lawyer's firm, a written communication to a prospective client for the purpose of obtaining professional employment if: . . .
(3) the written communication concerns an action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person to whom the communication is addressed or a relative of that person, unless the accident or disaster occurred more than 30 days prior to the mailing of the communication;
I have seen instances of even out of state firms that are not licensed to practice law in Georgia directly soliciting a widow before the spouse's body is buried. They are subject to reciprocal discipline in their home state for violation of these rules in Georgia.
The maximum penalty for a violation of Rule 7.3 is disbarment.
Would you really want your important case to be handled by a bottom feeding scumbag of a lawyer so unethical and desperate that he is willing to risk losing his license to practice law if he is caught in that solicitation?
If you receive such a solicitation, get the name and number of the caller and then immediately call the State Bar of Georgia Office of General Counsel at (404) 527-8720, and offer to assist in investigation and file a grievance for violation of Rule 7.3.
The State Bar needs to enforce the ethical rules and uphold virtue in the legal profession, but it cannot make strong disciplinary cases against such unethical lawyers without evidence required to support a prosecution.
Ken Shigley, an Atlanta attorney, launched the first law firm web site in Georgia in 1996, and the second lawyer blog in the state. He is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. His practice focuses on representing people who are catastrophically injured, and families of those killed, primarily in commercial trucking and bus accidents. Mr. Shigley also has extensive experience representing parties in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, has been listed as a "Super Lawyer" (Atlanta Magazine), in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and among the "Legal Elite" (Georgia Trend Magazine).
Mr. Shigley is currently unopposed as a candidate for president-elect, of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia, of which he has served as secretary and treasurer.
For criteria to be considered in selecting an attorney, see The Smart Consumer's Guide to Hiring a Great Lawyer.
Georgia Personal Injury Practice book manuscript completed
This morning at 8:58 AM, I completed writing my book, Georgia Personal Injury Practice. It's been like a mouse giving birth to an elephant.
This morning I will email the chapters to my editor at West Publishing, a division of Thomson Reuters. Undoubtedly there will be much work in the editing process. But if all goes according to plan, sometime before summer, it should be published.
It is finished.
Merry Christmas!
Ken Shigley, an Atlanta attorney, launched the first law firm web site in Georgia in 1996, and the second lawyer blog in the state. He is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. His practice focuses on representing people who are catastrophically injured, and families of those killed, primarily in commercial trucking and bus accidents. Mr. Shigley also has extensive experience representing parties in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, has been listed as a "Super Lawyer" (Atlanta Magazine), in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and among the "Legal Elite" (Georgia Trend Magazine).
Mr. Shigley is currently unopposed as a candidate for president-elect, of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia, of which he has served as secretary and treasurer.
For criteria to be considered in selecting an attorney, see The Smart Consumer's Guide to Hiring a Great Lawyer.
Ford Explorer rollover after tire failure kills two on I-20 in metro Atlanta
Sunday afternoon on I-20 near Six Flags Over Georgia, two people were killed when tire failure led to a rollover of a Ford Explorer. I learned of it not as an Atlanta personal injury, wrongful death an products liability attorney, but because my mom was stuck in the traffic on her way to accompany wife wife to a concert at our church.
The problem with Ford Explorers rolling over after tire failure is well known. I have seen video of test track exercises demonstrating how easily the Explorer rolls over in certain reaction maneuvers, and that if the Explorer wheelbase were widened by four inches it would not roll over.
Of course, I don't know the details of why this particular incident occurred. We have turned down Explorer rollover cases after investigating the details of specific incidents. While the answers regarding this tragedy are not yet known, the questions about Explorer handling characteristics are all too well known.
Ken Shigley, an Atlanta attorney, launched the first law firm web site in Georgia in 1996, and the second lawyer blog in the state. He is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. His practice focuses on representing people who are catastrophically injured, and families of those killed, primarily in commercial trucking and bus accidents. Mr. Shigley also has extensive experience representing parties in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, has been listed as a "Super Lawyer" (Atlanta Magazine), in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and among the "Legal Elite" (Georgia Trend Magazine).
Mr. Shigley is currently unopposed as a candidate for president-elect, of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia, of which he has served as secretary and treasurer.
For criteria to be considered in selecting an attorney, see The Smart Consumer's Guide to Hiring a Great Lawyer.
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