Personal Injury

We handled countless personal injury claims arising from automobile wrecks, trucking collisions, airplane crashes, explosions, fires, electrical disasters, and numerous other types of incidents. We also had significant experience in medical malpractice cases, and toxic tort, environmental, and product liability cases.

Examples include:

• A teenager was paralyzed when her car hydroplaned on excess water diverted from a shopping center. After settling a claim against the car's manufacturer that the teenager's seat belt was defective, we tried her claims against the shopping center to a jury and achieved a record verdict.
• A man was killed when his car was hit head on by an 18-wheeler driven by an intoxicated trucker speeding through downtown Atlanta on the wrong side of I-20. We settled a lawsuit against the driver and his employer after lengthy discovery established the employer was itself negligent. 
• We represented a business executive whose wife was killed and was himself severely injured in a car wreck at a major intersection where the traffic lights were not working. We convinced a federal court jury the lights failed due to the power company’s negligence, causing the wreck.  The substantial verdict was affirmed on appeal.
• TWA Flight 800 crashed over the Atlantic shortly after taking off from JFK airport in New York City.  We represented a minor child whose father died in the crash.  His claims were settled.  
• An Army staff sergeant was injured when a grenade-type device exploded as he threw it. We sued the manufacturer and obtained substantial compensation through settlement.
• As part of the Engel tobacco litigation in Florida involving personal injury claims against cigarette companies, Bob Shields and other firm lawyers tried twenty-two Engel cases to juries, recovering substantial damages for our clients in most of them. We settled, voluntarily dismissed, or otherwise resolved dozens of other cases. 
• We represented the family of a 23 year old man killed in a car wreck caused by the drunk employee of a dance club who ran a red light on her way home from work.  According to the Fulton County Daily Report, the substantial judgment was the largest in a Georgia wrongful death case that year.
• A man in his fifties was totally disabled when his car was hit by a pizza delivery driver.  We settled his claims, providing him lifetime income benefits, paying his medical expenses, and providing substantial compensation for his pain and suffering.