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Rogers and Goldberg said their specialty is handling injuries from truck accidents. They also represent plaintiffs in other vehicle accidents, medical malpractice cases and other catastrophic personal injury cases. Fried focused his practice on auto products liability cases until branching out into trucking and other catastrophic injury suits.

Rogers, 41, said that he and Fried, 42, have been close friends for some time. “From a practical standpoint, we’ve been in each other’s practices
for years. We’ve just never been official about it,” he said.

Rogers said he and Goldberg have competed with Fried for commercial vehicle cases since Fried started taking them. “Time and time again [prospective clients] were leaving his office to interview us and vice versa,” said Rogers.

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The details of the settlement were made public because of settlement requirements in South Carolina that differ from Georgia, where lawyers can simply withdraw lawsuits by saying they’ve been resolved and keep settlement terms confidential. In South Carolina, withdrawal of a wrongful death case must be approved by the courts, according to Fried. “South Carolina makes it very difficult to have confidential settlements because the court approvals are required,” Fried said.

Because the case involved multiple plaintiffs and minor children, several court orders were required. Judge J. Michelle Childs of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina approved the settlement in June. “It took forever to get the court to approve the settlement,” said Fried, who noted the parties reached an agreement in April.

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Johnathan Battle, 24, was arrested in East Point on Jan. 6, 2008, “while attempting with others to remove custom wheels from an automobile,”
according to court filings.

“He rebuilt old cars,” said attorney Michael L. Goldberg of Fried Rogers Goldberg. “He thought some boys had stolen some parts from him and
had gone to get them back. They saw him and called the police and had him locked up.”

When Battle’s mother, Millicent Takyi, arrived to bond him out, her son was “confused and disoriented, obviously beat up,” said Goldberg. Takyi immediately took her son to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for multiple fractures and swelling of the brain, said Goldberg. Battle lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness, said Goldberg, dying 11 days later.

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In court filings, MARTA said that the only reported incident on July 11, 2003, involved the stopped escalator being used as a stairway upon which “an elderly gentleman became dizzy and fell,” causing “a domino effect which caused the individuals on the escalator to run off.”

“MARTA claimed the accident never happened,” said lead plaintiff’s attorney Michael L. Goldberg of Fried Rogers Goldberg, describing the version his client told. “Essentially, she was on that 75-foot escalator at the Peachtree Center station, shopping for her business at the Apparel Mart, and about one-third of the way down, the escalator starting speeding up,” said Goldberg.

“Everybody star ted yelling and screaming, the lady behind her gave her baby to a big man behind her to hold, then a MARTA security guard came up and hit the emergency stop,” said Goldberg. Goldberg’s client, Cynthia McCarty, who was in Atlanta shopping for the country club she manages in Lakeland, Fla., “hit the floor running,” the attorney said.

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Now, says one of winning attorneys, the question is whether the defendant’s insurer, State Farm, will make good on the judgment, or face a “bad faith” action to force it to pay since it failed to respond to a policy-limit demand within the required time period.

“We’re in negotiations with State Farm right now,” said Michael L. Goldberg of Fried Rogers Goldberg, who tried the plaintiffs’ case with partner and lead counsel Joseph A. Fried on behalf of Joseph and Carolyn Gargiulo and another minor child injured in the crash.

Goldberg said he believes there is a “pretty high likelihood” the insurer will settle. An attorney who has followed the case for State Farm did not respond to requests for comment, but Goldberg said that in pre-trial discussions the insurer felt the case should have a $3 million to $4 million value.

The case was particularly tragic, said Goldberg, because two children in the car driven by the defendant, Connecticut resident Bellande Domercant, also were killed in the wreck, and Domercant remains devastated by its outcome.

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The Gary Christy Memorial Trial Skills Clinic was held June 23 through June 26 at the law school, drawing 48 young lawyers for four days of intensive practice, critiques and mentoring by 27 experienced attorneys from around the state. Many of the mentors knew and worked with Gary C. Christy, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 52 after complications from surgery. The young lawyers who didn’t know Christy learned about him along with their trial training.

“Gary Christy was a spellbinding storyteller,” said Stephen J. Harper, director of programs for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia and chairman of the clinic. “I’ve seen him take the notes out of a student’s hand and say, ‘Now, talk to the witness and we’ll get through this.’” Even in closing arguments for mock civil trials, Christy never failed to deliver “goose bumps,” Harper said.

“Gary Christy believed that it’s part of our duty to help other lawyers become good. You don’t get that in law school,” said Joseph A. Fried of Fried Rogers Goldberg, one of the clinic’s mentors.

“I don’t think anyone ever had a superficial conversation with Gary,” said another mentor, Michael S. Carlson, deputy chief assistant district attorney for the gang prosecution unit in DeKalb County. “His hopefulness about
people in general helped his practice and inspired his students.”

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I was recently asked about the validity of “driver exclusion” in a liability insurance policy. Many times substandard auto insurers will issue a policy to an individual but will specifically exclude certain people from driving the vehicle, such as a wife or child. Unfortunately, these exclusions are valid.

If the person who caused the wreck and injures someone is a specifically excluded driver, there will be no liability insurance available to the injured party, or “claimant.” The claimant must look to his own uninsured motorist coverage to provide coverage for the loss.

If the claimant’s insurance carrier (the uninsured motorist carrier) does not agree that the excluded driver has no coverage, then the claimant has to file suit against the excluded driver and serve the uninsured motorist carrier. Once the liability insurer refuses to provide a defense to the excluded driver, the uninsured motorist carrier will have no choice but to step in and defend the excluded driver and to admit that the driver is uninsured or risk a default judgment. With the help of an attorney, filing that claim can allow the claimant to ultimately receive coverage and compensation from his or her own uninsured motorist policy.

The Million Dollar Advocates Forum is recognized as one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the United States. Membership is  limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts, awards and settlements. The organization was founded in 1993 and there are approximately 4000 members located throughout the country. Fewer than 1% of U.S. lawyers are members. Forum membership acknowledges excellence in advocacy, and provides members with a national network of experienced colleagues for professional referral and information exchange in major cases. Members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum must have acted as principal counsel in at least one case in which their client has received a verdict, award or settlement in the amount of one million dollars or more.

Members of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum must be Life Members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and must have acted as principal counsel in at least one case which has resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict, award or settlement. Mr. Fried has been approved for membership in both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi- Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

Joseph A Fried is a graduate of University of Georgia School of Law. His national practice focuses on major injury (spinal, brain and burn injuries, severe pain  syndromes), disability and wrongful death, with strong emphasis on truck collision cases.

Read the original press release here.