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There’s a new commercial out for Burger King’s Veggie Burger. The ad shows people enthusiastically involved in a taste test. They are serving the likes of a delicious burger. As they are eating away, the announcer informs them they are eating a meatless burger, a veggie burger indeed. The folks in this taste test are all astonished. How can that be, they exclaim. We had no idea our burger was meatless.

Tom Hanks plays the part of Mr. Rogers and does a great job of it. What we see is a very kind, gentle man, who respects children, gives them hope and helps them to be forgiving and understanding of others around them. These qualities are marvelous but are they appropriate for a lawyer in a system of law that is very argumentative, contentious and hostile?

In early December 2017, my old website designer, The Veugler Group, asked me if I would like to place a video on my website. I thought about it then I read some other articles about the advantages of a video and decided to give it a try.

Why do police take general reports? The most brutal answer is because no one will remember the details in two days, much less two years and they will argue it constantly: but it is also because society needs a third party who should be an impartial fact evaluator. “Should” is emphasized. We are assuming the officer/deputy has sufficient training to determine what evidence plays into the case. We are also assuming the officer/deputy has no bias or stereotype towards the parties involved OR they do but recognize it and adjust accordingly.

My goodness!... the real question is how much time do I need spend with my clients to prepare them for deposition testimony? A deposition is one of the most important events in a client’s legal case. Most lawyers schedule their clients to come in just about thirty minutes before their scheduled deposition to prepare them. How wrong this is!

Are we tired yet of all the allegations of sexual misconduct by our leaders? The avalanche will be coming soon. The past few months have been dominated by an endless parade of revelations about sexual misconduct of powerful men. From Hollywood to New York, and from Minnesota to Alabama and just about everywhere else in the country the depths of fallen human nature can sink to have been laid bare to all of us to see. However, this should not be surprising to us. What we must not do is to allow ourselves to be partisan in our righteous indignation. Whether the person belongs to a particular political party, it does not matter.

While there is a vast difference between these two conditions, many people do experience symptoms of depression as a result of an automobile accident. There is temporary memory loss and changes in their personality. Irritability, sensitivity to noise, forgetfulness nausea are among the top symptoms of a concussion.

I recently received a newsletter from Tuck, Advancing Better Sleep. This might be because I had sleep apnea in the past. The article is dated April 2017 and the statistics are rather frightening as cited by this magazine: “Drowsy driving is a wide spread issue spread among the drivers in the US”. “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drowsy driving led to roughly 72,000 accidents, 44,000 injuries and 800 deaths in 2013 alone.”

I received a 2nd Award of benefits from the Appellate Division at the State Board of Worker’s Compensation, granting one year of back pay benefits and two years of full medical care to a wonderful Bosnian client that worked for Wall Mart for 19 years. The reason this Award/decision is so special to me is because this sweet lady speaks very little English, and for the past 19 years she did nothing but hard labor at Wal Mart. She never had a specific injury but her back continued to get worse every year.

On August 24, 2019, a Court of Appeal Judge, Stephen Goss committed suicide. In 2018 Judge William G. Johnson, a judge in the Griffin Municipal Circuit, fatally shot himself. A number of years ago, Court of Appeals Judge John Kelly Quillia committed suicide. Many observers believe that it is very difficult for lawyers and judges to speak out and get help. There seems to be a certain stigma associated with mental health issues and treatment. Depression seems to be the source of and the beginning of burn out, alcoholism, drug abuse and ultimate suicide.

From time to time I write about a thought provoking sermon given by my Pastor, Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church. His sermon, given on the first Sunday in January of 2020, was timely and quite inspirational. It was much more than a sermon on New Year’s Resolutions. It was all about commitment.

I represented a gentleman who was a cook in a large School district. He sustained a serious low back injury in November of 2017. The school district said they were not going to consider the workers’ compensation because when the employer took my client to the ER, the employer said to the triage nurse “we all agree this is not a workers’ compensation injury”. My client was taken to the hospital and provided medical treatment and did not think twice about the comment.

One of the most difficult things to do is to measure someone’s degree of disability or impairment. There is a measurable test that has developed over the last 10 years in an effort to accomplish this objective. The test is called a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE).

Sometimes I take a new client whose case seems to be complicated and it presents more than the usual challenges or litigation. My office staff asks me why do I do so?

A Longtime and loyal client just referred a friend of his to me for representation in a work-related injury case. This gentleman called my office and was interviewed by one of my paralegals who really “knows her stuff”. The potential client presented a good case and we could certainly help him. B...

If you have a Medicare card or will likely be receiving one within the next 2 ½ years (30 months) then when you settle your workers' compensation case or liability claim, it is safe to say you will need to have an MSA. A Medicare card comes to you once you are granted Social Security Disability I...

A deposition is a formal event and is part of almost every litigated case in a Workers' Compensation Claim and in automobile injury cases.  The deposition gives the insurance company, through their lawyers, a set time when the insurance lawyer may obtain sworn testimony from the injured worker or...

Whether you have an automobile accident case or a job injury case and the insurance folks want to have a settlement mediation it is usually a good thing. Timing is everything. It is not a good thing to engage in a settlement mediation to settle your claim if you are still under medical care. Th...

The words “pain and suffering” do not appear in the law of workers' compensation. These words came from tort law, the common law that began in England and that we in the USA adopted. Pain and suffering does apply in automobile negligence cases, medical malpractice cases, slip and fall cases, pr...

The function of the panel of doctors is to give the injured worker “guidance” after the injury. So long as the panel is posted where the employees can see it, the employee must utilize one of these doctors for treatment of their job injury. The worker may make one change of doctors from the poste...

Fire fighters, security personnel and policemen all are quite susceptible to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Their jobs place them within harm's way every day. Many of these great people do not handle PTSD well. A PTSD claim in Georgia will go nowhere. Georgia does not recognize PTSD as ...

In writing a few days ago I began to address the opioid crisis as seen by an insurance company nurse. This nurse had a few suggestions as to how to fight this crisis. I admit readily that there is a crisis in America over usage of opioids. What I do not like is the heavy-handedness of the insuran...

From time to time I read articles from insurance company friendly publications about their views on various topics. It is always good to examine how the “other side” thinks. In August 2019, I read an article on opioid addictions written by a company nurse. She gave eight (8) ways to help the in...

Age makes a big difference in qualifying for SSDIB. Those who apply and are under 50 years old will have a much tougher standard to meet. If you are deemed capable of sedentary work (sit down for the majority of the work day with some standing and limited lifting capabilities) you will not quali...

It is saddening and sometimes quite disheartening to see the injured worker “herded like cattle” into the corral of the insurance company panel of doctors after an injury. Georgia is one of the five states where, once a worker is injured, you MUST pick a doctor from a made-up list of insurance co...