Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog

Tougher laws are on the horizon for teen drivers in Atlanta according to AJC reporter Bob Keefe. According to Keefe, while the laws will filter down to the state level, the legislation is being pursued in Washington by highway safety advocates on Capitol Hill, who are pushing for passage of the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection or STANDUP ACT.

Under the Act, every state, including Georgia would be forced by federal legislation to prohibit teen drivers from texting or making cell phone calls while driving. While the law would not be mandatory on Georgia per se, failure to follow the Act, if passed, could result in a loss of Federal transportation funding for highways and other projects.

Continue reading " Atlanta Teen Drivers May Be Restricted By Proposed Law " »

Insurer Allstate has released its annual list of the safest cities in America. The insurer ranked approximately 200 American cities on the basis of the number of accidents that motorists are likely to be involved in here. As an Atlanta car accident lawyer, I'm not at all surprised to learn that Atlanta ranks at number 146.

For the record, the safest city in the US for motorists is Fort Collins, Colorado. The average motorist in Fort Collins experiences an accident just once every 14.5 years. That means the average motorist there has a likelihood of being involved in an accident that's close to 31% below the national average. Fort Collins was followed by Chattanooga, Boise, Colorado Springs, Knoxville, Eugene-Oregon, Reno-Nevada, Huntsville-Alabama, and Cedar Rapids.

Atlantans should take some comfort in the fact that the city ranks ahead of New York, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia in terms of danger to motorists.

When you look at the large cities that are considered dangerous to drivers, you realize that some of them have peculiar challenges that impact motorist safety. For instance Los Angeles has an auto centric culture that means more numbers of motorists, not all of them equipped to deal with all that traffic. In Atlanta's case, it's insane traffic congestion, which contributes to a number of accident risk factors like aggressive driving and road rage.

Continue reading " Atlanta at Bottom of Allstate's List of Safest Cities " »

For years now, trucking safety advocates have been calling for speed limiting devices to be made mandatory on all 18-wheelers. In 2006, the American Trucking Associations and an auto safety group petitioned the federal administration to make these mandatory in all trucks that weighed above 26,000 pounds. The following year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration invited comments on the issue. It's been four years since then, and both agencies have received thousands of comments supporting the installation of such devices. In spite of this, there has been no movement forward on these proposals. That sorry situation could soon change.

This May, President Obama directed his administration to get to work on a double-edged policy that would attack greenhouse gas emissions and increase fuel efficiency for the trucks. Both of these objectives can be accomplished through the installation of speed limiters on truckers. According to some estimates, trucking companies would obtain increased fuel efficiency of 1% for every reduction in truck speed of 1 mph. Besides, there are substantial environmental benefits too. Lower truck speeds limit the emission of greenhouse gases. It is therefore safe to assume that it won't be soon before we have a federal rule mandating the installation of speed limiting devices on all commercial trucks.

Continue reading " Speed Limiters on all Commercial Trucks Could Soon Be Reality " »

The Fleming Law Firm has recently obtained a confidential settlement in a Georgia commissions dispute case. The Firm represented a commissioned salesperson in this dispute which arose when the employee stopped working for the employer. Upon separation, the employer refused to pay full commissions on sales that were made by our client prior to termination, but not yet paid to the employee.

This is a common scenario which we have encountered many times. There are a number of Georgia laws which require the terminated employee to receive full compensation upon termination. However, the employer frequently takes the position that they will make no more payments upon termination unless the employee signs a "termination agreement" which usually offers a nominal separation payment in exchange for an agreement not to sue. From the employee's perspective, taking this payment is usually not a wise move, even though the temptation is there to take the easy money being offered.

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