Can You Hear (or See) Me Now? No, and that May Constitute Spoliation
2/24/16
By: Andy Treese
The Georgia Court of Appeals recently held that a municipality may be subject to sanctions for failure to preserve audio recordings of a police pursuit when the recordings were destroyed in the ordinary course of business before …
Settle at Your Own Risk
2/16/16
By: Dana Maine and Kevin Stone
The Georgia Court of Appeals issued an opinion last week in Jim Tidwell Ford v. Bashuk, A15A2030 applying the rule that settlement of an underlying suit may sever causation in a subsequent legal …
Issuing a Reservation of Rights? You May Lose Control Over Settlement
2/5/16
By: Jonathan Romvary
By reserving the right to deny coverage, insurers may be relinquishing the power to force the policyholder to forego reasonable settlement opportunities for covered claims that do not align with the goals of the insurer. In Babcock …
Drones Regulation Deadline Missed by FAA
10/2/15
By: Wayne Melnick
In the recent past, I blogged a series of articles regarding the possible legal and insurance ramifications of law enforcement drone usage. These included blogs on risk questions related to government drone usage how drones can be …
The Risk of Calculating Risks: Insurers Beware
10/1/15
By: Phil Savrin
Creative plaintiff lawyers are always looking for ways to increase recoveries against insurance companies beyond the scope of coverage for the loss or the liability limits. Aided by the courts, insurers must traverse such landmines as timely …
Should We Have Seen This Coming? Supreme Court of Georgia: Duty to Preserve is Triggered by Constructive Notice of Anticipated Litigation
7/6/15
By: E. Andrew Treese
It has been clear for some time that a duty to preserve evidence is triggered by actual notice of pending or contemplated litigation. Last week the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the duty is also …
A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words
4/30/14
By: Seth Kirby
In the ever evolving world of marketing through social media, companies strive for ways to drive traffic to their virtual doorsteps. The constant question running through the mind of a person tasked with internet marketing is “what …
Cyber Liability Lessons from Edward Snowden
11/5/13
By: Jonathan Kandel
Edward Snowden has been the “gift that keeps on giving” for the U.S. Government. Snowden, a former contractor employee for the NSA (National Security Agency), began leaking highly classified documents related to the NSA’s methods of intelligence …
State Legislature Enters the Unfamiliar Realm of Regulating Legal Practice and Passes Laws Prohibiting Assignability of Legal Malpractice Claims
4/18/13
By: Dana Maine and William Ezzell
Following last month’s unanimous opinion from the Georgia Supreme Court that legal malpractice claims were not per se unassignable, the State Bar of Georgia successfully implemented a counterstrike aimed at barring the assignment of …
Engagement Letters for Professional Services – A Valuable Tool That May Come with a Price
1/11/13
By: Seth Kirby
In 2009, the Georgia Court of Appeals confirmed with resounding clarity that all professional malpractice claims sounding in contract were governed by a four-year statute of limitations. All was right with the world. Professionals and their insurers …
U.S. Supreme Court Granted Cert to Address Question of Federal Jurisdiction in Legal Malpractice Case
10/12/12
By: Dana Maine
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in a case out of the Supreme Court of Texas, Minton v. Gunn, et al., 80 USLW 353547, 81 USLW 3028 (U.S. Oct. 5, 2012) (No. 11-1118).
The …
Law Firm Risk Management – Internal Review and Insurance Reporting Obligations
8/29/12
By: Seth Kirby
While the practice of law is a profession, managing a law practice is definitely a business. In addition to their primary responsibility of representing their clients, attorneys must actively manage their office. Depending upon the size of …