Georgia Law Blog

Located directly across the street from my law firm, the Douglas County Courthouse is located at 8700 Hospital Drive, Douglasville, GA 30134. With the rapid growth throughout Atlanta and West Georgia, our courthouse has become busier with attorneys and litigants since opening. My Douglasville personal injury and workers' compensation law firm, The Law Office of Jack Clay, LLC, is located at 8701 Hospital Drive, Suite A, Douglasville, GA 30134. My Firm exclusively handles injury claims and lawsuits, including car accidents cases, truck accident cases, and workers' compensation throughout the greater Atlanta, including Douglas County, Paulding County, and Carroll County.

The Douglas County Courthouse is approximately 215,000 square feet and is the largest public building in Douglas County. There are approximately 600 parking spots around the courthouse, although this number has been increased in the past few years with the addition of another parking lot.
The "New" Douglas County Courthouse opened for operation in 1998. For years prior to 1998, lawyers went to court at the "Old" Douglas County Courthouse which is located in historic Downtown Douglasville on Highway 78 (Broad Street). The old Douglas County Courthouse operated between 1956 and 1998.

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Posted In: Community Service , Georgia County Courthouses

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On July 5, 2007, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided the case of Champion v. Pilgrim's Pride Corp. of Delaware, Inc. In this case, a worker was injured after being hit by a truck in the receiving area of the poultry plant. She later died from her injuries. A civil suit was brought against her employer. One of the issues in the case was whether Georgia's workers' compensation law applies. The law says that an injured worker has a valid work injury claim if the injury occurs when the worker ingresses and egresses from the place of work. In this case, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided that it is a jury question as to whether or not she could maintain a wrongful case against her employer. Specifically, the issue was whether she was acting within the scope of her employment when she was hit. The Georgia Court of Appeals was swayed by the fact that the deceased was hit at work 78 minutes before she started her shift.

This case adds an interested case to the large number of work injury cases dealing with whether an injury arises out of employment. Usually, the injured employee is seeking workers compensation benefits. In this case, the person who died in this horrible workplace accident brought a personal injury lawsuit so it was essential to get around the Exclusive Remedy Provision (O.C.G.A. 34-9-11).

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Posted In: Georga Personal Injury Case Update , Georgia Workers' Compensation Case Update

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On June 26, 2007, the Georgia Court of Appeals issued its decision in Canal Insurance Company v. Pro Search. The case dealt with a dispute between a Workers’ Compensation Insurer and an Employer, centering on the nonpayment of deductibles by the Employer to the Insurer. In this case, the Employer, as part of its Workers’ Compensation insurance policy, opted to have a deductible in each claim in the amount of $2,500.00. When the insurance company sent a bill for $42,755.54, the Employer refused to pay the bill and the Insurer filed a lawsuit. The Court held that the claim was not bared by the statues of limitations which started to run when the Insurer demanded payment for the deductibles from the Employer.

Continue reading "Georgia Case Law Update - Canal Ins. Co. v. ProSearch" »

Posted by Jack E. Clay | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Georgia Workers' Compensation Case Update

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On June 20, 2007 the Georgia Court of Appeals issued a decision in the case of Renu Thrift Store Inc. VS. Figueroa. The case involved three primary issues. The first issue involves a credit for overpayment of benefits that the employer sought pursuant to O.C.G.A. §34-9-245. The employer in this case sought to take a credit against TTD payments for several years. It is interesting to note in this case that the employer admitted that they over calculated the claimants TTD rate. In this regard, the Court of Appeals held that the employer was not entitled to a credit for over payments. Any claim for reimbursement by an employer needs to be brought within two years of the date of overpayment according to O.C.G.A. §34-9-245.

The second issue decided in this case was whether or not the fifteen percent penalty found in O.C.G.A. §34-9-221(b) is appropriate when an employer insure sends income benefit checks bi-weekly rather than a weekly basis. The court in this case held that the penalty was appropriate. As I have discussed in other articles, a constant concern representing injured claimants throughout Georgia in workers’ compensation cases is that they do not receive their checks in a timely fashion. O.C.G.A. §34-9-221(b) provides that weekly benefits shall be due and payable in weekly installments.

In this case, the Court of Appeals sided with the claimant and the State Board of Workers’ Compensation was authorized to access the fifteen percent penalty for those weeks when the employer refused to pay the employees benefits on a weekly basis. It is important to note that the employer in this case argued that, included in each bi-weekly payment, was a payment for the current week as well as a payment for one week ahead. The Court of Appeals quickly dismissed this logic and emphasized that employer insurers are required to send out checks in a weekly fashion.

Continue reading "Georgia Workers' Compensation Case Law Update - Renu Thrift Store v. Figueroa" »

Posted by Jack E. Clay | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Georgia Workers' Compensation Case Update

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