January 21, 2010

Happy New Year!  We wish you a prosperous 2010! 

Georgia Trend's Legal Elite

The Finley Firm is happy to announce that four attorneys, Ben Finley, Greg Ragsdale, MaryBeth Gibson and Kindu Walker, were selected as 2009 Georgia Trend's Legal Elite: Georgia's Most Effective Lawyers.    This year’s Legal Elite list was the 7th annual listing of the state’s top attorneys in 9 different practice areas, as determined by their peers. The publication was released in December. Congratulations!!

Seminars

January 5, 2010-ExecSense Webinar: Christopher Reeves spoke on The 10 Most Important Developments from 2009 for Environmental Lawyers – How to Capitalize on These Developments in 2010 to Land More Clients.  If you are interested in a copy of the presentation and/or would like for Chris to speak at your next meeting, please contact Vanessa Williams at 404.320.9979 or VWilliams@TheFinleyFirm.com.

January 28, 2009-RIMKUS Seminar: Christopher Reeves will provide an interactive Ethics BINGO course. The seminar is hosted by RIMKUS Consulting Group at the Villa Christina at 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.  To register, please visit www.TheFinleyFirm.com/News.

February 4, 2010-ETHICS Seminar: The Finley Firm will be providing a three hour in-house course.  Registration not available.  To book your in-house seminar, please contact Vanessa Williams at 404.320.9979 or VWilliams@TheFinleyFirm.com.

February 18, 2010-Atlanta RIMS Educational Conference: The Finley Firm is a Bronze Sponsor for this year's conference.  Kindu Walker will be our representative at the conference.

March 4, 2010-The Finley Firm Spring Seminar: The Finley Firm is happy to announce that we will provide our second annual FREE Spring CE seminar.  The seminar will be on March 4, 2010 at Maggiano's Perimeter.  The course will focus on Ethics, Claims Handling and Legal Updates and you will earn 6 CE hours.  Check out the full agenda at www.TheFinleyFirm.com/News . Don't miss out on an entertaining seminar, door prizes and FREE food!  Register today at www.TheFinleyFirm.com/News.

Beneke v. Parker

The Supreme Court of Georgia recently ruled on Beneke v. Parker, a case that could make a dramatic impact on certain personal injury claims. Adjusters and other insurance professionals should understand the importance of this case to avoid major missteps in claims analysis. We have attached the complete opinion and given a short summary below.

In Beneke v. Parker, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the statute of limitations is tolled as to any victim of a "crime" until the resolution of prosecution. Such crimes may include ANY violation of Uniform Rules of Road (traffic violations). Personal injury actions arising out of vehicle accidents could therefore have the statute of limitations tolled where a traffic citation is involved.

To quickly summarize the facts of the case, Patricia Parker was injured in a rear-end automobile collision by Alan Beneke. The accident and injury occurred on April 27, 2005. Beneke was issued a citation for following too closely to Parker’s vehicle. He paid this citation on May 19, 2005. Parker sued Beneke on May 11, 2007 over the accident. As you know, such lawsuits cannot typically be filed more than two years after the accident. However, the Court, using a statute not usually used for such citations, stated that the statute of limitations did not start running until Beneke resolved his ticket by paying the fee. Therefore, a traffic citation can effectively extend the time for which a lawsuit can be brought.

In this case, the time for filing a suit was only extended for about three weeks. However, not all traffic citations are resolved this quickly. For instance, some attorneys may negotiate driving school or rehabilitation programs for their clients to resolve their traffic violations. The matter will therefore not be resolved until such actions are taken. Other violations require probationary periods of up to three years before they are resolved. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-12. Finally, some people will fight even minor citations for long periods of time based on principle alone. This decision will inevitably create additional litigation and add major new wrinkles to your claims analysis.

Although the Court did not address the issue, this ruling may have an impact on workers’ compensation ability to pursue subrogation matters pursuant to O.C.G.A. §34-9-11.1 as the case appears to extend statute of limitations, it presumably would extend the carriers right to seek subrogation outside of one year and past the current two year statute. While at this point the case raises more questions than it answers, it is important to recognize its potential application in the workers’ compensation context.

A link to the Uniform Rules of the Road can be found at http://law.justia.com/georgia/codes/40/40.html.

If you have any questions regarding the opinion or have a case that you would like for us to help you evaluate, please contact J. Benjamin Finley, MaryBeth Gibson, Christopher Reeves or Kindu Walker at 404-320-9979. We are always happy to help.