James Jan-Feb 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 78
TRF attacks are targeted
at Georgia’s judges. It calls out
specific judges by name— opening
them up to unfounded attacks—
while withholding the names of
its members who made allegations
against those judges purportedly
because its informants “fear lawsuits or other retaliation.” Citing
the Georgia Supreme Court’s
decision in “Alston Bird [sic] LLC v.
Hatcher Management Holdings”
ATRF proclaims this state’s high
Court to have “developed a propensity to expand liability whenever given a chance.” But that case
is the opposite of judicial activism:
it relied on careful analysis of the
statutory language enacted by
the General Assembly without
attempting to rewrite the statute
to push any party’s agenda. Conservative Republican governors
appointed eight of nine current
Supreme Court Justices and nine
78
JAMES
JANUA RY/F E B RUA RY 2024
of 11 judges on the Court of Appeals. The rest were duly elected
by Georgia’s citizens.
The real truth is this: juries
of Georgia citizens get it right.
Our courtrooms in Georgia are
an equalizer and jury verdicts are
acts of governance by Georgia’s
citizens from all counties and all
walks of life. Those verdicts are
subject to the limitations set by
Georgia law and its Constitution
and are carefully reviewed by
our unbiased and hard-working
judges. Only a handful of plaintiffs ever even see a jury and even
fewer obtain any verdict, let alone
a so-called “nuclear verdict.” Most
cases settle or are dismissed. And
in every single so-called “nuclear
verdict” in the ATRF report, the
plaintiff made settlement offers
for far less than the juries’ ultimate award. Those verdicts reflect
the defendants’ bad conduct and
their continued refusal to accept
responsibility, not bad laws, or a
biased judiciary.
For close to 30 years, we have
worked in courtrooms across
this state. It is not an easy feat
to convince 12 people who do not
know you to render a unanimous
jury verdict— the legal requirement in Georgia. We have seen no
evidence of the allegedly “hellish”
environment that ATRF and its
industry supporters claim to find
in Georgia’s Courts. Let’s not let a
motivated group of D.C. lobbyists
intimidate us into changing laws
that protect our fundamental
right to trial by jury, particularly when the attack is based on
slanted facts, half-truths and
outrageous accusations against
our dedicated civil servants.
Attorneys Tom and Jon Pope are both partners
at Hasty Pope, LLP in Atlanta.