I have seen far more frivolous defenses than I've seen frivolous lawsuits. This is a perfect example:
Our client was seriously injured in a wreck with a county police officer. The police officer was responding to a call. Lights on. Sirens on. Approaches a red-light intersection.
Cars are stopped in his lane, so he goes left to get around them. Unless he's right up at the intersection, he can’t see to the right because of trees and stopped cars. He can’t see to the left because of trees. He slows, but doesn’t stop, then accelerates into the intersection.
He pulls directly into the path of a motorcyclist who, for the same reasons, couldn’t see the officer coming.
Result: Catastrophic injuries. Over $500,000 in medical bills alone. The County's liability is capped at $500,000 under Georgia law.
The County’s response to a demand? They deny liability pre-suit. Lawsuit filed. Still deny liability. They claim the officer exercised “due regard.” They blame the motorcyclist for speeding (the very person the officer admits he barely saw).
We get the case. File suit. Discovery comes back. No internal emails. No internal investigation. Personnel file is silent. An “incident report” declaring the officer not at fault and blaming our client is produced.
When we take the officer's deposition, the truth finally comes out.
He admits it was his fault. He admits he should have stopped. He admits he should not have proceeded unless the motorcyclist stopped or acknowledged him. He admits he only saw the motorcyclist for a split second and has no idea how fast he was going. He is unaware of any evidence showing our client was speeding.
He admits he was disciplined, a five-day suspension, documented through Internal Affairs emails. None of those emails were produced. None of those witnesses were disclosed. His personnel file (that was supposedly his complete file) has no mention of this accident or the suspension.
This case should have resolved two years ago. Instead, this is another case on the court's docket that it has to deal with (and it will soon be dealing with a motion for sanctions).
The Chamber and its crowd love to talk about how litigation is the problem. But they ignore how frivolous defenses and litigation misconduct harm the public and the courts.
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