Appellate
Hanks Law Group attorneys have extensive experience briefing and arguing cases in all levels of state and federal appellate courts. Our track record of winning at the appellate level is second to none. We have never lost a case on appeal.
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Our years of experience and our expert knowledge of the law makes us one of the premier appellate practice firms in the Southeast.
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Some representative cases include:
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D.W. Caldwell, Inc. v. W.G. Yates & Sons Const. Co., 242 So.3d 92 (Miss. 2018)
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Cherokee Main St., LLC v. Ragan, 345 Ga. App. 405 (2018)
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Fayette Co. Nursing Home, LLC v. PRI X-Ray, Inc., 342 Ga. App. 143 (2017)
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Richards v. D.R. Horton, Inc., 320 Ga. App. 771 (2013)
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Turner v. Masters, 304 Ga. App. 855 (2010)
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Kim v. Municipal Mkt. Co., 303 Ga. App. 122 (2010)
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Imperial Invs. Doraville, Inc. v. Childers, 303 Ga. App. 490 (2010)
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G&G TIC, LCC v. Alabama Controls, Inc., 324 Fed. Appx. 795 (2009)
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Heath v. Rush, 259 Ga. App. 887 (2003)
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Mansell v. Starr Enter., 256 Ga. App. 257 (2002)
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Mayhue v. Middle Ga. Coliseum Auth., 253 Ga. App. 471 (2002)
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Williams v. Park Walk Apts., 253 Ga. App. 429 (2002)
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Matthews v. Macon Water Auth., 273 Ga. 436 (2001)
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Wade v. Am. Nat’l Ins. Co., 246 Ga. App. 458 (2000)
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Ulbrich of Ga. v. Williams, 228 Ga. App. 493 (1997)
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Commercial Union Ins. Co. v. Hoover Wood Treated Prods., 202 Ga. App. 35 (1991)
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United States v. Woodward, 938 F.2d 1255 (1991)
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Automobile Litigation
Insurers and individuals throughout the Southeast have relied on Hanks Law Group to defend them in complex automobile litigation for more than 30 years. Our attorneys have handled hundreds of cases from small matters up to multimillion-dollar claims.
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Our team represents clients in a full range of automobile litigation, from smaller incidents to complicated matters involving serious highway accidents resulting in death or permanent disability. Regardless of the complexity or monetary value, we guarantee partner- level involvement in all our cases.
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With more vehicles on the road today than ever before, the likelihood that a business or individual will become engaged in automobile litigation continues to increase. In order to help our clients avoid the costly complications that can arise in this rapidly changing practice area, we provide proactive and assertive counsel. We aggressively litigate, mediate, and negotiate with the goal of seamlessly guiding companies, insureds, and self-insureds through the automobile litigation process.
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Our automobile litigation practice addresses issues of negligence, intentional misconduct, negligent entrustment, family purpose doctrine, punitive damages, suspicions of fraud or excessive medical claims and products liability. We have longstanding relationships with accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, investigators, and other professionals to protect the interests of our clients. We advise clients as they sort through uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) cases, including explaining the basic framework, helping to determine which UM policy takes priority in a multipolicy case and which settlements to pay in what order.
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Our depth of experience in this practice area allows us to fully protect clients’ interests without waiving critical provisions or exposing them to unwarranted risk.
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Catastrophic Injury and Wrongful Death
Hanks Law Group has been guiding clients through their greatest challenges relating to claims involving catastrophic injury and wrongful death for over 30 years. We use our years of litigation experience to defend our clients, protect their assets, and help them navigate through these very difficult situations.
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We have handled cases involving motor vehicle accidents, construction site injuries, equipment-related accidents, product-related accidents, negligent security, premises liability and more. We have defended against a broad spectrum of claims including traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries leading to partial or full paralysis, amputation, severe burns, toxic exposure, disfigurement, death and more.
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Clients rely on our strength in litigation and our ability to identify the most significant issues up front to develop proven trial strategies. Clients know that we understand the technical and legal aspects necessary to provide a successful defense. By recognizing the critical issues early, we are able to use them to maximum advantage in the litigation and negotiation processes which, in turn, drives successful and cost-effective results for our clients.
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Commercial Litigation
Hanks Law Group’s commercial litigation attorneys bring more than 50 years of combined courtroom experience across many disciplines to meet the challenges facing businesses in the wide variety of possible lawsuits.
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We handle litigation involving contracts, including purchase agreements, products or services issues, and collection matters. We also defend complex litigation matters involving covenants not to compete, real estate litigation, business torts, and trade secrets. We have experience in employment litigation and claims related to Title VII discrimination, retaliation, light duty accommodations and more.
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We provide clients with an analysis of the costs and risks to help them decide whether to sue, continue litigation, or settle. We will seek the best approach to your problem and provide the best and most cost-effective solutions.
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Construction Litigation
Hanks Law Group has a record of trying — and winning — important construction litigation cases for its clients. Our attorneys have helped builders, developers, subcontractors, architects, and engineers avoid millions of dollars in liability and defense costs in complex disputes arising out of construction losses and construction defect lawsuits.
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We routinely represent contractors, sub-contractors, builders, and developers in a wide variety of lawsuits and arbitrations that have included claims of failure to follow plans and specifications; inadequate inspection and testing; improperly installed electrical, plumbing, storm drains, and sanitary sewer lines; inadequate compaction; failure to follow best management practices, and code violations. We have successfully represented our clients against damages for loss of structural integrity; fire damage; soil erosion; water runoff; water intrusion; foundation settlement and cracking; wall collapse, and mold growth.
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Our team is skilled at making successful tender claims against other parties to accept or reimburse our clients’ defense and indemnification and provide additional insured liability coverage. We also represent construction companies in post-construction collection efforts involving private projects, and bonded public projects.
We defend our clients aggressively and through our experience have developed efficient, creative strategies to litigation.
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Indemnity Issues and Insurance Coverage
Indemnity Issues
Hanks Law Group’s indemnity practice is one of the largest in the Southeast. As regional tender counsel for the fourth largest retailer in the United States for over 15 years, Hanks Law Group has extensive experience enforcing contractual provisions requiring indemnity. Having successfully handled thousands of cases, we bring our depth of knowledge to create winning strategies.
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​In addition to representing one of the largest companies in the U.S., we have represented numerous other companies in indemnity matters and have made Georgia law on this topic. See, Fayette Co. Nursing Home, LLC v. PRI X-Ray, Inc., 342 Ga. App. 143 (2017).
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We understand the complex issues with indemnity and aggressively pursue and defend our clients’ rights.
Insurance Coverage
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Hanks Law Group is one of the premier firms handling insurance coverage. Our attorneys are often called upon to provide coverage opinions on commercial general liability policies, property and casualty polices, commercial auto policies, and personal auto policies. We work with C-level executives, vice presidents of claims, legal counsel and claims representatives for businesses and insurers to devise the best options and strategies for how the company should handle insurance coverage issues.
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Our attorneys prosecute and defend declaratory judgment actions. An example of one of our many successful results for a client, an insurance carrier, in a coverage action that is frequently cited is Gentry Machine Works, Inc. v. Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co., 621 F.Supp.2d 1288 (M.D. Ga. 2008), a case which focused on the “your work”, “your product”, and the “impaired property” exclusions of a commercial general liability policy.
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​Because of our years of experience, ethical representation and successful results Hanks Law Group is the go-to firm for indemnity and insurance coverage issues.
Negligent Security
Recent years have seen an explosion of cases alleging property owners and business operators have been negligent in providing security for the safety of their customers. We aggressively litigate, mediate, and negotiate with the goal of seamlessly guiding companies, insureds, and self-insureds through the negligent security litigation process.
Hanks Law Group’s negligent security practice is one of the largest in the Southeast. We have been successfully representing clients in negligent security matters since the early 1990s. Our litigation attorneys bring partner-level involvement and more than 50 years of courtroom experience to every case. ​
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We have successfully defended commercial businesses, retail establishments, hotel chains, restaurants, apartment complexes, parking lot owners, gas stations, convenience store operators and others in incidents involving shootings, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and other serious criminal attacks.
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Our team’s seasoned attorneys and broad network of investigative experts allows us to set up insurers for success from the beginning, including site inspection, document collection, witness interviews, and examinations under oath. This extensive familiarity with the investigation process and our knowledge of the legal rights and duties enables our attorneys to provide recommendations on the validity of a claim and positions us for a positive litigation outcome.
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Premises Liability
Property owners and retail establishments bear considerable risk from customers injured by hazards on their premises. Hanks Law Group is known throughout the Southeast for its expertise in this area having successfully defended hundreds of clients since the early 1990’s. We confidently litigate for our clients in disputes stemming from slip-and-fall accidents, violent crimes to a host of other injuries resulting from a broad array of incidents.
Our attorneys defend hotel chains, retail establishments, restaurants, grocery stores, apartment complexes, homeowners’ associations, community associations, landlords and others when those injured on their properties bring claims against them. We also work with these clients to implement best practices in their day-to-day operations to help prevent these claims and mitigate damages.
As more and more litigation funding companies enter the legal fray, we aggressively protect our client’s financial interests from unnecessary and excessive litigation or inflated medical costs. Our combination of courtroom advocacy and substantive experience is second to none. We work with our clients to minimize risks and costs of litigation. We defend our clients aggressively and through our experience have developed efficient, innovative strategies to litigation.
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Product Liability
Hanks Law Group has vast experience defending domestic and international manufacturers, designers, distributors, and sellers of products that are claimed to be defective. We have successfully defended clients in product liability lawsuits involving trucks, all- terrain vehicles, medical devices, paint products, weaving machines, conveyor belts, scaffolding, lawn mowers, and power saws, among others.
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As a leading firm in the Southeast for handling product liability litigation, we understand the technical and legal aspects of this type of litigation. Because of our partner-level involvement and legal expertise, we are able to provide the most successful defense whether vigorously defending cases at trial or expeditiously resolving matters prior to trial. Based on our years of experience, we help develop realistic budgets and cost-effective solutions based on each client’s needs.
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