The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association has a new president—a partner at Fried Rogers Goldberg who specializes in trucking cases.

Following a vote last Friday during GTLA’s Annual Gala, Brian “Buck” Rogers took up the gavel to become the organizations 58th president. He succeeds Jay Sadd, a personal injury lawyer at Slappey & Sadd.

“It is a true honor to be elected by my peers to serve as the next president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association,” Rogers said in a written statement. “The focus of my practice has been dedicated to protecting and securing justice for all Georgians, and no organization stands stronger for this inalienable right than GTLA.”

Rogers earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1994 and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia the same year. He serves on the boards of directors for Roadsafe America and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, lectures on commercial motor vehicle collisions and holds a Class A commercial driver’s license.
In February, Rogers and Simon Law Firm partner H. Michael Ruppersburg secured a $1 million pre-suit settlement with insurer AutoOwners on behalf of the family of a woman killed in a car wreck in June 2012 on Old Alpharetta Road in Forsyth County.

Rogers participated in a panel discussion on tort reform hosted by the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association last November in which he stood up for GTLA, saying that the organization does not support the abuse of Holt demands in bad faith claims. He also sits on the bar’s committee on third-party litigation lending, though the committee has not been active.

Following reports that the state Department of Natural Resources instructed state parks to remove Bibles from cabins and lodges after a citizen complaint, Governor. Nathan Deal has ordered the books returned. (View the first report on the issue here: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/22250958/bibles-removed-from-state-lodges-and-cabins)

“Out of an abundance of caution to avoid potential litigation, the commissioner removed the Bibles from rooms – though they were still available on site – after a complaint from a visitor,” the governor’s office said in a written statement. “The attorney general and I agree that the state is on firm legal footing as we move to return the Bibles to the rooms. These Bibles are donated by outside groups, not paid for by the state, and I do not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion. In fact, any religious group is free to donate literature.”

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Sam Olens confirmed the Law Department is reviewing the matter.

“Nothing in the Constitution prohibits private organizations from purchasing Bibles and placing them in a public lodge, so long as other groups wishing to place their own literature are offered similar accommodation,” the AG’s office said in a written statement.

Georgia State Constitutional Law professor L. Lynn Hogue said having donated religious books in state park cabins and lodges does not present a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, unless the state parks were soliciting them.

“If the Gideons volunteered them, and the state-owned inns allowed them to be put in the rooms, that presents no Establishment Clause problem,” Hogue said via email.

“The more pertinent issue is whether placing the Bibles in inn drawers transforms them into something like a public forum, which would open them to others with religious books to provide,” added Hogue. “ If I am right, and other religions wanted to place their books in the drawer (say books from other non-traditional or non-Christian religions) they would have to be allowed to do so.  If the drawer fills up, access could be rationed on some neutral basis or they could all be removed at that point.  They could not be removed based on preference for particular religious faiths.”

The Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia has new leadership, and they are women.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot started her term as president on Wednesday. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is president-elect, and Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Weaver is secretary-treasurer. Their terms last until April 30, 2014.

Abbot earned her law degree from the University of Georgia in 1982 and was appointed to Superior Court in the Eastern Judicial Circuit in October 2000. During the last four years, she was chairwoman of the council’s uniform rules committee and she  is a past-president of the Savannah Bar Association and the Georgia Bar Foundation.  Governor Nathan Deal reappointed her chairwoman of the Georgia Child Support Commission earlier this year.

Staley, who graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1979, began her legal career as an assistant Cobb County district attorney. She was elected to the Cobb County State Court in 1983 and was elected to superior court in 1992.

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Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot started her term as president on Wednesday. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is president-elect, and Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Weaver is secretary-treasurer. Their terms last until April 30, 2014.

Abbot earned her law degree from the University of Georgia in 1982 and was appointed to superior court in the Eastern Judicial Circuit in October 2000. During the last four years, she was chairwoman of the council’s Uniform Rules Committee and is a past-president of the Savannah Bar Association and the Georgia Bar Foundation.  Governor Nathan Deal reappointed her chairwoman of the Georgia Child Support Commission earlier this year.

Staley, who graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1979, began her legal career as an assistant Cobb County district attorney. She was elected to the Cobb County State Court in 1983 and was elected to superior court in 1992.

Weaver served as an Associate Juvenile Court Judge for the Appalachian Judicial Circuit from 1991 until her appointment as chief judge of the juvenile court in 1995. A year later, she was appointed to the superior court, where she presides over its felony drug court.

Weaver is also an administrative law judge, a member of the Judicial Qualifications Commission and chairwoman of the Council of Superior Court Judges’ Accountability and Treatment Courts Committee. She earned her law degree from the now closed Woodrow Wilson College of Law in 1983.

The three judges will lead the council, which is composed of the state’s 207 superior court judges and more than 70 retired judges, as it assists trial courts with budgeting, legislation, uniform rules, bench publications and continuing judicial education. They also will serve on the Judicial Council of Georgia with representatives from other courts.   Kathleen Baydala Joyner

The state’s new juvenile code will take effect in January 2014.

Governor Nathan Deal signed House Bill 242, which overhauls statutes dealing with neglected and delinquent youth, this morning at a detention center in Dalton.

The legislation also includes several recommendations by the governor’s criminal justice reform council aimed at keeping low-risk youth offenders out of detention centers, including creating a two-tiered system of designated felonies and creating more community-based treatment programs.

“We acted because Georgia could not afford its own numbers,” Deal said in a written statement. “Not when we have more than half of all youth offenders ending up back in a detention center or prison within three years. Not when we have each youth in a detention center costing Georgia taxpayers $90,000 or more every year and not when 40 percent of juveniles in detention facilities are considered a low risk to reoffend.”

The bill calls for allotting $5 million as incentives for communities  to create community-based treatment programs, which would give judges more sentencing options. The new laws also are expected to save the state $85 million over the next five years and curb the need to open two new residential detention centers for juvenile offenders.

The governor’s criminal justice reform council, which is made up of lawyers, judges, lawmakers and law enforcement officers, worked closely with the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Those organizations also assisted the state with its adult criminal justice reforms last year.

“This legislation marks a turning point in how Georgia approaches crime and punishment,” said Adam Gelb, director of Pew’s public safety performance project, in a written statement. “Building on last year’s criminal justice reforms, state leaders again reached bipartisan consensus by using data and research to craft policies aimed at making sure Georgia’s tax dollars are producing the best possible public safety results.”

Research conducted by the council found that the state gave the Department of Juvenile Justice $300 million in fiscal year 2013, of which nearly two-thirds went to operating facilities where juvenile offenders were locked up. During that same time, more than 65 percent of youth released from those facilities committed new offenses within three years—and the rate had increased since 2003.

Governor Nathan Deal has selected a Fayette County magistrate to assume a spot on the state court bench.

Jason Thompson, who also is a solo practitioner in Fayetteville, will replace Judge Carla Wong McMillian, whom Deal named to the Georgia Court of Appeals in January.

Thompson earned his law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala., and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 2001. He previously was a municipal court judge in Peachtree City.

Deal picked Thompson over two other candidates suggested by the  Judicial Nominating Commission: Rhonda Kreuziger, owner and senior counsel at the Kreuziger Law Firm, and Fayette County Chief Magistrate Robert Ruppenthal.

Emory University’s law school says it is looking into allegations that law professor and Rabbi Michael Broyde used a fake identity to comment on online publications and blogs, promote his own work and join a rival rabbinical group’s listserv.

The English-language version of Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper has more on the allegations here. According to Haaretz.com, he made up the name “Rabbi Hershel Goldwasser” to “laud work he had written under his own name.”

Emory’s prepared statement read: “The allegations regarding the conduct of Professor Michael Broyde are concerning to the Law School. We are currently reviewing the matter and plan to issue a statement once our inquiry is complete.”

Broyde responded to the Daily Report today via email, “I am sorry, but I am in the no comment mode now. Maybe in a week something different.”

According to Emory’s website, Broyde teaches classes in legal methods, family law and Jewish law. He earned his law degree from New York University and was ordained by Yeshiva University.

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Governor Nathan Deal named Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Branch a new member of the state’s Commission on Child Support, his office announced today.

The commission arose from executive order in 2005, and its tasks include analyzing child support data, calculating obligation tables, developing training manuals for judges and lawyers and monitoring appellate courts’ acceptance of appeals of domestic relations cases.

State law requires the commission to have 15 members, including an appellate court judge and three superior court judges. Each member serves a four-year-term except state legislators. Deal tapped Branch for the appellate court last July.

Prior to that appointment, she was a litigation partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell. Branch also worked as a senior official in President George W. Bush’s administration and was associate general counsel for rules and legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She earned her law degree from Emory University.

Deal also reappointed five judges and a lawyer to the commission: Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot; part-time Troup County Juvenile Court Judge R. Michael Key; Charles Clay, a partner at Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers; Southwestern Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Rambo; Coweta Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Quillian Baldwin Jr.; and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Campbell.

Georgia House Judiciary Chairman Wendell Willard filed a bill regulating e-discovery based on recommendations by a task force of lawyers.

The legislation would, among its many provisions, restrict the frequency and the extent of discovery requests and would mandate discovery meetings between parties to hash out a plan early in a case. House Bill 643 won’t be eligible for legislative chamber votes until 2014, but Willard said he anticipates discussions surrounding the bill during the interim.

For more on the e-discovery task force’s recommendations see previous Daily Report article here.

State lawmakers have dropped the idea of allowing Georgia gun owners with concealed carry licenses to bring their firearms into unguarded courthouses, much to the relief of judges who feared they could become targets.

Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson, president of the state Council of Superior Court Judges, said trial court judges “are pleased to see that the language that would have allowed firearms in unsecured courthouses has been removed from the proposed legislation.  We appreciate the wisdom of the legislators in listening to our concerns.”

The House today voted 116-55 to pass Senate Bill 101, which incorporated many provisions of a previous House bill expanding where guns may be carried to include places of worship, bars and college campuses under certain conditions.

Rep. Rick Jasperse, a retired county extension agent who sponsored the gun legislation in the House, said the courthouse carry allowance was removed from the Senate bill prior to the chamber floor vote at the request of judges’ councils and local sheriffs.

“We didn’t want to mislead anyone that they could bring in their guns into courthouses,” he said from the House floor. “Courthouses are under the sheriffs’ security plans and each county is mandated to have one.”

SB 101 also would eliminate the fingerprint requirement for concealed-carry license renewal, which must happen every five years.

Some probate court judges, who are tasked with issuing licenses, expressed concern that ceasing the requirement would lead to delays at gun retail checkout counters for lawfully licensed gun holders because they would have to submit to further background checks prior to purchase.

Jasperse said even though the fingerprint requirement would be removed, license holders would still be screened via federal and state law enforcement criminal record databases during the license renewal process. “I think we’ve answered the probate court judges’ questions,” he said.