Jacob H. is a smart, shy, introverted 16-year-old boy.  He rarely speaks and rarely looks anyone in the eye.  After Jacob was born at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) immediately placed Jacob in the foster system.  It took two months in neonatal intensive care for Jacob to recover from his exposure to his mother's use of crack cocaine during Jacob's pregnancy.  Neither Jacob nor his biological mother knows the identity of Jacob's biological father.  

Jacob was shuttled from foster home to foster home in his infancy.  Eventually, Jacob was placed in a foster home with six other boys.  Jacob is the youngest of the six young men.  Currently, four of the six are in prison.  The fifth quit going to school at 14 and is hustling in the streets.  In 2009, the school social worker at Jacob's school filed a truancy petition with the Juvenile Court in Fulton County.  At the time, Jacob had missed 35 out of 60 days of school and Jacob's highest grade in any class was a 35 (70 is a D).  He had been expelled from school six times for fighting and talking back to teachers.  The Truancy Intervention Project (TIP) became involved and assigned volunteer and GTLA Community Outreach Chair Erik Olson of The Olson Law Firm to represent Jacob and be his advocate. 

On October 13th, more than a dozen GTLA members attended a training with the Truancy Intervention Project (TIP) at the State Bar to learn how they can help kids like Jacob.  TIP volunteers work one-on-one with children as advocates inside the courtroom and role models outside to help children stay in school.

"The training really showed how significant the issue of truancy is in Georgia.  TIP is a great cause and I look forward to helping some students with their truancy cases," said Josh Madsen of Millar & Mixon, LLC.

Experts agree that truancy is often the first sign of trouble and high school truancy has been linked to vandalism, daytime burglary and serious juvenile delinquency.  In Georgia, more than 88 percent of all adult prison inmates are high school dropouts.

TIP was started in 1991 by Judge Glenda Hatchett and former Atlanta Bar President Terry Walsh.  Since then, TIP has served more than 6,000 Georgia children with an impressive success rate of 82 percent.  TIP staff created an early intervention initiative to work with families and identify underlying problems that often accompany truancy.

"When the TIP staffers talked, you could feel their conviction.  It was inspiring," said Jeb Butler of Butler, Wooten & Fryhofer, LLP.

Volunteer attorneys are required to attend a five hour training to become familiar with how they would serve as a lawyer in truancy cases or guardian ad litem for children in early intervention cases assigned to TIP.  

"Plaintiffs’ lawyers talk a lot about helping out the little guy by keeping insurers and corporations honest, and I hope we do a good job at that.  But by helping a struggling child stay in school, a lawyer can give assistance that is both timely and targeted directly at someone who needs it," Butler continued. 

And where is Jacob now? Thanks in part to Erik and TIP, he passed all of his classes his sophomore year and began his junior year.  He has expressed interest in becoming a lawyer and is on track to graduate from high school in 2013.

Beautiful Savannah once again proved to be an amazing host city as nearly 70 GTLA members gathered in early October for the great CLE and social festivities at the Annual Fall Workshop!  

It was a resounding success and we owe a huge thanks to our members and sponsors for their time, talent and contribution – see below. Stay tuned for details on next year’s workshop already being planned.

If you missed the workshop, you can order the written materials for only $65. Call us at 404-522-8487 x32 or send your request to Emily Wring at ewring@gtla.org.

Thank You!

Workshop Co-Chairs

Paul W. Painter, III, Painter Law, LLC

Rob Kelly, Kelly & Kelly, LLP

Welcome Reception Sponsors

Collision Specialists, Inc

Kelly & Kelly, LLP

National Settlement Consultants

Owen Murphy, Esq. 

Painter Law, LLC

Closing Reception and Dinner

The Tate Law Group, LLC

Speakers

Jim Butler, Butler, Wooten & Fryhofer, LLP, Atlanta & Columbus

Jeff Lasky, Lasky Law Group, Savannah

Steve Lowry, Harris Penn Lowry DelCampo, LLP, Savannah

Janna Martin, Friedman & Martin, PC, Savannah

Owen Murphy, Inglesby Falligant Law Firm, Savannah

Mike Prieto, Perrotta, Cahn & Prieto, PC, Cartersville

Bob Poston, President, Legal Technology Services, Inc., Loganville

Honorable Gregory Sapp, Chatham County State Court, Savannah

Jeff Shiver, Shiver & Hamilton, LLC, Atlanta

Amy Singer, President, Trial Consultants, Inc., Gainesville

Table Sponsors 

CaseMetrix, LLC

Civil Justice PAC

Collision Specialists, Inc.

Courtroom Visuals

Diagnostic Dating Specialists, LLC

Forge Consulting

ML Healthcare

Oasis Legal Finance

Regional Litigation Support Services

The Injury Specialists & Capital Surgical Financing

Vocational Economics, Inc.

The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association is excited to announce that the In The Know e-newsletter is now available in a simplified mobile application format.

    * Read articles in a format optimized for your phone or handheld device.

    * Link to external URLs.

    * Automatically receive new issues as they are published.

The application is FREE!

For the iPhone and iPad:

    * Visit www.itunes.com.

    * Log in to your account and search "NaylorNet Mobile Newswire."

For Blackberry mobile devices:

    * Visit http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore.

    * Log in to your account and search "NaylorNet Mobile Newswire."

In The Know is also available through any browser on any handheld device. Visit www.naylornetwork.com/gtl-nwl to read the current issue and browse past issues.

The Heart of Georgia is alive and well with trial lawyers! Macon Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (MGTLA) has enjoyed an exciting and productive 2011 through its meetings and community outreach. The first Wednesday of each month marks the regular meeting time for MGTLA, and we have a membership of over 50 strong, with average attendance of just over 20 at each meeting. 

Our speaker list for this year has been amazing. We’ve been honored to have Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Dillard, one of Macon’s own, to speak to a large lunch crowd. Recently, Georgia Representatives Allen Peake and James Beverly, and Senator Miriam Paris spoke at a meeting about a variety of concerns and ideas related to trial lawyers and government. GTLA President Geoff Pope imparted his words of wisdom upon our group during our August meeting. Case Metrix and Findlaw have served as sponsors for some of our meetings, and we certainly appreciate them reaching out to make the meetings a success. The November 2011 meeting will feature U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell as the guest speaker. 

MGTLA hasn’t just limited its 2011 successes to speakers and luncheons. The group recently voted to donate $2,000 to the Leadership Macon 2011 Class Project for a playground in a blighted neighborhood in Macon. 

The donation was part of a $50,000 capital fundraising project for the new Southside Community Center Playground in Lynmore Estates, Macon. Some of the members helped with the actual construction of the project that will provide numerous children the opportunity to play and congregate in a place where it was badly needed. 

This December, we will host a Judge’s luncheon for all of the area Judges we practice before. The lunch has, in past years, been a remarkable opportunity to network with our friends in the robes, some of whom are former members of MGTLA and GTLA. 

For more information on our meeting times and locations, please e-mail Jason E. Downey at JasonEDowneyLaw@Cox.net or call at 478-743-4771. We always welcome out of town guests with just a short notice so we can make sure the table is set for you. 

Your Civil Justice PAC needs your support to support pro-civil justice candidates for the 2011-2012 Election Cycle.  Please contribute today by visiting our website at www.civiljusticepac.com or sending a check made payable to "Civil Justice PAC" to the address below.  

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the PAC, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Dawn Lasusky Painter  

Executive Director         

101 Marietta Street         

Atlanta, GA 30303         

678-491-0462         

Michael A. Prieto

Chairman

Perrotta, Cahn & Prieto, P.C.

5 Public Square

Cartersville, GA 30120

770-386-4752

map@perrottalaw.com