Ken Shigley is an Atlanta-based trucking trial attorney representing clients in cases of serious personal injury and wrongful death arising from large truck crashes statewide in Georgia.
Catastrophic truck crash cases are the core of our law practice. Mr. Shigley is a member of the Board of Regents of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, the premiere national organization of lawyers focused exclusively on representation of injury victims in truck crash cases. Previously, he served as a board member of the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group and chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute.
He served in 2015-16 as chair of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section, which specialized litigation groups on Trucking Litigation, Bus Litigation, Inadequate Security Litigation, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, Motorcycle Litigation, Bicycle Litigation, and Resort Torts Litigation.
Mr. Shigley has represented individuals and families devastated in many truck crash cases involving wrongful death, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, vertebral fractures, burns and back injuries, herniated cervical discs, broken legs, arms, ankles, hips and and other injuries arising from truck, bus and car crashes, dangerous commercial premises and defectively designed or manufactured products.
Mr. Shigley is the 2019 plaintiffs’ practice recipient of the Tradition of Excellence Award from the General Practice & Trial Section of the State Bar of Georgia. In 2011-12, Mr. Shigley was president of the 45,000-member State Bar of Georgia, which includes all attorneys and judges licensed in Georgia. That included intense work with the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government and judges’ councils in all classes and levels of the judiciary statewide, the 150-member board of governors, 16-member executive committee and staff of 75 in three State Bar offices in Atlanta, Savannah and Tifton. He also served as a member of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform (appointed by Governor Nathan Deal),chairman of the board of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia (2012-13, trustee 2008-present); and as a member of the Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency, the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution, Georgia Courts Automation Commission, as a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, National Conference of Bar Presidents and Southern Conference of Bar Presidents. Previously, he was chair of the State Bar of Georgia Tort & Insurance Practice Section and the Georgia Insurance Law Institute.
In 2012, the Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission included him in the “short list” of nominees submitted to the Governor to consider for appointment to the Georgia Court of Appeals. He ran statewide for election to the Court of Appeals in 2018. Although he got more votes on the day of the primary election than the eventual Governor, Brian Kemp, he came in second in the judicial election.
One of only 18 Georgia lawyers who have earned double board certification in Civil Trial Advocacy and Civil Pretrial Advocacy from the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification, he is also a Diplomate of the National College of Advocacy.
Mr. Shigley is the lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (Thomson Reuters West, 2010-19), which was quoted as an authority by the Supreme Court of Georgia and federal district courts.
Peer review ratings include an “AV” (highest) rating in theMartindale Hubbell Law Directory, “Super Lawyer” rating in Atlanta Magazine, “Legal Elite” ranking in Georgia Trend magazine, “Who’s Who in Law” listing in Atlanta Business Chronicle, and inclusion in the Bar Register or Preeminent Lawyers. For over 25 years, he has been a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs in Georgia and across the United States.
Often on the “bleeding edge” in new developments, he launched the first law firm website in the Southeast in 1996 and one of the first lawyer blogs in the Southeast in 2005. He is the State Bar representative on the Judicial Council of Georgia Technology Committee.
Representative Cases: All cases are different, and past performance does not guarantee future results, but here are a few representative cases.
- $8 million confidential settlement of tractor trailer wrongful death case in metro Atlanta, 2019.
- $3 million confidential settlement of tractor trailer wrongful death case in rural south Georgia, 2015. This was the record recovery ever in that county up to that time.
- Won $2.3 million jury verdict in Gordon County for client who suffered complex leg fracture in head on collision with truck operated for interstate motor carrier. This was the largest verdict ever in the history of Gordon County to that time.
- Represented 10 of 33 members of baseball team injured in crash of team bus, with collective resolution for total of $16 million, distributed to team members according to agreed formula.
- $6 million jury verdict for auto defect that led to passenger ejection in rollover in 2006.
- $5.75 million medical malpractice recovery in metro Atlanta in 2018.
- $2 million confidential multiple seven figure settlement against auto manufacturer where defective design of anti-lock brake system led to fatal crash of minivan.
- Confidential settlement of logging truck wrongful death case for 12 times the amount of insurance coverage on the truck itself after litigating insurance coverage, bankruptcy and wrongful death issues in three separate courts.
- $2,000,000 confidential settlement against manufacturer of sports utility vehicle.
- Made joint damages presentation for group of college cheerleaders who recovered total of $9.3 million in crash caused by failure of tire on college van, apportioned among 13 plaintiffs on an agreed formula.
- Recovered $1.25 million policy limits settlement for a young man who was t-boned in an intersection in Cobb County suffering a brain injury, despite evidence that he was talking on the phone with his gay partner while turning left in an intersection.
- Won a $1.2 million jury verdict for Atlanta woman with head and neck injuries who had been drinking and doing cocaine with the driver of car in which she was a passenger.
- Obtained $1.3 million settlement – $300,000 above insurance policy limits — for the parents of teenager killed when their family minivan was rear-ended by tractor trailer at night on I-75 near Calhoun.
- Recovered $1 million policy limit in wrongful death case against a fly-by-night trucking company in Tennessee.
- Recovered $850,000 settlement while jury was deliberating for neck injury for man struck by a dump truck in Macon.
- Recovered $750,000 for and airline passenger whose ankle was shattered when she was struck without warning by a motorized cart in airport terminal concourse.
After graduating from Emory Law School, Mr. Shigley began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit, prosecuting hundreds of criminal cases in the counties of Douglas, Haralson, Paulding and Polk. He then spent several years in small town general practice, handling a broad range of matters that included criminal defense, divorce, child custody and support, real estate, wills, probate, bankruptcy, small business formation, collections, personal injury, workers compensation, and virtually anything else that could come in the front door of a small town law office.
When an Atlanta insurance defense firm made him an offer out of the blue, he spent the next decade defending lawsuits for insurance companies and state and local governments throughout Georgia. That provided a strong base of experience on the insurance defense side of wrongful death, personal injury and insurance coverage cases throughout Georgia.
He launched his own firm in Atlanta at the end of 1990, and since then has focused primarily on plaintiffs’ personal injury and wrongful death cases and insurance coverage disputes.
From 1995 to 2003, he served frequently as a mediator at Henning Mediation & Arbitration Service. Currently he is a mediator with Miles Mediation.
A graduate of Furman University and Emory University Law School (where he has been an adjunct instructor in trial techniques and small firm practice), he also completed the “Ultimate Trial Advocacy” course at Harvard Law School, an executive education program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and all four regional programs of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College.
Mr. Shigley is currently an active elder of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. He has served as trustee of The Peachtree Trust. He has served as an elder at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, YMCA youth soccer coach, assistant scoutmaster of the Boy Scout troop where his son became an Eagle Scout, board chair of a church-based child development center, Secretary of the Bill Maness Good Samaritan Scholarship Fund, Inc.,board member of Lifegate Christian counseling center, and on the national advisory board of the Children’s Tumor Foundation Endurance Team.
Ken was married almost 34 years until his wife, Sally, succumbed to a 29-year battle with recurring brain tumors in June 2017. Their two adult children are both married and on their own. In his spare time, he has completed marathons and triathlons, and enjoys backpacking, scuba diving, kayaking, biking and travel.