I moved my practice to Old Towne Sharpsburg

Conveniently close to PTC and Senoia.  Worth the drive from Newnan.  159 Main Street.  7702533218.

WE MOVED TOWARD SHARPSBURG & PEACHTREE CITY!

We moved our office last month to 1665 Hwy 34 E, Suite 300, Newnan, GA  30265.  Yes, that address is in The Summit Professional Park.  We are just west of The Healthplex - across a parking lot in the new building in the Park.  We are proud to be neighbors of The Healthplex, The YMCA and The Delta Credit Union.  We love it out here in Coweta County as close to Peachtree City as we are to Newnan. Call us today for an appointment if you have need of an Attorney or Lawyer:  

770-253-7778

Separating Church & State

The debate over gay marriage is a stupid one. Marriage is a religious term from the Church. What we as citizens must do and in so doing make our voices heard, is to demand the eradication of the term marriage from all law and replace it with the phrase "civil union". If two people want a "holy" civil union then they should by all means get married in a church or wherever else their minister will perform the ceremony. Otherwise a Judge should perform civil union ceremonies unless he or she is an ordained minister. It is the simple and complete and by the way constitutionally mandated solution to the growing controversy. What are the ramifications of doing this constitutionally mandated change? Who cares! It is the right thing to do and it is constitutional!

For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage

TRIAL LAWYER ATLANTA - The Role of The Attorney

Law, Witnesses, Documentary Evidence are the ingredients of every case.  The Attorney is responsible for knowing the Law.  The client for knowing the Witnesses and the Evidence.  Once these ingredients are accumulated the Lawyer then becomes the Producer, Director and Creator of the product that will be presented to the Judge or Jury.  A simple analogy is that of baking a cake:  Ingredients coordinated incorrectly and baked at the wrong temperature will not yield a good result.  A recent case of alienation presented us with a mess:  Too many witnesses, too many documents; no episodic evident, just a myriad of anecdotes, insinuations, nasty but short comments; an attitude, however, that clearly presented created a mosaic of bad conduct that in turn was a clear picture of a campaign of parental alienation.  The problem presented was how to Produce the presentation to be effective and not the proverbial 'herding cats' debacle that would quickly turn into boring mush that would bring the Judge's instruction "I've heard enough of this now let's move on" which would in turn cast the remaining numerous anecdotes with insignificance and then immateriality.  It is the Attorneys job to correctly meld the witnesses and documents to present a clear and dynamic presentation to the Judge and, or, Jury.  That task is not easy and will not happen without significant reflective thought about how to do it effectively and clearly with the ultimate goal being to present the case with simple ringing truth without browbeating everyone in the Courtroom.  Experience and dedication at every turn is invaluable.

Lawyer Newnan

This article raises disturbing questions about the role of prosecutors. Prosecutors are both at once, Executive Branch employees often burdened with the concern that they might be perceived as soft on crime and lose votes in the next election [and some won't negotiate a plea for that very reason] and yet at the same time they are Officers of the Court [sworn members of the Judiciary] with the mandate that they be totally candid with the Court. Justice Stevens criticizes a bad decision. I hope the New York Legislature compensates the man for the injustice he was made to suffer.

Stevens Urges Congress to Crack Down on Prosecutorial Misconduct - Law Blog - WSJ

Call Prater, Duncan & Craig today: 770-253-7778:

ATTORNEY NEWNAN || A Great Article About Our Future

  Special Report: Vision 2011 – Coweta's future already in view - The Times-Herald

If the World doesn't self destruct SouthMetro ATL, particularly Coweta County's future appears to be dynamic and a great place to raise a family, pursue a career and have a spectacular quality of life at an economical price.  I can truly say I love it here.

FDIC seeks $6 million from law firm - The Times-Herald

I have been blogging about this for almost 2 years now. I am sure there are investors and depositors that were hurt by the reckless acts of Bank executives and their inner circle. Now the FDIC is seeking to recover money on the very same theory, except this is not going anywhere but back to the FDIC.

FDIC seeks $6 million from law firm - The Times-Herald

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? // Current

Apparently there will be very few if any repercussions over the collusion and fraud that caused the financial meltdown year before last. The media strangely seem completely uninterested in the unraveling the story and exposing the crooked world of Wall Street. I would venture to say that that world is populated by friends and family of the talking heads, producers, and executives that control mainstream media. So we have to rely on rags like Rolling Stone to light a dim candle. The same kind of back room back scratching went on at our local banks. If you got hurt don't let the statute of limitations, 2 years, run before you talk to a lawyer about it. Here's the link to the article that started this:

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? // Current

Call us to discuss: 770-253-7778

Mega Millions Lottery Winner Holly Lahti's Story Marred by Jarring Mug Shot

Mega Millions Lottery Winner Holly Lahti's Story Marred by Jarring Mug Shot

HERE IS ONE HUGE REASON TO GET DIVORCED RATHER THAN SEPARATE AND STAY MARRIED. WHATEVER YOU DO: DO NOT WIN THE LOTTERY WHEN YOU ARE JUST SEPARATED. GET DIVORCE!

A NEW FRONTIER FOR LITIGATION| Businesses drive litigation not individuals

    A new Huffington Post story foreshadows a lifetime of litigation created by and fueled by Big Business.  It regards the MERS system of transferring mortgages in order to circumvent laws that protect property rights and due process, two constitutionally protected rights given to citizens.  Here is the ARTICLE

Law.com: Prior Suit May Signal Fate of Cases Against Ga. Megachurch Pastor

Breach of fiduciary duty cases illustrate what damages are all about. Sexual relations between consenting adults are probably not great damages cases and rely heavily on the victim's ability to communicate and the way they do it in front of an audience. Just how vulnerable was the victim is also a critical issue. My damages professor always illustrated the dilemma a jury has to confront by asking us to consider a bad facial injury to a hobo who spends his life down by the train terminal warming his hands over a burn barrel and the same injury to a famous fashion model ~ then he asked us to debate "do you really think a jury of twelve intelligent citizens are going to give the bum the same amount of pain and suffering they give the model?"

Here is the link that sparked this post:

Law.com: Prior Suit May Signal Fate of Cases Against Ga. Megachurch Pastor

NEWNAN PRATLAW|| 14th amendment essay

The Supreme Court is reviewing a Chicago gun ban statute this term. The case is McDonald v. Chicago. From listening to his interview with Nina Totenberg this is what I recall [of course I may be taking liberty with the exact facts]: Mr. McDonald, an elderly man, was upset that on 3 different occasions "Utes" came to his home to "visit", would not leave when he asked, demanded that they vacate his property and then stole everything he owned that was valuable. Mr. McDonald decided to purchase a gun to help him persuade the "Utes" the next time they came to visit that they should leave his home without looting it. Mr. McDonald's acts were apparently illegal according to Chicago's handgun ban. Legally, the case poses the prospect of the Supreme Court finally issuing a decision as to the extent of the scope of the 14th amendment and if they take on that topic the case could be one of the most important cases in our lifetime. It is more likely that the Court will just strike down the handgun ban and limit its decision to the specific statute. I posted the link on my blog at HOT LEGAL TOPICS [Click it to go there]. Hope you find the topic relevant enough to follow and keep up with the Court's decision.

Newnan Lawyer Pratlaw's Essay On Presenting Documents

...when it comes to documents.

Over the past 23 years I have come to appreciate the fact that Judges as a whole do not like being given documents with highlighted passages or handwritten notes beside the part of the document you think is important. Doing that is really close to a demand that the Court become a participant in the blind men and the elephant philosophical exercise about the scope of perception: The Blind Men And The Elephant Fable and they do not like the Socratic Method to the extreme of banality, i.e., rain is rain you cannot assert you do not understand it until someone explains it to you and you "feel" it. What all this means in plain English is: (a) The Judge controls his or her court room and no one else has any right to control it. So make a copy of any document you feel the urge to write on, so your lawyer can present the 'clean' one to the Judge and draw the Judge's attention to the passage you have highlighted in your 'dirty' copy by asking the Court's permission to draw its attention to that passage; (b) A testifier's inability to grasp easy questions and evasive answers soon turns a Judge off [and a Jury Too]. Do not engage in Tabula Rasa Socratic Responses [inane question answers to straightforward questions], and; always remember: Neither Judge nor Jury need to be hit over the head with information they can clearly see or hear. They really can be trusted to figure it out.

Newnan Pratlaw Essay: The Olympics and Injury

The tragic death at the 2010 Olympic Games highlights and illustrates two of the primary legal issues involved when a person is hurt or killed on the property of another. They are the legal doctrines of: (1) Superior Knowledge of a Dangerous Instrumentality versus equal knowledge of it, and; (2) Assumption of Risk. The young Luger's story is discussed in this recent article discussing the two issues surrounding whether anyone other than the deceased is responsible for his death. ||ARTICLE||

Call us today for an appointment to discuss your legal matter before evidence goes missing or is forgotten.

TORTIOUS INJURY ALWAYS INVOLVES THE PHYSICS OF ENERGY

The famous painting of the old-time child's game 'snap the whip' is a fantastic illustration of the transference of energy. I would guesstimate that the children in the painting have transferred perhaps the equivalent of 2+/- mph of energy through the whip and that explodes the end children off the whip. Note that the "base" of the whip requires two boys to stabilize the transference. Imagine then the amount of energy that transfers in a 7 mph crash straight into the body of the occupants of a vehicle and you will understand why a 7 mph crash is considered a high speed crash.
For More on the subject visit |||PRATLAW ON INJURIES|||

2010 BIG CHANGES FOR THE GOOD

R. KEITH PRATER, P.C. will change its name over the course of 2010 to PRATER & ASSOCIATES as Attorney John D. Duncan has associated with the Firm. Keith Prater is excited about the prospect of mentoring John in the beginning of his practice. John has worked hard to gain his law license and has since associating with the Firm proven himself more than capable, winning outright his first trial, a difficult modification of child support and medical payments case, and obtaining a Not Guilty verdict in his second trial in a misdemeanor case. John's association will allow the firm to handle all the calls coming in from prospective clients many of which were not being returned as the firm's practice grew so large over the past two years that on multiple occasions new prospective client calls were not returned because workload and returning existing client calls consumed the entire workday. We have since John cam on board in October been promptly returning calls more than 95% of the time.

IF YOU CALL ME AND WE DON'T HIT IT OFF I WILL ...

REFER YOU TO ANOTHER GREAT LOCAL LAWYER OR TWO OR THREE TO CHOOSE FROM. THERE IS NO ONE GREAT WIZARD OF OZ LAWYER HERE OR ANYWHERE BUT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF REALLY GREAT ONES AROUND HERE ||||

WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY, here is a repost with solid logic for you to consider:

First: always consult face to face with an attorney regarding any matter that is serious to you.

Second: The ancient mathmatical logic mandate is alive and well today: "All things being equal the simplest answer is the correct answer". This is the anglicization of the latin maxim attributed to the mathematician Ockham, called "Ockham or Occam's Razor": Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem or "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily."

Third: The 'Devil Is In The Details', always was, and always will be. || The hard decision is deciding when all things are in fact equal and what the things are that are equal. That is where experienced legal counsel comes in ~

Fourth: Experience is not just a linear time continuim but also requires/mandates actual real involvement in significant disputes and litigation; a lawyer could, after all, get his/her license, go to sleep like Rumpelstiltskin, wake up 50 years later and parade around proclaiming "Come see me!! I am a Lawyer with 50 years experience" ~ of course the experience would be that he or she had been asleep at the wheel for the past 50 years! Unfortunately some lawyers proclaim just about that.

Fifth: Experience is a great teacher - being asleep at the wheel not so much. Hire a great lawyer with real life experience and a lot of it.

WISHING YOU NOTHING BUT THE BEST

Rambling thoughts at Christmas Time: Children are egocentric and get more so the older they age. Do not transpose your beliefs in how you think they should see divorce. Remember they get 2 Christmases. They will wonder if the divorce was their fault and need to be told it was not ~ once. Like horses and pets, Children not only learn from our words, but our tone, cues, gestures etcetera. Grown Children is an oxymoron phrase: after age 18 they are as a matter of law no longer children but sons and daughters ~ and childhood is but memory. Make your memories fond. Don't qualify to go on the Jerry Springer Show. Here's Wishing You Nothing but
The Best! Live, Love and Prosper!

Hiring A Great Newnan Lawyer

If you are about to go through a divorce, custody dispute, or support modification you want to make sure that you are represented by a great lawyer. How can you make sure that you get everything you want and that the divorce is clean and final if you don’t have good and real legal representation? A divorce lawyer can smooth out the process for you and help you understand the ‘fine print’ of divorce proceedings. You are going to want to work with one of the top divorce lawyers you can find in your area and this article will give you the edge in your search for the divorce lawyer you need to hire. Now don’t take the attitude that you don’t have the money to hire and work with a top divorce lawyer in your area. Though your apprehension is normal, especially since the top divorce lawyers in any area can charge top dollar–way beyond the budget of any ordinary person about to go through a divorce, you need to know that getting on the short list of top divorce lawyers in your area requires a lot of success and that comes from doing a lot of cases not just the million dollar ones. So what makes a top divorce lawyer? Is it the law school he or she attended; the number of high-profile divorces under his or her belt; the cost of legal fees being charged? While these are usual considerations in making that determination, there are others. Top divorce lawyers don’t soar to the top just because they are hired by famous people or because they charge a lot to represent you; they get to the top by hard work hard and by building a good reputation with the Courts as lawyers that are fair and negotiate cases well and when in front of the Court are there for serious business and not for minor details or ridiculous assertions. You will know that you are working with one of the top divorce lawyers when you witness for yourself the lawyer’s level of professionalism. He or she will know the ins and outs of divorce and family law, and the lawyer will take a keen interest in every detail of your case and offer you some words of wisdom based on his or her experience from years before the Court your case is in. He or she will also stay on top of developments in divorce law, and will be constantly adding to his or her knowledge by attending divorce and family law seminars. You also know that you’re dealing with a good lawyer if he or she really takes time to talk to you and learn about your case and discuss strategic ways to present the case in the best light for successfully reaching your goals. Keep in mind that the top divorce lawyers are usually in high demand, and secure them immediately. And be forewarned that a top divorce lawyer is not one that requires a huge up front fee but is one that has a large hourly rate. Don't fear that large hourly rate as a top divorce lawyer will bill fairly and frequently won't charge for short calls and short office visits. Call PRATER & ASSOCIATES today to talk to a top lawyer: 770-253-7778

Newnan Pratlaw Yasmin Info

Yasmin contraception tablets are having negative side effects on patients. If you have been taking Yasmin, you should be vigilant and concerned, especially if you smoke or already have heart issues. These are the women that are most at risk of suffering severe side effects from taking Yasmin, although studies show that it can happen to any woman taking the medicine! If you notice a trouble breathing, unnecessary vaginal bleeding, or the commencement of migraines or if you are diagnosed as having liver afflictions, blood clots, gallbladder damage, or some other unusual health issue that is causing you concern you need to seek medical help and a lawyer that knows how to pursue a products liability claim [failure to warn] now before valuable evidence in your case is “lost” or disappears or is forgotten. Lawyers all over the country are putting together lawsuits including class actions against Bayer, the company that manufactures Yasmin: Yasmin contains a diuretic which can raise or lower the quantity of potassium in the body which in turn, can end up in atypical heart rhythms and poor circulation bringing on blood clots and heart attacks. In October, 2008, the FDA wrote a letter to Bayer accusing it of false advertising and in response, Bayer started a $20 million corrective advert campaign however, for many women the damage has been done already. In 2008 alone there were over 240 million units of Yasmin produced and although sales have dropped significantly there are still thousands of women taking the medication. It has been alleged that there have been more than 50 women have died as a direct result of taking Yasmin, one death involved a 17-year-old girl who died after only 6 months of Yasmin use. Since there are still so many women that have taken Yasmin and suffered health problems and these cases yet to be processed it is likely that a class action suit might be started in the future. A class action legal action is one that’s filed on behalf of a large number of victims. It is usually recommended that any one taking Yasmin switch to some other form of birth control as quickly as possible. If you’ve already been taking Yasmin and have noticed a change in your health or worse have develop serious side-effects, google Pratlaw ga and contact R. Keith Prater, P.C. “If we can’t help you we will know who can” means that if we do not file your claim ourselves we will coordinate you into one of the class actions that have or will be filed.