MOTIONS AND APPEALS
In major cases, trial lawyers often hire “embedded” appellate counsel during the pretrial phase, to build the best possible team for their clients and ensure that any legal issues are preserved for appeal. Appellate counsel looks beyond the trees to see the forest, finding new paths to the best result. Daubert motions, dispositive motions, questions of statutory construction, and post-trial challenges to a verdict are just a few settings where the appellate attorney’s specialized skill set can help put the case in the most advantageous position for settlement or trial.
When an appeal must be taken, experience counts. A former appellate clerk and past Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Georgia, Leighton has handled well over 100 appeals in the Georgia Court of Appeals; the Supreme Court of Georgia; the United States Courts of Appeals; and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Leighton’s experience includes:
Obtaining appellate reversal of summary judgment in a direct action against a trucking insurer, Stillwell v. Topa Insurance Company, Case No. A21A1752 (Ga. Ct. App. 2022);
Overcoming a multi-pronged defense motions strategy in a hotly disputed birth-injury case, resulting in a confidential eight-figure settlement;
Obtaining appellate reversal after a trial court ordered a catastrophically injured woman to accept an insurer’s $25,000 offer — case later settled for $11 million;
Defeating qualified immunity defenses on summary judgment in the Eleventh Circuit, resulting in settlement of claims for wrongful death on behalf of children whose father was killed by a DeKalb County police officer’s improper use of a TASER;
Spearheading challenges to defense experts in a birth-injury case arising under the Federal Tort Claims Act, facilitating a $10 million settlement;
Coordinating discovery and motions that led the trial court to strike defendants’ answers in a negligent security case, resulting in a settlement of more than $14 million;
Obtaining a unanimous reversal by the Georgia Supreme Court in Johnson v. Omondi, 294 Ga. 74 (2013), the leading case in Georgia regarding the legal standard for emergency department malpractice;
Helping to defend personal-injury verdicts of $13.9 million, $17 million, and $16 million through post-trial motions and appeal, resulting in favorable resolution of each case;
Serving as lead Georgia Supreme Court counsel for the Plaintiff in the premises-liability case of Ambling Management Co., LLC, v. Miller, 295 Ga. 758 (2014), obtaining a unanimous Supreme Court opinion that preserved the client’s claims against summary judgment and resulted in a favorable settlement;
Reversing a trial court’s rulings on Daubert and summary judgment motions, resulting in favorable settlement of malpractice and wrongful death claims against a major corporate laboratory for misreading a Pap smear slide.
CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATION
Vindicating constitutional rights is among the highest pursuits in the law, and one of the most difficult. In two decades of constitutional litigation, Leighton has:
Successfully represented young men confined in Georgia’s juvenile justice system against State officials for failing to prevent chronic riots, violence, and sexual assault, resulting in settlements totaling over $3 million;
Represented a journalism student who was shot near the eye with a plastic bullet during the May 2020 George Floyd protests in downtown Atlanta;
Defeated a corporate-funded lawsuit that attempted to chill the First Amendment right of plaintiffs’ law firms to use publicly available government data about nursing homes in their advertising;
Overcome a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court after persuading the Eleventh Circuit to deny qualified immunity at the pleading stage to sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed a man in his driveway;
Won Eleventh Circuit precedent establishing that Taser use can constitute deadly force, resulting in wrongful-death settlement for children whose father was killed by DeKalb County Police;
Helped obtain a $400k settlement on behalf of a Vietnam combat veteran who was wrongfully profiled, violently arrested, and jailed by officers at the Atlanta airport;
Spoken on civil rights litigation issues at continuing legal education seminars, including Georgetown University’s annual Section 1983 conference and the annual CLE of the State Bar of Georgia, Individual Rights Law Section;
Authored and co-authored friend-of-the-court briefs in important constitutional cases, including Goodman v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151 (2006), Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), and Sims v. State, 279 Ga. 389 (2005), which won a Case of the Year award from the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
MAJOR INJURY, WRONGFUL DEATH, & CRIME VICTIMS
Leighton represents injured persons, family members, and victims of crime against those who are legally responsible for serious injury and wrongful death. Leighton takes special satisfaction in standing up for the rights of the disadvantaged, including victims of abuse, victims of excessive or wrongful police violence, and crime victims injured due to negligent security. Some of Leighton’s recent cases include:
$14 million settlement obtained for the family of a young woman shot at a crime-ridden apartment complex;
$1.25 million pre-suit settlement obtained for a young man who was shot in the face at an unsafe apartment complex;
Confidential settlement for a delivery driver who slipped and fell on hidden ice at a car dealership, resulting in a herniated disc;
Confidential multi-million-dollar settlement obtained for a guest at an extended-stay motel who was rendered quadriplegic during an attempted armed robbery in the parking lot;
Confidential multi-million-dollar settlement obtained for the family of a young man who was killed after being mistaken for a gang member at a West Atlanta college housing development;
Confidential seven-figure settlement obtained for mother of child killed in a boating collision involving a personal watercraft (PWC or jet-ski) on Lake Lanier;
Confidential settlement for a pedestrian who suffered two broken legs after being struck by an unsafe driver;
Confidential settlement for a young man who was run over while working as a “zombie” on a popular television program;
Personal-injury verdicts totaling well over $100 million preserved through post-trial motions and appeal;
Favorable settlement obtained for a victim of sexual abuse and child pornography in her nationally significant federal statutory action under Masha’s Law;
Prevailed in the Georgia Supreme Court on behalf of a young man wrongfully shot by an off-duty police officer while delivering medicine to his disabled aunt.