Douglas County

Douglas County Injury Lawyer

Our statewide litigation of wrongful death and catastrophic cases throughout Georgia occasionally takes us to the courts of Douglas County, where Ken Shigley was high school student body president, returned after law school, served as an Assistant District Attorney and practiced as a young lawyer.

Douglas County is the 17^th  most populous of Georgia’s 159 counties, with 2020 census population of 145,063. Douglasville, the one incorporated municipality, has grown to take in much of the county.

Douglas County was created during Reconstruction in 1870, carved from a portion of Campbell (now part of Fulton) County. Because of the political dynamics of the Reconstruction period, the county was initially named Douglass County after the African American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.  As soon as former Confederate white Democrats regained political control, the second “s” was dropped and the county was named after Stephen Douglas, an Illinois senator and the Democratic opponent of Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. The switch between “two S Douglass” and “one S Douglas” was not on historical markers or official histories for generations.  Now, a century and a half after its founding, Douglas County has an African American majority and local government is headed largely by African American elected officials.

 During the Civil War, the New Manchester Manufacturing Company on Sweetwater Creek was burned by Union troops under General Sherman on July 9, 1864, during skirmishes prior to the final Battle of Atlanta. Built in 1849, by the time of the Civil War its textile products were used to clothe and supply the Confederate Army.  The ruins of the mill form a ghostly monument in the middle of Sweetwater Creek State Park.

Douglas County remained mostly rural and agricultural for generations. In the 1960’s, I-20 opened from Atlanta to Highway 5 in Douglasville, and later extended westward to Alabama. Suburban growth began as a trickle but eventually boomed, with population growing from 16,741 in 1960 to 146,343 in 2020.

The courts in Douglas County include the Superior Court of Douglas County, State Court of Douglas County, Juvenile Court of Douglas County, Magistrate Court of Douglas County, and municipal courts of Douglasville.

Until recently, Douglas County rarely saw a significant civil jury verdict. Now an exceptionally strong case can result in a strong verdict there, as it would almost anywhere in Georgia. Substantial civil cases are litigated in Superior Court and State Court.

The Superior Court of Douglas County has general jurisdiction in all civil cases with venue in Douglas County, divorce cases, and felony criminal cases punishable by death or imprisonment for one year or more. Because of the heavy criminal and domestic relations dockets in Superior Court, many lawyers choose to go to State Court for civil cases that do not require equity jurisdiction, e.g., injunctions. Ken Shigley was lead counsel in approximately 50 jury trials in the Superior Court of Douglas County.

The State Court of Douglas County has jurisdiction over all civil damages cases that do not require equity jurisdiction for injunctions, etc., and misdemeanor criminal cases. Most civil damage suits for serious personal injury and wrongful death are filed in State Court. 

Both Superior Court and State Court in Douglas County require use of e-filing through Odyssey eFileGa.

Magistrate courts have civil jurisdiction over small claims up to $15,000. We do not handle traffic tickets, family law or small claims, and do not ordinarily go to Magistrate Courts or municipal courts unless it is to monitor a traffic court proceedings of someone who injured our clients.