John W. Sherrod
Abogado De Lesiones Personales en Douglasville
Few attorneys in Douglas County and western Georgia can match the experience and accomplishments of John Sherrod.
He has been representing injured plaintiffs and their families for some 34 years, obtaining numerous seven- and eight-figure settlements on their behalf.
A Georgia native, born and raised in Marietta, John attended the University of Georgia , graduating with honors in 1984. During his college years, he befriended future law partner Ken Bernard, and the two students made plans to study law and perhaps one day start their own law firm.
After college, John immediately enrolled at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law , where he graduated first in his class in 1987. During law school, he worked as an intern for an insurance defense law firm and then joined that firm as an attorney after receiving his J.D.
But after a couple of years, John was having doubts about the type of law he was practicing.
“I felt like I was representing these faceless corporations motivated by greed, and I wanted to help the little guy,” he recalls. “So I headed in the direction I’m still in today.”
He joined a plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm in western Georgia, a move that provided him with greater personal and professional satisfaction. During this time, his old college friend Ken Bernard was finishing up his service as a military attorney for the U.S. Marines in California. He had a law degree from the University of Georgia and was preparing to begin his career as a civilian attorney. They talked on the phone about their shared vision, and in 1992, when Bernard concluded his active duty, the law firm of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C. was born.
“My vision was for us to go back to our roots,” John says. “We were both pretty local guys — Ken grew up here and I’m from the next county over — and represent the people we grew up with, our friends and family and neighbors, and give them effective representation that they don’t have to go to Atlanta or anywhere else to get. They can get it right here in Douglas County.”
John has focused on personal injury and workers’ compensation claims ever since.
“If there’s someone who is injured due to the negligence or misconduct of another person or company, those are the types of cases I handle,” he says. “That can be someone who is injured on the job, and the employer and their insurer refuse to do the right thing to provide workers’ compensation benefits, all the way up to wrongful death cases.”
Throughout his career at Sherrod & Bernard, PC, John has claimed a notable number of verdicts and settlements.
In 2011, a Fulton County jury awarded his client $2 million, believed to be a Georgia record for a knee injury case. He also recently recorded a $12.5 million verdict against Suzuki Motor Corp. for failing to warn about a brake defect that resulted in a spinal cord injury suffered by his client.
In another case, he represented a child who was severely burned when a Chinese buffet restaurant employee accidentally spilled scalding hot soup from a large container while transporting it to the service area. John retained restaurant industry experts who pointed out that the restaurant had been negligent in failing to properly transport the soup via cart with a second person providing direction. The result was a seven-figure structured settlement.
Another case where John used experts to show how the defendants were negligent involved a farm trailer occupying a lane of a highway while the driver of the vehicle towing it had stopped to open a gate into a field. A motorcycle driver came over the top of a hill, crashed into the trailer and was killed. John represented the man’s wife and used experts who recreated the scene and showed that the driver could have moved the trailer off the road, discrediting a defense argument. The result was another seven-figure settlement.
“It’s David versus Goliath, taking cases against these large corporations,” John says. “Without people like me, the average person has no chance of standing up to these multi-billion dollar insurance companies and corporations when injustice has been committed — and it is committed every day.”
John is a frequent speaker at trial lawyer functions and is active in several professional organizations.
He enjoys tennis and other forms of physical activity, and he and his wife enjoy traveling.
How can we help
Expert representation from attorneys you can trust
When you find yourself in a legal bind, you need an experienced attorney you can trust to provide you with expert representation and sound legal advice. Any attorney under the sun will tell you that he or she is the right person for the job, but you need a firm backed by a track record of success. You need the firm of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., serving the Douglasville area.
After attending the University of Georgia together, attorneys John Sherrod and Ken Bernard founded the law firm of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., in 1992. From the beginning, our firm’s goal has been to provide each client with the quality personal service and expert representation they deserve. You can rely on our work ethic and our commitment to our clients.
You need a highly qualified attorney to successfully resolve your legal problems. One of our attorneys can help. Schedule a free consultation by calling our Douglasville office at 678-905-7503.
