Most personal injury firms settle every case. They take hundreds of files, spend minimal time on each, and accept whatever the insurance company offers. Clients get a fraction of what their case is worth. Nobody holds anyone accountable.
McDonald & Cody has operated differently since 1969. We take fewer cases. We prepare every one for trial. We have the financial resources to litigate all the way to verdict without being pressured into a cheap settlement. And when we go to trial, we win.
Insurance companies are not in the business of paying fair settlements. They are in the business of paying as little as possible. They know which firms will accept a low offer rather than prepare for trial. They know which firms have too many cases to take any one of them seriously.
We are not one of those firms. The table below shows four documented, side-by-side comparisons from real cases. In every case, the trial verdict came back 2 to 4 times higher than what the insurance company originally offered.
That gap is not luck. It is not a rare outcome. It is what happens consistently when a firm prepares every case to win at trial rather than to settle fast. We have 400+ jury trials and a 100% trial win rate across more than $100 million in total recoveries. Volume firms have settlement volume. McDonald & Cody has trial wins.
McDonald & Cody was founded in 1969. Three generations of attorneys have practiced under the same name, in the same communities, before the same courts. That continuity is not nostalgia. It is institutional knowledge that cannot be replicated.
Gus McDonald has been practicing since 1995. He is a national authority on impaired driving and alcohol liability litigation, has spoken in 19 states, and has published nationally on the subject. He is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which fewer than 1% of U.S. lawyers qualify for. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers for more than 20 years.
Gerald Cody has been practicing since 1982. He has focused on personal injury, wrongful death, and commercial trucking cases for more than four decades. In 2016, Gerald and Gus set recovery records in multiple Georgia courts.
Jackson McDonald clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Georgia Court of Appeals, and the Georgia State-Wide Business Court before joining the firm. He is currently undefeated on all motions filed. He leads our product liability and complex litigation practice.
Bo Hatchett is a Georgia State Senator representing nine counties, a University of Georgia School of Law graduate, and a trial lawyer with multiple multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, including the $17.2 million Gwinnett County verdict in 2025.
We do not route clients through case managers or intake coordinators. Attorneys outnumber staff at this firm. When you call, you speak to a lawyer. When you have a question about your case, you hear from a lawyer. When something happens that you need to know about, a lawyer tells you.
That is not how most personal injury firms operate. Volume firms handle hundreds of cases simultaneously. Individual clients become file numbers. The attorney whose name is on the door may never speak with you directly.
At McDonald & Cody, the attorney who takes your case is the attorney who prepares it, tries it, and sees it through to resolution. That is a structural commitment, not a marketing promise.
Taking a catastrophic injury or wrongful death case to verdict is expensive. Expert witnesses, court reporters, medical record retrieval, accident reconstruction, forensic analysis. These costs add up fast, and they have to be paid before the case resolves.
Volume firms accept low settlements in part because they cannot afford to keep funding expensive litigation for months or years. We have the financial resources to take any case to its conclusion. We pay every litigation expense except medical bills. There are no upfront costs to you. No loans. No advances against fees. You pay nothing unless we win.
That financial independence is what allows us to reject inadequate settlement offers and go to trial when the number is not right. It is not a talking point. It is the operational foundation of how we achieve results that volume firms cannot.
We decline multiple cases every week. That selectivity is not exclusivity for its own sake. It exists because every case we accept gets the full resources of the firm behind it. Deep investigation. Expert witnesses. Full trial preparation. The financial commitment to go the distance.
That is only possible with a controlled caseload. When a firm takes hundreds of cases, each case gets a fraction of what it needs. When we take fewer cases, each case gets everything.
For you, selectivity means something else too. If we accept your case, we believe in it. The investigation that follows is not cursory. The preparation for trial is not hypothetical. The commitment to the full value of the case is real.
Most cases conclude in approximately 18 months.
We are a statewide Georgia practice with offices in Cornelia and Alto and cases across the state. Our roots are in Northeast Georgia, and those roots run deep.
Gerald Cody is a native of Cornelia. Gus McDonald has practiced in these communities for three decades. Jackson McDonald and Bo Hatchett grew up in Northeast Georgia and have known each other since childhood. Bo has represented nine counties in the Georgia State Senate since 2021.
Those roots matter. They mean we know the courts, know the communities, and are known by the people who sit on juries. We have tried cases and set records in courts across this region. That is not geographic convenience. It is deep familiarity with how justice works here.
The billboard and TV firms are built for volume. Every case they settle, even for less than it is worth, feeds the machine. The pressure is always toward resolution, always toward the next file. That model works for them. It costs clients tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands, in recovery they were owed.
We are built for results. Our caseload is controlled. Every case is trial-ready. The financial resources are in place. The attorneys who take your case are the attorneys who see it through. And when it is time to decide whether to accept a settlement or go to trial, that decision is made based solely on what is best for you.
That is a different kind of law firm. The documented results are the proof.
$33 Million
VERDICT
Lithium-ion battery fire that destroyed a local business.
$17.2 Million
VERDICT (2025)
$13.1 Million
CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT
$7.1 Million
SETTLEMENT
$5.2 Million
Verdict
$4.3 Million
Verdict
$4 Million
Verdict
$3.2 Million
Verdict
We review every inquiry at no charge. If we can help, we will tell you. If we cannot, we will say so.
You pay nothing unless we win. We pay every litigation expense except medical bills.
North Office: 383 U.S. Hwy 441 Business, Cornelia, GA 30531 | 706-778-5291
South Office: 4005 Hwy 365 South, Alto, GA 30510 | 706-778-7178
Prefer to call? 706-778-5291