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Christopher Willis in the Atlanta office of Clinton & Clinton won a defense verdict for his client, a worldwide auction company, in a three day jury trial from April 25-27, 2016 in the State Court of Coweta County, Georgia. The Plaintiff had suffered a severely broken leg while attempting to load a piece of heavy equipment at Defendant's auction yard premises. The primary issue at trial was liability as Plaintiff contended that he did not know how to load the equipment, had expressed this to Defendant's employees and they should have notified him that attempting to go forward anyway was dangerous. The defense countered that Plaintiff not only signed a release holding Defendant harmless and acknowledging that the premises were hazardous and that he was solely responsible for loading the equipment, but also that Plaintiff was not forced or coerced into loading the equipment and that his choice to do so was the proximate cause of his injury - not any breach of duty by the Defendant. The Plaintiff admitted on cross-examination that he did not want to lose the job and its fee and that he decided to "take his chances". Mr. Willis argued to the jury that the case was realy about personal responsibility and that the injury was the consequence of Plaintiff's choice to risk an injury to not lose the job. Plaintiff demanded over $850,000.00 in damages at the close of the trial but the jury determined that the Plaintiff was primarily negligent and not entitled to any award of damages.