Eshman Begnaud LLC

Mediator Michael Eshman makes a case for the "Seven Dirty Words at Mediation" in this piece for the Daily Report. Read here: https://bit.ly/47RHdOe

Point/Counterpoint: An Attorney and Mediator Talk Mediation What do mediators wish lawyers did more often? What do lawyers want mediators to do? Mediator Michael Eshman, and attorney Mark Miller share insights from both sides.

$750k Recovery Against Corrections Officers Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for Family of Man Murdered By His Cellmate at Macon State Prison
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After multiple physical altercations, Coty Silvers' cellmate warned corrections officers of what he would do to Coty if he was not moved out of the cell.

“I’m about to go home, I ain’t got time for this,” is what one officer told them, according to the cellmate. The threats and Coty's cries for help were ignored and nothing was done.

On May 22, 2020, Coty was found brutally tortured and murdered an hour after his final plea.

$750k Recovery Against Corrections Officers Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for Family of Man Murdered By His Cellmate at Macon State Prison | OGLETHORPE, GA—Corrections officers at Macon State Prison were warned for days of multiple physical altercations between Coty Silvers and his cellmate. Coty’s cellmate warned corrections officers of what he would do to Coty if he was not moved out of the cell.

Federal judge awards $298,530 in attorneys' fees to Mark Begnaud and The Law Offices of Mark Allen Yurachek & Associates, LLC after winning a First Amendment case at the Eleventh Circuit.

$200k Settlement Reached in Excessive Force Lawsuit Against Clayton County Jailers and

Melvin McDay was arrested for jaywalking and booked into Sheriff Hill's which the sheriff called the "Hillton". Five jailers brutally assaulted Mr. McDay-- tased him, shattered his jaw, and strapped him to the restraint chair* for several hours. He was locked in solitary confinement for 3 days and never received medical treatment. Mr. McDay still suffers from PTSD from this abuse.

*Victor Hill was convicted of 6 counts of civil rights violations for misuse of the restraint chair. Yesterday, he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison concurrent with 6 years of supervised release.

Thank you, Senator Jon Ossoff , for the well wishes to Michael Eshman for his selection for Leadership Georgia Class of 2023! We greatly appreciate your recognition and encouragement.

Have a Happy New Year!

Join us in welcoming and congratulating the Leadership Georgia Class of 2023!

Please join us in congratulating Michael Eshman for being selected as a member of Leadership Georgia's Class of 2023!
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Founded in 1972, Leadership Georgia is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful leadership training programs for young business, civic and community leaders with the desire and potential to work together for a better Georgia.

Congrats, Michael!

Happy on behalf of our resident Colombian-American Michael Eshman 🇨🇴

As today marks day one of , we want to share Michael's post from this day last year to celebrate:

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This weekend we were honored to attend Cocktails Around Latin America (CALA) hosted by the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association where Michael Eshman received the Diversity and Inclusion Champion award! Although we were all disappointed that he was unable to attend in person, we were glad he still made an appearance!

Thank you to the Guest of Honor, Judge Ana María Martinez, for accepting Michael's award on his behalf and to the GHBA for this recognition.

We had so much fun at this year's CALA, it was incredibly well done thanks to (including but not limited to!) Jennifer Blasco, Jasmin Severino, Sarah Banda, and Irvin Hernandez

Thank you Georgia Hispanic Bar Association for the recognition. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’re doing with the Georgia Latino Law Foundation and appreciate the challenge to earn this recognition.

- Michael Eshman, Diversity and Inclusion Champion!

$533k Settlement Reached for Transgender Immigrants Held in Solitary Confinement.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Eshman Begnaud LLC filed civil rights lawsuits on behalf of two Transgender individuals who were detained in solitary confinement at the Irwin County ICE Detention Center-- the same detention center that has since been shut down because of a history of medical abuse. Our clients received a combined settlement of $533,250.

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Read More:
https://www.maldef.org/2022/07/maldef-settles-two-lawsuits-against-the-federal-government-on-behalf-of-transgender-detainees/

We are excited to take part!

Happiest of birthdays to Michael Eshman !

It's not just any Monday, it's Mark Monday! Please join us in wishing Mark Begnaud a very happy birthday today!

$2M Settlement in Class Action for Fulton Inmates Denied Release During 2014 Database Outage

In 2016, Mark Begnaud and Jessica Stern of STERN Law filed a class action against former Sheriff Ted Jackson and Chief Jailer Mark Adger in Fulton County on behalf of Oswald Thompson, who was arrested for speeding and posted bond the next day yet spent the next five days in jail. Mr. Thompson and hundreds of other inmates at Fulton County Jail were unlawfully detained beyond their release date—a direct violation of their constitutional rights.

Our 313 clients are expected to receive an average of $4,000 each.

“We are extremely proud of this result. We also hope this settlement sends a message to other jail and prison officials that they must respect the constitutional rights of inmates.”- Mark Begnaud.

Link to the article is in the comments.

This week, we won a $638,250 judgment against former Newton County jailer Shermaine Carlisle on behalf of our client Sean Hall. Mr. Hall was an inmate at the Newton County Jail who was assaulted by three inmates in an attack captured on video. In the ensuing investigation, it was revealed that jailer Shermaine Carlisle had coordinated the attack with the inmates.

Carlisle was terminated and initially prosecuted, though the charges were eventually dismissed after the Newton County Sheriff’s Office did not cooperate in the prosecution.

“Mr. Carlisle was charged with securing and protecting our client, and he did the exact opposite – he conspired with other inmates to brutally attack Mr. Hall,” said Mark Begnaud, Mr. Hall’s attorney.

Eshman Begnaud filed suit on Hall’s behalf in August of 2020. The case was tried in a bench trial in front of The Honorable Judge William Ray III of the Northern District of Georgia on June 15, 2021 , and Judge Ray issued the Judgment on November 9, 2021 .

“We are pleased with Judge Ray’s award,” continued Attorney Begnaud. “A worry in an inmate case is that the damages award will be discounted because the client is in custody – we see people who do not want to award that much money to an inmate. Obviously, that did not happen here. We asked for $150,000 in compensatory damages and that was what Judge Ray awarded. We believe that this award is an indication of the new times we are living in – where the fact that a person is in custody does not mean that we value his or her life or injuries any less. We also hope that this is a warning to any corrections facilities in Georgia that misconduct can come with staggering consequences.”

Ex-Corrections Officer Hit With $638K Judgment Over Enabling Attack on Inmate Caught on Camera | Daily Report The Newton County Detention Center inmate sued a now-former corrections officer over claims he deliberately allowed three other inmates to enter the plaintiff's cell and brutally attack him.

Two of our clients, like so many others, faced severe abuse at the hands of Sheriff Hill and Clayton County Jail.

On Friday, we filed two lawsuits on behalf of our clients against suspended Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill. Both of our clients were victims of Sheriff Hill and his officers’ assault and abuse, which resulted in Hill being twice federally indicted for civil rights violations earlier this year. These lawsuits join several prior lawsuits filed against Hill for his use of the restraint chair and we’re entering the fight in hopes of finally introducing him to accountability.

Two new lawsuits filed against Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill Two new lawsuits have been filed against Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill and his jail staff over the use of restraining chairs, with detainees claiming they urinated on themselves after being confined to the devices for hours.

One of the basic foundations of the GLLF is its Mentoring Program, and it couldn’t be possible without the leadership of Michael Eshman. We are thrilled to celebrate him today!
Michael has been on the board of the GLLF for the past four years, and he serves as the chair of the Mentoring Program. He is a champion for law students and young lawyers, always ready to make connections, offer advice, and support them personally and professionally. In addition, he is the liaison for the attorneys mentors in our program, and he does a phenomenal job at keeping them engaged and active.
Michael is a partner at Eshman Begnaud LLC. He focuses his practice on representing injured individuals and their families to help maximize the compensation his clients and their families receive after an injury or wrongful death. He also serves on the board of the Atlanta Bar Association.
Everyone should have a Michael Eshman in their lives. We are grateful for him every day and today we celebrate him!
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“My take is that the vast majority of crime legislation happens in election years,” said Mark Begnaud. “Nobody ever got elected on a soft-on-crime platform, but it's scary to hear even the so-called progressive candidates using this rhetoric."

Read what Mark Begnaud of Eshman Begnaud LLC has to say on criminal justice reform and the tough-on-crime policies taking center stage of many political campaigns in Georgia.

Election Year Tough Talk on Crime Worries Civil Rights Advocates, Lawyers | Daily Report With crime topping the talking points for City Hall contenders and Capitol leaders, lawyers and civil rights activists said they worry that hard-won criminal justice reforms and moves toward less police-centric public safety policies may be in danger.

Today begins Hispanic Heritage Month. The month is a time of great celebration and I'm glad it exists. Still, "Hispanic" is such a big umbrella term that I've had difficulties at times in life feeling like I fit inside. Latino or Latinx haven't helped much more.

I am the son of a Colombian mother and American father. I was raised in the U.S. but spent a lot of summers in Colombia and my mom made sure I learned Spanish. My last name is Eshman. My mom's maiden name is Gomez, and she would love nothing more than if I practiced law as Michael Eshman Gomez. I am a lawyer because she willed it into existence.

I am one half first generation. It's been too long since I've been to Colombia, but something about the lush green (so many shades of green) mountains feels like home. The U.S. is home, but I don't know that any single place has ever given me that same visceral feeling. I have always felt somewhere in between two worlds. I am lucky to have both.

As we celebrate the umbrella terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" or "Latinx," let's share our stories. If you fit within one of the umbrella terms created to define us and we are connected on here, I'd love to learn your story.

-Michael J. Eshman

Message from Michael:

Yesterday marked one year since I joined the panel at Miles Mediation & Arbitration as a neutral. I joined with the specific purpose of learning more about language barriers in ADR from the perspective of a neutral. I've made plenty of mistakes and learned a ton.

No. 1 Question Asked of Me: "How can you stomach serving as a neutral when you're also an advocate and trial attorney?"

I sincerely believe that doing both makes me better at both. My favorite part of both jobs is connecting with people and helping them find closure out of a bad situation - whether through settlement or verdict. Advocacy and negotiation are certainly very different skills, but the best advocates I have seen are also incredible negotiators.

Read the full message on our blog (https://eshmanbegnaud.com/one-year-as-a-mediator-michael-eshman/ ) or visit our LinkedIn page linked in our bio.

When our client flew to Atlanta from his home country of Ecuador to seek asylum, the Trump Administration put him in solitary confinement for 6 months solely because he is transgender. Solitary confinement is considered torture after 14 days. We are proud to partner with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (“MALDEF”) to pursue justice on behalf of this client and to hold the Trump Administration accountable for the denial of basic human rights. https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2020/12/14/former-ice-detainee-sues-u-s-after-six-months-in-solitary-over-trans*xual-status/

Former ICE Detainee Sues U.S. After Six Months in Solitary Over Trans*xual Status | Daily Report An native of Ecuador, C.O. flew to Atlanta to seek asylum and spent six months in solitary confinement at the Irwin County ICE Detention Center before he had a mental breakdown and was deported.