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Our Firm

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Aggressive Legal Representation

Where can you turn when you face a serious legal problem? What are your options? How quickly will you be able to move on with your life? You need an experienced lawyer who also understands the real world and real people. You need the experienced attorneys of Pratt & Wall.

Kevin J. Pratt

Kevin J. Pratt

Managing Partner

Kevin Pratt focuses his practice on defending clients. By focusing on defense work, he has been able to develop and continues to develop the art of protecting the rights of defendants.

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Kevin received his Juris Doctor degree from the University Of Georgia School Of Law in 2001, where he was a member of the University of Georgia Honor Court. He was also a Semi-finalist in the Richard B. Russell Moot Court Competition, and Semi-finalist in the Melvin J. England Mock Trial Competition. In addition to his law degree, Kevin received a Bachelor in Business Administration, Summa Cum Laude, in Accounting from Georgia State University. Although his undergraduate degree was from the Business School, Kevin was simultaneously awarded Advanced Writing Honors from the University's School of Arts and Sciences. After law school Kevin was offered and accepted a position teaching Intro to American Law at Georgia State University where he taught for several years while actively practicing law.

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Kevin is licensed to practice before the Georgia Supreme Court, the Georgia Court of Appeals, United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member in Good Standing of the State Bar of Georgia. Although he defends all types of cases, Kevin's degree in Accounting, as well as the fact that he has passed the Georgia CPA exam, makes him exceptionally qualified to defend clients against allegations involving money, accounting, and business practices.​

AREAS OF PRACTICE
  • 40% Civil Defense
  • 40% Criminal Defense
  • 10% Bankruptcy
  • 10% Other
 
LITIGATION PERCENTAGE
  • 90% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
 
BAR ADMISSIONS
  • Georgia Court of Appeals
  • Supreme Court of Georgia
  • U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia
  • U.S. Supreme Court
 
EDUCATION
  • University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, Georgia
  • Juris Doctor - 2001
  • Honors: University of Georgia Honor Court, Member
  • Honors: Semi-finalist in the Richard B. Russell Moot Court Competition
  • Honors: Semi-finalist in the Melvin J. England Mock Trial Competition

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  • Georgia State, Atlanta
  • BBA summa cum laude - 1999
  • Honors: Summa, Advanced Honors, 3.91, Georgia State School of Arts and Sciences
  • Major: Accounting
 
CLASSES/SEMINARS
  • Lecturer, Legal Studies at Georgia State University
 
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS
  • State Bar of Georgia, Member
 
LANGUAGES
  • English
  • Farsi


James H. Wall

James H. Wall

Partner

Jim began his career as a prosecutor in both state and superior court. He has extensive trial experience having tried nearly 100 cases over the course of his career. He has handled every type of criminal case, including drug cases, DUI, vehicular homicide and serious injury by vehicle cases, and all major felony cases.

 
Jim went into private practice to help people dealing with difficult issues and a complicated legal process. During this time in private practice he has developed a robust family law practice where he strives to resolve cases as amicably as possible and to facilitate co-parenting for the best interests of the children involved. However, if the case cannot be resolved amicably, Jim is prepared to go to court and fight for his client and to get the best result the law provides

Jim has a background in accounting and worked for an international accounting firm prior to going to law school. He is a past president of the criminal defense section of the Gwinnett County Bar Association, a published author of "The Georgia Handbook on License Withdrawals" that covers in-depth the effect a criminal conviction will have on a driver's license. Jim is a veteran of the U.S. Army, a current part-time city solicitor and associate municipal court judge. He is married and lives in Lawrenceville with his wife and two children.

AREAS OF PRACTICE
  • 40% Criminal Defense
  • 40% Domestic Law
  • 20% Wills, General Civil Litigation, Personal Injury

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BAR ADMISSIONS
  • Georgia, 2003
  • U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia, 2008

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EDUCATION
  • Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, Georgia
  • J.D. - 2003
  • Honors: Moot Court board member; Student Trial Lawyer's Association
  • Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
  • BBA and Master of Taxation - 1993
  • Major: Accounting
     
PUBLISHED WORKS
  • Georgia Handbook on License Withdrawals, ICLE Georgia, 2015
     
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS
  • Criminal Defense Section, Gwinnett County Bar Association, Past President, 2014 - 2015
  • Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Associate, 2008 - Present
     
PAST EMPLOYMENT POSITIONS
  • Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office, Assistant District Attorney, April, 2006 - April, 2008
  • DeKalb County Solicitor-General's Office, Senior Assistant Solicitor-General, June, 2003 - March, 2006
  • Ernst & Young, LLP, Tax Compliance Specialist, 1997-2000
  • Brooks, Holmes, Williams and Cook, LLC, Associate, 1993-1997

Malissa Brown

Office Manager

Lora Hawkins

Family and Civil Law Paralegal

Ashley Whatley

Paralegal

Notable Cases In the News

Gwinnett County Solicitor General to prosecute stay-at-home violators

Fox 5 Atlanta

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Brian Hill
March 31,

2020

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A warning from the Gwinnett County Solicitor General.  "It can be enforced by us prosecuting them," Solicitor General Brian Whiteside said. "If a police officer chooses to write them a citation then we would investigate that."Penalties for violating stay-at-home order The Gwinnett County Solicitor's Office says residents who violate the county's stay-at-home order will be prosecuted.


A citation, or possibly arrest, for folks failing to follow the county's stay-at-home order amid the coronavirus pandemic. County leaders announced the order Friday but according to Whiteside some folks still felt the need to get out. "I had people contact me and say that they have seen people jump fences. I, personally, went outside and saw people that were at least 15, maybe 20 people at a quick trip in Suwanee. They were less than six feet apart," Whiteside. As a result of incidents like that, Whitehead says his office will prosecute all individuals who fail to follow the order.

Along with jail, they could be charged with a misdemeanor and a $1,000 fine, according to a county ordinance. "I think the first thing the police are going to do is they are going to verbally try to educate people. If there is a continuous violation of the law for possible danger for the community, they have that discretion whether they want to write a citation or they want to use verbal language," Whiteside said.

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We spoke with attorney Kevin Pratt, of Pratt & Wall Attorneys at Law, about what to do if cited. "They'd report to recorders court, sometime in the near future and be able to defend the face for wherever grounds they have for being out," Pratt explained.  He also explained what he believes would be a violator's final outcome.

"If someone were to actually be prosecuted for it, they would probably pay a small fine. They probably would not be arrested for it," Pratt said.

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The order does not apply for things like grocery shopping, going to the bank or work, county leaders say they're targeting those participating in non-essential activities.

Read Complete Article - Kevin Pratt Attorney

‘Every State Should Be Passing a Law to Deal With This’: The Danger of Impaired School Bus Drivers

The Pew Charitable Trusts

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STATELINE ARTICLE

January 23, 2020

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By: Jenni Bergal

"The Etheridge case was one of 118 since 2015 that Stateline identified in which a school bus driver was arrested or cited by police on suspicion of driving a bus impaired by alcohol or drugs. Hundreds of other drivers have failed random testing while on duty."

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Etheridge’s attorney, James Wall, describes her as “a very nice lady” who volunteered at church and never had any problems with the law. At the time of the incident, he said, she was going through a difficult period — a divorce and her father’s death.

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Etheridge admitted she had a couple of beers and shots of tequila the night before to celebrate her birthday, according to a police report. Wall said she and her friends had decided to rent a hotel room that night to avoid driving home. “She should have cut off her drinking the night before,” Wall said. “She had to be in the bus around 5:30 the next morning. She was probably sleepy or drowsy, dozing off on the bus, rather than being so impaired that she was all over the road.”

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Etheridge pleaded guilty to driving a school bus under the influence and to child endangerment. She was sentenced in April 2019 to 10 years, one of which was to be served in prison but would be suspended if she completed a residential treatment program. For the remaining nine years, she got probation.

Wall said Etheridge felt awful about what happened.

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“Every time we went to court, she cried. When she entered her plea, she cried and sobbed,” he said. “She loved her children. She was very remorseful because these were her kids.”

Etheridge did not respond to a letter seeking comment.

Read Complete Article - James Wall Attorney

Risky Ride: How Impaired School Bus Drivers Endanger Children

The Pew Charitable Trusts

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STATELINE COLLECTION
January 22, 2020

A Stateline special report: Schoolchildren in dozens of states have been put in danger by bus drivers allegedly impaired by drugs or alcohol. Still, most states don’t track these cases or know how many school bus drivers have failed random drug or alcohol tests.

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Part One: School Bus Drivers Put Kids’ Lives at Risk
Nationwide, more than 1,620 schoolchildren in 38 states have been placed in harm’s way since 2015 by school bus drivers arrested or cited for allegedly driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs. Despite the dangers, the situation goes largely untracked by government officials, a Stateline analysis has found.

Police have caught at least 118 drivers operating a school bus while allegedly impaired, and more than a third of the cases involved crashes. Nearly three dozen students have been injured, some seriously. About a third of the cases involved drugs. And many additional impaired school bus drivers have been identified through random drug and alcohol screenings.

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Part Two: ‘Every State Should Be Passing A Law to Deal With This’
Parents in Georgia are still outraged that an impaired bus driver carrying their children hadn’t been stopped before she started her route that morning, despite showing up to work with alcohol in her system. Police pulled over the bus after a parent received a panicked text from a child. “My son could have been dead,” one parent told Stateline. “What if she went around the S-curve and the bus had flipped?”

Government officials and transportation safety advocates have considered a variety of strategies to tackle the issue of impaired school bus drivers. Among them: mandating visual check-ins to make sure school bus drivers don’t show signs of impairment, putting ignition locks on school buses, beefing up random testing and analyzing data about impaired school bus drivers.

Read Complete Article - James Wall Attorney

School bus drivers impaired by drugs, alcohol risk lives of hundreds of kids

USA Today

January 10, 2020


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Jenni Bergal

Stateline Article

DAYTON, Tenn. – Trista Freeman climbed onto school bus #41 on a chilly morning in November 2018 and knew immediately something was wrong: When the driver greeted her, she said, she smelled alcohol on his breath. Minutes later, the bus began swerving across lanes and blowing through red lights. Trista was panic-stricken as the bus, carrying her and 26 other high school students, nearly hit a car.

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“Everyone on the bus was freaking out, yelling for him to stop,” Trista, 16, recalled. “I was really scared.”

Trista, her older brother, Cody, and some of the other kids on board frantically called or texted their parents, alerting them to the frightening ride in this small manufacturing town about 40 miles northeast of Chattanooga. “There was so much chaos on the bus. All I know is I wanted off,” said Rose Reynolds, who was then 16. She phoned her mother, and her father, a volunteer firefighter, contacted police.

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Other parents flooded the school transportation department and 911 with calls.

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School bus driver Michael Ledbetter had more than two dozen students on board when he was stopped and arrested for allegedly driving under the influence in Dayton, Tenn., in November 2018.
 

A supervisor radioed the bus driver, Michael Ledbetter, and told him to pull over to the side of the highway. Police arrived and gave him field sobriety tests, which he failed. A blood test later revealed he had a .127 blood-alcohol level – more than three times the legal limit for commercial drivers.

Read Complete Article - James Wall Attorney

Judge sentences ex-Gwinnett teacher to 90 days for sexual relationship with student

Gwinnett Daily Post

July 14, 2017


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By: Keith Farner

A former South Gwinnett High School teacher was sentenced to 90 days in prison on Friday following charges related to an inappropriate relationship last year with a student.

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Therese Gunn, 54, of Grayson, who resigned and turned herself in to Gwinnett police in May 2016, after a guilty plea was sentenced by Judge Warren Davis despite her attorney’s request for house arrest. Gunn’s attorney, Jim Wall, said he respected the way Davis handled the case and paid close attention to the evidence and the testimony.

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“These cases are very tough for everyone involved,” Wall wrote in an email to the Daily Post. “I really cannot take any issue at all with his decision. I have a lot of respect for the judge and I think his decision is probably spot-on as to what should have happened, even though I was asking for something else.”

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In May 2016, Gunn was arrested on charges of sexual assault and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student.

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Gunn resigned from South Gwinnett on April 19, 2016, and a sexual assault police report was filed the next day with Gwinnett County police. Gwinnett police previously said the relationship began sometime in March 2016 and ended in less than two months. The report said that some of the sexual activity occurred at the school, at the teacher’s residence, and at Lenora Park.

Read Complete Article - James Wall Attorney

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