Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

John has Spent His Legal Career Fighting for His Clients Throughout Georgia and Gainesville, Hall County (whether it be an auto accident, criminal charge or general litigation). Additionally, John is a Registered Court Mediator and Helps Parties Resolve Their Disputes via Mediation.

Plaintiff's Personal Injury:
Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia attorney John Breakfield represents those that need a lawyer because of an auto accident, car wreck, trucking accident, tractor trailer wreck (18 wheeler), property damage, a DUI driver, negligence, intentional torts, slip and fall or helping the family of a wrongful death victim.

John, as a lawyer in our Hall County law firm, knows the process and has assisted clients by dealing with insurance companies, insurance adjusters and insurance defense lawyers on important issues like: lost wages, pain and suffering, fair compensation for injuries and damages, accident reports, photos, witnesses, police reports, medical bills, medical records and trial or settlement.

Criminal Defense:
Additionally, John Breakfield, as a criminal defense lawyer has represented numerous clients through out all of Georgia, Hall County and Gainesville.

John, as a criminal defense attorney in our Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia office informs clients of the options in their case, whether it be a jury trial, bench trial, a negotiated plea, a motion to attack the case on legal grounds or alternative sentencing options (such as drug and alcohol counseling), First Offender Act, Nolo Plea, conditional discharge or pretrial diversion.

If you need a lawyer anywhere in Georgia and have been charges with possession of marijuana, cocaine, meth, underage possession of alcohol, consumption of alcohol by a minor, shoplifting, burglary, possession with intent, manufacturing, DUI/ D.U.I. (Driving Under the Influence), assault, battery, Family Violence Act (FVA), or any other crime, please understand that you have rights and the presumption of innocence.

Mediator/Mediation:
After seeing the large number of cases being fairly and efficiently resolved in mediation, attorney John Breakfield decided to take the training to become a registered mediator with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution and the local office of the 9th District.

As a mediator, based in Gainesville, Georgia, John understands that his job is not to simply pass dollar amounts back and forth, but to listen to each party and to engage the parties in a meaningful discussion about the strengths and weakness of both sides of the case. If both parties can agree upon a reasonable resolution, then a formal written agreement can be reached in order to resolve the matter without the need for further court or trial.

Likewise, attorney Breakfield can also assist our clients through out Georgia that have Business Litigation, Real Estate Litigation or Eminent Domain/ Condemnation/ Government Taking cases.

Please visit our website to learn more: www.GainesvilleGeorgiaLawyers.com

Samuel J. Siemon is the founding partner of The Siemon Law Firm, P.C. Sam, an experienced litigator, practices in the areas of family law and criminal defense. Sam received his Business Degree from Flagler College in Florida and his Juris Doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Sam is a member of the Georgia State Bar, the Atlanta Bar Association Family Division, Lanier Forsyth Rotary, Lanier Jaycees, was recently elected as the President of the Forsyth County Bar Association, served as the Vice President of the Forsyth County Bar Association (2007-2008) and as the Secretary/Treasurer (2006-2007). In addition, Sam volunteers his time as an attorney coach for the Forsyth Central High School's Mock Trial Team (2008-2009). When Sam, also a licensed private pilot, is not tirelessly advocating for his clients, he enjoys flying with his wife and daughter.

My firm is a modern law practice built to take on large corporations and insurance companies who refuse to acknowledge their wrongful acts. I began my career defending those companies with the aspiration of learning how they defended serious personal injuries so I could one day start my own practice to oppose them. All too often I witnessed corporations and insurance companies fight in cases where they were squarely in the wrong. My desire to obtain justice for the injured led me to establish my own law practice. I now dedicate 100% of my practice to representing people hurt by the negligence of others.

I only accept a small number of cases each year. I put my entire focus and all my resources behind those cases. I investigate and diligently prepare each case as if it is going to trial from day one. While statistics show most cases settle before trial, preparing a case for trial is the only way to maximize the value of your case. Many personal injury lawyers, especially those that advertise heavily, handle many more cases than I do and use generic forms to do the bare minimum to get a case to settlement negotiations. Their business model is to take as many cases as possible. This will not only affect the value of your case, but also the quality of your attorney-client relationship.

Practice Areas
Mr. Tharp practice areas include both business litigation and family law matters. Much like his law partner, Mr. Meriwether, he finds that handling both types of cases provides unique advantages for his clients. His business litigation and small business experience helps provide extensive financial expertise in handling divorces with large, complicated estates. His family law practice helps provide more frequent courtroom experiences that help him to continue to learn how to best present cases in front of judges and juries.
Mr. Tharp handles a broad range of family law cases including divorce, modification actions, contempt proceedings, and appellant work. He regularly handles estates with large and unique assets, such as a business which can be difficult to value during a divorce proceeding. Mr. Tharp has completed formal mediation training and utilizes this knowledge to achieve favorable results while amicably trying to resolve matters for his clients. Although Mr. Tharp strongly believes that parties should try to resolve matters in a collaborative fashion whenever possible, he also willing, when necessary and appropriate, to utilize his extensive debate skills in a courtroom for his client’s advantage.
General Background and Education
Robert L. Tharp was born on Beale Air Force Base, California. As a child of a military family, he has lived all across the United States and abroad. In high school, Mr. Tharp started to compete at a national level in high school debate.

Mr. Tharp went college at Emory University and graduated in 1993. While in college, Mr. Tharp served as an active leader on campus and was president of the College Republicans, statewide officer of the College Republicans, president of the Georgia Conservancy, student representative to the Southern Accreditation Committee, and officer of Delta Tau Delta. Mr. Tharp also continued to develop his debate skills in college winning numerous college debate tournament awards including best freshman debater, most improved debater, and 1st place at Vanderbilt’s national debate competition. Mr. Tharp also reached elimination rounds for the national debate championship during his time in college.
Mr. Tharp stayed at Emory for law school and received his Juris Doctor Degree in May of 1996. In addition to the rigors of a law school curriculum, Mr. Tharp remained active within the college and high school debate community by helping to coach Emory University’s college debate program and serving as an assistant debate coach for several local high schools including Milton high school in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Mr. Tharp has continued to advance his education and skills since graduation from law school, most recently with his completion of formal mediation training to help better serve his client’s needs in this growing area of dispute resolution.
Civic Involvement
Mr. Tharp served on the Board of Directors for Emory University’s debate program, the Barkley Forum for a number of years. As part of Mr. Tharp’s contributions to Emory during this time period, he ran the Lincoln Douglas portion of the annual Barkley Forum for high school debate tournament at Emory University (the largest high school debate tournament in the nation) while supervising and coaching Emory students during the school year and high school students and high school teachers during annual summer debate workshops. Mr. Tharp also provided extensive help to the Georgia’s high school debate community by helping to run twenty plus high school tournaments a year throughout the greater Atlanta area including tournaments at Milton and Chattahoochee high school.

In addition, Mr. Tharp helped to establish and provided extensive hands-on service for the Urban Debate League program for high school and junior high school students. Mr. Tharp worked with establishing three of the initial Urban debate league programs in this country in Atlanta, Baltimore, and New York – a program that has expanded to 18 of the nation’s largest cities, served 311 urban high schools, 51 urban middle schools, and 37,000 urban public school students.

For these accomplishments, Mr. Tharp was the sole recipient of Emory University’s prestigious Warren Akin Outstanding Alumni Contribution award in 1998.

Political Background
Over the years, Mr. Tharp has been active in numerous state and federal campaigns for local, state and federal races from judges and state representatives to United States Congressmen. He has served various campaign roles from volunteer to campaign coordinator.

In addition, Robert L. Tharp was one of the founding members of a political consulting firm that managed various state and local level campaigns. Not only did this firm provide him with invaluable experience developing and executing comprehensive campaign plans, issues and materials, it also taught him lessons of how to run a business and the struggles that small businesses must manage.

Practice Areas

Since 2000, Mr. Meriwether has focused seventy percent (70%) of his practice on family law and thirty percent (30%) on business law. Through time, he has found that family and business law complement each other well in practice, as his skills from one area transfer easily to the other. Business litigation cases tend to require fewer Court appearances, but the family law cases of Mr. Meriwether's practice has afforded him the opportunity to appear in Court more often and hone skills necessary both for family law and business litigation. Mr. Meriwether's business litigation and transactional work provide the experience and ability to examine and tirelessly move through financial documents, both for business cases, including personal and small businesses, as well as family law cases involving large marital estates in need of equitable division.

Mr. Meriwether utilizes the latest computer software to maintain detailed and comprehensive records of his complex cases. This software allows Mr. Meriwether and his clients to quickly access case information and ensures that no details of the case are overlooked.

Family Law

Mr. Meriwether handles a broad range of family law cases, including divorce, adoption, child custody and support modification, adoption, domestic violence, and premarital agreements. He regularly deals with marital assets ranging from those of little or even negative value to those worth millions of dollars, and competently calculates spousal and child support when applicable.

Mr. Meriwether has said, "In the Courtroom, we zealously represent our clients. But often, fierce litigation is not the best way to resolve a divorce, and we work to settle cases through active negotiation. A divorce can be the most life altering and stressful event anyone can go through, but it does not have to be." To help alleviate the stress often involved in family law cases, Mr. Meriwether takes a collaborative approach to family law. This approach involves utilizing negotiation and mediation to help maintain an amicable relationship between the parties. In cases with children, collaborative law protects the children above all else, creates a win/win situation for the parties, and the parties walk away as satisfied as possible.

In some family law cases, collaborative law will not work, or is inappropriate. Mr. Meriwether evaluates every case on an individual basis to determine how aggressive to approach the case based on the facts, the Court in which the case will be heard, and the Judge who will hear the case. The goal is to achieve the best possible outcome for an individual client. In Mr. Meriwether's experience, compared to a more subtle approach, a "take no prisoners" attitude often results in higher lawyer's fees without a corresponding increase in the achieved result. As such, Mr. Meriwether aims to provide the correct level of aggressiveness to each case for the best result possible.

Business Law

Mr. Meriwether handles a variety of business law cases including simple and complicated business formations, and business divorces. He routinely forms Limited Liability Companies and Corporations. In so doing, he often is asked to draft complex contracts to assist the new business entity with its operations. He also assists clients with the buying and selling of businesses (including the due diligence associated with this process).

Mr. Meriwether views business formations involving a group of friends or acquaintances as marriages, albeit financial ones, and he excels in spotting potential pitfalls when parties are entering into a business relationship. He works hard to ensure that his clients enter into their business ventures well-informed and protected from whatever business complications they may encounter.

Membership

State Bar of Georgia (Member of the Family Law and Business Law Sections)
The Florida Bar
American Bar Association (Member of the Family Law and Business Law Sections)

Admissions
1996, Georgia
1996, Florida

Speaking Engagements
LLC Trends and Developments by National Business Institute. Continuing Legal Education for fellow attorneys.

Arbitration
In 2007, Mr. Meriwether obtained his certification for arbitration. He is ready to arbitrate any Family Law issues and most Business Law matters.

Professional Experience - Mr. Meriwether was admitted to practice law in Florida and Georgia in 1996. In 1998, Patrick L. Meriwether left the Atlanta office of Arthur Anderson and joined Robert Tharp to establish Meriwether & Tharp. His position at Arthur Anderson involved providing tax advice to a variety of large corporations. Mr. Meriwether; however, missed the personal satisfaction that comes with running his own practice and assisting small businesses and individuals with their legal needs. This is where he felt that he could really make the biggest difference.

Community Experience - Mr. Meriwether volunteers time to teach Judo to both children and adults. He holds a Black Belt in Judo and, when he competed in law school, he was the Florida State Champion in his weight division two years in a row. At the 2007 Georgia State Games, he won the gold in his division.

Partner, Burns, Speights & Grisham, P.C.
Serving North Georgia and Metro Atlanta
Criminal Defense
Trial Attorney