Legal News

Explosion at Georgia Law Office Injures at Least Four

By Nathan Koppel

UPDATE: The Law Blog just caught up with Kermit McManus, the district attorney in Dalton. He says the suspected perpetrator, Lloyd Cantrell, was killed in the explosion. No other deaths have been reported, he says. Cantrell’s son was a client of the law firm was involved in some kind of lawsuit against Cantrell, according to McManus, who had no other details about the nature of the suit.

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An explosion this morning at the Dalton, Georgia law firm McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham has injured four people. The extent of the injuries is not yet clear.

The blast, according to a press account, followed an altercation at the law office. Here’s the AP report.

The 8-lawyer firm, according to its Web site, was founded in 1932 and represents “local governments, public authorities, carpet mills and other business interests, banks and institutional clients, along with individual plaintiffs.”

What else to know about Dalton, Ga? Jennifer Forsyth, the law bureau chief here, knew right away that the town was well-known for its carpets. Seems she may have understated the area’s importance in the carpet world. According to the town’s Web site, today “most 90% of the functional carpet produced world-wide is made within a 25-mile radius of this north Georgia city.”

We’ll pass along more information as it comes.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 17, 2008 (boomark / email).