Chattanooga Trial Attorney

Joe DeGaetano is a Chattanooga trial lawyer.  He represents plaintiffs in personal injury and insurance claims in Tennessee and Georgia, federal criminal defendants in the Eastern District of Tennessee, and business clients nationwide. 

• In the 2009 trial of an injury lawsuit in Rutherford County, Tennessee, Joe and his colleague won a jury verdict in excess of $10 million against an international, publicly traded restaurant chain for overservice of alcohol. 
  

• In 2012, Governor Bill Haslam selected Joe as one of three finalists to serve as judge of the General Sessions Court for Hamilton County. 
  

Professional Experience

• Before entering private practice, Joe served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which decides federal appeals from Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. The U.S. Court of Appeals is the court of last resort for all but the tiny percentage of federal litigants who are granted review by the United States Supreme Court.

• Following his service with the United States Court of Appeals, Joe practiced for a number of years with the 100-lawyer Nashville law firm of Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry, and later was that firm's first and only attorney based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  At Boult, Joe had the good fortune of being trained as a personal injury attorney by three of the best trial lawyers in Tennessee, and he remains of counsel to their firm.  Then, after a successful tenure with one of the top personal injury firms in Chattanooga, Joe decided to start his own practice so that he could spend more time with fewer clients.  Top-quality representation and personal accessibility matter more to Joe than a huge caseload.

Education

• Joe received his law degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Georgia in 2000. He was a member of the Order of the Coif and The Georgia Law Review, and distinguished himself by attaining the highest grades in his class (A+) in the subjects of Torts, Civil Procedure, and Criminal Law. Torts and Civil Procedure are two of the main bodies of law governing personal injury claims and lawsuits.

• His overall grade-point-average at the University of Georgia School of Law earned Joe the rank of 2nd in a class of more than 220 students.

• In 1996, Joe graduated from Vanderbilt University, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.

Licenses/Court Admissions/Memberships

• Licensed to practice law in all state courts in Georgia and Tennessee.
• Admitted to United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
• Admitted to United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
• Admitted to United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
• Chairman - Executive Council, Tennessee Bar Association Tort & Insurance Practice Section, 2011-2012.
• Member, Tennessee Bar Association, Chattanooga Bar Association, and State Bar of Georgia.

 Focus

Joe knows that each client expects and deserves his full effort and attention, and he therefore will remain available and personally accessible to each of his clients. He is particularly interested in pursuing personal injury claims against drunk drivers and the nightclubs that over-served them, tractor-trailer drivers and their employers, and other careless or reckless drivers whose insurance companies will not offer a reasonable and fair settlement to the victims of that misconduct.  Joe also defends federal criminal defendants in the Eastern District of Tennessee.