A. Wilson Wages
Millington Personal Injury Lawyer
Millington personal injury attorney Wilson Wages
Super Lawyers Honoree
Certified Specialist in Civil Trial Advocacy, National Board of Trial Advocacy
One of Only 300 Board-Certified Tennessee Legal Specialists
"I am a trial lawyer, and I am very proud to be. There has always been a Goliath in this country, but as long as the people had the right to legal representation and a jury to decide their fate (something which the brilliant leaders who drafted our Constitution knew many years ago), then we all have a chance."
Honors and Awards
Legal Practice Areas
Personal Injury
Workers Compensation
Wrongful Death
Medical Malpractice
Social Security Disability
Product Liability
Wills and Probate
Civil Litigation
Published Opinions
West v. Shelby County Healthcare Corporation,
Tennessee Supreme Court, December 19, 2014
EDUCATION
Memphis State University Law School (J.D., 1978)
University of Tennessee at Knoxville (B.S., With Honors, 1975)
Super Lawyers® (Personal Injury - Plaintiff), 2013-present
Mid-South Top Lawyers, Memphis Magazine, 2015
Professional Activities
Certified Civil Trial Specialist, National Board of Trial Advocacy
American Association for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America)
Tennessee Association for Justice (formerly Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association): Board of Directors
Judge, Millington City Court
National Board of Trial Advocacy Tournament of Champions: Judge, Mock Trial Competition, 2021
Tennessee Municipal Judges Conference
PERSONAL
Youth Basketball Coach
Youth Soccer coach
Born in Shelby County, Tennessee, December 6, 1953
Why I became a lawyer--
My father was a smart man. He only went to the second grade but he knew more than a lot of folks — doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. He was a sharecropper from Mississippi who later became a successful business man in the furniture business. He always said, though, that in his lifetime the small retail business person would be put out of business by the large chain. He was right.
At an early age, it seemed like all I ever saw was the "little guy" getting squeezed out by the big guy, whether it was the small retail business person or the blue-collar worker or the widows and children. I saw how my mother was treated by the legal system when, following my father's death in a tragic and unexpected plane crash, she was handed the responsibility of raising a 14-year-old. She was a homemaker with no job, no business experience and had never driven a car. Other than Mr. C.A. Davis, she was handled in a rude, condescending manner by all of the folks she came in contact with in the legal system, in settling my father’s estate.
The lawsuit that she and others filed against those that they felt responsible for the deaths of my father and others was lost — thrown out by the judge — in favor of the government.
I am a trial lawyer, and I am very proud to be. There has always been a Goliath in this country, but as long as the people had the right to legal representation and a jury to decide their fate (something which the brilliant leaders who drafted our Constitution knew many years ago), then we all have a chance. Those chances are dwindling, and time is running out.
Don't be misled by "tort reform," "runaway juries," "greedy lawyers" and the like. These are nothing more than a smokescreen to put pressure on legislatures to take away the rights of the individual at the hands of the almighty corporation. There is only one thing that scares the almighty corporation: that is you, a jury. When the corporations are allowed to use their power and influence to set money damages at $250,000, which is what they want and are pushing for now, they will have managed to strip away the time-honored fundamental right of U.S. citizens.
Maybe if I hadn't been born in the circumstances I was born in, I would feel a little differently. Perhaps if I had gone to Yale and Harvard instead of Jackson State Community College, Memphis State and UT, I would be more "enlightened" and see the world through different eyes. I am sort of glad to see the world through the eyes I am looking through now."
Family & Personal
Austin Wages (right) has appeared in commercials for Red Apple Ale and Samsung Galaxy, while Cyrena and Houston are musicians whose band, Wages, is on the rise in Nashville and recently attracted the attention of acts such as Emmylou Harris, Travis Tritt, and Tracy Adkins.
Wilson Wages plays a judge in the film, M. Pearls AAL, The Movie, written and produced by Emily Kirk (right), who is also the lead actress. The video is available at Amazon.com and is included with an Amazon Prime membership.
This 1977 Chevy El Camino was bought new by Wilson's parents-in-law. It eventually made its way to the Wages family and was driven by their daughter Cyrena during high school and more recently by their son Houston. A major breakdown temporarily doomed the car to a stay in a Nashville vehicle yard, where it awaited a tow back to Millington. Its arrival was delayed by the arrest of the tow truck driver, but it eventually made it home, where the restoration process began. The El Camino was renamed "Betty Jo" in memory of Debra Wages' late mother, who passed away in May 2021.
Wages' first music video, "Take me to the Ball."
[ Son and daughter of Wilson Wages ]
Wilson and Debra Wages celebrate their 40th Valentine's Day, February 14, 2018.
Wilson Wages’ investment in young people includes many years’ service as a volunteer youth soccer coach. The young lady to his immediate right is Katie Dagen, who today is excelling as a law student at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis.
Wilson Wages and his daughter Cyrene