Articles Posted in Georgia

In two consolidated cases, the Georgia Supreme Court examined the extent of liability faced by premises owners, occupiers, and security contractors in personal injury cases involving third-party criminal conduct.

A win in these cases was critical for maintaining the right to hold defendants accountable for taking safety risks with their customers.

We got a win.  While no earth-shattering new law comes out of this opinion, there is a clarification of key points that will make it more difficult for defendants to win summary judgment in negligent security lawsuits in Georgia.  And that is a big deal.

The page is about negligent security lawsuits in Georgia.  We look at how these lawsuits work, what negligent security lawyers in Georgia need to do to prove a claim, and how these lawsuits work.  Our lawyers also provide insight into the settlement amounts and jury payouts victims see in these cases.  These claims often involve horrific injuries and high settlement compensation.

• Sample Atlanta negligent security complaint

What Does Negligent Security Mean?

Dog bites can cause serious physical injuries and dog owners can be held liable for those injuries. Dog bite statutes differ widely from state to state. In Georgia, the law has established particular conditions and rules around owner liability when their dog bites or injures another person.

This page breaks down Georgia dog bit law and looks at settlement amounts and jury payouts in these cases. Our attorneys also provide appellate opinions that will help Georgia dog bite lawyers looking for an end run around Georgia’s one-bite rule that we discuss below.

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A truck accident wrongful death claim in Georgia was dismissed on summary judgment by the trial court. This week, the truck accident lawsuit was reinstated by a Georgia appeals court.

The case presents interesting issues as to the application of comparative negligence where there is a factual dispute among witnesses.

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This page is about Georgia wrongful death law.  The purpose is to explain how the wrongful death statute works and who is eligible for either settlement compensation or a jury payout. We also explain the second cause of action in death cases, a survival action which provides a second path of compensation for the victim’s family

Georgia Wrongful Death Law

The state of Georgia, like all U.S. states, has laws that govern wrongful death claims. These are civil actions that are filed when one party’s negligence, misconduct, or criminal action results in the death of another. While the law cannot bring back the lost loved one, it aims to help compensate those who are left behind and to hold the responsible parties accountable. Understanding Georgia’s wrongful death laws can help survivors make informed decisions when seeking justice.

A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday affirmed a trial court’s disqualification of an expert witness in a suit accusing a hospital’s nurses of failing to prevent a patient’s internal bleeding, which proved fatal, saying the plaintiffs’ expert, a physician, was not qualified to opine on the standard of care for nurses.

Facts of Smaha v. Medical Center of Central Georgia

A woman underwent surgery at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon to remove her left kidney. Several days post-surgery, while recovering in the hospital, she suffered from internal bleeding and died.

In Hamon v. Connell, the Georgia Supreme Court was presented with an interesting question: can an adult child bring a wrongful death lawsuit if the widow refuses to bring a claim?

Facts of Hamon v. Connell

The petitioner is the only surviving child of the decedent.  She brought a medical malpractice lawsuit alleging she is entitled to compensation for the wrongful death of her father under O.C.G.A 51-4-2, the Georgia wrongful death statute. Her father was married at the time of his death but had been separated and estranged from his spouse. The estranged spouse did not file a wrongful death claim on behalf of her husband due to their separation, which prevented the petitioner from accessing the court to file her claim. Therefore, the petitioner had to bring the claim herself to prevent it from being time-barred by the two-year statute of limitations.

This was a years-old post about an awful — just absolutely awful — product liability case involving a jet ski.   But it is 2020 and people will not care about that case like they did when it was news.  So I converted the post to the settlement value of jet ski injuries.  Our first has handled a number of maritime death cases and we have a sense of how these case work.

Here are some results in jet ski cases we have found in other jurisdictions around the country.

Jet Ski Verdicts and Settlements

Many states are trying to carve out malpractice caps and different standards of care for emergency room doctors in medical malpractice cases.  

The thinking starts out okay.  Emergency department doctors should be given the benefit of the doubt because things are happening so quickly. But ER doctors are always getting the benefit of the doubt from jurors.  There is statistical evidence of this.  

More importantly, the standard of care already bakes in the fact that things are sometimes happening at the speed of light in the ER.  That is why reasonableness is always based on all the facts and circumstances. Continue reading

This post is about a significant verdict in Georgia after an awful circumcision mishap caused a boy severe and permanent injuries.  In this post, I talk about this tragic case and take a deep dive into the statute of limitations in Georgia in birth injury cases.

The Big Verdict

A jury in Clayton County, Georgia, awarded a mother and her four-year-old son $31 million for a circumcision gone wrong. This malpractice incident occurred at an OB/GYN and pediatric clinic. This is a significant verdict for the most common surgical procedure in the country and one that is rarely the subject of a malpractice lawsuit.