Specialties

Georgia recognizes two legal causes of action when a death occurs as a result of either wrongful acts or negligence. These consist of action for wrongful death as well as a survival action. An action for wrongful death can be brought by the surviving spouse or a child on behalf of survivors for the value of the deceased persons life. This is a great distinction from other states which provide that the damages are limited to the loss, caused by the surviving family. Damages under Georgia Law include economic damages which in part can be measured by lost earnings and earning potential as well as non-economic damages measured purely upon the extrinsic value of the life of the decedent.

Under a survival action, the representative of the estate of the decedent brings the claim for medical expenses, funeral expenses and pain & suffering. The representative of the estate must either be named by will or appointed by the Probate Court, usually in the County where the decedent resided at the time of death. The period in which suit must be filed generally is two years from the date of the death. It is important that this not be confused with a claim for negligence which may have occurred sometime prior to the death which lead to the death. This may in fact be a separate and distinct suit and the time to file that claim would tend to run from date of the negligent act.

Interstate Trucking Negligence. Each day catastrophic injury and death occurs as a result of negligence by over-the-road truck and tractor trailer drivers. Many times the wrongful acts that lead to the accident occur before the truck driver ever gets on the road. Either the trucking company hired a driver who is not adequately trained or is highly at risk or reckless and a danger to the motoring public. On many occasions drivers are not in compliance with specific federal regulations which are designed to secure the safety of the public from drivers who are fatigued or equipment is defective. Even the slightest carelessness by fatigue driver operating a tractor& trailer weighing in excess of 83,000 pounds can cause instant death and destroy lives.

"A 39 year old man is admitted to the hospital for treatment of a minor infection. The physician orders a drug to be administered by IV and instead the nurse administers it by direct injection over a period of time which causes the patient to develop seizures and ultimately die from cardiac arrest."

It was reported in September, 2000 that since 1995 at least 1,720 hospital patients have been accidentally killed and 9,584 others injured from actions or inaction of nurses across the country who have been affected by cuts in staff and other cost reducing methods adopted by hospitals around the country.

In December, 2001 it was noted by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, that as of 1998 only 15 instances of physicians operating on the wrong body part or wrong patient occurred. Since that time, 136 have been reported to the Commission. Such errors are preventable with appropriate pre-operative measures.