Georgia’s law on the wrongful death of an individual has several unique provisions. If a deceased is survived by a spouse or if there is no surviving spouse, a child or children, either may recover the full value of the life of the decedent as shown by the evidence. A surviving spouse, if there is one, is the sole person who may bring a wrongful death claim. Interestingly, a surviving spouse does not have to be married to the deceased spouse at the time the
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Until a few years ago, a plaintiff in a personal injury or serious injury lawsuit had to take the deposition testimony of all treating physicians in order to be able to introduce the deposition for a jury’s consideration. This is because testimony by a doctor without being subject to cross-examination would be considered hearsay and therefore not admissible. To resolve the problem and expense associated with every single plaintiff’s lawyer representing a personal injury claimant having to take medical testimony by way of depositions, and
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In a Wrongful Death case, Georgia law allows recovery for “the full value of the life of the deceased with deduction for ordinary and necessary expenses had he/she lived.” See O.C.G.A. § 51-4-1 et. seq. The term “full value of life” is somewhat elusive on its face but nonetheless, Georgia law is quite clear that the measure of damages in a wrongful death case includes both economic and non-economic damages.
One of the unique features of Georgia law is that damages in a wrongful death case must be assessed from the deceased’s standpoint not from that of his/her husband, wife, children or any other survivor. The measure of damages is the same for a person who has survived his injury but who was totally and permanently disabled as a result of it. Damages for the deceased are just the same as for a living plaintiff with a permanent and total disability except that there are no future special damages such as medical and other expenses. Of course, the measure of damages in a Georgia wrongful death action is not the subjective value that the deceased would have placed upon his own life, rather the damages in a Georgia wrongful death case must be assessed from the deceased’s standpoint. The question is what he or she lost rather than the perspective of what the husband, wife or children lost.
Under Georgia law, the term “full value of the life of the deceased” has two components. First, the “economic value” of the deceased’s normal life expectancy and second, the “non-economic component,” an intangible element incapable of exact proof which is measured only by the enlightened conscious of the jury. The economic value of the deceased’s life is based upon lifetime earnings. By computing how much money the deceased would likely have earned given his/her age, educational background, earnings record and life expectancy, the jury can determine what the economic value of the deceased’s normal life expectancy would equal. However, when someone loses their life, they lose much more than what they would have earned had they survived. They also lose the “non-economic value” of their life, which obviously, is the more important component of a wrongful death claim in Georgia. The intangible or “non-economic” component of a wrongful death claim arises out of the destruction of the deceased’s relationship with his loved ones. The deceased’s loss of his relationship with their husband, wife or children and associated factors such as society, advice, counsel and companionship are all part of the “full value” of the deceased’s life to be assessed as damages based upon all the facts and circumstances involved.
One of the essential points of proving damages in a Georgia wrongful death case is that life has value aside from one’s economic producing potential. If it did not, there would be little or no recoverable right for the wrongful death of children, poets, monks and others who have no significant earning potential at the time of their death. In this regard, Georgia law is unique in establishing the value of a life from the standpoint of a person whose life is lost. How did that person live his or her life? That question alone may allow a jury to determine that one who may have been incapable of producing vast economic wealth nonetheless had an extremely valuable life in terms of his or her enjoyment of it and what they derived from it. Indeed, there are many housewives and older people whose lives are extremely valuable and in many cases based on the quality of the life lived much more valuable than would be an executive’s life who, while he or she might have great earning capacity, might not have lived a full life otherwise.

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Lawyers in Georgia who handle serious injury and wrongful death cases are often confronted with situations where their clients are hospitalized and later acquire a Staph infection which greatly complicates their recovery. We also see cases where clients call complaining about the development of an infection while hospitalized for one condition where the infection becomes much more serious than the condition for which they were originally treated. Regrettably, many people die from these infections.
It just so happens that I ran across an article recently that very succinctly describes this problem. As can be seen, this is not only a problem in Georgia but also a nationwide problem. Because litigation seems to be the best solution we have to deal with this problem, it would seem that the best theory to pursue these cases on would be a failure to warn theory.
Hospitals are always advertising the quality of their services but at the same time are often times concealing their infection rates. If a hospital has a significant infection rate and a patient has no idea when they enter the hospital that they are subject to being exposed to such deadly infections, query whether the best possible legal theory of recovery for such an innocent victim of hospital negligence would be on a failure to warn theory?
Perhaps a review of the article below might stimulate further thoughts along these lines:

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In the summer of 2006 MSNBC.com reported that each year as many as 1.5 million Americans suffer a serious injury or death because of errors made in the dispensing, prescribing or taking of prescription drugs. In an earlier report published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, it was estimated that each year more than 7,000 people in the United States die from pharmacy related medication errors. Last year, in the nationally syndicated program 20/20, ABC News reported extensively on this problem. Regrettably,
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Just this past week, clients retained our firm’s services with respect to a serious motorcycle injury. As is often the case, because motorcycle riders are unprotected except for the helmet they wear, whenever an accident occurs involving a motorcycle, typically, serious injuries are involved.
The worst case we handled was about 3 years ago when one of our partners represented a motorcycle rider who was hit by a drunk driver and almost killed. This drunk driver not only ran over the motorcycle driver, the motorcycle
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A few days ago, we wrote an article about the importance of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage in those situations where the at fault party has minimum limits of liability insurance coverage. Today we write about another reason why all Georgia motorists should consider carrying uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage in amounts at least as much as their liability insurance coverage and perhaps much more.
The distinction between liability coverage and uninsured motorist coverage is the fact that liability coverage protects the person you hit whereas uninsured motorist coverage
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Mesothelioma results from inhalation and exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is a specific form of lung cancer affecting the thin membrane linings of the abdomen and internal organs (cancer of the mesothelium). Because of exposure to asbestos, the cells of the mesothelium become abnormal and cancerous.
In Georgia and elsewhere, asbestos has been used in building materials, paper products and plastics. It is also found in textiles, packings and asbestos reinforced plastics. Nationwide, more than a quarter of a million people have been known to have
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Uninsured Employers is a growing problem for injured workers in Georgia. In our practice we have seen a growing number of employees who have been seriously injured only to discover that their employers have no workers’ compensation insurance coverage. Many of those employers have no real assets and they are therefore “judgment proof.”
I recently read that on November 9, 2006, the Governor of Pennsylvania signed into law a significant change in the Pennsylvania Workers Compensation Act. Like Georgia, the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act covers
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