Winning a medical malpractice claim can prove very difficult. However, that does not mean that you cannot win. If you suffered a serious injury due to the negligence of a medical care provider, you deserve compensation for those losses.
Georgia's deadline for filing a legal malpractice claim generally is 4 years. The law as to WHEN that four years begins to run is complicated, and you should contact an attorney for advice regarding the specific facts of your claim.
Under Georgia law, a party bringing a legal malpractice claim must prove the following: (1) the client employed the defendant-attorney in a case; (2) the defendant-attorney failed to exercise ordinary care, skill, and diligence for the client; and (3) that failure proximately caused damages to the client.
In Georgia, the statute of limitations on medical malpractice cases is normally two years from the date of injury or death. This means that you have until the second anniversary of the date that you were harmed by a medical professional to file a lawsuit in pursuit of compensation.
Conclusion. Proving causation is often the most difficult element of a medical malpractice case. However, it is not impossible.
The general rule is simple: Non-clients generally cannot sue lawyers who did not represent them. This standard, called the privity rule, finds its footing in the definition of legal malpractice.
Q: How Long Can You Wait to Sue Someone in Georgia? A: Typically, in Georgia, you have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury claim. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Claims against government bodies also have shorter filing deadlines.
The four Ds of medical malpractice are duty, dereliction (negligence or deviation from the standard of care), damages, and direct cause. Each of these four elements must be proved to have been present, based on a preponderance of the evidence, for malpractice to be found.
For example, malpractice that leaves you with a traumatic injury would lead to more damages due to the severity. The cap in Georgia is $350,000 if only one healthcare facility is at fault. This amount increases to $700,000 if multiple facilities are involved in a single case.