Georgia Malpractice Law

This content addresses situations where no diagnosis was ever rendered for a condition that warranted diagnostic evaluation. Delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis are covered separately in Blueprints 5 and 6. Failure...

Before a medical malpractice lawsuit can proceed in Georgia, the plaintiff must clear a procedural gate that does not exist in ordinary negligence litigation. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1, the complaint...

Time governs access to the courthouse in Georgia medical malpractice cases with unusual rigidity. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71 establishes two distinct deadlines that operate simultaneously: a two-year statute of limitations and...

When a medical malpractice trial concludes with a verdict or judgment that one party believes was affected by legal error, the appellate process provides a mechanism for review. Appeals in...

The majority of medical malpractice claims that proceed past filing do not reach a jury verdict. They resolve through the settlement process, a structured negotiation that allows the parties to...

Before a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed in Georgia, a critical decision must be made: does the potential claim warrant the investment of time, resources, and professional capital that litigation...

The medical record is the primary evidentiary foundation of nearly every medical malpractice trial. It is the contemporaneous account of what care was delivered, when it was delivered, who delivered...

Medical malpractice trials in Georgia depend on expert testimony in a way that most other civil actions do not. The standard of care, the alleged breach of that standard, and...

In every medical malpractice case, the defense may argue that the patient's own conduct contributed to the injury. Georgia's comparative negligence statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, governs how patient fault affects...

When a medical malpractice claim results in a verdict or settlement for the plaintiff, the damages awarded are intended to compensate the injured patient for the harm caused by the...

When medical malpractice results in a patient's death, the legal framework for pursuing a claim shifts from the general malpractice structure to the Georgia wrongful death statute. The wrongful death...

Pediatric malpractice claims arising after the birth event involve care delivered to patients whose physiology, symptom presentation, and communication capacity differ fundamentally from adult patients. Under Georgia common law, a...

Birth injury claims arising from obstetrical negligence focus on the care delivered during labor and delivery. Under Georgia common law, obstetricians, labor and delivery nurses, and other providers involved in...

Georgia treats informed consent as a statutory obligation, not a standalone common law doctrine. The governing statute, O.C.G.A. § 31-9-6.1, establishes when the disclosure requirement applies, what information must be...

Anesthesia providers operate under a specialty-specific standard of care that reflects the unique physiological risks their interventions create. Under Georgia common law, an anesthesiologist, nurse anesthetist, or other anesthesia provider...

Nurses occupy a distinct position in the healthcare delivery chain, and Georgia common law holds them to a standard of care specific to their professional role. The nursing standard requires...

Vicarious liability allows a patient to hold one party legally responsible for the negligent conduct of another, based on the relationship between them. In the medical malpractice context, this most...

A hospital can be held liable for patient injuries not because of what a particular doctor or nurse did at the bedside, but because of what the institution itself failed...

Emergency departments operate within a federal screening and stabilization framework and under a state-law standard of care that differs materially from what applies in non-emergency clinical settings. That difference shapes...

The act of prescribing a medication is a clinical decision that carries its own standard of care, separate from the physical delivery of that medication to the patient. Under Georgia...

When a medication reaches the patient's bedside, the responsibility for its safe delivery shifts to the person physically administering it. In Georgia, medication administration errors are evaluated under the nursing...

Wrong-site and wrong-patient surgical events occupy a category that the medical community labels "never events," a term reflecting the professional consensus that these errors should not occur under any circumstances...

Surgical malpractice claims based on technical execution errors occupy a focused lane within Georgia's broader negligence framework. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-27, a surgeon who professes to practice surgery for compensation...

This content addresses situations where a healthcare provider reached a wrong diagnostic conclusion, leading to incorrect treatment. Complete absence of diagnosis and delayed diagnosis are addressed separately in Blueprints 4...

This content addresses situations where the correct diagnosis was eventually reached, but arrived too late to prevent harm that earlier identification could have avoided. Complete absence of diagnosis and wrong...

Georgia does not leave the definition of medical malpractice to guesswork. The state's foundational statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-1-27, sets a clear threshold: any person who professes to practice surgery or...