The Georgia Court of Appeals recently upheld a WEATHINGTON dismissal in a wrongful death suit. At the trial level, Plaintiffs alleged that the healthcare providers were negligent in their post-spinal surgery evaluation and treatment of a patient, which purportedly contributed to the patient’s death. The initial suit was litigated and defended by WEATHINGTON, LLC for a year, before it was dismissed by the Plaintiffs and refiled. Paul Reynolds and Paul Weathington defended the refiled case before the trial court in Cobb County, successfully moving Judge Green to dismiss the action based on the Plaintiffs’ failure to diligently and timely serve the Defendants. Plaintiffs appealed, raising new issues that the trial court did not consider, including the sufficiency of their expert affidavits and whether the statute of limitations is extended when a loss of consortium claim is lodged. Zach Fuller and Paul Reynolds led the appeal, successfully arguing that the trial court properly dismissed the case based on insufficient service, that—even if considered—the expert affidavits were substantively insufficient under Georgia law, and that the statute of limitations in medical malpractice actions is unaltered by the addition of a loss of consortium claim. The Court of Appeals fully affirmed the trial court’s complete dismissal of the lawsuit.
Tagged with: dismissal, fully affirmed, Georgia Court of Appeals, med mal defense, medical malpractice actions, Medical Malpractice Defense Attorneys, Statute of Limitations, wrongful death
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