JOURNAL VOLUME 34 NO. 199 What is a Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care? A key component in an estate plan is the Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care. This document allows you to name the people who have access to your medical information and who may make decisions about your medical care in the event you cannot. Upon attaining the age of 18 and becoming a legal adult, a parent cannot make medical decisions or gain access to your medical records. In the event of an emergency, it is important that health care professionals know who to contact. The Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care appoints an agent, or agents, to act on your behalf. Any agent named must ... Continue Reading
The Importance of Ensuring the Physician-Patient Relationship is Established in a Medical Malpractice Action
It is important in defending a medical malpractice action that we never forget to ask ourselves the threshold question: is there a duty of care? In order to impose liability for medical negligence, three essential elements must be proved: (1) the duty inherent in a professional-patient relationship; (2) breach of that duty by deviating from the appropriate standard of care; and (3) a showing that the failure to exercise the requisite degree of skill is the proximate cause of the injury sustained. Frequently, medical negligence claims in Georgia are brought against physicians that have had little or no contact with a patient. Examples of this include an on-duty physician in ... Continue Reading
What is a Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care
A key component in an estate plan is the Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care. This document allows you to name the people who have access to your medical information and who may make decisions about your medical care in the event you cannot. Upon attaining the age of 18 and becoming a legal adult, a parent cannot make medical decisions or gain access to your medical records. In the event of an emergency, it is important that health care professionals know who to contact. The Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care appoints an agent, or agents, to act on your behalf. Any agent named must act in your best interests but is allowed access to your medical information without violating ... Continue Reading
A Premises Owner Can Defeat A Claim of Constructive Knowledge of a Hazard With Reasonable Inspection Procedures
The owner of an establishment is not liable for a claimant’s injury simply by virtue of the injury occurring on the owner’s premises. The fact that someone falls on the premises does not automatically entitle them to a recovery against the owner. The mere ownership of land or buildings does not render one liable for the injuries sustained by the persons who have entered thereon or therein. Simply stated, falling and injuring one’s self proves nothing. Such happenings are commonplace wherever humans go. To presume that because a customer falls on the premises of a proprietor, the proprietor has somehow been negligent would make the proprietor an ... Continue Reading
Georgia Supreme Court Holds Burden on Corporate Entity Must Be Considered When a Party Seeks to Depose a High-Level Executive
In General Motors, LLC v. Buchanan, Case No. S21G1147, 2022 WL 1750716, ---S.E.2d --- (Ga. Sup. Ct. June 1, 2022), the Georgia Supreme Court provided guidance on when a party’s high level corporate executive can be deposed. While the Court declined to adopt any sort of special test for when high level executives can be deposed, the Court held that a trial court must consider the traditional “apex factors” if the corporation seeks a protective order to stop the deposition on a case-by-case basis: the high rank of the executive, whether the executive has unique personal knowledge of the relevant facts, and whether the information is available from other sources. Buchanan ... Continue Reading
April Journal 2022
JOURNAL VOLUME 34 NO. 198 Compensability of Covid-19 Claims Georgia case law has long established that “arising out of” and “in the course of employment” are two separate requirements. An injury “arises out of” the employment when a reasonable person, after considering the circumstances of the employment, would perceive a causal connection between the conditions under which the employee must work and the resulting injury. Hennly v. Richardson, 264 Ga. 355 (1994). An injury occurs “in the course of” employment when it “occurs within the period of the employment, , at a place where the employee may be in performance of her duties and while she is ... Continue Reading
Roper v. Jasper County – A Case Law Update Concerning the Compensability of COVID-19 Claims
Roper v. Jasper County – A Case Law Update Concerning the Compensability of COVID-19 Claims Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Bar has eagerly awaited the first published case concerning the compensability of COVID-19 claims. Leading up to the Award in Roper v. Jasper County, there were a number of unanswered questions, particularly concerning the theory of compensability claimants will seek benefits under. Given that COVID-19 is a disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, one would naturally look to the Occupational Disease Statute under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-280. The statute reads: "Occupational disease" means those diseases ... Continue Reading
Quackery and Junk Science: What it is, Why it Matters, and How to Spot It
“I know it is common to speak of the ‘good old days’ of snake oil and soothing syrup as though they were gone forever. The amazing fact is that to a very great extent those good old days, so-called, are still with us.” – Commissioner George P. Larrick, Food and Drug Administration, 1955. Quackery has been around since civilized society began. The term “quack” is often used to describe a person who misrepresents the physical condition of his patient, the reasonableness or efficacy of his “medical” treatment, or his education, training, and skill in diagnosing and treating the medical condition at issue. (Quackery in California, 11 Stan. L. Rev. 265, 267 (1959)). Similarly, a ... Continue Reading
What is a Georgia Statutory Power of Attorney?
What is a Georgia Statutory Power of Attorney? Regardless of age or financial status, everyone can benefit from having a power of attorney. A Georgia Statutory Power of Attorney allows you to name someone you trust as the manager of your finances for your benefit if you are unable to manage your assets yourself. A Georgia Statutory Power of Attorney can be effective immediately or can become effective only if you are incapacitated (called springing). If no one is named as a power of attorney, your assets may be frozen and inaccessible, even for your use, until a conservatorship is created. A conservatorship is the court process for a judge to name someone to manage your finances. ... Continue Reading
Piercing the Corporate Veil
Properly operating liability protection entities to avoid personal liability Many large companies, small businesses and individual investors alike often utilize simple entity structures to protect their assets from potential future litigation. Such structures are comprised of limited partnerships (LPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), or corporations. Often, the personal liability protection aspects of these structures are touted without regard to how easily such afforded protections can be destroyed and this veil of protection can be pierced. A cornerstone concept of corporate law is that a corporation (or other limited liability entity) exists in ... Continue Reading