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 act in your best interests but is allowed access to your medical information without violating HIPPA. You can name people to act together, successively, or upon attaining a specific age.
By: Madalyn Davis
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.
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…
By: Paul Grote
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 the emergency room that has never met a patient. Another example is when a physician interprets a patient’s x-ray but never actually treats the patient. There are many cases addressing the physician-patient relationship when a physician is consulted over the phone by another physician about a patient, but never actually treats the patient.
By: Robin Daitch
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