Jonesboro, GA—A non-returned phone call is generally an annoyance, but two telephone calls from a concerned patient’s wife to a surgeon’s office that were never returned led to a wrongful death case in Clayton County State Court and, ultimately, a $3.5 million verdict, after the patient died within hours of the telephone calls. Pamela Douglas Banks v. South Atlanta Neurosurgery PC (2008 CV 08001).

If an attorney needs an expert witness on a particular subject, it’s always good to be able to say that the witness “wrote the book” on the subject. In a recent Fulton County Superior Court case, plaintiff’s attorney was able to do precisely that, calling a recognized Georgia authority on eminent domain law to give an opinion regarding the value of the legal services the plaintiff law firm had provided in an eminent domain case. Chamberlain, Hrdlicka v. Elie Karam et al. (2014CV242261)

Dalton, GA—A former restaurant waitress who has been receiving pain management treatments since an automobile accident in 2012 lost her personal injury lawsuit in Whitfield County Superior Court against the driver who rear ended her, following defense suggestions that two chiropractors who treated her during this time may actually have caused the pain. Christy Carr Fowler v. Shelby McFarland (14-CI-197-J)

In many personal injury cases involving older accident victims, the dispositive issue is whether the plaintiff’s back or neck pain was caused or aggravated by the accident or whether it is a natural byproduct of the aging process that results in degenerative disc disease. Often juries have to evaluate the conflicting testimony and opinions of expert witnesses retained by the defense and those of the plaintiff’s treating physicians. However, in the recent DeKalb County State Court case of William Rice v. Frankie Gilmore (13A48441), the defense was able to bolster its case by using the video deposition of a somewhat unusual witness.