{"id":2130,"date":"2021-12-14T17:16:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/georgia-caps-medical-malpractice-recoveries\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:32:49","slug":"georgia-caps-medical-malpractice-recoveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/georgia-caps-medical-malpractice-recoveries\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Georgia Have Caps on Medical Malpractice Recoveries?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As of 2005, Georgia had a $350,000 cap on recovering non-economic damages resulting from medical malpractice.\u00a0 This meant that if your child suffered from a <a href=\"\/atlanta\/brain-injury-lawyers\/\">traumatic brain injury<\/a> or some other devastating disability as a result of a <a href=\"\/atlanta\/hospital-negligence\/\">medical practitioner's negligence<\/a>, your Atlanta attorney could not recover more than $350,000 in non-economic damages.\u00a0 Pain and suffering is the most common type of non-economic damage pursued in cases, but there are also other types of non-economic damages.\u00a0 The cap hardly seemed fair when extreme pain and suffering was involved.<\/p>\n<p>However, in 2010, the Georgia Supreme Court found the $350,000 cap to be unconstitutional, when ruling on the case <em>Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery v.Nestlehutt<\/em>. \u00a0Betty Nestlehutt was a 75-year-old woman who had plastic surgery that resulted in infections and left her face disfigured.\u00a0 Prior to the Supreme Court appeal, the jury had awarded Nestlehutt $1,265,000, consisting of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$115,000 for past and future medical expenses<\/li>\n<li>$900,000 for pain and suffering<\/li>\n<li>$250,000 for loss of consortium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The defendant appealed to have the non-economic damages (totaling $1,150,000) reduced to $350,000.\u00a0 In reviewing the <a href=\"\/atlanta\/medical-malpractice-attorneys\/\">medical malpractice case<\/a>, the Supreme Court justices referred to the Georgia Constitution, which guarantees the right to a trial by jury in <em>all its essential elements<\/em> and that included non-economic damages, as determined by the jury.\u00a0 The Supreme Court found that the statute imposing caps <em>nullifies a jury's findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury's basic function<\/em>.\u00a0 Lawyers are now free to pursue uncapped non-economic damages.<\/p>\n<p>If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of medical malpractice, the Cochran Firm Atlanta is committed to seeing you receive the compensation you deserve.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to file an Injury &amp; accident claim, contact our Accident Lawyers, who have expertise in <a href=\"\/atlanta\/auto-accident-lawyers\/\">Auto Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/car-accidents\/\">Car Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/brain-injury-lawyers\/\">Brain Injury<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/personal-injury-lawyers\/\">Personal Injury<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/premises-liability-lawyers\/\">Premises Liability<\/a>,<a href=\"\/atlanta\/trucking-accident-lawyers\/\">Truck Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/personal-injury-lawyers\/police-misconduct\/\">Police Misconduct<\/a> and <a href=\"\/atlanta\/practice-areas\/\">other areas of practice<\/a>. Call The Cochran Firm Atlanta toll-free at <a href=\"tel:4042229922\">(404) 222-9922<\/a>, or send us your queries using this\u00a0<a href=\"\/atlanta\/contact\/\">inquiry form<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As of 2005, Georgia had a $350,000 cap on recovering non-economic damages resulting from medical malpractice.\u00a0 This meant that if your child suffered from a traumatic brain injury or some other devastating disability as a result of a medical practitioner's negligence, your Atlanta attorney could not recover more than $350,000 in non-economic damages.\u00a0 Pain and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Does GA Have Caps on Medical Malpractice Recoveries?","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,72],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-2130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-medical-malpractice","tag-local"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11568,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130\/revisions\/11568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}