A wrongful death case in Georgia is a civil claim that someone’s wrongful conduct caused a person’s death. Like other negligence-based claims, it must be supported by evidence establishing each legal element. This guide explains what must be proven, the standard that applies, and the kinds of evidence that typically bear on those questions.
What the Law Requires Proof Of
Georgia’s wrongful death statutes appear in O.C.G.A. Section 51-4-1 and following. A wrongful death claim allows recovery for the “full value of the life of the decedent” when a death results from a wrongful act, negligence, or other conduct covered by the statute.
Most wrongful death claims are built on negligence. Under Georgia negligence law, a negligence claim has four elements. The first is duty, meaning the defendant owed a legal obligation to act with reasonable care. The second is breach, meaning the defendant failed to meet that obligation. The third is causation, meaning the breach caused the death. The fourth is damages, meaning a compensable loss resulted. In a wrongful death case, evidence must address each of these elements, and the death itself supplies the damages element while the wrongful death statute defines what may be recovered.
Some wrongful death cases rest on theories other than ordinary negligence, such as a claim that a death resulted from a crime or from intentional conduct. The wrongful death statute covers death resulting from a crime, from criminal or other negligence, or from defective products in certain circumstances. The elements that must be proven vary with the theory, but in every case the claimant must connect the defendant’s conduct to the death.
The Standard of Proof
A wrongful death claim is a civil action, and the civil standard of proof applies. That standard is the preponderance of the evidence. It means the evidence must show that it is more likely than not that the defendant’s wrongful conduct caused the death.
This standard is lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal cases. Because the standards differ, a civil wrongful death claim can succeed even where a related criminal prosecution did not result in a conviction, and the two proceedings are evaluated independently.
Evidence Bearing on Duty and Breach
Whether a duty existed is often a legal question shaped by the relationship between the parties, such as a driver and other people on the road, a property owner and a visitor, or a medical provider and a patient. Evidence relevant to breach focuses on what the defendant did or failed to do compared with what reasonable care required.
Depending on the type of case, evidence on these points can include incident or accident reports, photographs and video, the accounts of witnesses, physical evidence from the scene, business or maintenance records, and applicable rules or standards. In cases involving specialized conduct, such as medical care, expert testimony is generally used to establish the applicable standard of care and whether it was met. Georgia medical malpractice cases also have a separate requirement that the complaint be accompanied by an expert affidavit under O.C.G.A. Section 9-11-9.1.
Evidence Bearing on Causation
Causation links the breach to the death. Georgia negligence law generally requires both that the conduct was a cause in fact of the death and that it was a proximate cause, meaning the death was a foreseeable result rather than a remote consequence.
Evidence on causation often includes medical records, the cause of death as documented by treating providers or by an autopsy, the report of a medical examiner or coroner, and expert opinion explaining the medical or physical chain of events. The goal of this evidence is to show that the defendant’s conduct, rather than some unrelated factor, brought about the death.
Evidence Bearing on Damages
The measure of recovery in a Georgia wrongful death claim is the full value of the life of the decedent. Georgia courts have described this value as having two components. One is the economic component, the value of the decedent’s expected earnings, services, and contributions. The other is the intangible component, the value of the decedent’s life experienced from the decedent’s own perspective, including aspects of life that have no precise market value.
Evidence relevant to the economic component can include records of income and earnings, employment history, information about the decedent’s age and work-life expectancy, and economic analysis. Evidence relevant to the intangible component can include testimony about the decedent’s life, activities, relationships, and circumstances. A separate estate or survival claim, brought by a personal representative under O.C.G.A. Section 51-4-5, may seek the decedent’s medical expenses, funeral expenses, and pre-death pain and suffering, and that claim is supported by its own records such as medical bills and funeral expense documentation.
How the Evidence Is Presented
Wrongful death claims are litigated in Georgia’s trial courts. Evidence is gathered through the discovery process, which can include the exchange of documents, written questions, and depositions. At trial, the claimant carries the burden of proving the elements by a preponderance of the evidence, and the finder of fact, often a jury, weighs the evidence and determines liability and the amount of any recovery.
Summary
Proving a wrongful death case in Georgia requires evidence establishing each element of the underlying claim, most often duty, breach, causation, and damages, by a preponderance of the evidence. Liability evidence can include reports, witness accounts, records, physical evidence, and, where specialized conduct is involved, expert testimony. Causation evidence commonly includes medical records and autopsy or medical examiner findings. Damages evidence addresses the full value of the decedent’s life under O.C.G.A. Section 51-4-1 and following, including both its economic and intangible components, and a separate survival claim is supported by records of the estate’s own losses.
Disclaimer
This article is provided strictly for general educational and informational purposes. It is intended to explain how Georgia law works as a matter of public legal education, and it does not constitute legal advice, a legal opinion, or a recommendation about any particular course of action. Reading this article, or contacting the website on which it appears, does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and any law firm, attorney, or author.
The law changes over time. Statutes, regulations, court rules, and judicial decisions discussed here may have been amended, repealed, superseded, or reinterpreted after the date of publication, and citations to specific code sections or cases reflect the law only as it was understood when this article was written. The application of any legal principle also depends heavily on the specific facts and circumstances of an individual matter, and outcomes vary from case to case.
For these reasons, no one should rely on this article as a substitute for advice from a licensed Georgia attorney who can review the particular facts involved. The author and publisher make no warranty, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or applicability of the information provided, and disclaim any liability for any action taken or not taken based on this content.