Shooting & Gunshot Wound Injury Victim Attorney in Atlanta

Gunshot wounds can cause serious injury, including severe bleeding, damage to tissues and organs, broken bones, paralysis and wound infections. Gunshot wounds to the torso can also be life-threatening, particularly if organs such as the heart, liver or intestines are struck. Gunshot wounds to the brain are the most lethal firearm injuries of all, with survival rates of just 10 to 15 percent, according to the American College of Surgeons.

Doctors say people are surviving critical gunshot wounds at rates of 30 to 40 percent higher than they were just 20 years ago. Much depends on the location of the injury, the speed of the bullet, how much blood is lost, and how fast the victim is transported to a hospital.

However, there is no question that regardless of the severity of the circumstances, a gunshot wound will cost you.

The good news is there are several other ways Georgia gunshot victims can recover monetary compensation, depending on the circumstances of your case. Some of those include:

• Restitution, court-ordered to be paid by the person who shot you.
• A personal injury lawsuit filed against the individual who shot you and/or other negligent third parties.
• A personal injury claim with a relevant liability insurer (homeowners’ insurance, commercial liability insurance, etc.).
• The Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Fund. Up to $25,000 may be available from the state if you’ve exhausted every other remedy and it still isn’t enough to cover your losses.
• Workers’ compensation (if your gunshot injury occurred while you were an employee engaged in the course and scope of employment at the time of the shooting).

Because court-ordered restitution, the state victims’ compensation fund and even workers’ compensation are not likely to cover the full extent of your damages, it is advisable to seek counsel from an experienced Atlanta gun crime victim lawyer. We can review the circumstances of your case and determine whether you have grounds for an insurance claim and/or a personal injury lawsuit. It is important to ensure not only that you receive full and fair compensation, but that all those responsible are held to account.

Litigation against negligent third parties can ultimately help improve safety in our communities by compelling businesses, property owners, and organizations to adopt safer practices moving forward, such as upholding tighter security measures, more thorough background checks on employees, or more effective emergency response protocol.

Third parties such as businesses, property owners, property managers, and other organizations can be held liable for gunshot wounds when it can be established that:

• The defendant owed a duty of care to take reasonable measures to protect plaintiff from injury.
• The defendant breached that duty of care, which resulted in plaintiff’s injury.
• The plaintiff’s injury resulted in financial losses.

Most of these cases will be pursued on grounds of premises liability, wherein property owners have certain legal duties to protect lawful guests. Defendants could include landlords, bars, restaurants, hotels, night clubs, amusement parks, a private homeowner, a condo association, etc.

In these cases, know that you are not entitled to compensation simply by virtue of the fact that you were injured on their property. There are several elements, such as the reason you were on site, that can play a central role in the outcome. If you were trespassing, the claim will probably be pretty difficult. However, if you were a lawful guest, you have a much better chance. Property owners have varying levels of responsibility to lawful guests depending on their reason for being there.

For example, invitees there for the financial gain of the property owner are owed the highest duty of care. Licensees are still lawful guests, but property owners owe them a lesser duty of care, as we saw in the 2021 Georgia Supreme Court ruling of Cham v. ECI Management Corp., et al. In that case, plaintiffs were survivors of a man shot and killed in a robbery at an apartment complex where he was visiting his girlfriend. Plaintiffs alleged defendants were negligent in failing to adequately secure their premises from criminal activity. Defendants prevailed at trial because it was determined the decedent, as the guest of a lawful tenant, was a licensee, and thus owed a lesser duty of care than an invitee. Had he been the tenant, the case could have ended differently.

You can also pursue damages directly from the individual who shot you/your loved one on the basis of an intentional tort. However, unless that person has a fair amount of personal assets, collecting on that judgment may be tough. Third-party litigation often yields more concrete results.

Note that the civil litigation process is entirely independent of the criminal case. You have more control over the civil case, while the prosecutor handles the criminal case. There are some instances wherein civil cases are stayed (put on hold) pending the completion of the criminal case, but one doesn’t necessarily have an impact on the other.

Proving guilt in a criminal case involves a higher legal burden than proving liability for a civil claim. Prosecutors could fail in securing a criminal conviction, but a civil claim could still result in a successful payout. Additionally, in a civil case, it is not always the shooter alone who faces accountability.

In fact, there may not even be a criminal case, especially if the shooter was not identified or the incident was accidental. In those situations, there still may be viable claims of negligence and liability asserted under a property insurance or commercial liability insurance policy.

Know that even if you were partially responsible for the incident that led to the shooting, you can still collect damages. Georgia follows a system of modified comparative fault with a 50 percent bar, per O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33. In other words, you can still collect damages even if you were up to 49 percent responsible for what happened, though your damage award will be proportionately reduced. For example, if the court finds you 30 percent responsible, you will only be able to collect on the remaining 70 percent. However, if you are 50 percent or more responsible, you will be barred from collecting at all.

As a trial attorney with decades of experience and a litany of successes in Georgia gunshot wound civil cases, Stephen Apolinsky will work to mitigate any evidence of comparative fault and fight for full and fair compensation for your losses.

Essentially, the statute of limitations means the amount of time you have from when the criminal act causing your gunshot wound injury occurs until you must file a lawsuit.  Remember, your case does not have to conclude by the end of the statute, it just has to be filed before the end of it.

In Georgia (GA Code § 9-3-33), the statute of limitations holds that parties injured by gunshot wounds in Georgia have only two years to bring forward their personal injury claims. After those two years, a court will dismiss the claim. Oftentimes, the statute of limitations may run out due to the involved insurance companies engaging in stalling techniques, resulting in the clock running out and fair compensation not being awarded to the victim.

The statute of limitations is complicated by many factors in any individual case, so if you want to pursue a civil claim, you are advised to contact a personal injury lawyer experienced in gunshot wound injury cases to build your case.