Georgia Trial Lawyer Blog

In recent years, Georgia has increasingly depended on private agencies to place children in foster homes and group homes. The state has also depended on these private agencies to supervise much of the care the children receive. The result has been appalling. A recent investigation by the Atlanta Journal Constitution revealed that incidents of rape, molestation, assault, neglect, abuse and suicide attempts are regular occurrences at many of the group and foster homes across Georgia.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.

Currently, about half of the children in state care reside in private facilities. That number comes to about 4,000 children. Ten years ago only 10% of foster children resided in private facilities. And while numerous rules and regulations are in place to protect children from abuse and neglect, state monitors have not been able to keep up with the dramatic increase in private foster and group homes. The failure to adequately monitor these private homes has also meant a large increase in violations. In many cases, these violations simply go unnoticed or unpunished.

In total, there are 336 private agencies in Georgia which place children into foster homes and group homes. Since 2008, the state has issued approximately 1,100 citations to 300 of these homes for foster care violations. However, the state doled out fines in only 7% of those cases. When fines were issued, the median amount was only $500. Perhaps most shocking of all is the amount of state funding that many of these private agencies receive. For example, 100 of the 336 agencies received approximately $55 million in direct funding from the state last year. Of those agencies, 90% have been cited for violations since 2008.

Some violations are simply technical in nature. However, in many cases, state officials have excused or overlooked serious, and repeated, violations. In one case, the state turned over an abused, autistic 8-year-old boy to the care of Trek, a foster care agency operated by the Lookout Mountain Community Services Board. Trek then placed the boy into a contracted foster home. Around the same time, Trek also placed a 17-year-old boy with a long and documented history of sexual problems into the same foster home. A month later the 17-year-old molested the 8-year-old. An investigation revealed that Trek never told the house parents about the 17-year-old's problems or tendencies. In response to Trek's negligence, the state of Georgia issued Trek a $300 fine.

Benchmark Family Services of Jonesboro and Choices for Life of Georgia in Valdosta also committed similar acts which resulted in the sexual abuse of foster children. However, no fines were issued in those cases.

The abuse that foster children suffer is not always sexual in nature. For instance, a foster parent for Bethany Christian Services of Atlanta left a wheelchair-bound child alone on several occasions. On one such occasion, a social worker found the child lying on the basement floor in his own excrement. His wheelchair was later found upstairs.

Other cases deal with an agency's attempt to control a child's behavior. In one case, Mercy's Door in Dalton allegedly performed a forced exorcism on one of its foster children. Other agencies try to drug their foster children in order to make them more compliant. The Youth Estate group home near Brunswick, which is run by Morningstar Treatment Services, apparently used anti-psychotic drugs on children any time they would "act up." Morningstar received two warnings before the state finally issued a $450 fine.

The state's unwillingness or inability to enforce the regulations governing foster care homes leaves foster children with few advocates or protections. And the children who have been abused or neglected often have no recourse or hope of receiving the counseling they need and deserve. However, there is hope. Under Georgia law, abused foster children can file suit against the foster agency and foster home which committed or allowed the abuse.

Our firm recently filed suit against Turning Point Homes, a group home in DeKalb County, for allowing our clients to be repeatedly sexually abused. As in every foster home abuse case, we hope that by filing suit we can punish those responsible and attain the funding our clients need to carry on a normal life. We also hope that our efforts will prevent future abuses from occurring to other children trapped in Georgia's foster care system.

A 33-year-old woman claims that a former nurse at The Medical Center of Central Georgia sexually assaulted her. The former nurse, James Melvin Purvis, was arrested on March 30 and indicted this week for sexual assault.

The Macon Telegraph has the story.

The victim was a patient at the hospital after she suffered injuries in a car accident. Purvis, 56, had previously cared for the victim; however, on the day of the assault, he was not scheduled to be her nurse. The victim stated that on that day Purvis came to see her and they started talking. As they conversed, Purvis allegedly rubbed her shoulder and fondled her. When the victim attempted to stop Purvis, he kissed her on the lips.

Police report that Purvis admitted to visiting the woman, rubbing her shoulders, and kissing her. Purvis faces a possible 10 to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of the sexual assault. According to the hospital, Purvis is no longer an employee, but it is unknown if the hospital fired him.

This criminal prosecution may also lead to a civil suit against the nurse and the hospital. A good crime victim lawyer can help a sex crime victim pursue her attacker in civil court and, in some cases, recover significant damages. The hospital's liability in a case like this will depend on its knowledge of this nurse's prior history, and whether this assault was foreseeable.

Pate & Brody is an accomplished Georgia law firm with offices in Atlanta, Macon and Madison. Our lawyers are dedicated to pursuing justice for crime victims, people who have been defrauded by deceptive business practices, or injured through the fault of others. Our lawyers have been recognized on the list of Georgia's "Super Lawyers", and included among Georgia's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine.

In 2005, a Cumming man shopping at a Marietta Home Depot was injured in a forklift accident. On Wednesday, a Cobb County jury awarded the man and his wife $1.5 million for injuries.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.

The complaint alleged that Larry Reece, 58, was at the Marietta store when a stack of plywood fell from a forklift. The wood fell from more than 20 feet and crashed down onto a barricade. The barricade then hit Reece, and Reece found himself buried under a pile of wood. As a result, Reece sustained neck and spine injuries including herniated discs.

Aside from the sheer pain and medical bills, Reece also lost his livelihood. He had been a construction worker all his life, but due to the permanent injuries he received, he was unable to return to work.

After a two-day trial, the jury’s award was issued. Of the $1.5 million verdict, the jury awarded $30,000 to Reece’s wife for loss of marital relations and $120,000 in medical expenses. The jury did not address punitive damages, since Reece had settled that issue with Home Depot.

Similar suits have been filed against Home Depot in the past.

Pate & Brody is an accomplished Georgia law firm with offices in Atlanta, Macon and Madison. Our lawyers are dedicated to pursuing justice for crime victims, people who have been defrauded by deceptive business practices, or injured through the fault of others. Our lawyers have been recognized on the list of Georgia's "Super Lawyers", and included among Georgia's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine.

The Georgia Court of Appeals recently determined that a plaintiff’s failure to originally identify the correct governmental agencies in a personal injury suit against the state does not necessarily constitute grounds for dismissing the suit. The court held that the correct standard is to determine if the plaintiffs adequately investigated their claims or if the state had suffered prejudice.

In Young v. Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources, the plaintiff, Young, was injured at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, Georgia. Young brought suit for negligence and filed ante-litem notices with the Department of Administrative Services and the Georgia National Fairground. This ante-litem notice is a necessary step in suing the state for a tort. Upon realizing these were not the correct agencies sometime later, Young filed suit against the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Georgia Agricultural Exposition Authority (GAEA) which were the correct agencies.

The DNR and GAEA asked for the case to be dismissed, since Young had failed to identify the DNR and GAEA as the target agencies as required by the anti-litem statute. The trial court granted the motion by reasoning that a plaintiff must strictly comply with the anti-litem statute which waives the state’s sovereign immunity. The court further explained that the failure to include the DNR and GAEA rendered the original anti-litem notices invalid, and the plaintiff could not remedy the problem by later attaching the correct agencies.

The Court of Appeals disagreed. It held that the trial court should have conducted an inquiry into whether Young adequately investigated his claim or whether the state had suffered prejudice as a result of originally naming the wrong agencies. In doing so, the judgment was overturned and sent back to the trial court for the correct analysis to be conducted.

Pate & Brody is an accomplished Georgia law firm with offices in Atlanta, Macon and Madison. Our lawyers are dedicated to pursuing justice for crime victims, people who have been defrauded by deceptive business practices, or injured through the fault of others. Our lawyers have been recognized on the list of Georgia's "Super Lawyers", and included among Georgia's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine.