Every trial lawyer knows the moment when a verdict is read. The room holds its breath. In wrongful death lawsuits, that moment carries the weight of loss, hope, and years of preparation. But what happens when the decision feels profoundly unjust? When the jury awards damages that won’t even cover funeral expenses, let alone compensate for a lifetime of lost companionship? Or when they rule against you entirely, despite testimony and evidence you found compelling?
This is when families face a choice they never anticipated making: whether to appeal. The decision isn’t simple. Appeals demand more time, more resources, and more emotional energy when reserves are already depleted. Yet for some Georgia families, walking away from what they believe is an unjust verdict isn’t an option. The question isn’t whether they’re tired of fighting, but whether there’s a legitimate path to challenge what went wrong in the courtroom.
Understanding that path requires looking beyond the frustration of an unfavorable outcome and into the mechanics of how Georgia’s appellate courts actually work. Unlike trial courts, which examine evidence and assess credibility, appellate courts serve a different function. They review legal process, not factual disputes. This distinction shapes everything about the appeals journey in Georgia, from what issues can be raised to how long the process takes to what outcomes are possible.
Understanding Georgia’s Wrongful Death Law and What Can Be Appealed
Georgia has a distinctive approach to wrongful death claims that sets it apart from most other states. Under Georgia law, found in O.C.G.A. ยง 51-4-1 et seq., a wrongful death claim belongs to the deceased person’s estate and seeks to recover the full value of the life of the deceased. This is broader than many states, which limit recovery to economic losses or specific categories of damages.
The Georgia Supreme Court has long held that the full value of life includes both the economic value, such as lost earnings and benefits, and the intangible value of life itself, including the decedent’s enjoyment of life and other factors. This means Georgia juries have significant discretion in determining damages, which can lead to widely varying verdicts.
When it comes to appeals, the first reality families must accept is that you cannot appeal simply because you disagree with the verdict. The Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court don’t retry cases. They don’t watch witnesses testify again or reconsider whether one expert seemed more credible than another. The jury or judge at trial makes those determinations, and appellate courts give them substantial deference under Georgia law.
What Georgia’s appellate courts do examine is whether the trial was conducted according to law. Did the trial judge properly instruct the jury on Georgia’s wrongful death statutes? Was evidence improperly admitted or excluded in ways that affected the outcome? Did the court make errors in allowing or limiting testimony about the full value of life? Were there procedural irregularities that undermined fairness?
In Georgia wrongful death cases, appealable errors might include a judge improperly limiting testimony about the decedent’s character and personal qualities, which are relevant to proving the intangible value of life. Perhaps the court gave incorrect jury instructions about how to calculate the full value of life, or made mistakes in applying Georgia’s apportionment rules in comparative negligence cases. Maybe evidence was excluded about the decedent’s life expectancy or future earning capacity.
Georgia courts have also recognized errors in cases where trial judges improperly restricted evidence about the impact of the death on surviving family members in conjunction with estate claims, or where courts confused Georgia’s wrongful death statute with the separate statute governing claims for the pain and suffering the decedent experienced before death.
What you generally cannot appeal is how the jury weighed competing evidence or which witnesses they found more believable, provided they had a legally sufficient basis for their conclusions. Georgia law gives juries broad discretion in determining the full value of life, and appellate courts will not overturn a jury’s damage award unless it is so excessive or inadequate as to shock the conscience of the court.
The Critical Timing Under Georgia Law
Appeals in Georgia operate under strict deadlines established by statute and court rules. Under Georgia law, you generally have 30 days from the date the trial court enters judgment to file a notice of appeal. This deadline is jurisdictional, meaning Georgia’s appellate courts lack authority to hear your appeal if you miss it, with very limited exceptions.
The clock doesn’t start when the verdict is read in court. It begins when the trial court formally enters the judgment, which may be several days or weeks later after post-trial motions are resolved. Georgia law also allows parties to file certain post-trial motions, such as a motion for new trial or motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which can extend the time to appeal.
If you file a motion for new trial within 30 days of judgment, you have 30 days from the date the trial court rules on that motion to file your notice of appeal. This can be strategically important because the motion for new trial allows you to preserve additional issues and create a more complete record for appeal.
Missing the deadline is typically fatal to your appeal. Georgia courts have very limited discretion to extend these statutory deadlines, even when families are dealing with fresh grief and trauma. Once that window closes, your right to challenge the decision is permanently lost.
This is why having counsel who understands Georgia’s appellate procedures and can act quickly is essential. The notice of appeal itself, filed in the Superior Court where the trial occurred, is usually a brief document, but filing it preserves your appellate rights while your attorney begins the much more substantial work ahead.
Georgia’s Two-Tiered Appellate System
Georgia has two appellate courts: the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court. Understanding which court will hear your case is important for strategic planning.
Most civil appeals, including wrongful death cases, are initially filed in the Georgia Court of Appeals. This court hears appeals as a matter of right, meaning you’re entitled to have your appeal heard if you file it properly and timely. The Court of Appeals sits in panels of three judges who review the case and issue decisions.
The Georgia Supreme Court is the state’s highest court and has discretionary jurisdiction over most civil cases. However, the Supreme Court has direct jurisdiction over certain cases, including those where the trial court declared a statute unconstitutional. For most wrongful death appeals, you’ll start in the Court of Appeals.
After the Court of Appeals issues its decision, if you’re dissatisfied with the outcome, you can file an application for discretionary appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is selective about which cases it accepts, typically choosing cases that involve important legal questions, conflicts in Georgia case law, or matters of significant public interest.
The Initial Steps: Preserving and Preparing the Record
Once the notice of appeal is filed in Georgia, the focus shifts to assembling the trial record. Everything the appellate court will consider happened during the trial proceedings, so creating a complete and accurate record becomes paramount under Georgia’s appellate rules.
Georgia law requires the appellant to order and pay for the transcript of trial proceedings. For wrongful death trials, which often involve multiple expert witnesses and can last a week or more, transcripts can be extensive. Under Georgia court rules, court reporters generally have 60 days from the date the transcript is ordered to complete it, though extensions are sometimes granted for particularly lengthy trials.
The record on appeal in Georgia also includes what’s called the record proper, which consists of all pleadings, motions, orders, and other documents filed in the case. Your Georgia wrongful death attorney will work with the clerk of the Superior Court to ensure the record proper is complete and certified.
Georgia’s appellate rules require attorneys to carefully enumerate the errors they believe occurred at trial. This enumeration of errors, typically included in the notice of appeal or an amendment to it, serves as a roadmap of the issues you’re presenting to the Court of Appeals. Under Georgia law, you generally cannot raise issues on appeal that weren’t included in your enumeration of errors.
Your attorney must meticulously review the trial transcript and record, identifying specific moments where reversible error occurred under Georgia law. This requires familiarity with Georgia’s extensive body of case law on wrongful death, evidentiary standards, and civil procedure. The attorney must find not just mistakes, but mistakes that matter legally under Georgia precedent and that were properly preserved by objection at trial.
Crafting the Brief Under Georgia’s Appellate Rules
The heart of any Georgia appeal is the written brief. Georgia’s appellate rules, found in the Rules of the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, establish specific requirements for formatting and content of briefs.
The appellant’s brief in a Georgia wrongful death appeal must include several components mandated by court rules. It begins with a statement enumerating the errors complained of, which corresponds to the enumeration of errors previously filed. Each error must be stated clearly and separately.
Next comes the statement of the case, which provides procedural history, and the statement of facts, which recounts the evidence presented at trial. Georgia’s appellate rules require that every factual statement be supported by a citation to the specific page of the trial transcript or record where that fact appears. This meticulous citation requirement ensures accuracy and allows appellate judges to verify claims quickly.
The argument section is where your attorney applies Georgia law to the facts of your case. Georgia has a rich body of wrongful death case law developed over more than a century. Your attorney will cite relevant decisions from the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, as well as applicable statutes from the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.
In Georgia wrongful death cases, arguments might address how trial courts should instruct juries on calculating the full value of life, what evidence is admissible regarding the decedent’s character and life, how comparative negligence principles apply, or how Georgia’s apportionment statute operates when multiple defendants are involved. These arguments must be grounded in Georgia precedent and statutory interpretation.
Georgia’s appellate courts are bound by decisions of the Georgia Supreme Court and by prior Court of Appeals decisions unless they’re overruled or a panel of the Court of Appeals decides to certify a conflict to the Supreme Court. Understanding this precedential structure is crucial for effective appellate advocacy in Georgia.
Throughout the brief, effective Atlanta wrongful death attorneys remind appellate judges of the human stakes while maintaining the analytical rigor Georgia’s appellate courts expect. The Court of Appeals reviews dozens of civil appeals monthly, and briefs that clearly present issues, accurately cite the record, and apply Georgia law persuasively are most likely to succeed.
The Appellee’s Response and Reply Brief
Under Georgia’s appellate rules, the appellee has 20 days after service of the appellant’s brief to file a responsive brief. In wrongful death appeals, the appellee will typically argue that the trial court correctly applied Georgia law, that any errors were harmless under Georgia’s harmless error standard, or that issues weren’t properly preserved for appeal.
Georgia has specific rules about preservation of error. Generally, to preserve an issue for appeal, you must object at trial, state the specific grounds for the objection, and obtain a ruling from the trial court. The appellee may argue that certain issues the appellant raises weren’t properly preserved under these requirements and therefore cannot be considered on appeal.
Georgia also applies a harmless error rule. Even if the trial court made an error, the Court of Appeals will not reverse unless the error likely affected the outcome. In wrongful death cases, where verdicts can vary widely given juries’ broad discretion in valuing life, the appellee may argue that even assuming error occurred, the verdict was well within the range that the properly admitted evidence could support.
The appellant gets to file a reply brief responding to new arguments raised in the appellee’s brief. Georgia’s rules limit reply briefs to 6,000 words, half the length of principal briefs, and restrict them to rebuttal rather than raising new arguments.
Oral Argument in Georgia’s Appellate Courts
The Georgia Court of Appeals hears oral arguments in Atlanta, though it occasionally holds sessions in other Georgia cities. Not every case receives oral argument; the court may decide some appeals on the briefs alone. However, either party can request oral argument, and in significant wrongful death cases, the court typically grants such requests.
Georgia’s oral arguments are typically brief, usually 15 minutes per side. The three-judge panel will have read the briefs and reviewed the record before argument. They use this time to ask questions about the case, probe perceived weaknesses in arguments, and clarify issues.
Oral argument in Georgia follows a formal protocol. Attorneys address the judges as “Your Honor” and must respond directly to questions rather than deflecting to return to prepared remarks. The presiding judge manages the time and flow of argument.
For families attending oral argument at the Court of Appeals in Atlanta, it can feel quite different from the trial experience. The courtroom is formal, the arguments technical, and the human tragedy may seem barely mentioned. Yet these proceedings will determine whether your case ends or returns to Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, or whichever Georgia county heard your trial for another chance at justice.
The Waiting Period and Decisions
After oral argument, or after the briefing is complete in cases decided without argument, Georgia’s appellate process enters a waiting period. The Court of Appeals typically issues decisions several months after oral argument, though the timeline varies depending on the court’s caseload and the complexity of the case.
Georgia’s Court of Appeals operates in divisions, and the three judges who heard oral argument will deliberate on the case. One judge writes the opinion for the court, and the other judges either concur or may write separate concurrences or dissents.
When the Court of Appeals issues its decision, several outcomes are possible under Georgia law. The court might affirm the trial court’s judgment, finding no reversible error. This ends your appeal at that level, though you can seek discretionary review from the Georgia Supreme Court.
The court might reverse the judgment entirely. In a wrongful death case, this could mean the Court of Appeals concludes that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support the verdict, or that errors were so prejudicial that a different outcome is required. Complete reversals without remand are relatively rare in civil cases.
Most commonly, the Court of Appeals will reverse and remand the case to the Superior Court for further proceedings. This might mean ordering a new trial, giving both sides another opportunity to present their case before a different jury. Or it might mean directing the trial court to reconsider a specific issue, such as recalculating damages under proper legal standards while leaving the liability findings intact.
Georgia’s appellate courts also have the power to issue what’s called a remittitur. If the Court of Appeals finds that a damage award is excessive but the error isn’t severe enough to warrant a complete new trial, it can reduce the award to what it deems appropriate and remand with instructions to enter judgment for the reduced amount, often giving the plaintiff the choice between accepting the reduced award or proceeding to a new trial.
Seeking Review by the Georgia Supreme Court
If you’re dissatisfied with the Court of Appeals decision, you can file an application for discretionary appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court within 30 days of the Court of Appeals’ decision. This application must explain why the case warrants Supreme Court review.
The Georgia Supreme Court exercises discretionary review and accepts only a small percentage of applications. The court typically grants review when a case involves important legal questions that haven’t been clearly resolved by Georgia precedent, when there’s a conflict between different Court of Appeals decisions that needs resolution, or when the case involves matters of significant public importance.
In wrongful death cases, the Supreme Court might accept review if the case involves novel questions about interpreting Georgia’s wrongful death statute, conflicts in how different Court of Appeals panels have handled similar issues, or constitutional questions about damages or liability.
Getting Supreme Court review is difficult. The court receives far more applications than it can hear, and it focuses on cases that will clarify Georgia law for future cases rather than simply correcting outcomes in individual disputes. However, when the Supreme Court does accept a wrongful death case, its decision becomes binding precedent throughout Georgia.
The Practical and Emotional Costs in Georgia
Appeals in Georgia are expensive. Beyond transcript costs, which in a week-long wrongful death trial can easily exceed $10,000, there are attorney fees for the appellate work. Many Georgia wrongful death attorneys handle trial work on contingency, taking a percentage of recovery rather than hourly fees. Appellate work may require different arrangements, and families should discuss fees clearly before committing to an appeal.
Georgia attorneys who handle appeals must be thoroughly familiar with the state’s procedural rules, deadlines, and case law. Some trial attorneys handle their own appeals, while others refer appellate work to attorneys who specialize in this area. Either approach can be effective, but what matters is that the attorney understands Georgia’s appellate system and has experience with wrongful death appeals specifically.
The emotional cost extends the grief process. Appeals in Georgia typically take at least a year, often longer if the case proceeds to the Supreme Court. During this time, the loss remains fresh, and families remain in legal limbo. Every brief filed, every oral argument scheduled, every decision awaited brings the trauma back to the surface.
There’s also the psychological risk specific to Georgia’s system. Because Georgia law gives juries such broad discretion in valuing life, even a successful appeal that results in a new trial doesn’t guarantee a higher verdict. A different jury might value the decedent’s life even lower than the first jury did. This uncertainty makes the decision to appeal particularly difficult.
Yet for many Georgia families, appeal represents the only path forward when they believe the trial court made significant legal errors that affected the outcome. Whether that path is worth taking depends on the specific circumstances of each case.
Making the Decision: Should You Appeal in Georgia?
This decision should be made in close consultation with an attorney experienced in Georgia appeals, ideally someone who can provide objective assessment of your case’s appellate prospects. Not every unfavorable verdict in Georgia warrants appeal.
If the trial was conducted fairly and the jury exercised its discretion in valuing life in a way you disagree with but that’s within the broad range Georgia law permits, an appeal likely won’t succeed. Georgia’s appellate courts consistently hold that they will not substitute their judgment for the jury’s assessment of the full value of life unless the verdict is so inadequate or excessive as to shock the conscience.
But if there were significant legal errors in how the trial was conducted, if the judge gave incorrect instructions on Georgia’s wrongful death law, if critical evidence was improperly excluded or improper evidence was admitted, if the judge misapplied Georgia’s comparative negligence or apportionment rules, then an appeal might offer a genuine opportunity for justice.
Consider Georgia-specific factors. If your trial was in a county where verdicts tend to be conservative and the Court of Appeals might provide a fresh perspective on the evidence, that might favor appeal. If the trial judge made novel rulings that aren’t clearly supported by Georgia precedent, the appellate courts might be more willing to intervene.
Also consider practical implications. If you’re the plaintiff and lost at trial, you have nothing to lose financially by appealing, though you’ll invest time and emotional energy. If you won a verdict but believe damages were inadequate, weigh the cost and risk of appeal against the certainty of what you’ve already been awarded. If you won a substantial verdict and the defendant is appealing, you’ll need to defend against that appeal regardless.
Some families find that the process of exploring an appeal with Georgia counsel, even if they ultimately decide against pursuing it, helps them achieve closure. Understanding what happened at trial from an appellate perspective can provide context and help families come to terms with the outcome.
A Final Perspective on Appeals in Georgia
Georgia’s legal system recognizes that even well-intentioned trial judges sometimes make mistakes. When those mistakes affect the outcome of wrongful death cases, where families seek accountability for the loss of their loved ones, the appellate courts provide a mechanism for correction.
The Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court serve essential functions in ensuring that trial courts follow Georgia law and that parties receive fair proceedings. For families who believe significant legal errors tainted their trial, pursuing an appeal isn’t about refusing to accept an outcome but about ensuring the legal system worked as it should.
Georgia’s wrongful death statute reflects the state’s recognition that human life has value beyond economics, that loss of a loved one deserves meaningful legal recourse, and that families deserve justice when negligence or wrongful acts take lives. The appellate system extends those principles by providing oversight to ensure trials honor them.
For families considering appeal, the journey will be long, technical, and emotionally taxing. But it’s a journey that, when pursued with experienced Georgia counsel for the right reasons, can sometimes lead to justice. Whether through a corrected legal error, a new trial, or simply the knowledge that Georgia’s appellate courts reviewed the proceedings and found them proper, the appellate process provides closure that some families cannot achieve without it.
Whatever you decide, approach it with clear eyes, competent Georgia counsel, and realistic expectations about what appeals can and cannot accomplish under Georgia law. Understand that the path is difficult, but know that it exists for a reason and that Georgia families do sometimes prevail in bringing appellate claims. If you have experienced any form of wrongful death in Georgia, contact us for free case evaluation.