ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – Lawyers representing a woman struck by a Georgia fire department’s pick-up truck failed to specify how much they wanted, costing her the case.
The state Court of Appeals made that ruling Sept. 14 in Sandy Anne Hall’s lawsuit against the City of Blakely. She sought compensation for a motor vehicle collision, and her lawyers filed a notice with the city they’d be pursuing between $350,000 and $2 million.
Not good enough, the trial court and Court of Appeals have ruled. State law requires such notices to include the “specific amount of monetary damages being sought from the municipal corporation. The amount of monetary damages set forth in such claim shall constitute an offer of compromise.”
The purpose of that rule is to let the municipality investigate the claims and decide whether to settle for the specified amount to avoid costly litigation.
Plaintiffs lawyers argued the window they provided was specific because the City could have made an offer within it, and they would have had to take it.
“Hall’s notice, seeking an unknown number…, to indefinite to constitute a binding offer of settlement,” Judge Amanda Mercier wrote.