wrongful death lawyer Fulton County, GA

Did you lose a family member to a violent crime in Fulton County, GA?

At Deitch + Rogers, we are trusted wrongful death lawyers with over 40 years of experience representing families in Fulton County, GA.

If someone you love was killed in a shooting, stabbing, or other violent crime on property that should have been secure, the person who committed the crime is not the only one who can be held responsible. Georgia’s wrongful death law reaches the apartment owner, hotel operator, or institution whose negligence made the crime possible. A Fulton County, GA wrongful death lawyer from our firm builds that case while the criminal prosecution runs its course.

Our attorneys have brought wrongful death claims for the families of crime victims since 1970. Gilbert Deitch and Andrew Rogers have tried these cases to verdict in Fulton County courts. The first consultation is free, and there’s no obligation to file.

Wrongful Death Lawyer Fulton County, GA

A wrongful death lawyer represents the family of a person killed by another party’s negligence or intentional act, and pursues the compensation Georgia law provides for the loss of that life. In our practice, the death is almost always a homicide, and the defendant is almost always a business or institution rather than the killer. Apartment complexes, hotels, bars, and jails all owe a duty of reasonable care to the people on their property. When they ignore that duty and someone dies, the family’s claim runs against them and their insurers.

Law enforcement agencies in Fulton County reported 176 murders in 2024, according to GBI crime statistics. Some of those deaths were unpreventable. Many happened at properties with a documented history of the same kind of violence, and those are the cases a Fulton County wrongful death attorney takes on.

Types of Wrongful Death Cases We Handle in Fulton County, GA

Our wrongful death work grows out of the same negligent security and premises liability cases our firm has handled for decades. The difference is that the client is now the family, and the loss is permanent. The Fulton County wrongful death attorneys at our firm handle these matters:

  • Apartment shootings. Fatal shootings at complexes with broken gates, missing lighting, and years of unanswered police calls make up a large share of our docket. The property’s incident history usually establishes that management knew what was coming.
  • Hotel and motel shootings. Extended-stay properties and budget motels along Fulton County’s interstate corridors see repeated violence. We examine guest screening, security staffing, and the operator’s response to earlier incidents.
  • Bar and nightclub violence. Overservice, understaffed doors, and no plan for handling fights leave patrons exposed in parking lots and on sidewalks. The operator’s alcohol practices and prior citations are central evidence.
  • Robberies and carjackings. Gas stations, ATMs, and retail lots that draw repeat robberies without adding cameras, lighting, or patrols can be liable when a robbery ends in a death.
  • Stabbings. Knife attacks in stores, on transit property, and in apartment common areas raise the same questions as shootings about the owner’s knowledge and its response.
  • Sexual assaults. Some sexual assaults end in death. The family’s wrongful death claim proceeds alongside the estate’s claim for what the victim endured before dying.
  • Jail and detention deaths. Deaths inside the Fulton County Jail and other detention facilities from violence, medical neglect, or failure to supervise give rise to claims against the county and its contractors. These cases carry short notice deadlines and must be started early.
  • Institutional neglect deaths. Children and vulnerable adults who die in the care of a facility, program, or organization that failed to protect them. Our largest wrongful death verdict came from a case of this kind.

Why Choose Deitch + Rogers as my Wrongful Death Lawyer in Fulton County, GA?

Record Wrongful Death Verdicts in Georgia Courts

Insurers price a wrongful death claim by the lawyer’s willingness to try it. Recoveries for our clients exceed $200 million. Wrongful death results include:

  • $46 million verdict for the death of an infant caused by institutional negligence
  • $5.1 million verdict against a hotel chain for a fatal shooting on its property
  • $1.35 million for a fatal shooting at an apartment complex
  • $1.25 million for a death during a robbery

Andrew Rogers holds Georgia’s top premises liability verdicts for four different years (2013, 2014, 2018, and 2019) and has been a Super Lawyers honoree nine times, from 2016 through 2024.

Gilbert Deitch has practiced since 1970 and has discussed victims’ rights on WSB Radio and in Business Atlanta. Both belong to Georgia’s trial lawyers association and are admitted before every Georgia court and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, which covers Fulton County.

Contingency Representation With Every Cost Advanced

A wrongful death case against a well-insured property owner requires investigators, security consultants, economists, and medical witnesses before the first settlement conversation. Our firm funds all of it. Families pay nothing during the case. Our fee and the advanced costs come out of the settlement or verdict. If the case produces nothing, the family owes no attorney fee. That structure lets a grieving family retain the same wrongful death attorney the defense would least like to see, without regard to what the family can afford.

Understanding Wrongful Death Cases

Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Wrongful Death Cases

Georgia divides a death into two claims. The wrongful death claim belongs to the family and compensates the full value of life that was lost, measured from the deceased person’s point of view. That value has two parts: the economic component, meaning the income and services the person would have provided over a normal lifetime, and the intangible component, meaning the experiences, relationships, and years the person lost. A spouse brings the claim if there is one. If not, the children do, then the parents, then the estate.

The second claim belongs to the estate. This survival action recovers what the person went through before death, including medical expenses, funeral and burial costs, and conscious pain and suffering. Punitive damages, where the defendant’s conduct supports them, are pursued through the estate’s claim rather than the family’s.

Liability rests on ordinary negligence. The family must show that the property owner or institution failed to use reasonable care and that the failure was a cause of the death. Georgia’s crime victims compensation program can reimburse some funeral costs while the civil claim is pending.

What Is the Wrongful Death Case Timeline?

The deadline is two years from the date of death. When a criminal prosecution of the killer is pending, Georgia law can pause that clock until the prosecution ends, for up to six years. Whether the pause applies to a claim against a property owner depends on the facts, so we treat the two-year date as the working deadline. Claims against Fulton County itself or against the City of Atlanta require written notice within months, not years. Government entity claims follow their own rules from the first day.

  • Appointment of an estate representative through Fulton County Probate Court, if a survival claim will be brought
  • Investigation, records requests, and preservation demands to the property
  • Filing in Fulton County State Court or Superior Court, depending on the defendant
  • Discovery, including depositions of property management and corporate witnesses
  • Mediation, then trial if the insurer will not pay full value

What Should You Bring to Your Wrongful Death Consultation?

None of this is required for a first meeting, but it shortens the path to answers.

  • The death certificate and any report from the Fulton County Medical Examiner
  • The police report number and the name of the assigned detective or prosecutor
  • Proof of your relationship to the person who died, such as a marriage or birth certificate
  • The deceased person’s recent pay records or tax returns
  • Funeral and burial invoices
  • Anything showing where the death occurred and who owned or managed the property

The consultation is free and private. We’ll explain which family members hold the claim, what the two claims are worth on the facts we have, and whether we believe the property owner can be held responsible.

What Are Important Aspects of a Wrongful Death Case?

The strength of the case depends on evidence that has nothing to do with the family. It depends on the defendant’s records.

  • Prior crimes at and near the property, documented through police calls for service and incident reports
  • Security measures in place at the time of the death, and what management had been told it needed
  • Ownership and management structure, since the entity on the deed is often not the one that made security decisions
  • Available insurance, including excess policies that are not disclosed until suit is filed
  • For deaths in custody, the question of who pays when a jail or its medical contractor was negligent

The criminal case and the civil case run on separate tracks. A conviction helps but isn’t required, and an acquittal doesn’t end the civil claim.

Reach Out to Deitch + Rogers to Schedule a Consultation

Families rarely feel ready to talk to a lawyer in the weeks after a death, and nothing about the consultation requires them to be. Our firm offers a free, confidential meeting with a Fulton County wrongful death lawyer, in person or by phone, and there is no fee unless we recover compensation for you. Contact us to schedule a consultation. We respond to new inquiries promptly and will work around the family’s timing.