Can I Sue a Doctor for Malpractice in 1994?

Once again, we often hear from folks after their time has run out. Here’s a question I got last week from a lady who waited way too long.

Q.  When I had my first child in 1994, the MD performed an episiotomy which caused severe nerve damage (sliced through tissue from vagina to rectum). I did not file suit at the time because I was hoping the problem would resolve. It is now 14 years later and the quality of life has suffered terribly due to damage incurred. Is it too late to file suit for damages?

A. Georgia has a rather strict two year statute of limitation in medical malpractice case. Nothing in your question suggests applicability of any of the narrow exceptions. Sorry.

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy,. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases.  Currently he is Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.