One is the Loneliest Number
Apportionment After Hatcher
In the Winter 2021 issue of the ACC Georgia Newsletter, Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial attorneys Brannon Arnold, Matthew Marrone and Will Ortiz discuss apportionment after Alston & Bird, LLP v. Hatcher Mgmt. Holdings, LLC, where on November 1, 2021, the Georgia Court of Appeals further limited the Apportionment Statue’s application and held that Hatcher’s preclusion on apportionment didn’t just apply to actions initially “brought against” one defendant, but also applied to cases with only one named defendant “in the case by the time the case proceed(s) to trial.”
The article discusses how fault was allocated and damages apportioned before Hatcher, addresses fault and apportionment changes after Hatcher, and provides corporate defendants with advice on what they can do now in lieu of apportionment.
In the article, the teams states, “Legislative action is required to bring any semblance of certainty back to fault allocation in Georgia. Until that occurs, corporations and their counsel should be prepared to address this uncertain landscape.”
