Published by Life Justice Law Group | Updated June 2026
Finding the right wrongful death lawyer after losing a family member is one of the most consequential decisions you will make under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. In Atlanta, the options are numerous. The quality is not uniform.
Georgia wrongful death law operates under a distinct legal framework. The Georgia Wrongful Death Act (O.C.G.A. § 51-4-1 et seq.) measures damages by the full value of the life, a standard broader than most states, encompassing both the economic contributions of the deceased and the intrinsic non-economic value of the life itself. Applying that standard at its full potential requires an attorney with specific expertise in Georgia courts, Georgia’s full-value-of-life doctrine, and the ability to build and present a complete damages case through expert testimony.
This report identifies five Atlanta-area wrongful death practices that stand out in 2026. We publish this as one of the listed firms, and we have applied the same criteria to every entry on this list, including ourselves. Families deserve a clear-eyed comparison, not a promotional ranking that only appears to be objective.
How We Evaluated These Firms
Every firm on this list was assessed against consistent, verifiable criteria.
- Named attorney credentials. Generic law firm marketing is everywhere. We looked for specific attorneys with specific, verifiable recognition: peer ratings, published verdicts, bar memberships, speaking engagements, and professional standing in the Georgia trial bar.
- Depth of wrongful death practice. Firms that handle wrongful death as a specialty or exclusive practice were distinguished from generalist firms that include it among dozens of practice areas without particular depth.
- Documented results. Attorneys whose verdicts and settlements are published and verifiable carry a different kind of credibility than those making general claims about their track record.
- Trial credibility. Settlement amounts reflect what insurers believe a jury will award. A firm’s history of taking cases to verdict, and winning, directly determines its negotiating leverage. We evaluated each firm’s known trial history.
- Georgia-specific knowledge. The full-value-of-life standard, the standing hierarchy under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, the concurrent survival action, the government entity notice requirements, and the comparative negligence rules under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 are all Georgia-specific. Attorneys who understand these details recover more for their clients than those applying generic personal injury frameworks.
1. Wetherington Law Firm
Address: 1800 Peachtree St. NW, Suite 370, Atlanta, GA 30309 Phone: (404) 888-4444 Website: wfirm.com Lead Attorney: Matt Wetherington
Wetherington Law Firm is the foundation of one of the most recognized wrongful death legal networks in Georgia. Founded by Matt Wetherington, the firm has been ranked number one in Georgia by fellow attorneys for two consecutive years, a peer evaluation that reflects how defense attorneys, judges, and colleagues in the Georgia bar assess the firm’s work. Matt Wetherington has been inducted into the ALM Verdicts Hall of Fame for securing one of the largest auto wreck verdicts in Georgia history, inducted into the Fulton County Daily Report Law Firm Hall of Fame, and recognized as a Super Lawyer in Personal Injury and Products Liability.
Those credentials carry weight beyond the awards themselves. Wrongful death settlements are ultimately determined by what a defendant’s insurer believes a jury would award. A firm with a hall-of-fame verdict, appellate court appearances in Georgia, and a documented record of winning against global corporations and major commercial insurers negotiates from a position that smaller or less credentialed firms cannot replicate.
The Depth Behind the Results
Matt Wetherington‘s wrongful death practice is built on specific technical expertise that extends well beyond general personal injury experience. He founded the Tire Safety Group, a nonprofit that maintains the largest recalled tire database in the world searchable by DOT code, and has delivered published trial advocacy on tire failure litigation at the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia in 2017 and at a national conference in Nashville in 2018. In wrongful death cases arising from commercial truck crashes, defective vehicles, or tire failures, that depth of technical knowledge directly shapes how the liability case is built and what it is ultimately worth.
The firm has litigated defective vehicle wrongful death cases involving Ford Explorers, F-Series trucks, Chrysler vehicles with fire defects, and multiple tire manufacturers including Firestone and BF Goodrich. It has argued at the Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court. It has taken on global manufacturers and won.
For wrongful death cases arising from commercial truck crashes on Atlanta’s highway system, apartment complex shootings where security was inadequate under O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1, defective products, or high-value catastrophic injury matters, Wetherington Law Firm’s combination of peer-rated authority, documented verdicts, and technical specialization makes it the strongest foundation in the Georgia wrongful death landscape.
What Wetherington Handles in Wrongful Death
The firm accepts wrongful death cases arising from commercial truck and tractor-trailer crashes, car accidents, defective vehicles, tire failures, fire deaths, apartment complex shootings and premises liability, workplace third-party liability, and cases with class-action potential. It currently accepts cases involving sexual assault and shootings at apartment complexes in South Fulton, fire deaths in Chrysler vehicles, and serious tire failure cases involving Michelin, BF Goodrich, and recalled Firestone Wilderness tires.
Attorney Credentials: Matt Wetherington
- Ranked number one in Georgia by fellow attorneys, two consecutive years
- Inducted, ALM Verdicts Hall of Fame
- Inducted, Fulton County Daily Report Law Firm Hall of Fame
- Daily Report Top Auto Wreck Verdict in Georgia, 2015
- Super Lawyer: Personal Injury and Products Liability
- Founder, Tire Safety Group
- Speaker, American Association for Justice Annual Conference
- Speaker, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association Annual Conference
- Speaker, American Bar Association, Chicago
- GTLA Champion Member; AAJ Member; ABA Member
- Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court appearances
Free consultation: (404) 888-4444
2. Life Justice Law Group
Website: lifejusticelaw.com Phone: (404) 888-4444 Founding Partner: Matt Wetherington Attorneys: Robert Friedman, Ben Levy, Eli Cohen, Elizabeth Ji, James Cox
Life Justice Law Group is a wrongful death and catastrophic injury practice that focuses solely on these case types. The firm was established with a single mandate: to stand beside families facing an untimely loss and fight for full accountability, without the distractions of a broad personal injury docket.
Matt Wetherington serves as founding partner, bringing the full weight of his credentials, including his ALM Verdicts Hall of Fame induction, his number-one peer ranking in Georgia, and his specialized expertise in commercial vehicle wrongful death and defective product litigation, to the firm’s cases. The attorney team includes Robert Friedman, Ben Levy, Eli Cohen, Elizabeth Ji, and James Cox, all of whom also bring their experience to Wetherington Law Firm’s caseload. This shared roster is a structural advantage for clients: they receive attorneys embedded in one of Georgia’s most recognized trial networks, with access to its investigative resources, expert relationships, and litigation infrastructure, operating within a practice that treats wrongful death as its only focus.
The $24 Million Landmark Judgment
Life Justice Law Group’s most publicly noted result is a $24 million verdict secured for failing to recognize and report child abuse. That result required proving not just that a death occurred, but that a specific institutional failure, a failure to identify and report abuse in a setting where the obligation existed, directly caused it. Cases that turn on institutional negligence, systemic failures, or the conduct of organizations rather than individual actors are among the most complex wrongful death matters in Georgia civil litigation. A $24 million verdict in that category reflects the kind of trial preparation and jury credibility that moves serious numbers.
The firm holds a trust rating of 4.5 based on 1,200 client reviews, reflecting consistent client experience across case types.
What Makes This Practice Distinct
The exclusive wrongful death focus matters in ways that go beyond specialization. Attorneys who handle only these cases develop a deeper familiarity with Georgia’s full-value-of-life standard, the distinctions between the wrongful death claim and the parallel survival action, the expert networks that produce credible economic and non-economic damages testimony, and the specific dynamics of negotiating and trying wrongful death cases against defendants who have every incentive to minimize the life’s value.
Life Justice Law Group’s practice areas include truck accident wrongful death, car accident wrongful death, medical malpractice wrongful death, construction accident fatalities, motorcycle accident wrongful deaths, premises liability wrongful deaths, nursing home abuse deaths, product liability wrongful deaths, and infant wrongful deaths. The firm serves clients across Georgia and operates in multiple states.
Awards and Recognition
The firm displays Super Lawyers recognition, GTLA membership, Avvo ratings, Top 40 Under 40, Georgia Trend Legal Elite recognition, Best Law Firms designation, Justia recognition, and ABA membership. These credentials, combined with the Wetherington attorney network’s underlying track record, represent a documented foundation that competing generalist practices cannot easily replicate.
Free consultation: (480) 378-8088
3. Georgia Wrongful Death Attorney P.C.
Address: 245 Peachtree Center Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30303 Phone: (404) 446-0271 Website: georgiawrongfuldeathattorney.com Lead Attorneys: Eli Cohen (Founding Partner) and Robert Friedman (Trial Attorney)
Georgia Wrongful Death Attorney P.C. is a dedicated wrongful death practice that handles exclusively wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases throughout Georgia. Founded by Eli Cohen and led alongside Robert Friedman, the firm focuses entirely on these case types. Both attorneys also practice at Wetherington Law Firm and Life Justice Law Group, bringing the resources, expert networks, and litigation infrastructure of that broader ecosystem to every Georgia Wrongful Death Attorney P.C. case.
Eli Cohen: An Investigative Edge That Changes Cases
What distinguishes Eli Cohen in Atlanta’s wrongful death bar is a credential that has no direct equivalent in civil litigation: twelve years as a Georgia police officer and SWAT investigator before becoming a trial attorney. That background is not a biographical footnote. It is a functional advantage.
Most wrongful death attorneys review accident reports. Eli Cohen deconstructs them with the forensic discipline he applied to fatal traffic homicides and major crime investigations. He understands how official narratives form around fatal events, where evidence goes unrecorded, how first responders document and sometimes fail to document what they observe, and how to challenge the factual account a corporate defendant or insurer has constructed in the days after a death. In wrongful death cases where the evidence is gathered in the first 48 to 72 hours and where the defense’s rapid-response team may have already been at the scene, that investigative approach can determine whether the liability case is built on solid ground or compromised from the start.
Robert Friedman: Trial Depth
Robert Friedman brings experienced trial advocacy to complex wrongful death litigation. Working in collaboration with Eli Cohen and with the broader Wetherington attorney network, he handles cases at every stage from initial investigation through trial preparation and verdict, with access to the full resources of all three affiliated practices.
What the Firm Handles
Georgia Wrongful Death Attorney P.C. handles wrongful death arising from commercial truck accidents, car accidents, medical malpractice, defective products including kratom-related deaths, construction accident fatalities, premises liability, and nursing home neglect. The firm’s case results link to wfirm.com/results, reflecting the shared track record across the affiliated practices.
For families whose cases involve complex forensic questions, where the official record of events needs to be challenged, or where the death occurred in circumstances that require an investigator’s approach to evidence, Eli Cohen’s background and the firm’s exclusive wrongful death focus represent a combination that is genuinely rare in Georgia civil litigation.
Free consultation: (404) 446-0271
4. Kermani LLP
Address: Atlanta, Georgia Website: kermanillp.com Founding Attorney: Ray Kermani
Kermani LLP was founded in 2011 by Ray Kermani and Mohamad Ahmad and has grown into one of Atlanta’s more actively litigating personal injury and wrongful death practices. Ray Kermani has recovered over $80 million in judgments and settlements for clients, has been recognized by Super Lawyers, and is listed among the National Trial Lawyers top 40 under 40. The firm reports having litigated more than 100 trials over a five-year period, a trial volume that exceeds what most plaintiff’s firms in Georgia can document.
That trial frequency matters. Attorneys who try cases regularly develop a courtroom fluency and a negotiating leverage that comes only from consistent courtroom presence. Insurers track which firms actually try cases and which settle everything. Kermani LLP’s documented trial volume places it among the more credible trial practices in Atlanta for wrongful death litigation.
The firm’s most notable documented wrongful death result is what has been described as the largest child wrongful death settlement in Georgia history, secured after a child was killed at a major retailer. That specific result, in a case involving institutional negligence by a corporate defendant, is directly relevant to families whose losses involve business premises or corporate defendants.
Kermani LLP handles personal injury and wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis and serves clients throughout Georgia.
Website: kermanillp.com
5. Cunningham Bounds
Website: cunninghambounds.com Practice Focus: Serious wrongful death and catastrophic injury litigation
Cunningham Bounds is an established litigation firm with an Atlanta presence and a documented record in major wrongful death verdicts that is difficult to match in the Southeast. The firm has publicly documented results including a $140 million verdict for the wrongful death of a patient due to medical transcription errors, a $65 million verdict for wrongful death from nursing home negligence, a $61.5 million verdict for the wrongful death of a family in a carbon monoxide poisoning case, and a $50 million verdict for a wrongful death caused by a water heater explosion. Combined across all categories, the firm has recovered billions of dollars for clients in settlements and verdicts.
These are not typical personal injury figures. Results at that scale require a different level of preparation, expert deployment, and courtroom advocacy than standard wrongful death litigation. They also reflect a specific strength: institutional and product liability wrongful death cases, where the defendant is a corporation, a facility, or a manufacturer rather than an individual driver. Those are the cases where juries award eight-figure verdicts when the evidence supports it, and Cunningham Bounds’ documented record in that category is one of the strongest of any firm accessible to Georgia families.
For families whose wrongful death arose from medical malpractice, nursing home negligence, a defective product, or institutional negligence by a corporate defendant, Cunningham Bounds’ specific track record in exactly those case types makes it a firm worth evaluating alongside any other on this list.
The firm handles wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis.
What to Look For When Choosing a Wrongful Death Lawyer in Atlanta
Most families navigating this decision are doing so while grieving, under time pressure, without prior experience with civil litigation. These are the factors that have the most direct effect on outcomes.
- Named attorneys with documented results. A firm’s advertising tells you how they present themselves. A published verdict, a hall-of-fame induction, or a peer rating tells you how their profession evaluates them. Look for specific credentials tied to specific attorneys, not general claims about the firm.
- Exclusive or concentrated wrongful death experience. Georgia’s Wrongful Death Act is specific. The full-value-of-life standard requires expert development that general personal injury attorneys rarely invest in. The standing rules, the survival action, and the government entity notice requirements all have implications that attorneys who handle mostly car accident cases may not fully understand. Firms with concentrated wrongful death practices tend to recover more of the available value.
- Trial credibility, not just trial claims. Almost every law firm claims to be willing to go to trial. The ones that actually do go to trial, and have verdicts to show for it, generate meaningfully different settlement dynamics. Ask specifically about trial results, not just willingness.
- Evidence preservation capacity. In most wrongful death cases, critical evidence has a very short window. Security camera footage, ECM data from commercial vehicles, dispatch records, and maintenance logs are typically overwritten or destroyed within days. An attorney who sends preservation notices within 24 to 48 hours of being retained protects evidence that might otherwise disappear. Ask what a firm does in the first 48 hours after being retained.
- Clear fee structure. Reputable wrongful death attorneys work on contingency. In Georgia, the standard is 33 and one-third percent before suit is filed and 40% if litigation is required. Case expenses should be advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the recovery, not billed to you during the case. Get this in writing before signing anything.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wrongful Death Cases in Atlanta
Who can file a wrongful death claim in Georgia?
Under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, the surviving spouse has the first right to bring the claim. If there is no surviving spouse, the right passes to the surviving children. If there are no surviving children, the parents may file. If none of the above survive, the estate administrator may file on behalf of next of kin. This hierarchy is set by statute and cannot be altered by family agreement.
What is the statute of limitations for wrongful death in Georgia?
Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, you have two years from the date of death to file. Claims against state entities require ante litem notice within 12 months under the Georgia Tort Claims Act. Claims against municipal entities may require notice within as little as 6 months. Missing these deadlines eliminates the right to recover from that defendant entirely.
What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?
A wrongful death claim is brought by eligible family members under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2 and seeks the full value of the life of the deceased. A survival action is brought by the estate under O.C.G.A. § 9-2-41 and covers the deceased’s own damages: medical expenses incurred before death, conscious pain and suffering between injury and death, and funeral costs. Both should be pursued in every wrongful death case.
What does “full value of the life” mean in Georgia?
Georgia courts have interpreted this broadly to include both the economic value of the life (lifetime earning capacity, household financial contributions) and the intrinsic, non-economic value (relationships, experiences, and the life the deceased would have continued to live). Neither component is capped by statute. Establishing the full value requires economic experts, actuarial analysis, and often personal testimony about the life itself.
What if the at-fault party does not have enough insurance?
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on the deceased’s own policy may provide additional recovery. Other defendants, including the driver’s employer, a property owner, or a manufacturer, may carry independent coverage. A complete coverage analysis at the beginning of every case identifies every available source.
How much does it cost to hire a wrongful death attorney in Atlanta?
Nothing upfront. All reputable wrongful death attorneys in Atlanta work on contingency. You pay a percentage of the recovery only if the attorney wins. If there is no recovery, there is no attorney fee. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the settlement or verdict.
How long will a wrongful death case take?
Cases with clear liability and a single defendant may resolve within 12 to 18 months. Cases involving multiple defendants, disputed fault, or corporate defendants with dedicated defense teams can take two years or longer. Settling before the full medical and economic picture is documented almost always produces a lower recovery. The right timeline is one that allows for complete expert development before any settlement demand is made.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.