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I read with interest the news today that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the State of New York will no longer send 16 and 17 year olds to prison for criminal offenses. Instead, they will be sent to special newly created youth courts for felonies and to family court for misdemeanors. This new law is called “Raise the Age” initiative.   Kudos to New York. And kudos to the other states that have raised the age for incarceration in state prisons.  Since 2009, seven states have raised the age of adult proscecution to 18 and five more have tried during their 2015-16 legislative sessions.  Here in Georgia, Representative Mary Margaret Oliver, Representative from the 82nd District, filed proposed legislation that would raise the age of adult criminal prosecution to 18 and enlarge the jurisdiction of Georgia Juvenile Courts to include 17 year olds.  House Bill 53 was attempt by Oliver to treat juveniles under age 18 as just that…juveniles. “There are only six states that allow minors to be treated as adults for the criminal prosecution of all crimes,” said Rep. Oliver. “HB 53 is intended to bring Georgia into the mainstream so that 17-year-old minors will no longer be prosecuted as adults, but will be adjudicated in the juvenile court. Expanded juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-years-old children is a needed reform.”  If passed, HB 53 would adjust the juvenile court’s jurisdiction to include children under the age of 18. This jurisdiction includes the investigation and examination of delinquent acts committed by minors. Under current law, only children under the age of 17 are included in the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.  HB 53 was read on the House Floor, but unfortunately, never received a vote. In fact, there was other legislation filed in the Georgia General Assembly that would lower the age for criminal prosecution for certain offenses rather than raise it.

Many advocate groups are joining in the fight to raise the age for criminal prosecution. For example, the Campaign for Youth Justice, based in Washington, D.C.,  is focused entirely on ending the practice of prosecuting, sentencing, and incarcerating youth under the age of 18 in the adult criminal justice system.  Statistics show that every year in the U.S., as many as 200,000 youth are put into the adult criminal justice system, most of them for non-violent offenses. In 22 states and the District of Columbia, children as young as seven can be prosecuted as adults. Each year 95,000 youth are held in adult jails and prisons.  Research shows that youth in adult jails and prisons are at a higher risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse than their peers in the juvenile justice system.   Advances in behavioral and brain science show that adolescent brains are different from adult brains.  Consequently, the judgment “exercised” by youths is different than that exercised by adults.  The American Bar Association recently reported on this in its February 2017 Journal.  The article interviews Dr. Judith Edersheim, co-director of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at the Massachusetts General Hospital. As Dr. Edersheim  explains it, “there are three widely agreed-upon differences between adult brains and adolescent brains. One is that during adolescence, kids actually lose “gray matter,” the brain cells that do all of the brain’s computation. This “pruning” of gray matter is especially concentrated in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for self-control, planning, decision-making and other executive functions.At the same time, Edersheim says, teenagers get more “white matter,” the cells that pass messages between parts of the brain, which increases processing speed. Scientists think these two changes make the brain more efficient, even though it also loses some computational ability. This process of brain maturation continues after the body matures; some scientists think it ends as late as age 25.  But perhaps the most conspicuous difference, Edersheim says, is that adolescent brains have more circulating dopamine—a neutrotransmitter that scientists believe governs rewards and learning—and more receptors in their brains to pick it up. Dopamine is released when a person receives many kinds of rewards, including new experiences, as well as things such as food and sex. This predisposes teenagers to seek out rewards and novelty. The thinking, Edersheim says, is that this helps push adolescents out of the nest and into the world. And what kids learn during this process, she says, helps determine what parts of the gray matter get pruned. That means a kid’s environment matters a lot, and adult prison isn’t the best environment.  “If you don’t provide an adolescent with an opportunity to develop a social competency or self-esteem, if you don’t put them in contact with pro-social peers, then you’re setting trajectories which actually might persist through adulthood,” Edersheim says. “Adolescents are really these neurologic sponges for their environment.””

One of the reasons I am interested in this legislation to raise the age is because I represent the mother of a young man who was incarcerated in adult state prison here in Georgia at the age of 16.  At the age of 17, he attempted to kill himself by hanging from his bedsheet. He now remains in  a constant minimally conscious state in a nursing home in South Georgia due to the brain damage he suffered during the suicide attempt. He is 19 years old.  I firmly believe that had he not been sent to an adult prison at age 16 he would be a healthy 19 year old now, looking forward to rehabilitation for the offense he committed. That will never happen now.  

Two fairly interesting court opinions were issued this week, one by a trial court judge in a bench trial, and the other from the Georgia Court of Appeals, both of which place a dollar value on the life of someone and both of which are, strikingly, very close to each other in amounts. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at them, as the value of a life is something I ponder quite often as a trial lawyer, and it is something I often have to ask juries to do in wrongful death trials. I am currently gearing up for the trial involving the wrongful death of a 23 year old young woman who was a kindergarten teacher in Gwinnett County. The trial will be taking place in Fulton State Court. So the value of a life is at the forefront of my thought these days. Let’s take a look at the wrongful death cases from this week.

The first case involves the wrongful death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Bobbi Brown and Whitney Houston.  I am sure you are familiar with the incident surrounding her death. It was a tragic case.  This week, Judge Jackson Bedford of the Superior Court of Fulton County, issued an award of $36 Million for the full value of the life of Bobbi Kristina. You may recall that, like her mother, Bobbi Kristina was found face down in a bathtub full of water. She survived on life support systems in a hospital for several months. The award was made against her life-partner, Nick Gordon.  Mr. Gordon was not present at the trial of this case and it appears he may have been in default in the civil suit, meaning he never filed an answer to the lawsuit which would entitle the plaintiff to a trial on damages only, which is, apparently, what occurred. The young woman’s family blamed Gordon, accusing him in the lawsuit of giving Brown a “toxic cocktail” before putting her face-down in the water. Gordon, an orphan three years older whom Houston had raised as her own, has not been charged with a crime. Brown had referred to Gordon as her husband. Investigators with the medical examiner’s office were unable to determine exactly how Brown had died. An autopsy showed she had morphine, cocaine, alcohol and prescription drugs in her body. But the medical examiner couldn’t determine if she killed herself, if someone else killed her or if her death was accidental. Regardless of the amount of the award, it is unlikely that the Brown Family will ever collect a penny of it from Mr. Gordon. It is my understanding that he has no personal assets and could always file bankruptcy against the award.  It is important, however, to note that a very seasoned trial judge, Judge Bedford, when faced with placing a dollar value on the life of a person, deemed $36 Million an appropriate number.   Judge Bedford has presided over many wrongful death trials and is well versed in the law of wrongful death and what factors go into that decision of what is the value of life from the deceased’s point of view.  Interestingly, under Georgia law, when determining the value of a life for wrongful death purposes, the jury is instructed they must value the life from the deceased’s point of view, meaning did the person who died value his or her life?  The only “tool” the jury is to use to help them with this endeavor is their “enlightened conscience.” What was his life worth to him? What was her life worth to her?  Judge Bedford decided $36 Million was the value of the life of Bobbi Kristini Bown.   That may seem like a lot of money, but ask yourself this:  If it was your daughter who had died, have they printed enough money to compensate for the loss of her? Name a dollar figure you believe adequately reflects the full value of the life of one of your children.  It’s hard to think about, isn’t it.  Now put yourself in the jurors’ shoes.

The second case this week involves the wrongful death of a little boy, Remington Walden, who burned to death in a fiery car crash  when he was a passenger in a 1999 Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Two amazing trial lawyers, a father and son team, Jim Butler and his son, Jeb Butler, tried this wrongful death back in April 2015 in Decatur County (Bainbridge) Georgia.  The plaintiffs alleged the 1999 Chrysler Jeep was defective due to the placement of its fuel tank in the rear of the Jeep, making a fuel-fed fire highly likely in a rear-end collision, which is what happened in this case. Unlike the Bobbi Kristina trial, which was a trial in front of a judge who decided the case, this was a good old-fashioned jury trial. The Decatur County jury found for the plaintiffs in the amount of $120 Million.  That’s right…$120 Million.  The trial judge then reduced or “remitted” the verdict, which is a power the trial court has, in lieu of a new trial. The trial judge reduced the $120 Million verdict to $40 Million , which the plaintiffs’ accepted. Chrysler did not, however, and appealed even the reduced verdict to the Georgia Court of Appeals.  Well, the Georgia Court of Appeals this week affirmed the trial court, meaning it agreed with the trial court’s decision to reduce the verdict to $40 Million. Chrysler lost their appeal but has vowed to consider its options to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. I’ll be watching for that appeal.  There was evidence in the trial that Remy, the little boy, burned alive for 60 seconds.  It may seem that the jury thought $2 Million for every second of burning alive was appropriate. Who could argue with that? Who could even argue with $40 Million for that kind of death? Chrysler, I suppose. Chrysler still refuses to accept any responsibility for their defective product and refuses to accept any responsibility for the death of Remy Walden.   Contrary to the Bobbi Kristina verdict, the plaintiffs stand to collect every penny of this verdict, plus interest, assuming it is affirmed on appeal by the Georgia Supreme Court.

In the 28 years I have practiced plaintiff’s personal injury law here in Georgia, I have handled hundreds of cases, each one with a unique set of facts. I am often asked by clients what affects the value of their case?  Many, many things, some reasonable and fair, some irrational and unpredictable, affect the value of a case.  But they all matter.  Below are just 10 such things that affect the value of a personal injury case, in no particular order.  And this list of 10 items is NOT exclusive.

1.  Did you leave the scene by ambulance?  If you left the scene of a car wreck by ambulance, that suggests you knew right then you had suffered a severe injury, severe enough that you needed immediate medical treatment. If you did not leave the scene by ambulance, insurance adjusters and even jurors may tend to think perhaps your injuries were really not that bad. After all, you didn’t even need to go to the emergency room.
2. Did you or anyone call 911?  See #1 above.  Calling 911 suggests it is a true emergency, someone (you) are really hurt and you really need help right away.