East Point
Personal Injury Lawyer

East Point calls itself the sixth largest city in Fulton County. It was chartered in 1887 and takes its name from its position as the terminus of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad. Atlanta borders it on the north, east and west, and downtown is about seven miles northeast.

The emergency room that closed

According to reporting by GPB, 11Alive and Axios, Wellstar closed the emergency room and the inpatient beds at Atlanta Medical Center South on 6 May 2022, and closed the successor clinic on 12 January 2024.

We report that as reporting, and we stop there. We are not going to tell you where an ambulance from East Point goes now — that is a protocol question, and any answer we gave would be a guess with a law firm’s name on it. What we will say is that where you were treated, how long it took to get there and what was written down are all facts an insurer will examine closely, and that gaps in treatment get used against people who had no way to close them.

The roads, and one unusual landmark

I-285 and I-85 both serve East Point, along with Camp Creek Parkway and SR 166 — the Arthur B. Langford Jr. Parkway, formerly the Lakewood Freeway — which runs from I-285 east to I-75 and I-85. Camp Creek Marketplace opened in 2003 off I-285 and Camp Creek Parkway, covers 309,089 square feet, and sits less than five miles from Hartsfield-Jackson. East Point Station is on MARTA’s Red and Gold lines.

The Dick Lane Velodrome, built in 1974, is described by the city as the state’s only velodrome. It is a reminder that not every injury claim here involves two cars: cyclists, pedestrians and people crossing between a rail station and a parking lot are hurt in ways that a standard crash report is poorly shaped to describe.

Fulton County — and the county that actually hears it

East Point is in Fulton County, and Fulton’s courts are in downtown Atlanta. The Superior Court of Fulton County belongs to the Atlanta Judicial Circuit and is a court of general jurisdiction, with exclusive jurisdiction over felony jury trials, divorce, equity and title to land. The State Court of Fulton County hears misdemeanours including traffic and civil actions outside that list, and describes itself as trying serious personal injury cases. Both can hear an auto negligence claim, and ordinary injury suits are commonly filed in State Court where one exists.

Whether your case is a Fulton County case at all still turns on the defendant. The Georgia Constitution (Art. VI, Sec. II, Para. VI) places a civil case in the county where the defendant resides — the default whenever that defendant lives in Georgia — and O.C.G.A. § 9-10-31(b) allows a suit against joint tortfeasors from different counties in any county where one of them lives. Out-of-state drivers and motor carriers each have a venue statute of their own, and either can place the case in the county where the crash happened instead. Two years from the injury to file; four years for loss of consortium (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33).