Ga. Supreme Court Hears Case With Toccoa Ties

A case involving a Stephens County business makes its way before the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The state’s highest court heard oral arguments Monday in the case of Mississippi-based law firm McHugh Fuller against PruittHealth of Toccoa.

On April 17, 2014, McHugh Fuller posted an advertisement in the Toccoa Record that was allegedly based on a 2012 survey report about PruittHealth-Toccoa, LLC published by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

That ad showed a photo of a nursing home owned by PruittHealth and accused the nursing home of citations against it, calling on people to call the law firm.

PruittHealth sued the law firm for false and deceptive advertising and in May 2014, a trial judge agreed with PruittHealth.

The trial judge found that the law firm’s ad was “false and misleading” and ordered the law firm to stop publishing the ad and remove any and all electronic postings of the ad, including archived versions.

The McHugh Fuller law firm is appealing the trial judge’s decision, claiming that the trial court did not follow proper procedure and also claimed that it was not clear that the trial court’s ruling was final.

Typically, it takes the Georgia Supreme Court anywhere from 30 days to a number of months to rule on an appeal, depending on the nature of the case, according to information posted on the state Supreme Court’s website.