A $4.7 million verdict from a medical-malpractice trial against multiple defendants turned into a $1 million insurance policy limit settlement and more fighting ahead.

By all accounts—from lawyers and court records—Connie Lockhart tried to kill herself on Feb. 23, 2012. She would have died then, if not for the actions of two concerned people close to her—who were not parties to the lawsuit. Her daughter noticed worsening depression and called her mother's psychiatrist. The mother admitted to him on the phone that she had taken two handfuls of her blood pressure medicine. He called 911. That's how she wound up in the Northside Hospital Cherokee emergency room in the suburban city of Canton. What happened to her there saved her life but also destroyed the lower part of her right leg. After she was moved to the main Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs a week later, doctors amputated her leg below the knee.

Making sure the jury knew what she did to hurt herself became a part of the defense strategy. Making the jury understand why became an important job for her lawyers, Lloyd Bell and David Schlachter of the Bell Law Firm and Darren Summerville and Angela Fox of the Summerville Firm.