STEPHEN CHANCE

For more than three decades, Stephen R. Chance has represented individuals and families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases arising from medical negligence and institutional failure. His practice is focused on serious, high-damages cases: preventable hospital deaths, permanent brain injury, paralysis, amputation, nursing home neglect, fires, explosions, and other life-altering losses.

A defining focus of Stephen’s work is the litigation of missed and delayed diagnoses of time-sensitive neurological emergencies, including bacterial meningitis, herpes encephalitis, fungal meningitis, brain abscess, spinal epidural abscess, and other central nervous system infections. These are cases in which warning signs were present, diagnostic tools were available, and timely treatment could have changed everything. When those failures are ignored or minimized, the consequences are often permanent: death, quadriplegia, profound cognitive impairment, lifelong dependence, or the loss of a child or parent.

Stephen is often sought out for cases that are medically complex, emotionally devastating, and heavily defended. He has handled matters involving multiple hospitals, physician groups, radiology practices, telemedicine providers, nursing homes, and corporate defendants, often across numerous specialties. He is particularly well suited for cases with complicated timelines, large medical records, multiple decision points, and damages that require disciplined, high-level presentation.

His results reflect that focus. In 2025, Chance Forlines Carter & King obtained nearly $140 million in verdicts in a three-month period, including verdicts of $70 million, $42 million, and $27.5 million. Stephen also served on the trial team that secured a $40 million wrongful death verdict in Sanford v. Atrium Health Navicent and served as co-lead counsel in McKinney v. Life Care Centers of America, where a jury returned a $15.3 million verdict arising from fatal nursing home neglect. He prepares cases for trial from the beginning and is fully prepared to take the right case to verdict when defendants refuse to accept responsibility.

Stephen’s experience extends beyond the trial court. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Georgia, including in Sapp v. Canal Insurance Company, where the Court ruled entirely in his clients’ favor, and in other significant matters affecting all citizens of Georgia. That appellate experience strengthens his work from day one: claims are developed carefully, issues are preserved deliberately, and the case is built to withstand serious scrutiny.

Clients and referring counsel do not come to Stephen for volume practice or routine disputes. They come to him for catastrophic cases involving meaningful harm and meaningful accountability. He limits the number of matters he accepts so that each case receives substantial attorney attention, early expert development, and full trial preparation. He is selective because the cases he handles demand it.

That selectivity is matched by perspective. Stephen has lived through serious illness and loss in his own family. He lost his father early in his legal career. He lost his son Patrick after a six-year battle with childhood cancer. His mother later suffered debilitating strokes requiring long-term care. Those experiences do not replace legal skill, but they do shape the way he works: with urgency, seriousness, empathy, and a clear understanding that clients come to him during the hardest chapter of their lives.

Stephen has practiced law since 1995. He is a third-generation trial lawyer, earned his undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University, and received both his MBA and JD, magna cum laude, from Georgia State University, where he served on the Law Review. He is AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell, has been recognized by Super Lawyers for years, and is licensed in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

If your family is facing the aftermath of a catastrophic medical injury, preventable death, severe neurological injury, paralysis, amputation, or institutional neglect, Stephen evaluates a limited number of serious cases. Contact Chance Forlines Carter & King to request a confidential case review.