A Fayetteville woman was awarded more than $360,000 in both actual and punitive damages in a civil malpractice suit she filed against a local attorney.

A Fayette County State Court jury handed down the verdict against Daniel Richard Hayes Oct. 16 after a two-day trial.

Hayes, of Jones Circle, Fayetteville, also was held in contempt of court for inappropriately questioning a witness during the trial despite warnings not to do so by State Court Judge Fletcher Sams, according to court records. Hayes paid a $200 fine, escaping a two-day jail sentence for the transgression.

In the suit, Betty Goza claimed that she retained Hayes via a contract several months after she was injured in an automobile crash that was the subject of the suit. Goza claimed that Hayes failed to properly serve the defendants with notice of the suit, and he also failed to notify her when the suit was dismissed because the two-year statute of limitations had expired.

The suit states that Goza found out about the case’s dismissal by researching records at the Clerk of Court’s office.

In the January 2003 crash, Goza was a passenger in a car driven by her husband that was rear-ended at the intersection of Ga. highways 85 and 54 in Fayetteville; she ultimately had surgery to repair a tear in her rotator cuff, and she also suffered several other injuries, according to the suit.