Georgia Personal Injury Law Reference
This page collects the Georgia statutes and decisions that most often decide the timing and value of a personal injury case, in plain language, with citations you can check. Georgia rewrote several of these rules in 2025, and the changes are covered below. Gregory Stuck is admitted to practice in Georgia.
Deadlines That End Cases
O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33
Two-year statute of limitations
Georgia allows two years from accrual to bring an action for injuries to the person. Loss of consortium claims carry four years, and injuries to reputation only one. The trap behind the two-year rule: claims against government entities require ante litem notice far earlier, as little as six months for a city and twelve months for a county or the state. Anyone hurt by a government vehicle or on public property is on a much shorter clock than they think.
Fault Rules
O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33(a), (g)
Modified comparative fault and the 50 percent bar
Damages are reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault, and under subsection (g) you recover nothing if found 50 percent or more responsible. Cases near the midline are all-or-nothing fights, and the framing of the fault story from day one decides which side of the line a jury lands on.
Alston & Bird, LLP v. Hatcher Mgmt. Holdings, LLC, 312 Ga. 350, 862 S.E.2d 295 (2021)
Apportionment, a Supreme Court shock, and the legislative fix
Georgia’s apportionment statute makes each defendant severally liable for its own percentage of fault, with juries considering the fault of everyone involved, including nonparties. In 2021 the Supreme Court of Georgia held, unanimously and strictly by the text, that the nonparty apportionment mechanism applied only to cases “brought against more than one person,” so a single named defendant could not reduce damages by pointing at absent wrongdoers. The General Assembly responded with House Bill 961, signed May 13, 2022, amending O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33(b) to cover actions against “one or more” persons. The effective-date wrinkle still matters: causes of action that accrued before May 13, 2022 remain governed by the Hatcher rule. The same opinion also held that litigation-expense awards under O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11 are damages subject to apportionment.
Damages
Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, 286 Ga. 731, 691 S.E.2d 218 (2010)
Compensatory damages are not capped
The 2005 tort reform package capped noneconomic damages in medical malpractice at $350,000. Betty Nestlehutt, permanently disfigured by a facelift procedure, won $900,000 in pain and suffering; the cap would have cut it to $350,000. The Supreme Court of Georgia held the cap violates the Georgia Constitution’s guarantee that the right to jury trial “shall remain inviolate,” because determining damages is the jury’s constitutionally protected role, and applied the ruling retroactively. The court was explicit that such caps are invalid “in any amount.” Punitive damages are different: because punitives are not compensatory fact-finding, Georgia’s general $250,000 punitive cap survives, with exceptions including product liability and specific intent to harm.
O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2
Wrongful death: the full value of the life
Georgia measures wrongful death damages in a way most states do not: the survivors recover “the full value of the life of the decedent, as shown by the evidence,” valued from the decedent’s own perspective and including both economic earning capacity and the intangible value of living. The surviving spouse brings the claim and receives no less than one third of the recovery when sharing with children; if there is no spouse, the children bring it, and parents may recover where there is neither. The estate separately recovers funeral and medical expenses and the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering.
The Rules That Changed in 2025
Senate Bill 68, signed April 21, 2025, was Georgia’s biggest tort overhaul since 2005, and several changes cut against injury plaintiffs. Older summaries of Georgia law get these wrong.
2025 Ga. Laws, S.B. 68
Seat belt evidence is now admissible
For decades Georgia barred any mention of a plaintiff’s seat belt non-use. For claims filed after April 21, 2025, that shield is gone: juries may consider seat belt non-use on negligence, comparative fault, causation, and apportionment, subject to the court’s balancing of probative value against unfair prejudice. This is now a live defense weapon in every Georgia car case.
2025 Ga. Laws, S.B. 68
Medical damages: juries now see billed and paid amounts
For causes of action arising after the effective date, juries evaluating past medical damages see both the amounts providers charged and the amounts actually necessary to satisfy those charges under applicable insurance, with letters of protection receiving their own disclosure treatment. Proving the reasonable value of medical care in Georgia now requires more sophisticated evidence work than presenting the bills.
2025 Ga. Laws, S.B. 68
Anchoring limits, bifurcation, and premises liability
Counsel may no longer argue arbitrary benchmark figures for pain and suffering untethered from the evidence. Either side may move to bifurcate trial into liability and damages phases. Negligent security claims against property owners now run through a narrower statutory framework. Each change rewards disciplined, evidence-anchored trial presentation.
On the Research Roadmap
Queued for future entries: the punitive damages statute (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1) and its exceptions; Junior v. Graham and the 2025 fee-recovery changes; the new negligent security framework and the case law interpreting it; and appellate decisions applying S.B. 68 as they arrive.
Last reviewed: August 21, 2026
This page is legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes and case law change; the last-reviewed date above reflects the most recent verification. If you were injured in Georgia, call (407) 630-8692 for a free consultation with an attorney admitted in Georgia.