Georgia Personal Injury Laws and Statutes of Limitations

You've been injured in Georgia by someone else's wrongdoing, and you have questions. How long do I have to sue? Where do I file my lawsuit? Can I sue the State for my injuries? What happens if I'm partly to blame for the accident?

We've got the answers you're after. Starting with Georgia's personal injury statutes of limitations, we'll take you through the basics of Georgia personal injury law.

Georgia Personal Injury Statutes of Limitations

When you've been injured in Georgia, one of the first things you need to know is: How long do I have to file a lawsuit in court? Laws called "statutes of limitations" answer that question. They limit your time to sue by killing your legal claim after a set period of months or years.

Georgia has several personal injury statutes of limitations. Beginning with the state's two-year general rule, here are the two you're most likely to encounter.

Georgia's General Rule: Two Years From the Date of Your Injury

For most Georgia personal injury cases, the filing deadline is found in Ga. Code § 9-3-33 (2024). You must file your lawsuit within two years, typically from the date you were injured. Absent a more specific rule that's a better fit, this is the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving:

• car accidents
• slip and fall and similar injuries caused by dangerous or poorly maintained real estate
• dangerous products
• dog bites
• injuries caused by an assault and battery or a false imprisonment, and
• when personal injuries result in death, a wrongful death case.

Two kinds of claims are excluded from Georgia's two-year rule.

First, when your reputation in the community is harmed by a false statement of fact about you, you have just one year—probably from the date the false statement is first made—to sue for defamation of character. Second, if a family member is injured or killed, you can sue for loss of consortium. You must file your case within four years from the date of injury or death.

Georgia's Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations

A number of special rules govern the deadlines for filing a Georgia medical malpractice lawsuit. The basic deadline, found in Ga. Code § 9-3-71(a) (2024), gives you two years to sue for malpractice-related injuries. The two-year clock normally starts on the date you were injured.

Different rules dictate the filing deadlines when:

• your doctor carelessly leaves a foreign object inside your body and you don't discover it in time, (Ga. Code § 9-3-72 (2024),) or
• the injured patient is a child younger than five years old. (Ga. Code § 9-3-73(b) (2024).)

Georgia's medical malpractice filing deadlines can be very complicated. Your best bet will be to get advice specific to your case from a Georgia malpractice lawyer.

Is It Possible to Extend Georgia's Personal Injury Filing Deadline?

In some circumstances, yes, Georgia law gives you more time to sue. Here are some examples.

Georgia's "discovery rule." In most personal injury cases, you know you've been injured as soon as it happens. Fall in an icy parking lot and break your wrist, for example, and the pain and other symptoms immediately let you know you're hurt. In cases like that, there's nothing unfair about starting the statute of limitations on the date you're injured.

But what if you don't know right away that you've been harmed? Your time to sue might disappear before you even know you have a legal claim. That's not fair. To address that unfairness, Georgia has adopted the "discovery rule," at least in some cases. Here's how it works.

When you don't know you've been hurt, and you couldn't discover an injury even if you diligently looked for signs and symptoms, the statute of limitations doesn't run from the date of your injury. Instead, it starts on the earlier of:

• the date you discover your injury and what caused it, or
• the date you should have discovered your injury and what caused it, had you been reasonably careful.

(See King v. Seitzingers, Inc., 160 Ga. App. 318, 320 (1981).)

Now for the bad news. Georgia's discovery rule doesn't apply in all cases. The Georgia Supreme Court has decided that it should only apply in personal injury cases when your injuries take a long time to develop. (See Corporation of Mercer University v. National Gypsum Co., 258 Ga. 365, 366 (1988).) Also, it doesn't apply in wrongful death lawsuits. (Miles v. Ashland Chemical Co., 261 Ga. 726, 728 (1991).)

Here's the bottom line. If you think the discovery rule gives you more time to sue, don't rely on it until you get advice from an experienced Georgia lawyer. You're in way over your head if you take this issue on by yourself.

Injured person is legally disabled. In Georgia, as in all states, a person who's legally disabled can't manage their own legal matters. Georgia law considers as legally disabled those who are:

• younger than 18 years old, or
• intellectually disabled or mentally ill.

When a person who's legally disabled suffers a personal injury giving rise to a legal claim, the statute of limitations doesn't start until the disability ends. (Ga. Code § 9-3-90 (2024).)

Except for children younger than five years old, these extensions don't apply in medical malpractice cases. (Ga. Code § 9-3-73(b) (2024).)

Defendant is absent from Georgia. Suppose that after injuring you, the defendant—anticipating your lawsuit—flees the state. Will that tactic succeed? Maybe not, because Georgia law anticipates just such a move. The applicable statute of limitations doesn't run for any period that the defendant is absent from Georgia. (Ga. Code § 9-3-94 (2024).)

But there's a catch. This rule doesn't apply unless, because of the defendant's absence, you can't start your lawsuit against them. If you're able to get "service of process" on them while they're outside the state (ask your lawyer for details), you can't use this extension. (See Towns v. Brown, 177 Ga. App. 504 (1986).)

What Happens If I Miss the Statute of Limitations Deadline In Georgia?

Miss the statute of limitations for your case and—unless there's an extension you can rely on—your legal claim no longer exists. You can't sue on it in court. The party who's responsible for your injuries won't negotiate a settlement with you, because you don't have a claim to settle. In short: Your legal claim is dead, and nothing you do will bring it back to life.