After a crash in Georgia: the questions, answered on the record

A child's own injury claim does not start its two-year clock until age 18 (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90(b)), so a child hurt at 10 has until the 20th birthday to sue. Two rules do not wait: the notice deadline for a claim against a city or the state, and the settlement rules, which since May 2, 2022, turn on whether the settlement exceeds $25,000. The parents' claim for the child's medical bills is separate.

They do two jobs. The USDOT number identifies the motor carrier operating the truck, which may not be the company named on the trailer. The MCS-90 endorsement, for the carriers it covers, obligates the carrier's insurer to pay certain judgments even where the policy would exclude the loss. And for causes of action accruing on or after July 1, 2024, Georgia lets you join that insurer in the lawsuit only in two narrow situations.

Georgia's bad-faith remedies depend on whose insurer it is and what kind of loss. A policyholder whose own insurer refuses a covered loss uses O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6; a property claim against the other driver's insurer uses § 33-4-7; an uninsured motorist claim uses § 33-7-11(j). When a liability insurer negligently or in bad faith turns down a valid offer to settle within its limits, its insured can hold it liable for a verdict above them.

Georgia makes employers answer for a servant's torts committed "in the prosecution and within the scope of his business" (O.C.G.A. § 51-2-2). For a truck crash, two questions decide it: was the driver an employee rather than an independent contractor, and was the driver on the company's business at the time? When the company owned the truck and employed the driver, the law presumes the second answer is yes until the company offers contrary evidence.

It still prevents a direct credit: a defendant cannot subtract what your health insurer paid from what it owes. But for causes of action arising on or after April 21, 2025, if you have health insurance, the jury hears both what providers charged and what your insurance contract would require to satisfy those charges, and decides the "reasonable value" of the care (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1). That can lower the medical-expense award without any credit.

A private bus, shuttle, charter, or limousine company is outside Georgia's ante litem notice statutes, which cover government defendants: the ordinary two-year limitation period for personal injury applies. Ownership is what changes the procedure. When the carrier is a city, county, state agency, or school system, government immunity and notice rules control. What is special for every passenger carrier is the standard of care: Georgia requires "extraordinary diligence" toward passengers (O.C.G.A. § 46-9-132).

Yes. In an ordinary Georgia car crash case the lawsuit is against the driver personally; the driver's insurer pays up to the policy limits, and a judgment above those limits is the driver's own debt. Whether that excess is worth pursuing depends on the driver's assets and earnings, Georgia's exemptions, and whether the debt survives bankruptcy. A limited release signed to collect the policy limits can also end the driver's personal liability.

O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 has the jury assign a percentage of fault to everyone who contributed to the crash, including a nonparty named in a timely defense notice or one the plaintiff settled with. Damages shrink by the plaintiff's own percentage and end at 50 percent. Each defendant pays only its own percentage, with no joint liability except for defendants who acted in concert, and no contribution. A nonparty's share is not paid by any defendant.

"John Doe" is the name Georgia's uninsured motorist statute gives the unknown driver in a hit-and-run. To recover from your own uninsured motorist insurer, you must establish the unknown driver's legal liability, and O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11(d) lets the action be filed against "John Doe" and served on your insurer "as though the insurance company were actually named as a party defendant". The insurer then defends in John Doe's name or its own.

A seller of alcohol is liable for a customer's drunk-driving crash only in two situations: it knowingly served a person "in a state of noticeable intoxication", or willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully served someone under 21, in either case "knowing that such person will soon be driving", and the service proximately caused the injury (O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40(b)). The statute covers "a person who sells, furnishes, or serves", including a private host, not only licensed sellers.

Experts explain what a jury cannot work out from ordinary experience: how a crash happened, what forces it produced, what injuries it caused, and what those injuries will cost over a lifetime. In Georgia, an expert's opinion comes in only if the judge finds it meets O.C.G.A. § 24-7-702(b), a reliability test modeled on the federal Daubert line of cases, and it must be disclosed in discovery when the other side asks.

Georgia courts call it "the defense of emergency", but it works through a jury instruction: when the evidence supports it, the judge tells the jury that a driver suddenly placed in an emergency is not negligent for choosing as a prudent person might, even if not the wisest choice. The driver needs evidence of a sudden peril the driver did not help create, no time to think, and a choice between reasonable courses of action.

Loss of earning capacity is the reduction in future earning ability, unlike wages already missed. Georgia requires a physical injury "resulting in a permanent or total physical disability", and evidence letting the jury fix the amount "with reasonable certainty": what the person could earn before and after the injury. The jury may then reduce the future amount to present value at 5 percent or another rate it finds appropriate (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-13(a)).

Two years from the day the injury claim arises, which for an injury suffered in the crash is the crash date (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). The deadline is for filing a lawsuit, not for opening an insurance claim. It is a statute of limitation, not a statute of repose, so Georgia's tolling statutes can lengthen it, and a claim against a city, county, or the state adds a notice deadline that arrives much sooner.

The driver's app status decides the insurance. Under O.C.G.A. § 33-1-24, a transportation network company (TNC) such as Uber or Lyft must "maintain or cause to be maintained a primary motor vehicle insurance policy" with one set of limits while the driver is logged on and waiting, and higher limits from ride acceptance until the ride ends. With the app off, the driver's own policy is where a claim starts.

Before suing a Georgia city, county, or state agency over a crash, you must give it written notice: within six months of the event for a city, 12 months after the claim accrues for a county, and 12 months after the loss was or should have been discovered for the state. A late, misdirected, or incomplete notice can end the case. For city and state claims, a child's age does not extend the deadline.

A driver who flees stays liable if found, and can be charged under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-270. If the driver is never identified, your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage can pay, because Georgia treats a vehicle with an unknown owner and operator as uninsured. That recovery requires physical contact or an eyewitness other than you, and an immediate police report; if it goes to court, the suit names "John Doe" and is served on your insurer.

A Georgia government body can be sued over a crash only where a statute waives immunity. State agencies answer under the Georgia Tort Claims Act. Counties and cities answer, up to set limits, for negligent use of their own, leased, or rented vehicles (O.C.G.A. § 36-92-2). Cities also answer for "ministerial duties" under § 36-33-1(b). Otherwise, a county "is not liable to suit for any cause of action unless made so by statute" (§ 36-1-4).

Georgia requires a helmet (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-315), but that statute says nothing about what riding without one does to an injury claim; the seat belt statute, by contrast, was rewritten in 2025 to make nonuse admissible. A defendant can still argue nonuse under the comparative fault statute or the avoidable-consequences rule, and both arguments depend on showing that a helmet would have prevented or lessened the particular injuries claimed.

$25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person, $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more people in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage, written 25/50/25. They cover harm the insured driver causes to others, not the driver's own injuries or car. Since May 14, 2025, a DUI conviction involving a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher, drugs, or other intoxicating substances requires higher limits for three years.

Georgia has no 14-day treatment rule. A claim is not lost because the first doctor's visit came on day 15. The number comes from Florida, where no-fault personal injury protection medical benefits require initial care "within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident". In Georgia, a delay is evidence, not a bar: the other side can use it to argue that the crash did not cause the injury, or that the injury was minor.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R.) govern a commercial truck in interstate commerce on Georgia roads: Part 383 for the commercial driver's license, Part 391 for driver qualifications and medical certification, Part 395 for hours of service and electronic logs, Part 382 for alcohol and drug testing, and Part 396 for inspection and maintenance. In an injury claim, they define what the driver and the carrier were required to do.

The uninjured spouse has a claim of their own for what the injury took from the marriage, and it has a longer deadline than the injured spouse's claim: four years, not two, under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. The claim depends on the at-fault party's liability for the spouse's injury, but it can survive the injured spouse's own deadline. And it can be lost or limited by how the two spouses' cases are joined, settled, or released.