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What Is Georgia’s Fault-Based Car Insurance System and How Does It Determine Which Driver’s Insurer Pays After a Crash?
In Georgia, the driver who caused the crash pays, through liability insurance. There is no no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) requirement: Georgia repealed it in legislation that the Georgia State University Law Review reviewed in 1992. Fault is measured in percentages under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, so the insurer of each at-fault driver pays that driver’s share, up to its limits, and the injured person’s recovery shrinks with their share and ends at 50 percent.
The order in which coverage responds
| Source | When it pays | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| The at-fault driver's liability policy | First, up to its limits, for the people that driver injured | §§ 33-34-4, 40-9-37 (minimum 25/50/25) |
| Other at-fault parties' policies | For each party's own share of fault | § 51-12-33(b) |
| Your uninsured motorist coverage | When the at-fault vehicle is uninsured, underinsured, or unknown | § 33-7-11 |
| Your own first-party coverages | Collision for your car, medical payments if you bought it, regardless of fault | Your policy |
The first row is the core of the system. A vehicle that must be registered in Georgia may not be operated unless the owner has liability insurance “equivalent to that required as evidence of security” under the Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act (§ 33-34-4), and that Act requires limits of not less than the amounts in § 33-7-11(a)(1)(A): $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage. What those limits cover is explained in the minimum liability insurance limits required in Georgia. A crash with a rideshare driver follows a separate statute on which policy applies at each phase of the trip; see rideshare accident liability in Georgia.
How fault decides who pays
The percentages fix what each at-fault person owes; each insurer pays its own insured’s share, up to the policy limits, and any part of a judgment above those limits remains the at-fault person’s own debt. Under § 51-12-33, the jury assigns percentages of fault to everyone who contributed, reduces the injured person’s damages by their own percentage, and bars recovery at 50 percent or more. For example, imagine $100,000 in damages, the other driver 80 percent at fault and you 20 percent: you recover $80,000, from the other driver’s coverage first. If two other drivers were 40 percent each, each one’s insurer answers for $40,000, and neither covers the other’s share.
Before a case reaches a jury, an insurer can weigh the same percentages in negotiating, using evidence such as the police report, statements, photographs, video, and vehicle data, but an adjuster’s view of fault is not a legal finding. The rules for the percentage are set out in how Georgia’s apportionment statute divides fault among several drivers.
Why “no-fault” does not apply
Georgia once required personal injury protection under its Motor Vehicle Accident Reparations Act. The provisions requiring that coverage were repealed; the Georgia State University Law Review’s 1992 volume reviews that legislation under the title “Repeal Provisions Requiring Personal Injury Protection Insurance Coverage and Related Provisions”. Rules that come from no-fault states, such as Florida’s requirement of treatment within 14 days to keep PIP medical benefits, do not govern a Georgia claim.
Third-party and first-party claims
- Third-party claim: against the at-fault driver’s insurer. That insurer owes duties to its own insured; for property damage it also has a statutory duty to the claimant to “adjust that loss fairly and promptly” (§ 33-4-7).
- First-party claim: against your own insurer, under collision, medical payments, or uninsured motorist coverage. Your insurer’s refusal to pay a covered loss is governed by § 33-4-6, and an uninsured motorist claim by § 33-7-11(j).
When the at-fault driver’s coverage is not enough
The injured person has three possible sources beyond the at-fault driver’s limits: their own uninsured motorist coverage, other at-fault parties, and the at-fault driver personally. Your own UM coverage can fill part of the gap under Georgia’s underinsured rules, and what a judgment against the driver personally can reach is in suing the at-fault driver personally in Georgia.
After a crash, in order
- Report the crash to the police immediately if anyone is hurt or property damage appears to be $500 or more (§ 40-6-273).
- Get the other driver’s name, insurer, and policy number.
- Notify your own insurer, and find your uninsured motorist limits on your declarations page.
- Keep the evidence that bears on fault: photographs, witness names, and the police report number.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. §§ 33-4-6, 33-4-7, 33-7-11, 40-6-273, 40-9-37, 51-12-33 (text as published in March 2024); § 33-34-4 (text of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 release; no amendment listed in the 2023 to 2026 summaries of general statutes enacted).
- Carlos L. Corless, Insurance: Georgia Motor Vehicle Accident Reparations Act: Repeal Provisions Requiring Personal Injury Protection Insurance Coverage and Related Provisions, 8 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. (1992)
This page describes Georgia law as of October 2026 for general information. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.