Can Not Wearing a Seatbelt Be Used Against You in a Georgia Injury Case?

Yes, in a case commenced on or after April 21, 2025. The 2025 amendment to O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1(d)(1) provides that failure to wear a seat safety belt “may be considered in any civil action as evidence admissible on the issues of negligence, comparative negligence, causation, assumption of risk, or apportionment of fault or for any other purpose and may be evidence used to diminish any recovery for damages”. For a case commenced before that date, SB 69 and the 2025 legislative summary keep the prior law, under which nonuse of a seat belt was not evidence of negligence or causation, although SB 68’s general applicability clause points the other way (explained below).

Old rule and new rule

	Before the 2025 amendment	After the 2025 amendment
Negligence, causation, liability	Failure to wear a seat belt "shall not be considered evidence of negligence or causation" and "shall not otherwise be considered by the finder of fact on any question of liability"	"May be considered … as evidence admissible on the issues of negligence, comparative negligence, causation, assumption of risk, or apportionment of fault or for any other purpose"
Damages	"Shall not be evidence used to diminish any recovery for damages" arising from the ownership, maintenance, occupancy, or operation of a motor vehicle	"May be evidence used to diminish any recovery for damages" from the same sources
Insurance	Not a basis for cancellation of coverage or increased rates	Still not a basis for cancellation of insurance coverage or an increased rate (§ 40-8-76.1(d)(2))
Court's gatekeeping	Not needed, because the evidence was excluded by statute	The court may still decide admissibility under § 24-4-403 "or any other statutory or common law rule of evidence"

Which law sets the effective date

Both Senate Bill 68 (Section 5) and Senate Bill 69 (Section 4) rewrote § 40-8-76.1(d) with the same text, but the two bills state different applicability rules. SB 68 § 9(b) expresses the intent that its provisions, other than Sections 6 and 7, apply to pending causes of action. SB 69 § 5(c)(2) says its Section 4 “shall not apply to causes of action pending on the effective date of this Act” and “shall apply only to causes of action commenced on or after the effective date”, with earlier cases governed by prior law. The 2025 legislative summary for SB 69 states that this provision “became effective April 21, 2025” and applies only to causes of action commenced on or after that date. SB 69 keys the line to when the cause of action was “commenced”, not to when the crash happened; read literally, that points to the date the lawsuit was filed, so a crash before April 21, 2025 may fall under the new rule if suit was filed on or after that date.

How the evidence can be used

Under the new text, a defendant may argue that an unbelted plaintiff was partly at fault, that the nonuse caused or worsened specific injuries, or that damages should be reduced. Because Georgia reduces damages in proportion to the plaintiff’s share of fault and bars recovery at 50 percent or more (§ 51-12-33(a), (g)), a fault percentage assigned for nonuse can change the outcome; see how Georgia’s 50 percent comparative fault rule works. Whether the evidence actually comes in remains for the trial judge, who can exclude it under § 24-4-403.

What the evidence fight turns on

When the lawsuit was filed, compared with April 21, 2025.
Proof of belt use or nonuse: the police report, the vehicle’s event data, and medical records describing belt marks.
Whether the injuries claimed are ones a belt would have prevented or lessened, which is a causation question for experts.

Sources

Senate Bill 69 (2025), as passed, §§ 4, 5.
Senate Bill 68 (2025), as passed, LC 49 2362S, §§ 5, 9.
Georgia General Assembly, 2025 Summary of General Statutes Enacted, entry for Act 10 (SB 69).

General information about Georgia law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.