How Does the New Bifurcation Rule Under Georgia’s SB 68 Work?

In any action for bodily injury or wrongful death, any party may demand, in writing before the pretrial order is entered, that the jury decide fault first and compensatory damages second, with an optional third phase for punitive damages and attorney’s fees (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-15(a), added by Senate Bill 68). The court can refuse only on an opposing party’s motion and only in two situations: a sexual-offense case where testifying twice would likely cause serious distress, or an amount in controversy under $150,000. In September 2026, the Court of Appeals held that the first phase may include evidence of the plaintiff’s injuries and their extent, because fault requires proof that the breach caused those injuries.

The phases

Phase	What the jury decides	Statutory limit on evidence and argument
1	The fault of each defendant and, if any defendant is at fault, the percentages of fault of everyone who contributed, under § 51-12-33	"Limited to the issues provided for in this paragraph"
2	"All compensatory damages to be awarded to the plaintiff, if any"	"Limited to this issue"
3 (optional)	Further proceedings, including punitive damages under § 51-12-5.1(d) and any attorney's fees, court costs, or litigation expenses	The trial "may be recommenced" for these proceedings

Phase 2 follows only if the jury finds a defendant at fault in phase 1, and the trial is then “recommenced immediately with the same judge and the same jury”. Phase 3 is available only if the jury awards compensatory damages in phase 2.

Injury evidence in phase 1: Transcontinental Carriers v. Bennett

In Transcontinental Carriers, Inc. v. Bennett (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 9, 2026), a tractor-trailer driver who had not taken his insulin ran Lewis Bennett’s tractor-trailer into a guardrail on Interstate 75 in Houston County. Bennett later needed spinal cord surgery. The June 2025 trial was trifurcated under § 51-12-15: fault, then damages, then attorney’s fees under § 13-6-11. The jury found the driver 30 percent and the carrier 70 percent at fault and awarded $7 million in damages and $1,546,500 in attorney’s fees.

The defendants argued that letting Bennett describe the development, effects, and persistence of his injuries in phase 1 erased the statute’s line between fault and damages. The Court of Appeals disagreed and affirmed:

“Fault” under the apportionment statute, quoting Zaldivar v. Prickett (2015), “refers to a breach of a legal duty that a defendant owes with respect to a plaintiff that is a proximate cause of the injury for which the plaintiff now seeks to recover damages”.
Because “proving fault requires proving both injuries and proximate causation under the facts of an individual case”, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing Bennett “to detail his injuries and their extent in the aftermath of the accident at issue in the first phase of this trial”.
The statute was not undermined, because the jury heard no evidence of the extent of “compensatory damages” until phase 2.

The defendants’ argument that the impact was “too minor” to cause the spinal injury was itself a phase 1 fault question for the jury.

Before the pretrial order

Decide whether to make, or oppose, a written demand under § 51-12-15(a); the deadline is the entry of the pretrial order.
If you oppose, identify whether either statutory ground applies: an alleged sexual offense with a likelihood of serious psychological or emotional distress from testifying more than once, or an amount in controversy below $150,000 (§ 51-12-15(b)).
Plan phase 1 evidence on injury and causation, which Bennett held was within the trial court’s discretion to admit, and keep the evidence of the amount of compensatory damages for phase 2.

When the rule applies

Senate Bill 68 § 9(b) states the General Assembly’s intent that the provisions other than Sections 6 and 7 apply “to causes of action pending on the effective date of this Act, unless such application would be unconstitutional”. Section 8, which enacted § 51-12-15, is one of those provisions. Bennett’s own trial in June 2025 concerned a 2020 collision. The rest of the 2025 package is summarized in the key provisions of SB 68, and the punitive phase in when you can recover punitive damages in Georgia.

Sources

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