How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Georgia, and When Does the Clock Start?
On this page
- The deadline is for filing a lawsuit, not an insurance claim
- Different harms, different clocks
- When the clock starts
- When the defendant is a government
- Claims that do not use the two-year personal injury rule
- What can pause the clock
- If a case was filed on time and then dismissed
- The short version for your calendar
- Sources
Two years. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 requires actions for injuries to the person to be “brought within two years after the right of action accrues”, which in a crash or fall is the day of the injury. That number is only safe in the ordinary case: a government defendant, a malpractice claim, a child, or a crime can each change the date that matters.
The deadline is for filing a lawsuit, not an insurance claim
The statute measures the time to bring an action in court. A claim opened with an insurer, a recorded statement, or months of settlement offers are not a lawsuit, and none of the tolling statutes listed below turns on negotiations. If talks are still going near the two-year date, the lawsuit has to be filed anyway.
Different harms, different clocks
| What was harmed | Deadline | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Your body (personal injury) | 2 years after the right of action accrues | § 9-3-33 |
| Your spouse's loss of consortium from your injury | 4 years | § 9-3-33 |
| Your car or other personal property | 4 years | § 9-3-31 |
| Land or buildings | 4 years | § 9-3-30(a) |
| Reputation (defamation) | 1 year | § 9-3-33 |
The bodily injury claim expires two years before the claim for the damaged car, so the two-year date is the one to calendar.
When the clock starts
“Accrues” in § 9-3-33 means the date the claim arises, which for a sudden injury is the date of the event. Georgia also applies a limited discovery rule to some injuries that develop slowly; its scope is explained in how the discovery rule works in Georgia. The day you first saw a doctor, or the day the insurer denied the claim, does not restart the count.
When the defendant is a government
Before you can sue a city, a county, or the state, Georgia requires a written ante litem notice on its own, shorter deadline: 6 months from the event for a city (§ 36-33-5), 12 months for a county (§ 36-11-1), and 12 months from the date the loss was discovered or should have been discovered for the state (§ 50-21-26). The city and state notice deadlines are not extended because the injured person is a child; the Supreme Court of Georgia so held for city notices in Dates v. City of Atlanta (2025), and for state notices Dates relied on Department of Public Safety v. Ragsdale (2020), which Dates quotes as holding that the statutory tolling provisions do not apply to the Tort Claims Act notice. Delivery, contents, and the county exception for minors are covered in Georgia’s ante litem notice rules.
A federal defendant, such as a federal agency’s vehicle, is outside Georgia’s statute. A tort claim against the United States is “forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues”, and a lawsuit must follow within six months after the agency mails a final denial (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b)).
Claims that do not use the two-year personal injury rule
- Medical malpractice: two years from the injury, but never more than five years after the negligent act (§ 9-3-71); see the malpractice limitation period.
- Wrongful death: the two years run from the date of death; see the wrongful death deadline.
- Product liability: a ten-year repose measured from the first sale of the product applies in addition to the filing period (§ 51-1-11(b)(2)).
What can pause the clock
Each of these is a separate statute with its own conditions:
- The injured person is under 18 or legally incompetent (§ 9-3-90). Malpractice claims follow different rules in § 9-3-73. Details: tolling for minors and incompetent plaintiffs.
- The defendant moved out of Georgia (§ 9-3-94); see what happens when a defendant leaves Georgia.
- The defendant’s fraud concealed the claim (§ 9-3-96).
- The injury came from a crime (§ 9-3-99): the victim’s tort claim is tolled until the prosecution becomes final or otherwise ends, up to six years. The Court of Appeals has held this does not extend a family’s wrongful death claim (Hicks v. Universal Health Services, 2022).
If a case was filed on time and then dismissed
A case dismissed without prejudice can sometimes be refiled even after the two years have passed, under Georgia’s renewal statute, § 9-2-61, but only once and only if the first case was valid. The conditions are in refiling a Georgia case after dismissal without prejudice.
The short version for your calendar
Write down the date of the injury and add two years. Then ask four questions: Is any defendant a city, county, state, or federal entity? Is this a medical, death, or product claim? Is the injured person a minor or incompetent? Did a crime cause the injury? Any “yes” can move the date that controls, and some of them move it earlier.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. §§ 9-3-30, 9-3-31, 9-3-33, 9-3-71, 9-3-90, 9-3-94, 9-3-96, 9-3-99, 9-2-61, 36-11-1, 36-33-5, 50-21-26, 51-1-11.
- 28 U.S.C. § 2401 (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
- Dates v. City of Atlanta, 321 Ga. 696 (2025)
General information about Georgia law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.