Georgia's Two-Year Deadline, and the Ones That Are Shorter
Most Georgia injury claims die at two years. Several die much sooner, and the exceptions are narrower than people expect.
The single most painful conversation in this job is the one where somebody has a real case and has run out of time to file it. The deadline is not negotiable, it does not care why you waited, and it is shorter than most people assume.
Two years, from the date of the injury
Georgia gives you two years to file a personal injury lawsuit, running from the date you were hurt rather than the date you finished treating. That covers the ordinary cases: car wrecks, trucking collisions, falls on someone else’s property, most negligence claims.
Two years sounds generous. It is not, once you subtract the months of treatment, the months of back-and-forth with an adjuster, and the weeks it takes to get medical records out of a hospital system. A case that comes to me at twenty-two months is a case where I am working against the clock instead of against the insurer.
The deadlines that are shorter
This is where people get hurt twice.
- Claims against a city, county or state agency carry ante litem notice requirements measured in months, not years — and missing the notice can end the claim even though the two-year window is still wide open.
- Workers’ compensation runs on its own timetable entirely, with reporting obligations that begin almost immediately after the injury.
- Property damage and wrongful death claims each follow their own rules, and they do not always match the injury deadline in the same incident.
If a government vehicle, a public hospital or a public employee is anywhere near your facts, assume the clock is shorter and find out for certain within the first month.
The exceptions are real, and narrow
Georgia does pause the clock in specific situations — a claimant who was a minor when they were injured, for instance. What it does not do is pause the clock because you were still treating, because you were negotiating in good faith, or because the adjuster told you there was no rush. An insurer has no duty to warn you that your deadline is approaching, and in my experience they do not.
What “filing” actually means
Sending a demand letter is not filing. Opening a claim is not filing. Filing means a complaint lodged with the right court, against the right defendant, before the date runs — and naming the wrong defendant on day 729 is functionally the same as naming nobody.
What to do about it
Write down the date you were hurt. Put a reminder in your phone eighteen months out. If you have not resolved the claim by then, you are in the window where a lawyer needs to be looking at it — see our personal injury page, or send the office a message.
This is general information about Georgia deadlines, not advice about your case. If you think you might be close to one, do not use an article to decide — call somebody.
