Personal Injury Claims in Georgia
A personal injury claim answers one question: did someone else’s carelessness cause your injury, and what is that worth? Georgia applies the same four elements in nearly every case — duty, breach, causation and damages. What changes from case to case is the duty the defendant owed you and how well the harm can be proven.
This page covers how negligence works in Georgia, what a property owner owes you, dog bites, workplace injuries, defective products, wrongful death and contingency fees.
Negligence and the Elements a Plaintiff Must Prove
Georgia’s general negligence standard is set out in OCGA § 51-1-6, and a plaintiff must prove four things: a duty of care owed by the defendant, a breach of that duty, causation, and damages. Causation has two parts. Actual cause asks whether the injury would have happened without the defendant’s conduct. Proximate cause asks whether the harm was a foreseeable result of it. A defendant can be careless and still not be liable if the connection between the conduct and the injury is too remote.
The burden belongs to the plaintiff, and the standard in a civil case is a preponderance of the evidence — more likely true than not. That is a lower bar than the criminal standard, but the plaintiff still has to clear it with evidence rather than argument.
Premises Liability: Invitee, Licensee, Trespasser
Georgia premises cases turn on why you were on the property, because the duty the owner owes changes with your legal status.
| Status | Why you were there | Duty the owner owes |
|---|---|---|
| Invitee (OCGA § 51-3-1) | A customer, patient or guest invited for the owner’s benefit | Reasonable care to keep the premises safe, including inspection for hidden hazards |
| Licensee (OCGA § 51-3-2) | A social guest, or someone on the property for their own purpose | Warn of known dangers and do not injure willfully or wantonly |
| Trespasser (OCGA § 51-3-3) | No permission to be on the property | Generally only a duty not to injure willfully or wantonly |
The categories are not always obvious. A contractor’s employee, a delivery driver and a shopper are usually invitees, while a neighbor cutting across a yard is not. In a commercial setting the owner also has a duty to inspect: a store that never checks its aisles cannot claim it had no way to know about a hazard that a simple walk-through would have found.
Slip and Fall and the Open and Obvious Rule
A slip and fall is a premises case, and it usually turns on notice. The plaintiff has to show that the owner knew about the hazard, or that the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it. The inspection logs, camera footage and incident report are the first records we ask for.
Georgia also recognizes the open and obvious doctrine: an owner generally has no duty to warn of a danger that is as obvious to the visitor as it is to the owner. The analysis is fact-specific. Lighting, distraction and the owner’s own conduct all matter, and a plaintiff’s carelessness reduces recovery under Georgia’s comparative fault rule rather than ending the claim.
Dog Bites and Animal Attacks Under OCGA § 51-2-7
Georgia is not a strict liability state for dog bites. Under OCGA § 51-2-7 an owner is liable when the animal is vicious or dangerous and the owner knew it. That knowledge can be shown by a prior bite, a warning sign or a complaint to animal control. A claim can also be brought against the person who keeps or controls the animal, and in limited circumstances against a landlord. Local leash and restraint requirements can help establish that the owner fell short.
Workplace Injuries: Workers’ Compensation vs. Personal Injury
An injury on the job usually goes through Georgia’s workers’ compensation system. Workers’ compensation pays medical care and a portion of lost wages without requiring you to prove fault, and it is generally the exclusive remedy against your employer. What it does not pay is pain and suffering.
A personal injury claim exists when someone other than your employer caused the injury: a subcontractor, the manufacturer of a defective machine, a delivery driver, or a property owner on a multi-employer site. Those claims can be pursued while workers’ compensation pays the medical bills, and the compensation carrier may have a lien that has to be dealt with before the case can be resolved.
Product Liability
Georgia allows a claim against a manufacturer for a product that was defective in design or manufacture, or that carried inadequate warnings, under the strict liability provisions of OCGA § 51-1-11. Strict liability means you do not have to prove the manufacturer was careless — only that the product was defective when it left the manufacturer’s control and that the defect caused the injury. Keep the product, the packaging, the receipt and the lot number.
Wrongful Death Under OCGA § 51-4-1 et seq.
When negligence causes a death, Georgia’s wrongful death statute creates a claim for the full value of the life of the person who died, a measure that includes the intangible value of that life and not only lost wages. The claim belongs to the surviving spouse or, if there is none, to the children, then to the parents. The estate can bring a separate claim for medical bills, funeral expenses and the suffering before death. The two-year clock generally runs from the date of death, which may be later than the date of the injury.
How Contingency Fees Work
Personal injury cases are handled on a contingency fee: no hourly rate and no retainer, with the fee taken as a percentage of what is recovered and the agreement put in writing. If there is no recovery, there is no fee. Case expenses such as records, filing fees and experts are handled the way the written agreement provides, so read that part before you sign.
Why Treatment Gaps Hurt a Claim
The defense builds its case from the medical records. If you stopped treating for three months, the adjuster argues you had healed. If an emergency room record notes no back pain and you later claim a serious back injury, the defense calls it inconsistent. Follow the referrals, keep every appointment, and tell each provider about every symptom.
Talk Through What Happened
If your injury came from a crash, our auto accident practice covers those claims. How a case is prepared when it has to be tried is explained on our trial practice page, and the questions clients ask most are answered on our frequently asked questions page.
A conversation costs nothing. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you whether you have a claim, what needs to be documented, and what the next step should be.