Statute of Limitations for Georgia Wrongful Death Claims

A Georgia wrongful death claim has to be filed within two years of the date of death under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. Three facts can move the real deadline: the defendant is a government body, the death came from medical care, or the claim belongs to the estate and not the family. Two pauses that families hear about, a pending criminal case and an unopened estate, do not work the way a family might assume.

When the two years start

The clock starts at death, not at the injury and not when the family learns who was responsible. In Miles v. Ashland Chemical Co., a failure-to-warn case, the Supreme Court of Georgia said the defendants’ liability “extended two years from the date of death” and declined to adopt a discovery rule for wrongful death.

For example, imagine a person injured on March 1, 2024, who dies on November 17, 2024. The family’s wrongful death deadline falls on November 17, 2026. The person’s own injury claim, now held by the estate, runs on a different clock, explained in how the family’s claim and the estate’s claim differ.

Medical malpractice has its own wording. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71(a) gives two years from “the date on which an injury or death” occurred, and § 9-3-71(b) adds a five-year outer limit measured from the negligent act. The malpractice limitation and repose rules cover how those two periods interact.

Does a pending criminal case pause the deadline?

For a family’s wrongful death claim, the published answer points to no. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-99 pauses the limitation period for a tort claim “that may be brought by the victim of an alleged crime”, until the prosecution ends, for no more than six years.

Harrison v. McAfee (Ga. Ct. App. 2016) read the statute broadly in one direction: it applies “regardless of whether the defendant in the case has been accused of committing the crime”. The plaintiff there was the person who had been shot.

Hicks v. Universal Health Services (Ga. Ct. App. 2022) limited it in another. Parents sued over the fatal shootings of their children and relied on § 9-3-99. The court held the statute did not save their wrongful death claims, because the word “victim” refers to the person acted on: “the crime at issue here is murder, and the parents have not been murdered”.

Two limits on that ruling matter:

• The plaintiffs in Hicks were parents. The reasoning is about who counts as a victim, so a spouse or child would face the same argument, but that is an inference from the opinion and not its holding.
• The estates’ claims were not before the court on this point. The trial court had noted that they “remained viable”. Hicks does not decide that an estate’s claim is paused or that it is not.

The General Assembly has looked at the gap. House Bill 1160, in a 2026 House Judiciary substitute, would extend § 9-3-99 to wrongful death actions. The Legislative Counsel’s summary of 2026 acts lists no amendment to § 9-3-99, so the proposal is not treated here as law.

Does an unopened estate add five years?

Not for the family’s claim. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-92 says the time between a death and the start of representation “shall not be counted against his estate”, capped at five years. The protected party is the estate. A claim held by a spouse, child, or parent under § 51-4-2 or § 19-7-1 is not the estate’s claim, so a probate delay does not extend it.

The statute does help the estate’s own claim for the injury. It may also matter when an administrator sues for next of kin under § 51-4-5(a), because no relative qualifies to sue. The text does not settle that second situation.

Does a child’s age pause the deadline?

The text gives a partial answer. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90(b) lets individuals under 18 “when a cause of action accrues” have the same time after turning 18. It does not say how that applies when the right to sue belongs to a surviving spouse on behalf of the whole family, or when an adult child could file. Planning around a later date depends on how a court answers that question for the particular family.

The minority rule also does not reach every deadline. In Dates v. City of Atlanta (Ga. 2025), the Supreme Court held that § 9-3-90(b) does not apply to the municipal notice statute.

Government defendants: the notice date comes first

A claim against a public body has an earlier written notice requirement. Missing it can end the claim while the two-year period is still open.

Defendant	Written notice	Statute	Pause rulings
City	Within 6 months of the event	§ 36-33-5(b)	Minority does not pause it (Dates)
County	Within 12 months of accrual	§ 36-11-1	Text allows 12 months after a disability ends
State	Within 12 months of discovery of the loss	§ 50-21-26(a)(1)	§ 9-3-99 does not pause it (Ragsdale)

Department of Public Safety v. Ragsdale, 308 Ga. 210 (2020), is the source for the last row. The broader list of limitation exceptions is in the exceptions to Georgia’s statute of limitations.

Which date is safe to rely on

Only one date does not depend on a contested pause: two years from the death, or the earlier notice date if a public body may be responsible. The estate’s claim needs its own calculation from the date of injury. Every later date rests on a statute or decision that has limits, and those limits are the questions to put to a Georgia attorney before the earlier date passes.

Sources

• Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 public release: §§ 9-3-33, 9-3-71, 9-3-90, 9-3-92, 9-3-99, 19-7-1, 36-11-1, 36-33-5, 50-21-26, 51-4-2, 51-4-5
• Miles v. Ashland Chemical Co., 261 Ga. 726
• Harrison v. McAfee, 338 Ga. App. 393
• Hicks v. Universal Health Services (Ga. Ct. App. June 17, 2022)
• Department of Public Safety v. Ragsdale, 308 Ga. 210
• Dates v. City of Atlanta, 321 Ga. 696
• House Bill 1160, House Judiciary substitute

This page was last reviewed in November 2026 for general information. Laws and court decisions can change after that date. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.