Georgia’s 2-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims explained

Georgia gives a person two years to sue for an injury to the person, counted from when the right of action accrues. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 is the source, and for a car crash that date is ordinarily the day of the crash. The suit must actually be filed and then served properly, since a demand letter or an insurance claim does not count. The same sentence sets different periods for reputation and for consortium.

The text

Section 9-3-33 says: “Except as otherwise provided in this article, actions for injuries to the person shall be brought within two years after the right of action accrues, except for injuries to the reputation, which shall be brought within one year after the right of action accrues, and except for actions for injuries to the person involving loss of consortium, which shall be brought within four years after the right of action accrues.”

Claim	Period
Injury to the person	Two years
Injury to reputation	One year
Injury to the person involving loss of consortium	Four years

The consortium claim belongs to the spouse, as covered on loss of consortium claims.

When the clock starts

The section says “accrues” and does not define the word. In a crash, the elements of the claim are present on the day of impact, so that is the safe start date. Georgia recognizes a narrow discovery rule. In Corp. of Mercer University v. National Gypsum, 258 Ga. 365, the Supreme Court said the rule is confined “to cases of bodily injury which develop only over an extended period of time”. A driver who learns months later that a crash injury is worse than it seemed should not count on this. Medical malpractice has its own statute with no such start date, covered on limitation and repose.

Counting the days

Section 1-3-1(d)(3) sets the rule: “the first day shall not be counted but the last day shall be counted”. If the last day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the party has through the following Monday, and if it falls on a public and legal holiday, through the next business day.

Crash date	Second anniversary	Last day to file
June 10, 2024	Wednesday, June 10, 2026	June 10, 2026
March 15, 2024	Sunday, March 15, 2026	Monday, March 16, 2026

Plan for an earlier date. Nothing here is worth testing on the last day, and a court clerk’s system or a missed holiday can create a problem that is hard to fix.

Filing is not the end: service

A timely complaint may still fail if the defendant is not properly served. Section 9-11-4(c) calls for service within five days of receiving the summons and complaint. After that, the outcome turns on the plaintiff’s diligence when the period has expired.

In Lipscomb v. Davis, 335 Ga. App. 880 (2016), the plaintiff sued three days before the two-year date after an August 2012 crash. The defendant raised lack of service. The court applied a “reasonable and diligent” standard and, once the defendant raised the issue after the period expired, a higher one of “the greatest possible diligence”. The plaintiff had made one more attempt, and the trial court’s dismissal was affirmed. The court also said a defendant being hard to find “does not justify a lack of effort”. So a suit filed near the deadline requires someone to follow the service closely.

What does not stop the clock

• Negotiations with an insurer, or an adjuster saying the claim is being reviewed.
• An unfinished course of treatment.
• A demand letter, however complete.
• A clear-liability case.
• Hiring a lawyer, by itself.

An insurer has no general duty to warn you of the date. A written agreement to extend it, signed by someone with authority, is different, but relying on anything less is dangerous.

What can change the period

Situation	Rule	Key limit
Plaintiff under 18 when the claim accrued	Same time after turning 18, § 9-3-90(b)	Medical claims differ
Legally incompetent when the claim accrued	Same time after the disability is removed, § 9-3-90(a)	Requires that legal status
Fraud	§ 9-3-96	Actual fraud, and it must debar suit
Alleged crime	§ 9-3-99	Applies to the victim, and a citation can count
Dismissal and refiling	§ 9-2-61	Original suit timely; narrow

The details are on exceptions to the statute of limitations. What happens after a miss is on missing the statute of limitations.

Periods that are not this one

• Vehicle damage. Four years, §§ 9-3-31 and 9-3-32.
• Wrongful death. Two years under § 9-3-33, from the death, with different limits on tolling. See the wrongful death deadline.
• Government defendants. Notice can be required much sooner than two years.
• Your own insurance. A policy can contain notice and suit terms, separate from the statute.

For a car crash, how long you have to file puts all of those on one page.

Working back from the date

For a serious injury, treatment may not finish well before two years, and that is the tension. A suit can be filed to protect the date, and settlement talks can continue. The question is whether treatment, the liability investigation, and an insurer’s response will all finish in time. If not, filing protects the claim, and when to file suit covers that decision.

Sources

• Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 public release: §§ 1-3-1, 9-2-61, 9-3-31, 9-3-32, 9-3-33, 9-3-90, 9-3-96, 9-3-99, 9-11-4
• Corp. of Mercer University v. National Gypsum, 258 Ga. 365
• Lipscomb v. Davis, 335 Ga. App. 880

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.