Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90(b), a child generally has until the 20th birthday to file the child’s own claim. Tolling is a safety net for the child. It is not a safety net for you, not a safety net for a malpractice case, and not a safety net for a notice letter to a city.
Your child has been hurt. Someone else is at fault. You are living at the hospital, or in the waiting room of a specialist, and the last thing on your mind is a statute of limitations.
Then someone tells you not to worry. “Georgia tolls the statute for minors. You have until your child turns 20.”
That sentence is half true. The half that is false is the half that costs families the medical bills they have already paid, and sometimes the lawsuit itself.
This post is about the half that is true, and the half that is not.
What the statute actually says
“Tolling” means the clock is paused. A child hurt in a car wreck, a dog attack, a fall, or a defective-product case generally has until the 20th birthday to file the child’s own claim. The two years start at 18.
O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90(b) is the minor tolling statute. It says that a person who is under 18 when a cause of action accrues “shall be entitled to the same time after he or she reaches the age of 18 years to bring an action as is prescribed for other persons.”
“Tolling” means the clock is paused. It does not run while the child is a child.
For an ordinary injury to the person, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 gives an adult two years from the date of the injury. Put the two statutes together and a child hurt in a car wreck, a dog attack, a fall, or a defective-product case generally has until the 20th birthday to file the child’s own claim. It does not matter whether the child was 2 or 17 on the day of the injury. The two years start at 18.
That protection exists for a reason. A five-year-old cannot hire a lawyer. A five-year-old cannot weigh a settlement. The law refuses to let a child’s claim die because the adults around the child were slow, scared, or careless.
Do not stop reading at that paragraph.
Your claim is not your child’s claim
The parent who has the right to recover for the child’s medical expenses holds that claim, not the child. The parents’ claims for their child’s medical expenses were not tolled by the child’s minority.
When a child is hurt, there are usually two claims.
The child’s claim is for the child’s pain, scarring, disability, and future losses. That claim belongs to the child. The minor tolling statute protects it.
The parents’ claim is different. In Georgia, the parent who has the right to recover for the child’s medical expenses holds that claim, not the child. Lost wages from missed work sit in the same place. That claim is yours.
The Georgia Court of Appeals said so in Swallows v. Adams-Pickett, 344 Ga. App. 647 (2018). The parents’ claims for their child’s medical expenses were not tolled by the child’s minority. Those claims ran on the ordinary clock. The child’s claim survived. The parents’ claim did not.
If you wait until your child is 18 to do anything, you may still have the child’s claim. You will have lost the claim that pays the bills.
File both, or at least protect both, inside the ordinary two years.
Medical malpractice is a different statute, and it is much shorter
A child who was five or older when the negligence happened is on the adult clock. A child who was under five has two years from the fifth birthday. Behind both of those sits a statute of repose.
Parents hear “tolling” and assume it covers a doctor’s mistake. It does not.
O.C.G.A. § 9-3-73 says “notwithstanding” the tolling article. That word is doing real work. For medical malpractice:
- A child who was five or older when the negligence happened is on the adult clock. Two years from the injury, under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71. No pause for minority.
- A child who was under five has two years from the fifth birthday.
- Behind both of those sits a statute of repose. If the child was under five at the time of the act, the suit may not be brought after the tenth birthday. If the child was five or older, the suit may not be brought more than five years after the act. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-73(c).
A repose is not a limitation period. It does not care when you discovered the harm. It is a hard wall.
There is a narrow exception for a foreign object left in the body, governed by O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72. Do not plan a birth-injury case, a surgical case, or a delayed-diagnosis case around an 18th birthday.
Notice deadlines are not the lawsuit deadline
If a city is the defendant, O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5 requires an ante litem notice within six months, and the minor tolling statute does not apply to that notice. Miss the six months and the claim is gone.
Tolling extends the time “to bring an action.” Some deadlines are not that.
If a city is the defendant, O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5 requires an ante litem notice within six months. In Dates v. City of Atlanta (Ga. June 10, 2025), the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the minor tolling statute does not apply to that notice. A notice statute is a condition on the right to sue, not a statute of limitations. A child hurt on city property does not get until age 18 to send the letter. Miss the six months and the claim is gone.
County claims are different on purpose. O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1 gives twelve months, and the statute itself contains tolling language for minors. The legislature wrote the pause into one statute and left it out of the other. Courts read that as intentional.
A claim against the State under the Georgia Tort Claims Act has its own twelve-month notice, O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26. The Supreme Court has already held that this notice is not a statute of limitations. Do not assume minority saves a late notice. Send it.
A few other walls the tolling statute does not move
A product claim can run into the ten-year statute of repose in O.C.G.A. § 51-1-11. If you are the parent suing for the death of your child, that claim is yours. Your child’s age does not pause it.
Childhood sexual abuse has its own statute, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33.1. Section 9-3-90(b) says so on its face. That subject is outside this post.
A product claim can also run into the ten-year statute of repose in O.C.G.A. § 51-1-11, measured from the date of first sale. A construction claim can run into the repose in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-51. A repose is a separate creature from the two-year injury statute. Minority does not politely step aside for every one of them. If the product is old, or the building is old, get the dates before you rely on an 18th birthday.
Wrongful death depends on who holds the claim. If the proper plaintiff is a minor, tolling can protect that minor’s right to file. If you are the parent suing for the death of your child, that claim is yours. It runs two years from the death. Your child’s age does not pause it.
What I tell parents to do
Do not treat tolling as permission to wait. If a city, a county, or the State may be involved, send the notice now.
Do not treat tolling as permission to wait.
Get the medical records. Photograph the injuries. Write down the names of the witnesses while they still remember. If a city, a county, or the State may be involved, send the notice now.
If the offer to settle is more than $25,000, remember that O.C.G.A. § 29-3-3 requires court approval before that settlement binds your child. The old threshold was $15,000. The legislature raised it. A gross settlement of $25,000 or less can be compromised by the natural guardian without court approval and without a conservator. Above $25,000, the court has to approve the deal, and if the net amount the child will actually receive is also over $25,000, a conservator has to be appointed to receive it.
Tolling is a safety net for the child. It is not a safety net for you, not a safety net for a malpractice case, and not a safety net for a notice letter to a city. The families who fare best are the ones who call while the facts are fresh and both claims are still alive.
Attorney Pete Pearson has practiced personal injury law in Georgia since 1996. He has a special interest in helping families of injured children. He is a father of ten and lives with his wife and children in Newborn, Georgia.
If you need to talk, my direct line is Six-Seven-Eight 358-2564, or email pete@petepearsonlaw.com.