Georgia’s 2025 Tort Reform: What It Means When Your Child Is Hurt

On April 21, 2025, Governor Kemp signed Senate Bill 68. Supporters called it tort reform. It changed the rules for nearly every personal injury case in Georgia, including the cases of injured children.

The law did not cap damages for children. It did not shorten the time to file. But it changed what a jury hears, how medical bills are proved, how lawyers may talk about pain and suffering, and how trials are run. Some of those changes favor the insurance companies that defend these cases. Parents should know what they are.

The changes to medical bills and to negligent security claims apply only to injuries that happened on or after April 21, 2025.

Seat belts are now evidence

For decades, Georgia kept seat belt use out of the courtroom. A jury in a car wreck case was not told whether the injured person was buckled up.

SB 68 ended that rule. Under the amended O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1, a jury may now hear that an injured person was not wearing a seat belt, and may consider it on negligence, comparative fault, causation, and apportionment. A judge can still keep it out if it would be unfairly prejudicial.

For a teenager, this matters. If your 16-year-old was not buckled when another driver ran a red light, expect the insurance company to argue that the injuries would have been less serious with a belt on, and that the award should be cut.

Young children are different. Georgia’s child restraint law, O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76, is a separate statute, and the duty to buckle a small child belongs to the adult driving, not the child. A young child also cannot be blamed for his own injuries under Georgia’s tender years doctrine. Still, expect insurers to look for ways to bring car seat use into these cases.

The lesson is simple, and it was true before the law changed: buckle everyone, every trip, in the right seat for the child’s age and size.

Medical bills: the jury may hear what insurance would pay

Before SB 68, a jury generally heard the full amount the hospital billed. What health insurance actually paid was kept out.

Under the new O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1, for injuries on or after April 21, 2025, the jury may also hear the amount actually needed to satisfy the bill under the family’s health insurance, often far less than the full charge. That evidence can come in even if the family did not use its insurance.

If a child was treated on a letter of protection, where a doctor agrees to wait for payment out of the settlement, that arrangement is now discoverable and can be shown to the jury.

For a family, the practical effect is lower numbers for past medical expenses. Remember that the claim for a minor’s medical bills is usually the parents’ claim, not the child’s. I explained why in Your Child’s Claim and Your Claim.

What if the family has no health insurance?

The short answer: it is harder for the defense to push the medical bills down, but not impossible.

The new rule lets the jury hear the rate under “any form of public or private health insurance” that covers the injured person. If there is no insurance, there is no contract rate to show the jury. The full charges come in, and the jury decides whether they reflect the reasonable value of the care. Defense lawyers can still argue that the charges are too high, usually through a billing expert. But they have lost their easiest weapon.

That creates an odd result. A family that paid health insurance premiums for years may see its child’s medical damages argued down to the insurance rate. A family with no insurance may not.

There are three catches.

• Letters of protection. Families without insurance often get treatment from doctors who agree to wait for payment out of the settlement. Under SB 68, that arrangement is now relevant and discoverable: the letter itself, the itemized and coded charges, whether a lawyer referred the patient, and, if the doctor sold the account to a finance company, who bought it and how much was paid. The defense will argue that the price the finance company paid is what the care was really worth.
• Medicaid and PeachCare. Most Georgia children without private insurance are covered by Medicaid or PeachCare for Kids. The statute’s words, “any form of public or private health insurance,” appear broad enough to reach those programs, and Medicaid rates are low. Georgia’s courts have not yet sorted this out.
• Not using insurance does not help. The insurance rate can come in “regardless of whether health insurance has been used.” Paying cash or treating on a letter of protection when your child has coverage will not keep the lower number away from the jury.

None of this is a reason to go without coverage. If your child is uninsured, look into PeachCare for Kids. Your child’s health comes first, and coverage protects your family whether or not there is ever a claim.

New limits on talking about pain and suffering

There is no formula for the value of a child’s pain, scarring, or lost childhood. The jury decides it.

SB 68 restricts how lawyers may suggest a number. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-10-184, a lawyer may argue a specific amount for pain and suffering only in closing argument, and only if the amount is rationally related to the evidence. Comparisons to unrelated things, like the price of a painting or a jet, are out. If the injured person’s lawyer wants to argue a number, it must be raised in the first part of the closing, and the same number used in the rebuttal.

That makes evidence even more important. The story of what a child has lost has to be told through the child, the family, teachers, coaches, and doctors. A scar on a child’s face is a lifetime injury, and the jury needs to understand that.

Split trials

Under the amended O.C.G.A. § 51-12-15, any party may now demand in writing that the jury decide fault first and damages second, in separate phases. Punitive damages and attorney’s fees can be tried in a later phase.

In practice, the insurance company will often ask for this. The jury may decide who was at fault before it ever hears how badly the child was hurt. A judge can deny the split in some cases, including smaller cases and certain sexual abuse cases where testifying twice would harm the victim.

Split trials can make a case longer and more expensive. They also make it more important that the fault evidence is gathered early and preserved well.

Children hurt by crime on someone else’s property

Some of the hardest cases involve a child hurt by a criminal act at an apartment complex, a hotel, a store, or a parking lot, where the property owner ignored known dangers.

SB 68 created a new set of rules for these “negligent security” claims, O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 through 51-3-57, for injuries on or after April 21, 2025. The new rules make these claims harder to bring. They require more proof that the owner knew of the danger and that the crime was a foreseeable result of the owner’s failure to address it.

These cases now turn even more on evidence: prior police calls, prior incidents, complaints from tenants, and what the owner knew. That evidence should be requested early, before it disappears.

What this means for families now

SB 68 did not take away a child’s right to be compensated. It did make these cases harder, more technical, and more dependent on evidence gathered early.

1. Act quickly. Evidence about fault, property conditions, and prior incidents matters more than ever.
2. Keep every medical bill and every insurance statement. Both numbers may now be in front of the jury.
3. Tell your lawyer about seat belts and car seats right away, good facts and bad.
4. Do not talk to the other side’s insurance company before you get advice.
5. Watch the deadlines. The law did not change the clock, but the parents’ claim and the child’s claim still run on different ones. I explained that in The Minor Tolling Statute in Georgia.

I have written before about how the hot coffee lawsuit fueled a wave of “tort reform” that made it harder for families to seek justice when their children are hurt. Whatever you think of SB 68, it is now the law. Families who understand it are better prepared to protect their children.

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.