pro.stateaffairs.com · September 8, 2026
# State Affairs Georgia
Sep 08, 2026
Tort reform in Georgia: What it means and where it stands
Sen. John Kennedy. (Credit: Georgia Senate)
Beau Evans Mar 10, 2025
A massive overhaul of Georgia’s lawsuit system is poised for final votes in the coming weeks as lawmakers eye the end of the 2025 legislative session.
Backed by Gov. Brian Kemp, the overhaul effort — known as tort reform — stems from two bills that aim to rein in huge court payouts, shield businesses from costly lawsuits and admit evidence on whether seat belts were worn during car accidents.
Supporters have hailed the measures outlined in Senate Bills 68 and 69 — both sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore John F. Kennedy, R-Macon — as essential to protecting small businesses and hospitals from crippling lawsuits and helping lower Georgia’s skyrocketing auto insurance rates.
But critics in recent weeks have raised alarms, warning that the reforms could upend the critical process of picking unbiased juries. Opponents have also argued that removing the threat of lawsuits from places such as day care facilities, gyms and nursing homes could leave children, older adults and assault survivors more vulnerable to attacks from predators.
Tort reform has already cleared the Senate and is expected to gain final passage in the House before the session ends April 4, largely due to the governor's strong public support and the backing of powerful legislative leaders.
SB 68 contains key rules that would regulate so-called litigation financing, in which outside groups help pay for lawsuits and attorneys in the interest of winning large payouts.
But the essential components of tort reform — and the focus of opponents’ deepest concerns — lie with the proposed changes to jury awards, seat belts and business protections outlined in SB 68.
Here are three main aspects of the bill:
### ‘Nuclear’ jury awards
Over the past decade, juries have awarded nearly $60 billion in legal damages to people suing over car accidents, medical procedures and injuries at businesses in Georgia, according to a 2024 report from the state Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire.
Though many of those awards amounted to a few thousand dollars, some climbed into the tens — even hundreds — of millions, devastating sued businesses and hospitals in what tort reform advocates call “nuclear verdicts.”
Brent Walker, an attorney for the Medical Association of Georgia, told lawmakers last week about a recent Cobb County case in which a patient sued an emergency room doctor for a “catastrophic injury” that resulted in a multimillion-dollar payout.
Those types of cases have caused premiums for medical liability insurance to shoot up almost 90% since 2016, prompting hospitals particularly in rural areas to risk closure and newly graduated medical students to flee Georgia for less litigious states, Walker told members of the House Rules Subcommittee on Lawsuit Reform last week.
“Fear of litigation is very real for our physicians,” Walker said. “The rules are being leveraged against our physicians in order to create an unfair and unjust playing field.”
SB 68 proposes ending the practice of “anchoring,” in which suing attorneys push juries to award far more in damages than they expect to receive, often swaying jurors to settle on an arbitrarily high payout.
The bill also would prohibit lawyers from deliberately selecting prospective jurors who might be open to excessive awards and would require that payouts for medical damages be closer to the amount an injured patient should “reasonably” receive after a botched operation or lack of proper care.
But critics argue that change would strip jurors and judges of the discretion to determine appropriate compensation for an injured person. Dax Lopez, a former state court judge in DeKalb County, stressed that juries “usually get it right” — even when it comes to large awards.
“No one wants to serve on a jury,” Lopez told lawmakers. “But I will tell you that once they are chosen, our citizens are up to the task.”
### Seat belts
Auto insurance rates in Georgia have spiked in recent years, climbing to around $2,800 in average annual premiums last year — a 21% jump from 2023, according to the analysis group Insurify. Those premiums are expected to rise again by nearly 10% this year.
Tort reform supporters place much of the blame on current state law that forbids juries from considering evidence of whether someone was wearing a seat belt during a car accident. SB 68 would reverse that law, allowing seat-belt evidence to be presented in civil trials.
Jacob Daly, an attorney for the Atlanta-based firm Freeman Mathis & Gary LLP, told lawmakers that jurors do not have enough facts to make fair rulings on accident cases without knowing if seat belts were used.
“You don’t have a cause of action just because there’s contact between two cars,” Daly said. “Cause of action is complete when there’s injury.”
Opponents pressed lawmakers to keep the existing ban on seat-belt evidence. John Pope, an attorney at the Gainesville-based Hasty Pope LLP, said proving seat belt use is often difficult because most people usually exit their cars to check on the other driver’s well-being after a collision — and remove their seat belts when doing so.
“It sounds good,” Pope told the committee. “But what you’re doing is you’re putting the onus on the victim to prove they had their seat belt on.”
### Negligence and victims
A third major tort reform sticking point centers on proposals to shield business owners from injuries committed on their property by someone other than themselves, their employees or contractors hired to provide security.
Opponents have slammed that measure, saying it could embolden bad-actor businesses to shirk safety and security needs on their properties and give people no legal recourse to sue if they are hurt — or sexually abused.
Susan Cobb, a Hartwell resident, told lawmakers her daughter was sexually abused for years by a gymnastics coach at their local YMCA starting when she was 12 years old. Six days after the arrested coach was released on bond, Cobb’s daughter died by suicide.
The Cobb family sued the YMCA, claiming its operators did not properly supervise for “lock-ins” during which the coach had “unfettered access” to their daughter and other children. The Cobbs won that case and used the jury award to set up a foundation in their daughter’s name.
If tort reform had been law, Cobb said her family might not have been able to hold the YMCA accountable. She urged lawmakers to revise SB 68 so that businesses serving vulnerable populations like day care facilities, gyms and nursing homes could still be liable for sexual and physical abuse that occurred on their property.
“SB 68 is bad for children, families and victims,” Cobb told lawmakers. “I am here to advocate for the future victims this will impact.”
Kennedy, the bill’s sponsor, said he examined the Cobbs’ case after hearing their story earlier in the session and that he feels confident the liability protections in his bill should not prevent victims and their families from suing businesses that turned a blind eye to abuse.
“We hear a lot of static and a lot of misinformation about what this bill does,” Kennedy said last week. “The purpose of the bill is to simply bring clarity to Georgia law on when claims can be brought so that businesses know what they have to do to avoid liability.”
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Beau Evans at beau@stateaffairs.com or on X @beauvans.