Where Georgia’s serious crashes happen
Georgia recorded more than 1,600 traffic deaths in each of the last several years in the Georgia Department of Transportation’s figures, and the metro Atlanta counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton account for roughly a third of them. The corridors that fill our Georgia files:
- I-285, the Downtown Connector (I-75/I-85), I-20 and GA 400: metro Atlanta’s freeways, among the most congested in the country, with high-speed rear-end chains, lane-change crashes and the Spaghetti Junction, Brookwood and I-20 interchanges.
- Buford Highway, Memorial Drive, Tara Boulevard, Moreland Avenue and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard: the arterials with Georgia’s highest pedestrian death counts, six and eight lanes with long blocks and few crossings.
- I-75 and I-85 outside the Perimeter, through Cobb, Henry, Gwinnett and Clayton counties: the freight corridors to Chattanooga, Macon and the Carolinas, with truck crashes and wrong-way entries at night.
- I-185, Manchester Expressway, Veterans Parkway and Macon Road in Columbus: the Fort Moore and river-district traffic.
- I-20, I-520 (Bobby Jones Expressway), Washington Road, Gordon Highway and Deans Bridge Road in Augusta: the medical-district, military and Masters-week traffic.
- US-41, US-19, US-441 and the state routes between the cities: two-lane roads at highway speed, with head-on and run-off-road crashes and log and farm trucks.
If you were hurt on one of these roads, cameras, event data and witnesses exist for days, not months. Contact us as soon as you can so we can preserve them.
Personal injury cases we handle in Georgia
Car accidents
Freeway rear-end chains, arterial left turns and red-light crashes, hit-and-runs and drivers carrying the state minimum $25,000 policy or nothing at all. Georgia is an at-fault state: the driver who caused the crash, and that driver’s insurer, pay for the harm, and the fault rules we explain below decide how much. See the car accident practice page.
Truck and commercial vehicle accidents
Georgia is the freight crossroads of the Southeast: the I-75, I-85, I-20 and I-16 semis, the Port of Savannah traffic, the Atlanta distribution centers and the log trucks of south Georgia. These cases turn on federal hours-of-service and maintenance records and on reaching the truck’s data before it is overwritten. Truck accidents.
Motorcycle accidents
North Georgia’s mountain roads and the Atlanta arterials are year-round riding country, and drivers turning across them are the riders’ main danger. Drivers who “didn’t see” a rider are still responsible for the injuries they cause. Motorcycle accidents.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
Buford Highway, Memorial Drive, Tara Boulevard and Atlanta’s other arterials have long had some of the highest pedestrian death rates in the Southeast, and MARTA bus stops sit between crossings that are half a mile apart. Pedestrians and cyclists have the same right to recover as anyone else, and your own uninsured motorist and medical-payments coverage can apply when you were on foot. Pedestrian accidents.
Rideshare, hit-and-run and drunk-driving crashes
Uber and Lyft crashes, hit-and-run claims paid through uninsured motorist coverage, and drunk-driving cases that can include a dram shop claim under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40 against a bar that served a noticeably intoxicated driver.
Slip and fall and premises injuries
The malls and big-box stores, grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, stadiums and arenas, apartment complexes and parking decks of Atlanta, Columbus and Augusta. Georgia requires proof the owner knew or should have known of the hazard and that you did not, and surveillance video is overwritten within days. Slip and fall accidents.
Negligent security
Assaults and shootings at apartment complexes, gas stations, bars and motels where the owner ignored known crime and skipped basic lighting, cameras or staffing. Negligent security.
Dog bites
Georgia holds an owner liable when the dog had shown it was dangerous or was off leash in violation of a local ordinance (O.C.G.A. § 51-2-7); homeowner’s insurance usually pays. Dog bites.
Wrongful death
When a crash or a fall takes a family member, Georgia’s wrongful death statute lets the spouse, children or parents recover the full value of the life, and the estate recover medical and funeral expenses and the pain the person suffered before death. Wrongful death.
Insurance disputes
Carriers that deny liability, delay payment or lowball uninsured motorist claims. Insurance claims.
The Georgia law that decides a Georgia injury claim
Georgia is an at-fault state. Unlike Florida, Georgia has no personal injury protection system: the driver who caused the crash, and that driver’s liability insurer, are responsible for your medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering from the first dollar. Georgia requires every driver to carry at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash in bodily injury coverage and $25,000 in property damage coverage (O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11), and your own medical-payments and uninsured motorist coverage can pay while the liability claim is pending.
Two years to file. Georgia’s statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death is two years from the date of the injury or death (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33); property damage claims have four years. Claims against a city require written notice within six months (§ 36-33-5), and claims against a county or the state within twelve months (§ 36-11-1 and § 50-21-26), so a claim involving a government vehicle or road should be opened early.
Modified comparative negligence. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 a jury’s finding that you were less than 50 percent at fault reduces your award by that share; 50 percent or more bars recovery entirely. Insurers build your share in recorded statements. Do not give one without counsel.
Uninsured drivers. Roughly one Georgia driver in eight carries no insurance, and the state minimum of $25,000 is exhausted by a single emergency room visit. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy, and on the policies of relatives in your household, is often the largest source of recovery; Georgia sells it as added-on or reduced-by coverage, and which one you bought changes what is available. We read every policy in the household before we value a case.
Premises and security cases. A business owes its invitees ordinary care to keep the premises safe (O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1); for a fall, Georgia requires proof the owner knew or should have known of the hazard and that you did not, which is why video, inspection logs and incident reports matter. For negligent security, prior crime at and around the property is the evidence, and Georgia’s 2025 tort reform changed how juries divide fault between the owner and the criminal; these cases are now harder and must be built carefully from the start.
What changed in 2025. Georgia’s 2025 tort reform allows juries to hear whether a seat belt was worn, changes how medical bills are presented, limits how damages can be argued and lets defendants ask for separate trials on fault and damages. Cases documented correctly from the first appointment do well under the new rules.
What you can recover. Medical expenses past and future, lost wages and earning capacity, out-of-pocket costs, property damage, pain and suffering, and the loss of enjoyment of life, with no cap on these damages in an ordinary negligence case; punitive damages where the driver was drunk or acted with conscious indifference. A spouse may claim loss of consortium. In a wrongful death case the family recovers the full value of the life of the person lost.
Georgia resources after an accident
In an emergency, call 911. These are the courts, agencies and hospitals a Georgia injury claim runs through.
Courthouses
Atlanta cases are filed in the State Court or Superior Court of Fulton County, 185 Central Avenue SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, or in DeKalb County, 556 North McDonough Street, Decatur, GA 30030; suburban cases in the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, GA 30046, the Cobb County courthouse, 70 Haynes Street, Marietta, GA 30090, and the Clayton County courts in Jonesboro; Columbus cases in the State Court of Muscogee County, 100 10th Street, Columbus, GA 31901; and Augusta cases in the Augusta Judicial Center, 735 James Brown Boulevard, Augusta, GA 30901. Georgia lets an injury case be filed in the county where the defendant lives, and State Court, where most injury cases are tried, sits in every large county. Most of our cases settle without a lawsuit; the ones that do not are filed where Georgia law puts them.
Crash reports and police
Crashes are investigated by the city police department where one exists (Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Marietta, Columbus, Augusta-Richmond County and the rest), by the county police or sheriff’s office in the unincorporated areas (DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Clayton and Henry counties have county police departments), and on the interstates by the Georgia State Patrol, whose Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team works the fatal crashes. Crash reports are available to the people involved from the investigating agency or through the state’s online crash-report service within a few days; we obtain them for every client, along with body-camera and dash-camera video.
Trauma centers and hospitals
Grady Memorial Hospital, 80 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta, GA 30303, is metro Atlanta’s Level I trauma center and the destination for its worst crashes; Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta and Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville are the metro area’s other trauma centers, and Emory University Hospital, Piedmont Atlanta and Northside treat most of the rest. Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown, 710 Center Street, Columbus, GA 31901, is Columbus’s trauma center, and Wellstar MCG Health Medical Center, 1120 15th Street, Augusta, GA 30912, is Augusta’s Level I center.
If you were treated at any of these facilities after someone else’s negligence, keep every discharge paper and bill; they are the first documents we ask for.
How Kemp Law Group handles Georgia cases
Our office is at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity, Florida, and our Georgia cases are led by Trey Chism, who is admitted to the State Bar of Georgia. For a Georgia client that means the work happens the same way it does for a client in Tampa Bay: we open the claim and sign you up by phone, video and e-signature the day you call; we order the crash report, the 911 audio, the body-camera and business video and the medical records from Grady, Wellstar, Piedmont, Emory or whichever hospital treated you; our investigators photograph the scene and find the witnesses; and we negotiate with the same insurers. When a serious injury keeps you at home or in the hospital, we come to you. If your case has to be tried, it is filed in your county and tried there by a Georgia-admitted attorney. Nothing about the case requires you to travel to Florida.
Results for injured clients across Florida and Georgia
Kemp Law Group has recovered over $400 million in settlements since 2008. Recoveries confirmed from the firm’s case records include:
- $2,415,000 for a motorcycle rider with a traumatic brain injury struck by a car
- $2,000,000 for the family of a driver killed by a commercial carrier’s truck
- $2,000,000 for a 64-year-old pedestrian struck while crossing the road
- $1,500,000 for a driver rear-ended in stopped traffic by a commercial truck whose driver fell asleep
- $1,250,000 for a motorcyclist hit by a truck that failed to yield
- $1,150,000 for a passenger in a pickup struck by a semi on State Road 56 in Pasco County
- $1,102,000 for a driver hit by a landscaping company’s vehicle
Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome. See more case results.
Who handles your Georgia case
Trey Chism handles Kemp Law Group’s Georgia cases. Admitted to practice in Georgia and Florida, a graduate of Valdosta State University and of Florida Coastal School of Law, he represents injured people in both states and is the attorney who signs Georgia pleadings, appears in Georgia courts and answers Georgia clients’ questions. Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded the firm in 2008 and owns it today, and the litigation team under managing litigation attorney Ian Boettcher prepares every case that needs a courtroom. From your first call, a member of our team takes the time to understand what happened, and an attorney reviews every case and stays involved from intake to resolution.
The firm’s office holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 900 Google reviews.
Georgia personal injury questions
Do you have an office in Georgia?
Our office is in Trinity, Florida, and our Georgia cases are led by Trey Chism, who is admitted to the State Bar of Georgia. We represent Georgia clients by phone, video and e-signature, with home and hospital visits for serious injuries, and a Georgia-admitted attorney files and tries the case in your county if it goes to court. Nothing about the case requires you to travel to Florida.
How long do I have to file a claim in Georgia?
Two years from the date of injury for personal injury and wrongful death claims (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Claims against a city need written notice within six months, and claims against a county or the state within twelve months, so call sooner if a government vehicle or road was involved.
What if the insurer says I was partly at fault?
Georgia reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it entirely at 50 percent or more. Adjusters assign fault to limit payouts; we investigate independently, pull camera footage and vehicle data, and advise clients not to give recorded statements before speaking with us.
Who pays my medical bills while the case is pending?
Georgia has no no-fault system, so your health insurance, your own medical-payments coverage if you bought it, and treatment on a letter of protection carry the bills until the at-fault driver’s insurer pays. We set that up on day one so treatment is not delayed, and we deal with the health insurer’s reimbursement claim at the end.
The driver who hit me had no insurance, or only the $25,000 minimum.
Common in Georgia. We look first to the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your policy and on the policies of relatives you live with, including whether it is added-on or reduced-by coverage, then to any other responsible party: an employer, a vehicle owner, a bar that served a noticeably intoxicated driver.
Where would my case be filed?
Usually in the State Court of the county where the at-fault driver lives, which in metro Atlanta means Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb or Clayton County; Columbus cases in Muscogee County and Augusta cases in Richmond County. Most cases settle without a lawsuit, and most lawsuits settle before trial.
What does a Georgia personal injury lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery, explained in writing before you sign, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win. The consultation is free.
Talk to a Georgia personal injury lawyer today
The insurer already has adjusters, investigators and lawyers on your case. You should have the same. Call or text 727-847-4878 or contact us online for a free consultation, 24 hours a day. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is likely worth, and what happens next, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win.
Kemp Law Group, 11567 Trinity Boulevard, Trinity, FL 34655. Serving Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Marietta, Decatur, Lawrenceville, Jonesboro, Columbus, Augusta, Macon, Savannah and all of Georgia, by phone, video and e-signature, with home and hospital visits for serious injuries.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
