Georgia Truck Accident Claims: Laws, Deadlines & Insurance

More Than One Party Can Share Responsibility

Depending on the facts, responsibility can reach beyond the driver to the motor carrier that hired or contracted with the driver, the company that loaded the cargo, a maintenance shop that serviced the truck, or the owner of a leased trailer whose own negligence, such as poor maintenance, played a part. Delivery vans and box trucks raise similar questions, which our page on Amazon delivery vehicle crashes walks through.

Under Georgia’s apportionment statute, the jury assigns a percentage of fault to each person responsible, sometimes including people who are not parties to the lawsuit, and each defendant generally pays only its own share. A trucking company is usually also responsible for the share of an employee driver acting within the scope of the job (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33).

Federal Safety Rules Set the Standard of Care

Trucking companies and their drivers must follow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, a national set of rules in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and Georgia law applies many of those rules to trucks that never leave the state (O.C.G.A. § 40-1-8). These rules cover driving hours, driver qualifications, drug and alcohol testing, inspections, maintenance and insurance.

A rule violation does not decide a case on its own. Georgia courts can treat the violation of a safety law as negligence per se, but the injured person must still show that the violation caused the crash and the injuries (O.C.G.A. § 51-1-6). Our article on federal trucking regulations in Georgia truck cases covers the rules in more depth.

Hours-of-Service Limits

A property-carrying driver may drive no more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive after the 14th hour following the start of the duty period, and must take a 30-minute break before driving more than 8 total hours since the last break (49 C.F.R. § 395.3).

Most drivers who must keep hours-of-service logs now record their time on an electronic logging device (49 C.F.R. § 395.8). That data, compared with fuel receipts, delivery records and phone records, can show whether fatigue played a role in a crash.

Driver Qualification and Drug and Alcohol Testing

Carriers must keep a qualification file for each driver that includes the driver’s application, driving record and medical certification (49 C.F.R. § 391.51). After certain crashes, including any crash that causes a death, the carrier must test a driver who needs a commercial driver’s license for alcohol and controlled substances (49 C.F.R. § 382.303).

Missing tests or an incomplete qualification file can support claims against the trucking company itself, such as negligent hiring, retention or supervision, not just claims against the driver.

Inspection and Maintenance Records

Drivers must report defects they find or that are reported to them, such as problems with brakes, tires or lights. Before the truck is driven again, the carrier must repair any defect likely to affect safety and certify that it was repaired or that repair was unnecessary (49 C.F.R. § 396.11). Brake and tire failures often trace back to what these records show, or fail to show.

Federal Minimum Coverage

For-hire interstate carriers hauling general freight in trucks rated 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and higher minimums of $1 million or $5 million apply to oil and hazardous materials loads (49 C.F.R. § 387.9). Some carriers also carry excess or umbrella policies.

These figures are minimums. They are not a measure of what a particular claim is worth, which depends on the injuries, the evidence and the parties involved.

When the Insurer Can Be Named in a Lawsuit

Georgia once allowed an injured person to name a motor carrier’s insurer directly in many truck lawsuits. For claims accruing on or after July 1, 2024, Senate Bill 426 limits that to cases where a motor carrier involved is insolvent or bankrupt, or where the driver or the carrier cannot be personally served after reasonable diligence (O.C.G.A. § 40-1-112(c); O.C.G.A. § 40-2-140(d)(4)). The insurer still pays covered damages. The change affects who is named as a party.

Your Own Uninsured Motorist Coverage

If the truck’s coverage is not enough, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may add to the recovery. Georgia auto policies include this coverage unless an insured named in the policy rejects it in writing (O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11). Our guide to uninsured motorist coverage in Georgia explains how added-on and reduced-by coverage differ.

Two Years for Injury Claims

Most Georgia personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the crash (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Claims for damage to a vehicle or other property generally have four years (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-31). Our guide to Georgia filing deadlines covers the exceptions.

Shorter Notice Periods for Government Trucks

If the truck belonged to a city, county or state agency, a written ante litem notice is due much sooner than the lawsuit deadline, and these deadlines generally cannot be extended: six months for a city (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5), twelve months for a county (O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1) and twelve months for the State of Georgia (O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26). Other public bodies, such as transit authorities and school districts, can follow different rules.

Evidence Can Disappear Long Before the Deadline

Carriers only have to keep a driver’s records of duty status and supporting documents for six months (49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)), and engine control module data may be overwritten as the truck keeps running. A preservation letter sent soon after the crash asks the company to keep this evidence.

Our article on black box data and distracted driving explains what vehicle data recorders capture and why timing matters.

The 50 Percent Rule

Georgia uses modified comparative fault. If you are found less than 50 percent responsible, your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. At 50 percent or more, you recover nothing (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33). Trucking companies and their insurers often try to shift blame to the other driver for exactly this reason. See Partly at Fault for a Georgia Crash? The 50% Rule Explained.

2025 Changes to Georgia Injury Law

Georgia’s 2025 tort reform law, Senate Bill 68, changed several trial rules. In lawsuits filed on or after April 21, 2025, juries may hear evidence that an injured person was not wearing a seat belt, although the judge can still exclude it (O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1). For claims arising on or after April 21, 2025, juries may also see both the amounts billed for medical care and the lower amounts that would satisfy those bills under the injured person’s health insurance, whether or not that insurance was used (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1).

These changes make careful medical documentation more important from the start. Our guides to damages available in Georgia injury cases and how case value is determined explain the categories of loss a claim can include.