First-Party vs. Third-Party Insurance Claims in Georgia Car Accidents
On this page
A first-party claim is one you make against your own insurer under your own policy, such as collision, medical payments, or uninsured motorist coverage. A third-party claim is one you make against the at-fault driver, paid by that driver’s liability insurer. The difference decides who owes you what: your own insurer owes you the policy’s promises, while the other driver’s insurer owes its duties to its own insured, with one statutory duty to you for property damage.
The two claims compared
| First-party claim | Third-party claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Against | Your own insurer | The at-fault driver, through that driver's liability insurer |
| Source of the right | Your policy | Georgia tort law; the insurer pays on its insured's behalf |
| Fault required | No, for collision and medical payments; for UM, the other driver's fault | Yes, the other driver's negligence |
| Your duties | The policy's conditions: notice, cooperation, proof of loss | No contract with you; your proof of fault and damages |
| Bad-faith remedy | O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6 (refusal of a covered loss), § 33-7-11(j) (UM) | § 33-4-7 for property damage only; for injury, the failure-to-settle rule protects the at-fault driver |
| Deadline to sue | The policy's suit clause and the contract statute | Two years for injury (§ 9-3-33), four for property (§ 9-3-31) |
The duties you owe your own insurer
Because a first-party claim is a contract claim, the policy’s conditions apply to you. Notice is one of them: under Progressive Mountain Insurance Co. v. Bishop (2016), if the policy makes notice an express condition precedent, unjustified late notice can end coverage “even if the insurer does not show actual harm from a delay in notice”, while a notice clause that is not a condition precedent requires the insurer to show prejudice. The rule is explained in insurance notification deadlines after a Georgia car accident. A cooperation clause may also require a statement or examination under the policy’s terms; the other driver’s insurer has no such contract with you, as covered in recorded statements to insurance companies in Georgia.
What each insurer owes you
- Your own insurer must pay a covered loss. If it refuses within 60 days after a demand by “the holder of the policy” and the refusal is found to be in bad faith, § 33-4-6 allows a penalty of up to 50 percent of the insurer’s liability for the loss or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees.
- The other driver’s insurer, for property damage, has “an affirmative duty to adjust that loss fairly and promptly” and, where liability is reasonably clear, to make a good faith effort to settle (§ 33-4-7(a)). For bodily injury there is no statutory duty to you; an insurer’s refusal of a valid offer within limits can make it liable to its own insured for a verdict above the limits, which is why a properly made offer matters.
The four bad-faith remedies are compared in insurance bad faith in Georgia.
Using both
One crash can involve both kinds of claim. For example, imagine a driver hit by a red-light runner: her car is repaired under her own collision coverage (first-party), her injury claim goes to the other driver’s insurer (third-party), and if that driver’s limits fall short, her own uninsured motorist coverage is a second first-party claim. When her own insurer pays for the car, it may seek to recover that payment from the at-fault driver. How health plans and other payers are repaid from an injury settlement is a separate set of rules, covered in subrogation: when your insurer takes from your settlement. Why the at-fault driver’s insurer is the starting point for an injury claim in Georgia is explained in Georgia’s at-fault insurance system.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. §§ 33-4-6, 33-4-7, 33-7-11 (text as published in March 2024); §§ 9-3-31, 9-3-33 (text of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 release).
- Progressive Mountain Insurance Co. v. Bishop, 338 Ga. App. 115 (2016)
This page describes Georgia law as of October 2026 for general information. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.