How Insurance Policy Limits Affect Your Georgia Car Accident Recovery
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The at-fault driver’s liability limit is the most an insurer has agreed to pay for that driver, not the most an injured person can recover. When the damages are larger than the limit, the gap can be filled from your own underinsured motorist coverage, from other liable parties and their policies, or from the at-fault driver personally through a judgment. An insurer that turns down a valid offer to settle within its limits can also become responsible for a verdict above them.
The minimums, and where they come from
Georgia’s minimum liability coverage is $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 for bodily injury to two or more people in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage. The figures appear in O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11(a)(1)(A); § 40-9-37(a) requires liability coverage “of not less than the amounts specified” there, and § 33-34-4 requires owners to carry coverage equivalent to that security. Section 40-6-10 is the proof-of-insurance statute that enforces the requirement on the road.
Since May 14, 2025, Senate Bill 121 has required higher limits after certain DUI convictions under § 40-6-391: at least 50/100/50, or 100/300/100 after a second or later conviction, kept “uninterrupted for a period of three years from the date of conviction” (O.C.G.A. § 33-7-16). The rule applies to convictions on or after that date. A driver who was required to carry those limits but did not may still have only whatever coverage was actually bought.
How the per-person and per-accident limits interact
A 25/50 policy pays no more than $25,000 for any one injured person and no more than $50,000 for everyone injured in the crash. For example, imagine three injured people with damages of $60,000, $30,000, and $10,000. The first person’s claim is capped at $25,000 by the per-person limit, and the three claims together can draw no more than $50,000 from the policy, so the claimants are competing for the same $50,000. The figures are illustrative only.
Sources that can fill the gap
| Source | What it depends on |
|---|---|
| Your own underinsured motorist coverage | Your policy's UM limits and whether it is "add-on" or "reduced-by" coverage |
| Other policies covering the same driver or vehicle | The vehicle owner's policy, the driver's own policy, an umbrella policy |
| Other liable parties | An employer whose employee was driving on its business; a vehicle owner under the family purpose doctrine or negligent entrustment |
| The at-fault driver personally | A judgment and the driver's collectible assets |
Each source is explained separately: Georgia UM/UIM coverage, multiple insurance policies in a Georgia car accident, when employers and vehicle owners are liable, and enforcing court judgments and defendant bankruptcy.
Two cautions apply to the table. First, settling with the liability insurer for less than its limits, or signing a general release, can affect your underinsured motorist claim (in Farid v. Gaskell (2022), a settlement below the limits under an agreement with the effect of a general release defeated the family’s claim against their own UM carrier); Georgia’s limited release statute (O.C.G.A. § 33-24-41.1) lets the liability carrier pay its limits in exchange for a release that preserves claims against other available insurance, but that release frees the at-fault driver “from all personal liability … except to the extent other insurance coverage is available” (§ 33-24-41.1(b)(2)), so it gives up the claim against the driver’s personal assets. Second, a Georgia judgment can outlast a driver’s present lack of assets: it becomes dormant only if seven years pass without the enforcement steps § 9-12-60 describes, and a dormant judgment can be renewed within three years under § 9-12-61.
Offering to settle within the limits
For a motor vehicle injury claim, an offer to settle prepared with a lawyer’s help before the defendants answer must meet O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1, as rewritten by Senate Bill 83 in 2024. The statute sets the minimum time to accept (30 days from receipt), the minimum time for payment (40 days), the release terms the offer must state, and how it must be sent. The terms are covered in what goes into a Georgia car accident demand letter.
The pressure behind such an offer comes from case law, not from § 33-4-7, which is limited to property damage. In First Acceptance Insurance Co. of Georgia v. Hughes (2019), the Supreme Court of Georgia repeated that “An insurance company may be liable for the excess judgment entered against its insured based on the insurer’s bad faith or negligent refusal to settle a personal claim within the policy limits” and held that this duty arises “only when the injured party presents a valid offer to settle within the insured’s policy limits.” Section 9-11-67.1 also gives the insurer a safe harbor: there is no failure-to-settle action when the recipient timely accepts the material terms and pays the lesser of the demand or its available bodily injury limits.
Finding out how much coverage exists
- Ask the at-fault driver’s insurer for the policy limits in writing.
- Check whether the driver was working, driving someone else’s car, or driving a vehicle owned by a business.
- Pull your own declarations page and find your UM limits and type.
- In an offer under § 9-11-67.1, the recipient can be required to state under oath whether all liability and casualty coverage it issued for the claim has been disclosed.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. §§ 33-7-11, 40-6-10, 40-9-37 (text as published in March 2024); §§ 33-34-4, 33-24-41.1, 9-12-60, 9-12-61 (text of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 release).
- Senate Bill 121 (2025), as passed, LC 46 1220S (O.C.G.A. § 33-7-16).
- Senate Bill 83 (2024), as passed, LC 48 1320S (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1).
- First Acceptance Insurance Co. of Georgia v. Hughes, 305 Ga. 489 (2019)
- Farid v. Gaskell, No. A22A0899 (Ga. Ct. App. Nov. 1, 2022)
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.