How Juries Assess Liability in Georgia Car Accident Trials
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A Georgia jury decides liability by deciding whether each driver failed to use ordinary care and whether that failure caused the injury, and then assigns each person a percentage of fault. Questions of negligence and proximate cause are, in the words of an old and repeated rule, “except in plain, palpable and indisputable cases, solely for the jury.” Since Senate Bill 68, any party can ask for that decision to come in a first phase, before the jury decides damages.
Who sits on the jury, and how they are chosen
In superior court, the parties strike from a panel of 24 “until a jury of 12 persons is impaneled to try the case” (O.C.G.A. § 15-12-122(b)). State court procedure is in § 15-12-122(a), which lets a party demand a jury of 12 in larger cases. In every civil case, each side has “the right to an individual examination of the panel of prospective jurors” and counsel may ask about any matter showing a prospective juror’s interest in the case, “including any opinion as to which party ought to prevail” (§ 15-12-133). Under the rewritten § 9-10-184, lawyers may not mention a specific dollar amount of noneconomic damages to prospective jurors, though they may ask whether a juror could return a verdict with no damages or above “some unspecified amount” when the evidence supports it.
What the jury is asked to decide
The court’s instructions frame the decision. When counsel requests it before argument begins, the judge must write out the charge and read it to the jury, unless a court reporter records the full charge (§ 9-10-5(a)); the judge may also send the written charge out with the jury (§ 9-10-5(b)). In a car accident case the questions are, in substance:
- Did a driver fail to exercise ordinary care, or violate a rule of the road?
- Did that failure cause the injury?
- What percentage of fault belongs to each party, and to any nonparty whose conduct is at issue (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33)?
Following too closely is a good example of a jury question. In Malcom v. Malcolm (1965), the Court of Appeals approved telling jurors that “A leading vehicle has no absolute legal position superior to that of one following” and held that whether a driver was following too closely is for the jury. How the evidence on those questions is assembled is covered in how fault is determined in Georgia car accidents.
Phased trials after Senate Bill 68
O.C.G.A. § 51-12-15 lets any party in a bodily injury or wrongful death case elect, by written demand before the pretrial order, a trial in phases:
| Phase | What the jury decides |
|---|---|
| First | Whether each defendant is at fault and, if so, the percentages of fault of all persons who contributed, under § 51-12-33 |
| Second | Compensatory damages |
| Third, if needed | Punitive damages and any attorney's fees or expenses of litigation |
The court may refuse the election only on an opposing party’s motion and only for the sexual-offense situation the statute describes or when “The amount in controversy is less than $150,000.00.”
The first phase is not a phase without injuries. In Transcontinental Carriers, Inc. v. Bennett (September 9, 2026), a tractor-trailer case, the Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff could introduce evidence of the injuries and their extent in the first phase, because fault means a breach of duty that proximately caused the injury. The dollar value of the harm waits for the second phase.
From percentages to a judgment
After the jury finds the total damages and the percentages, § 51-12-33(a) requires the judge to reduce the plaintiff’s award by the plaintiff’s own percentage, and § 51-12-33(g) bars any recovery when the plaintiff is “50 percent or more responsible for the injury or damages claimed.” For example, imagine a jury that finds $90,000 in damages and puts 10 percent of the fault on the plaintiff and 90 percent on the defendant: the judgment against the defendant would be $81,000. The figures are illustrative only. Damages apportioned among several defendants are each defendant’s own liability, not a joint one (§ 51-12-33(b)).
Arguing the damages number
When the trial reaches damages, the rewritten § 9-10-184 controls what lawyers may say about pain and suffering: a figure may be argued only after the close of evidence, at the first opportunity to argue damages, and only if it is rationally related to the evidence. The rules are explained in pain and suffering in Georgia car accident cases.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. §§ 9-10-5, 15-12-122, 15-12-133, 51-12-33 (text of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 release; § 15-12-122 was amended in 2023 by House Bill 543).
- Senate Bill 68 (2025), as passed, §§ 1 and 8 (O.C.G.A. §§ 9-10-184, 51-12-15).
- Malcom v. Malcolm, 112 Ga. App. 151 (1965)
- Transcontinental Carriers, Inc. v. Bennett, No. A26A1643 (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 9, 2026)
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.