New Georgia laws are intended to provide commonsense, meaningful tort reform.
On Monday, April 21, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a two-bill tort reform package. The first bill, SB68, covers phantom damages, anchoring, bifurcated trials and seat belt use. The second bill, SB69, addresses third-party litigation financing.
The governor’s office said the new rules will level the playing field in Georgia’s courtrooms, will ban hostile foreign powers from taking advantage of consumers and legal proceedings, will aim to stabilize insurance costs for businesses and consumers and will increase transparency and fairness.
“Today is a victory for the people of our state who for too long were suffering the impacts of an out-of-balance legal environment,” Kemp said in prepared remarks.
The governor previously said that Georgia’s legal environment was draining bank accounts and hurting job creators of all sizes. He included trucking operations among the industries that would benefit from tort reform.
The American Tort Reform Association commended Georgia lawmakers for taking action to create a more fair and balanced civil justice system. The group previously identified the state as the fourth-worst “judicial hellhole” in the country.
Phantom damages
Among the issues addressed in SB68 is inflated medical costs, or phantom damages.
Georgia law has allowed jurors to see bills sent by hospitals and physicians before insurers bargain costs down.
Effective immediately, the new rule allows jurors to see the “sticker price” and out-of-pocket costs.
The change is touted to permit counsel in a jury trial to submit evidence of the medical bills charged by hospitals and physicians, as well as the evidence of what was actually paid by an insurer to satisfy those claims.
Anchoring
The ability to arbitrarily anchor pain-and-suffering damages to a jury has also been removed from the statute.
The new law prohibits anchoring tactics when presenting damages for pain and suffering to a jury during closing arguments of a trial. Instead, closing arguments describing damages must be related to actual evidence of the plaintiff’s pain and suffering.
Kemp said the rule revision will prevent a plaintiff’s attorney from using an artificial benchmark – like the number of miles a truck was driven – to argue what a plaintiff should be owed for injuries.
Gov. Kemp to Sign Legislation Delivering Historic Tort Reform https://t.co/S5Xe5zTKff
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 21, 2025
Seat belt evidence and double recovery
Seat belt usage is also covered in the new law. Juries now are allowed to know whether a plaintiff wore a seat belt.
Until now, seat belt information was excluded from the evidence code. The rule prevented the defendant from showing evidence the plaintiff was not wearing his or her seat belt at the time of a wreck.
The change to allow admission of seat belt evidence at trial may by used by the defense to lessen damages, particularly where the plaintiff’s failure to buckle up results in significantly worse injuries.
One more rule revision eliminates double recovery of attorney’s fees. The change closes what the governor’s office described as a “loophole” allowing plaintiff’s counsel to recover fees twice for the same lawsuit.
Bifurcated trials
Another enacted change permits a party to move for bifurcation of a trial. The distinction allows for liability to be established before a jury hears evidence detailing the extent of a plaintiff’s damages.
The governor’s office said the rule revision clarifies important procedure in the courtroom and gives both sides of a case the same opportunity to have their arguments heard.
Senate President Pro Tempore John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, said tort reform in the state was long overdue.
“Georgians deserve a balanced civil justice system, not one that incentivizes frivolous lawsuits, leading to higher insurance premiums that burden small businesses, job creators, healthcare providers and families,” Kennedy stated.
Hardworking Georgians from small business owners and healthcare providers to families and consumers joined us at the Capitol as Governor Kemp signed historic tort reform into law today.
I’m proud of this legislation and the impact it will have on Georgians across the state! pic.twitter.com/KugtRbjvjw
— John F. Kennedy (@johnfkennedyga) April 21, 2025
Third-party litigation financing
The second component of the two-bill tort reform package is focused on third-party litigation financing.
The term is used to describe instances when third-party litigation-financing firms pay for lawsuits they feel have a good chance of being won. In many cases, the practice makes reaching a reasonable agreement more difficult because of the anonymous third party’s financial stake in the case.
Starting Jan. 1, 2026, litigation funders will be prohibited from having any input into the litigation strategy or from taking the plaintiff’s whole recovery. The new law also requires that financing agreements be disclosed to the other party in a case.
One more provision mandates all litigation financiers be registered in the state. Entities affiliated with a “foreign adversary” will be barred from registration.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said tort reform was needed in the state to level the playing field.
“At the end of the day, these bills are good for businesses and they are good for the consumers,” Jones said at the bill-signing ceremony. LL
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