Fulton County courts and injury claim deadlines, explained.

COURTS & DEADLINES

Which deadline applies to an injury claim in Fulton County?

Most Georgia injury claims must be filed within two years. When a city, the county, or the state is responsible, a written notice has to go out first, and in Fulton County that is usually the city’s six-month deadline, because nearly every part of the county now sits inside a city. The clock generally starts the day you were hurt.

If you’re reading this, you probably have more on your mind than court rules. Physical therapy. A car that isn’t drivable. A job you’re trying to get back to. The rules on this page are the part we carry for you, but it helps to know the one fact that makes Fulton different from almost everywhere else in Georgia.

Don’t sign anything from the insurance company before speaking with an attorney. Their first offer is almost never their best.

Who gets the notice, and by when?

The deadline depends on who caused the harm, not on where you live. Here is how it generally works for an injury in Fulton County.

Who caused the harm	Notice deadline (generally)	Who gets the notice	Georgia law
A city: Atlanta, Sandy Springs, East Point, College Park, South Fulton, Union City, Fairburn, Hapeville, Palmetto and the rest	6 months	The mayor or the chair of the city council	O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5
Fulton County	12 months	The county (the law names no specific official)	O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1
The State of Georgia or GDOT: interstates and state routes	12 months	The state’s risk management office	O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26
MARTA	A different process applies	Call us to confirm	Varies
A private driver or business	2 years to file suit	No government notice	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33

Fulton is the county where six months is the normal case. Sandy Springs incorporated in 2005, more new cities followed across the north and south ends of the county, and when the City of South Fulton formed in 2017 there was very little unincorporated land left. So if a government vehicle or a government-maintained road hurt you in Fulton, the government at fault is usually a city. In Cobb and DeKalb, large areas are still unincorporated, which is why the answer there is so often twelve months instead.

Here is the part almost nobody knows. Under the city notice law, your letter has to state a specific dollar amount of damages. People freeze at that line, afraid they’ll sell themselves short. The law generally treats that number as an offer to settle, and it does not lock you in if the case goes to court. It still has to be there, and it still has to reach the right person.

Two places work differently. MARTA is its own transit authority, not a city department, and Georgia sources disagree about which notice rule covers it, so don’t assume any deadline in this table applies to a MARTA claim. Call us and we’ll tell you what applies to yours. Hartsfield-Jackson is owned by the City of Atlanta, so an injury caused by the airport’s own operations can generally run on the city’s six-month clock, even on the Clayton County side of the airport.

Johns Creek is a Fulton city too, but our Duluth office sits just across the river from it. If you were hurt there, start with our Johns Creek injury page.

If a city vehicle, a county truck, or a bad stretch of road was part of what happened, call us this week at 404-609-1075. Six months goes by fast when you’re healing.

Which Fulton court will hear your case?

Most Fulton County injury lawsuits are filed in the State Court of Fulton County, which sits in the Justice Center Tower at 185 Central Avenue SW in downtown Atlanta. Some are filed in Superior Court, which shares the same courthouse complex. Where your case belongs generally depends on where the crash happened and who you’re suing, not on your home address.

Court	What it hears	Where it sits
State Court of Fulton County	Most injury lawsuits, other civil cases, misdemeanors and traffic cases	Justice Center Tower, 185 Central Avenue SW
Superior Court of Fulton County	Injury lawsuits plus felonies, divorces and land disputes	The downtown courthouse complex on Pryor Street and Central Avenue
Magistrate Court of Fulton County	Smaller civil claims, with no jury trials	Justice Center Tower
City municipal courts	Traffic tickets and city ordinance cases, not injury lawsuits	Each city runs its own

The complex is three connected buildings on one downtown block, and first-time visitors get lost in it: the Justice Center Tower on Central Avenue, the Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse on Pryor Street, and the Charles L. Carnes Justice Center next door. You won’t need to know which entrance to use. We will.

One mix-up we hear often. If the other driver got a ticket, that ticket goes to a municipal court or to the traffic side of State Court. Your injury claim is a separate case. What happens with the ticket can sometimes help your claim, but the ticket case won’t pay a single medical bill, and nobody from that court will call you about your injuries.

Why does this matter for your claim?

A missed deadline, or a notice mailed to the wrong person, can end a claim no matter how badly you were hurt. That holds after a wreck on the Downtown Connector, a fall in a store on Peachtree Street, or the loss of someone you love. Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. has been helping injured Georgians since 1980, and our Atlanta office handles Fulton County cases every week.

If you were hurt in a crash, our car accident claims team starts with the report and the notice question. If a tractor-trailer or delivery truck was involved, our truck accident team moves fast on the company’s records. A fall on someone else’s property goes to our slip and fall claims attorneys, and the loss of a family member goes to our wrongful death claims attorneys. You pay nothing up front, and zero fee unless we win.

What should you do this week?

1. Write down exactly where it happened: the street, the nearest cross street, and the city if you know it. That one detail decides almost everything on this page.
2. Keep every letter, bill and card in one folder, including anything that came from a city, the county, or MARTA.
3. Hold off on giving a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company.
4. Call our Atlanta office at 404-609-1075. We’ll work out which government, which court and which clock, and we’ll pull the crash report for you.

What do these legal words mean?

• Ante litem notice. A written notice you send to a government before you’re allowed to sue it. The phrase is Latin for “before the lawsuit.”
• Incorporated. Inside a city’s limits. In Fulton County, that’s almost everywhere.
• Offer of compromise. How the law generally treats the dollar amount in a city notice. It’s a starting number, not a ceiling.
• State Court. The county court where most Fulton injury lawsuits are filed. Despite the name, it isn’t a state agency.