Georgia Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer

This page is for people who were hit by an impaired driver. If you are looking for help defending a DUI charge, this is not that — and we would rather tell you plainly than waste your time.

If someone else’s decision to drive impaired put you in a hospital, Georgia law treats your case differently from an ordinary crash. Not as a matter of sympathy — as a matter of statute. Deadlines can run longer. Damages that are capped in other cases are not capped in yours. And the driver may not be the only one who has to answer for it.

Before you give a recorded statement or sign anything, talk to us first. In impaired-driving cases an early settlement offer often arrives before the criminal case has even been calendared — and long before anyone knows what your recovery will actually cost.

Do You Have Longer Than Two Years to File?

Possibly — and this is the point most people are never told.

Georgia’s ordinary deadline for a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of injury. But where the civil claim arises from facts relating to an alleged crime, the limitation period is paused until the prosecution concludes — for up to six years.

Driving under the influence is a crime. So if you were hurt by an impaired driver and a prosecution followed, your civil window may run considerably longer than two years.

This matters in a specific, practical way. Criminal cases move slowly. Continuances stack up. People watch the two-year mark approach while the criminal matter is still unresolved, assume they have run out of time, and never make the call. Some of them still had years.

If you have been told you are too late, it is worth a second opinion before you accept that.

Two other things can extend the clock: if the injured person is a child, it does not start until they turn eighteen; and property damage carries a four-year deadline separate from the injury claim.

And one shortens it sharply. If a government body shares responsibility, a written ante litem notice must come first — six months for a city, twelve for a county, twelve for the state, running from discovery.

Why Damages Work Differently in a DUI Case

In most Georgia injury cases punitive damages are capped at $250,000. In impaired-driving cases, they are not capped at all.

The statute is explicit. Where the defendant acted while under the influence of alcohol, or of drugs other than lawfully prescribed drugs taken as prescribed, to the degree that judgment is substantially impaired, there is no limitation on the amount of punitive damages a jury may award.

That exception exists because Georgia’s legislature treats impaired driving as a category apart from carelessness. Punitive damages are not compensation — they are not for your medical bills or your lost wages. They exist to punish the conduct and deter it in others. And in a DUI case, the ceiling comes off.

Two practical points that follow:

• Punitive damages must be specifically pleaded. If they are not claimed in the lawsuit, the claim is waived. This is not something that can be added later once the value becomes obvious.
• Proving impairment is what unlocks it. The uncapped exception turns on evidence that judgment was substantially impaired — which means the evidence has to be built deliberately from the start, not assumed because charges were filed.

Do You Need a Conviction First?

No. And you should not wait for one.

A civil claim and a criminal prosecution are separate proceedings with different standards of proof. The criminal case must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your civil claim needs only a preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not. A punitive damages claim sits between them, requiring clear and convincing evidence.

The practical consequence: a driver acquitted, or allowed to plead to a lesser charge, or never charged at all, can still be held civilly liable. The prosecutor’s decisions are not your ceiling.

Nor do you have to wait for the criminal case to end before filing.

Who Else Might Be Responsible?

Under Georgia’s dram shop law, a business that serves alcohol can share liability where it knowingly serves someone who is noticeably intoxicated, knowing that person will soon be driving. The same principle applies to serving alcohol to a person under 21.

This matters for a reason that is uncomfortable but real: impaired drivers are frequently underinsured, and a minimum-limits policy of $25,000 does not go far against a serious injury. A dram shop claim can reach a commercial policy that actually covers the harm.

One distinction worth understanding. Punitive damages generally reach the driver as the active wrongdoer. A dram shop claim against a bar or restaurant is a claim for compensatory damages — your medical costs, lost income, and the rest. They are different claims against different parties, and both can run at once.

Dram shop cases turn on evidence that disappears quickly: receipts, tabs, card records, server statements, security footage that overwrites itself in days. Where the drinking happened is one of the first things worth establishing.

What Insurance Covers an Impaired-Driving Crash?

Coverage layer	When it applies
At-fault driver’s liability	Driver identified and insured
Your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage	Driver uninsured, underinsured, or fled
Your medical payments coverage	Pays medical bills regardless of fault
Dram shop defendant’s commercial policy	Where a provider shares liability

Georgia policies must include uninsured motorist coverage unless it was rejected in writing, and it comes in two forms. Add-on UM stacks on top of the at-fault driver’s limits; reduced-by UM pays only the gap. Against a $25,000 driver policy, $50,000 of add-on coverage can reach $75,000, while reduced-by contributes $25,000.

Add-on is Georgia’s default — reduced-by must be elected affirmatively in writing. In impaired-driving cases, where the at-fault driver is so often carrying minimum limits, this frequently decides how much of the harm is actually covered.

What Can You Recover?

Georgia does not cap compensatory damages in ordinary personal injury cases. A claim generally covers economic damages — medical care, future treatment, lost income, reduced earning capacity; non-economic damages — pain, disability, and what the injury took from ordinary life; and in impaired-driving cases, uncapped punitive damages aimed at the conduct itself.

Working With Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C.

Nothing up front, and nothing until we win. We work on contingency — the fee comes out of the recovery at a percentage agreed in writing before we start. No retainer, no hourly billing, no invoice while you are out of work.

Forty-five years. Nine Georgia offices. More than forty attorneys with over 350 years of combined experience. Someone answers at any hour — which matters in these cases, because they tend to happen at night.

If you or someone in your family was hurt by an impaired driver anywhere in Georgia, we would like to hear what happened. We also handle car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian and bicycle cases, and the full range is on our Georgia motor vehicle accident page.

Do not sign anything from an insurance company before you talk to a lawyer. Not a release, not a settlement offer, not a medical authorisation. In these cases the first offer often arrives while the criminal matter is still open and the full extent of the injury is still unknown.