Personal Injury Filing Deadlines in Georgia vs South Carolina

Q: I live in Georgia but was hurt in South Carolina. Which deadline applies?

Generally the state where the injury happened, so the South Carolina deadline would apply. Border cases on I-95 and I-20 are where this matters most, because the instinct is to assume your home state’s rule governs — and on a two-year deadline that assumption can cost a year.

Q: What happens if I miss the deadline?

The claim is generally barred, however strong the facts. A statute of limitations is not weighed against the merits — it is a cut-off. That is why the deadline should be identified at the start of a case rather than near the end.

Q: Is the deadline the same for a wrongful death claim?

It follows the same headline period in both states — two years in Georgia, three in South Carolina — but wrongful death claims raise additional questions about who may bring the claim and when the clock starts. Confirm those with a lawyer licensed in the relevant state.

Key Takeaways

Georgia gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33); South Carolina gives you three (S.C. Code § 15-3-530). Several claims run shorter than that headline. A Georgia workers’ compensation claim is one year under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-82, half the tort deadline, though it can reset. A South Carolina claim against a government entity defaults to two years rather than three, extendable to three by first filing a verified claim with the responsible agency. Medical malpractice carries a statute of repose in both states — five years in Georgia, six in South Carolina — which can bar a claim that is still inside the discovery deadline. Georgia’s Senate Bill 68 did not change any filing deadline.

Georgia gives you two years to file a personal injury lawsuit. South Carolina gives you three. Cross the Savannah River and the deadline on the same crash moves by a full year — and for some claims it moves the other way.

A missed deadline is the one mistake in a personal injury case that cannot be argued around. However strong the facts, a claim filed after the statute of limitations has run is barred. This guide sets the two states side by side.

The headline deadlines

Claim	Georgia	South Carolina
Personal injury	2 years from injury O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33	3 years from injury S.C. Code § 15-3-530
Wrongful death	2 years	3 years
Medical malpractice	2 years, with a 5-year statute of repose O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71	3 years from discovery, capped by a 6-year repose S.C. Code § 15-3-545
Workers’ compensation	1 year from injury, and it can shift O.C.G.A. § 34-9-82	2 years from injury S.C. Code § 42-15-40
Loss of consortium	4 years O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33	—
Damage to a vehicle	4 years O.C.G.A. § 9-3-32	—
Claim against a government entity	—	2 years, extendable to 3 by first filing a verified claim

The gaps left in the South Carolina column are deliberate. They are deadlines this guide has not independently verified, and a filing deadline is not a figure to estimate. If your claim falls in one of those rows, ask.

Two years is shorter than it sounds

Georgia’s two-year clock is the one that catches people out, and for a predictable reason: serious injuries take longer than two years to resolve medically. Treatment is often continuing, the long-term prognosis is unsettled, and the case is not ready to value — but the deadline does not wait for any of that. The lawsuit has to be filed, or the claim is gone.

South Carolina’s three years gives more room, which creates its own trap: a case that feels comfortably inside the deadline in year two is suddenly not, and the file has gone quiet.

The deadlines that run shorter than the headline

Workers’ compensation is the shortest clock in either state. In Georgia it is one year under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-82 — half the personal injury deadline. Two things can move it, and they are not interchangeable: remedial treatment furnished by your employer gives you one year from the last treatment, while payment of weekly income benefits gives you two years from the last payment. The two-year window runs from the last payment, not the last treatment. South Carolina allows two years from the accident under S.C. Code § 42-15-40. If you were hurt on the job, that is the deadline that governs, not the tort deadline, and confusing the two is a known way to lose a claim.

Claims against government bodies follow their own rules. In South Carolina the default is two years rather than three, extendable to three by first filing a verified claim with the responsible agency. A crash with a municipal vehicle, a county truck or a transit bus is a different clock from a crash with a private driver.

Medical malpractice has two deadlines at once. Both states pair a limitation period with a statute of repose — an outside cut-off measured from the treatment itself rather than from when you discovered the harm. Georgia’s repose is five years; South Carolina’s is six. A claim can be inside the discovery deadline and still barred by repose.

South Carolina carries a narrow exception for a foreign object left in the body: that claim runs two years from discovery, and in no event less than three years from when the object was left.

Which state’s deadline applies

Generally the state where the injury happened, not where you live. That is straightforward until it isn’t — a Savannah resident hurt on I-95 north of Hardeeville is on South Carolina’s three-year clock; a Charleston resident hurt on the Georgia side of the same interstate is on Georgia’s two-year clock.

The border cases are the dangerous ones, because the instinct is to assume your own state’s rule applies. On a two-year deadline, that assumption costs a year, and a year is the whole margin.

What does not change the deadline

Georgia’s Senate Bill 68, approved 21 April 2025, made substantial changes to Georgia tort law. It did not change any filing deadline. Reporting on the bill has been loose enough that this is worth stating plainly: if you were injured in Georgia, the deadline is what it was before.

Frequently Asked Questions

I live in Georgia but was hurt in South Carolina. Which deadline applies?

What happens if I miss the deadline?

Is the deadline the same for a wrongful death claim?

About the Author

Eric Roden

Founding Partner, CEO State Bar of Georgia | Georgia Court of Appeals | Supreme Court of Georgia

Eric Roden has represented injury victims from the outset of his career and has never advocated on behalf of insurance companies. He focuses on wrongful death, automobile accidents, nursing home negligence, and workers’ compensation law. In 2013, he became a founding partner of Roden Law, dedicated to providing advocacy for injured clients. Education J.D., University […]

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