Did Georgia get rid of joint and several liability for negligence defendants?
For negligence cases governed by the apportionment statute, Georgia largely replaced traditional joint and several liability with a system in which each defendant pays its own share. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, fault is divided by percentage, and a defendant is generally responsible only for the portion of damages matching its assigned fault, not for the entire judgment.
From shared liability to several liability ¶
Under the older joint-and-several model, a plaintiff could collect the full judgment from any one liable defendant, even one only slightly at fault, leaving that defendant to chase the others for contribution. Georgia’s apportionment statute changed that default. When a jury allocates percentages of fault, each defendant’s obligation is tied to its own percentage. A defendant found 20% at fault generally owes 20% of the damages, not the whole amount.
This shift carries practical consequences:
- A minor-fault defendant is no longer an easy target for the full judgment.
- The risk that another defendant cannot pay its share generally rests with the plaintiff, not with the co-defendants.
- The plaintiff may need to pursue each responsible party for its own portion.
Apportionment reaches non-parties too ¶
The statute also lets fault be allocated, in appropriate circumstances, to non-parties who contributed to the harm. A share assigned to a non-party reduces what the named defendants collectively bear, since that absent party is not before the court to pay. The Georgia legislature confirmed that apportionment applies whether a case is brought against one or more defendants, so the several-liability approach is not limited to multi-defendant suits.
What this does not erase ¶
Several liability is the general rule under the statute, but it does not dissolve every shared-responsibility concept in Georgia law. Some relationships travel by their own rules, including an employer’s answerability for a worker acting on the job, which rests on the employment link rather than on any percentage a jury draws. The broad point is that ordinary negligence co-defendants are no longer automatically on the hook for each other’s shares.
The bottom line ¶
Georgia moved away from joint and several liability for negligence defendants through § 51-12-33. Fault is apportioned by percentage, each defendant generally pays only its own share, and fault can even be assigned to non-parties. The change places more responsibility on the plaintiff to allocate and collect, while protecting low-fault defendants from paying the entire award.
This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Georgia law may change. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney.