Did Atlanta Happen to You? Click Here for a Free Case Evaluation
If a drunk driver injured you in Atlanta, you generally have two years to file a civil claim for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Your claim is separate from the
If a drunk driver injured you in Atlanta, you generally have two years to file a civil claim for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Your claim is separate from the criminal DUI case, and Georgia may allow punitive damages against an impaired driver. The Wilson PC works on contingency.
Yes, and this is the single most useful thing to understand early. The State prosecutes the driver for DUI; that case can produce jail time, fines, and licence consequences, but it does not compensate you. Restitution in a criminal case is usually limited and is not a substitute for a civil claim.
Your civil claim runs on its own track and its own deadline. You do not have to wait for the criminal case to finish before pursuing it. A conviction or guilty plea can help prove liability, but an acquittal does not end your claim either — the criminal standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil claim turns on the preponderance of the evidence, which is a materially lower bar.
Often, yes — and it is one of the few areas where drunk-driving claims differ sharply from ordinary negligence cases. Punitive damages under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1 are intended to punish and deter rather than to compensate, and they require clear and convincing evidence of conduct showing wilful misconduct or an entire want of care.
Georgia generally caps punitive damages at $250,000 in most tort cases, but the statute provides an exception where the defendant acted while under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the degree that their judgement was substantially impaired. In practical terms, that exception is why a DUI case can be valued very differently from the same collision caused by an inattentive sober driver. Whether it applies depends on the evidence in your specific case.
Sometimes. Georgia’s dram shop statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40, is narrower than people often assume. It generally requires that alcohol was knowingly served to someone who was noticeably intoxicated, or to a person under 21, and that the server knew that person would soon be driving.
These claims are evidence-driven and time-sensitive. What decides them is the material a business generates in the ordinary course — point-of-sale records showing how many drinks were served and when, server and manager accounts, and security footage. Establishments do not keep footage indefinitely, and staff turn over. A preservation demand sent within days is worth more than any amount of investigation six months later.
This is a common and demoralising outcome. Impaired drivers are, as a group, more likely to carry minimum limits or no coverage at all, and a criminal conviction does not create money that was never there.
The realistic sources are usually elsewhere. Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is the first place to look, and depending on the policies involved it may stack. A dram shop defendant, if one exists, carries commercial coverage that is typically far larger than a personal auto policy. If the driver was working at the time, an employer’s policy may apply. Identifying every available policy early is frequently what determines whether a serious injury is meaningfully compensated.
Georgia generally allows two years from the date of injury under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. The evidence that matters most in these cases has a much shorter shelf life — bar footage, receipts, and toxicology material can all become unavailable long before the statute runs.
Wrongful death and estate claims follow their own rules, and claims involving a government entity require ante litem notice within six months for a municipality under O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5 or twelve months for a county under O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1. Because Atlanta spans Fulton and DeKalb Counties and involves city, county, and state roads, working out which deadline applies is not always trivial.
Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, so the fee comes out of any recovery and there is no fee if you do not recover.
Ask for the fee agreement in writing and read the expenses provision. Drunk-driving cases with a dram shop component often need accident reconstruction and toxicology experts, so the question of who carries case expenses if the claim does not succeed is a real one, not boilerplate.
101 Marietta Street NW, Suite 3100
Atlanta, GA 30303
Not automatically, but it helps considerably. A conviction or guilty plea is strong evidence on liability and often narrows the dispute to the value of your damages rather than who was at fault. You still have to prove your injuries, your treatment, and your losses — that part does not come from the criminal case.
No. The criminal case required proof beyond a reasonable doubt; your civil claim requires only a preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not. Cases are lost criminally and won civilly on the same facts with some regularity, because the standards are genuinely different.
The general two-year limitation applies, but treating it as your deadline is a mistake. Dram shop claims live or die on point-of-sale records, server recollection, and security footage. Footage is frequently overwritten within days or weeks and staff move on. If a dram shop claim is a realistic possibility, the preservation demand needs to go out immediately, not eventually.
Georgia wrongful death claims follow their own framework, including who has the right to bring the claim and how the recovery is divided, and there may be a separate estate claim for the decedent’s own medical expenses, pain and suffering, and funeral costs. Punitive damages may also be available against an impaired driver. These cases need early, careful handling and we would rather talk to you sooner than later.
It cannot be quoted responsibly at the outset. Compensatory value depends on medical costs, lost income, and permanence of injury; the availability of punitive damages and of a dram shop or employer defendant can change the picture substantially. Available insurance coverage is very often the practical ceiling, which is why identifying every applicable policy matters as much as proving fault.