Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp with House Speaker Jon Burns (left) and supporters of tort reform at a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Joe Raedle / Joe Raedle
This story was updated on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1:39 p.m.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has rolled out a sweeping package of proposals to curb civil litigation – and he says he wants a bill on his desk by the end of the legislative session.
The debate over tort reform has been fraught since Kemp named the effort his top legislative priority, with lawyers, doctors, businesses, insurers, patients and consumers all pressing competing interests. With just two months left in the session, pushing through a massive bill will be a difficult, and controversial, undertaking.
“It is clear that the status quo is unacceptable, unsustainable, and jeopardizes our state’s prosperity in the years to come,” Kemp told reporters on Thursday, flanked by hospital and business leaders. “This tort reform package protects the rights of all Georgians to have access to our civil justice system, and ensures that those who have been wronged receive justice and are made whole.”
Kemp says excessive civil litigation has resulted in high insurance premiums for medical providers, small businesses, corporations and individuals who buy health or auto insurance. He argues that reigning in civil actions and the hefty damages sometimes insurance companies have to pay, costs will go down.
“Grocery stores, hospitals, road pavers, small business owners, truckers, restaurants, mom and pop stores, retails, gas stations, doctors, childcare facilities and hardworking Georgians across our state are all telling us the same thing: Georgia needs tort reform and we need it now,” Kemp said.
Find all you need to know about this year’s legislative session in Georgia. The latest news, the biggest bills, the balance of power, the latest episodes of “Plugged In” and “Political Breakfast,” how to contact your local lawmakers and more.
But Democrats quickly moved to challenge Kemp’s framing.
“This is a giveaway to the big insurance companies,” Sen. Josh McLaurin said Wednesday. “Brian Kemp is either lying or being lied to about how and why these premiums have increased and what to do about it.”
Kemp is proposing nearly a dozen changes to Georgia tort law, including raising the standard for premises liability and changing how some damage awards are determined. The legislation also makes changes to some civil litigation procedures, like requiring liability to be established before a jury can hear evidence of a plaintiff’s damages. The legislation would also allow a jury to know whether a plaintiff wore a seatbelt and adds regulations around third parties that fund litigation.
“Insurance is set up to make you whole,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said. “It is not a lottery ticket, and too many times it’s been treated like that.”
Two bills are expected to be filed later Thursday, introduced by Republican Senate Pro Tempore John Kennedy.
“I think the devil will be in the details,” says Joanna Shepherd, vice dean at Emory University Law School.
Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King at a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Introduction to torts
You may have heard of torts in the context of a course most first-year law students take. It’s one of the classes Shepherd teaches.
“It’s one of my favorite classes to teach, and it’s often, for a lot of law students, one of their favorite courses because it’s really applicable to all of us,” Shepherd says. “We could all do something in the next hour that makes us either a potential defendant in a torts case or a potential plaintiff.”
Tort law deals with civil actions, excluding breach of contract. Shepherd says tort cases have some common elements. Some action or inaction has led to harm or injury. The case is not brought by a prosecutor, like in a criminal case. And unlike criminal cases, which typically result in a fine or sentence, tort cases usually end with a damages payment or an order to stop an action.
“The most common things we see out in the world are car accidents if somebody’s at fault, medical malpractice, product liability, if someone is injured by a product, or premises liability, when somebody is hurt on somebody else’s property,” Shepherd says.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones at a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Tort law weighs competing interests. “It’s complicated, it’s very complicated,” Shepherd says. Take premises liability, for example:
“There is going to be this tradeoff between, yes, victims deserve to be compensated for their harms,” Shepherd says. “And forcing defendants to pay that compensation should deter them from having dangerous premises in the future. So all of that is one side of the coin.
The flip side is if you impose too harsh a liability against a business and they leave and move to another state, that’s not good for the state either. I believe most people should recognize that, in most situations, there needs to be a balancing of the different factors.”
Figuring out exactly what that balance should look like and how to achieve it is not exactly clear cut, Shepherd says. Different interests may place varying degrees of importance on one side or the other.
That can spur debate when it comes to policy change.
People line up before a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Political fight ahead
Democrats say they recognize that high insurance premiums can burden small business owners and patients. But they say Georgia needs insurance reform, not tort reform.
“Insurance companies are making billions of dollars of profit in Georgia and nationwide, and they are threatening to leave the state if they don’t make as much profit as they want,” says McLaurin, the Democratic senator and a lawyer who handles civil litigation. “So what they have done is put Brian Kemp and Georgia businesses in a hostage situation. And unfortunately what has happened is the insurance companies have blamed a red herring.”
Passage of Kemp’s legislation is not assured. Lobbyists from all sides have already been flooding the State Capitol. In his rollout, Kemp again hinted at the prospect of a special session later this year if lawmakers cannot move a bill to his desk.
How much leverage Democrats have may depend on whether Republicans can unify on a bill.
“My constituents are sick and tired of having insurance claims and none of the insurance companies ever paying what they originally agreed to in the contract and tort is the only way to get that justice,” says Republican State Sen. Colton Moore.
While Kemp has said his efforts should attract bipartisan votes, it is not clear yet if he needs them.
Democratic Rep. Tanya Miller, who has a background in personal injury law and has been among the party’s most vocal skeptics of Kemp’s push, says no one has asked her caucus for help yet.
“Negotiation is always on the table,” Miller told reporters Wednesday. “We’re legislators. It’s our job to negotiate. It’s our job to hear all sides of an issue. My caucus has not been brought to the table. No one has asked us our opinion. So we await that opportunity when and if it comes.”
