Ante Litem Notice for Government Claims in Georgia

A state-law damages claim against a Georgia city, county, or state agency, including one arising from an arrest, must be presented in writing before suit. The deadlines are six months for a city (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5), 12 months for a county (§ 36-11-1), and 12 months from discovery for a tort claim against the State (§ 50-21-26). None of these sections pauses its deadline for a related criminal case.

Claims against a city

Under § 36-33-5, “Within six months of the happening of the event upon which a claim against a municipal corporation is predicated,” the claimant must present the claim in writing to the city’s governing authority, “stating the time, place, and extent of the injury, as nearly as practicable, and the negligence which caused the injury.” The description of the injury must include the specific amount of monetary damages sought; that amount is an offer of compromise and does not bind the claimant if the case is litigated.

The claim is served on the mayor or the chair of the city council or commission, “by delivering the claim to such official personally or by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery.” The governing authority has 30 days to act. “The running of the statute of limitations shall be suspended during the time that the demand for payment is pending before such authorities without action on their part.”

Claims against a county

Section 36-11-1 provides: “All claims against counties must be presented within 12 months after they accrue or become payable or the same are barred, provided that minors or other persons laboring under disabilities shall be allowed 12 months after the removal of the disability to present their claims.”

Tort claims against the State

Under the Georgia Tort Claims Act, § 50-21-26 requires written notice “within 12 months of the date the loss was discovered or should have been discovered” for a tort claim against the State. The notice must be “mailed by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, or delivered personally to and a receipt obtained from the Risk Management Division of the Department of Administrative Services.” A copy also goes, personally or by first-class mail, to the state government entity whose acts or omissions are the basis of the claim.

The notice states, as far as the claimant knows and as is practicable, the name of that entity, the time and place of the occurrence, the nature of the loss, the amount claimed, and the acts or omissions that caused it. No suit may be filed until the Department of Administrative Services denies the claim or 90 days pass without action, and without timely notice “the courts shall have no jurisdiction” of the action.

Federal civil rights claims

These are state statutes. In Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988), the Supreme Court of the United States held that Wisconsin’s notice-of-claim statute “is pre-empted when the § 1983 action is brought in a state court.” Felder concerned Wisconsin’s statute, so a § 1983 claim filed with Georgia state-law claims has to be checked against that decision separately from the state-law notice deadlines.

The criminal case runs separately

A criminal charge arising from the same encounter is decided on its own schedule; the civil notice deadlines above keep running. How an arrest without a warrant is judged, including the limits on deadly force, is covered in warrantless arrest and probable cause in Georgia, and entries into a home in exigent circumstances and warrantless entry in Georgia.

Before the deadline

1. Which government employed the officer or employee: a city, a county, or a state agency?
2. On what date did the injury happen, or when was the loss discovered?
3. Who must receive the notice, and by what delivery method?
4. Does the notice state the time, place, cause, and amount the statute requires?

Sources

• O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5 and § 36-11-1 (2022 Georgia Code).
• O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26 (2021 Georgia Code).
• No amendment to these sections is listed in the Legislative Counsel summaries for 2017 through 2026.
• Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988).

General information about Georgia criminal law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.