Tort Reform vs. the Nuclear Verdict: What Georgia’s First Year Under SB 68 Reveals

This session examines Georgia’s Senate Bill 68—signed April 21, 2025—from the defense perspective, covering its most consequential provisions for personal injury and wrongful death litigation: elimination of phantom damages, anti-anchoring restrictions, bifurcated trials, the discovery stay on motions to dismiss, the negligent security overhaul, seatbelt evidence admissibility, voluntary dismissal restrictions, and the companion SB 69 litigation funding disclosure rules. Attorneys will learn how each provision operates procedurally, which effective-date rules govern pending versus new cases, and how to deploy these tools immediately in active litigation.  The presenter was actively involved in the legislative process for enacting SB 68 and SB 69 during the 2025 legislative session and will provide anecdotal commentary on how the legislation was passed and why the various provisions that passed were deemed a priority in Georgia.

This session examines how Georgia’s SB 68, signed April 21, 2025, reshapes the plaintiff’s trial toolkit across six concrete areas: the anti-anchoring rule for non-economic damages, elimination of phantom medical damages, mandatory bifurcation on demand, compressed voluntary dismissal windows, discovery stays on motions to dismiss, and the new discoverability of letters of protection. Attorneys will leave able to identify which SB 68 provisions apply retroactively to pending cases versus prospectively to post-April 21, 2025 causes of action, and will gain practical strategies for adapting plaintiff trial narratives, damages arguments, and pre-suit investigation to the new framework. The session draws on the statute’s text, early practitioner analysis, and the specific gaps — including the unresolved ‘rationally related’ standard and pending constitutional challenges — that will define litigation strategy in the near term.