HB531: HB531 Appeal and error; certain appellate procedures regarding the denial of sovereign and any other immunity available to the state or a city or county in this state; provide

Currently, someone who wants to sue a Georgia municipality for an injury must file a written notice within six months. This bill would extend that deadline to 12 months. It also creates a new law, called the Municipal Sovereign Immunity Act, that caps how much a person can collect from a city in a lawsuit: no more than $3 million per claimant from a single incident, and no more than $5 million total per incident, with no punitive damages allowed and jury information about the caps kept from jurors. The bill also rewrites the rule on how cities can accidentally waive their legal immunity by buying liability insurance, clarifying that insurers must pay covered claims regardless of immunity. Separately, it waives sovereign and governmental immunity for local governments, officials, and jailers who violate Georgia's ban on immigration sanctuary policies or who fail to comply with federal immigration detainer requests. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it or it otherwise becomes law.

• Extends from 6 to 12 months the deadline for a person to file a written claim before suing a Georgia municipality for injury (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5).
• Caps municipal tort liability at $3 million per claimant and $5 million total per incident, and bars punitive damages in such suits (new O.C.G.A. § 36-33-7).
• Requires that the damage caps not be revealed to the jury during trial, and allows either a jury trial or a judge-only trial by agreement.
• Clarifies that a municipality waives its immunity by purchasing liability insurance only to the extent the policy covers the claim, and voids insurance contract terms that try to avoid this rule.
• Removes sovereign and governmental immunity protection for local governments and their officials or employees who violate the state's ban on immigration sanctuary policies (O.C.G.A. § 36-80-23).
• Removes immunity protection for sheriffs, wardens, police chiefs, or the state corrections commissioner who fail to comply with federal immigration detainer requests (O.C.G.A. § 42-1-11.5).

Georgia municipalities and consolidated city-county governments, people injured by city actions who want to sue, insurance companies that write liability policies for cities, and local officials such as sheriffs, police chiefs, wardens, and the state corrections commissioner who handle immigration detainer requests.

People injured by a city's actions would get more time to file a claim but would face a hard ceiling on how much they can ultimately recover, even in the most severe cases. Local officials who ignore state immigration enforcement rules would lose their usual legal shield, exposing their governments to lawsuits.

• Section 1-1 names Part I of the bill the 'Municipal Sovereign Immunity Act.'
• Section 1-2 amends O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5 to extend the pre-suit notice deadline from six months to twelve months.
• Section 1-3 adds new O.C.G.A. § 36-33-7, capping single-claimant recovery at $3 million and total per-occurrence liability at $5 million, barring punitive damages, and keeping the caps hidden from juries.
• Section 1-3 also states the new caps are not themselves a new waiver of immunity; any waiver must still be separately proven under Georgia's constitution.
• Section 1-3A rewrites O.C.G.A. § 36-33-1 on how a municipality's purchase of liability insurance affects its immunity, requiring insurers to pay covered claims regardless of otherwise-available immunity.
• Section 2-1 adds a provision to O.C.G.A. § 36-80-23 waiving immunity for local governments and their officials who violate the state's immigration sanctuary policy ban.
• Section 2-2 revises O.C.G.A. § 42-1-11.5 to require compliance with federal immigration detainer notices and waives immunity for custodial officials who violate that duty.
• Section 3-1 sets the effective date as the date the Governor signs the bill or it otherwise becomes law without signature.

1. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
2. 2025-03-27Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
3. 2025-03-27Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
4. 2025-03-10Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
5. 2025-03-06House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
6. 2025-03-06House Third Readers (House)
7. 2025-02-28House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
8. 2025-02-21House Second Readers (House)

• Matt Reeves (R, HD-099)Primary sponsor
• Rob Leverett (R, HD-123)
• Chuck Efstration (R, HD-104)
• Stan Gunter (R, HD-008)
• Deborah Silcox (R, HD-053)
• Brian Strickland (R, SD-042)

1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2025

   161 yea, 13 nay (2 not voting, 4 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #245

• sovereign immunity
• municipal lawsuits
• tort damage caps
• immigration sanctuary policies
• immigration detainers