Two years and five years. Those two numbers govern whether a Georgia medical malpractice claim can be brought at all, and the common mistake is to assume there is only one deadline to track. There are two, they run on different logic, and they operate at the same time. Missing either one can close the case permanently.
This article describes deadline rules in general terms as of early 2026. Statutes and their exceptions can change, and how a deadline applies to a specific injury depends on facts a licensed Georgia attorney must review. This is not legal advice.
The two deadlines defined
Georgia’s medical malpractice deadlines come from O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71, which sets two distinct limits.
The first is the statute of limitations. Two years is the rule. In general, a medical malpractice action must be brought within two years from the date the injury or death arising from the negligent act occurred. The clock is tied to the injury, not necessarily to the date the patient discovered it.
The second is the statute of repose. Regardless of when the injury occurred or when it was discovered, no medical malpractice action may be brought more than five years after the date of the negligent act or omission. The repose period is an outer wall. Once it passes, the claim is gone even if the two-year limitations period would otherwise still be open.
| Deadline | Length | Clock starts from | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statute of limitations | Two years | The injury | Ordinary filing deadline |
| Statute of repose | Five years | The negligent act | Absolute outer cutoff |
How they run simultaneously
The two deadlines are not sequential. They do not take turns. They start their clocks at different events and can expire independently at different times, which is exactly what makes them so easy to miscalculate when the injury and the act do not share a date.
The limitations period generally runs from the injury. The repose period runs from the negligent act. In many cases the act and the injury happen close together, and the distinction barely matters. But when an injury does not appear immediately, the two clocks separate, and the repose deadline can quietly become the controlling one.
A useful way to think about it: the two-year limitations period asks whether you filed soon enough after the harm. The five-year repose period asks whether the underlying act is simply too old to sue over, no matter what. A claim has to satisfy both.
The discovery rule and its limits
Georgia recognizes a narrow discovery principle in certain circumstances, most notably where a foreign object is left in a patient’s body. In that specific situation, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72 provides a different timing rule keyed to when the object was or should have been discovered.
Outside of that defined category, Georgia’s medical malpractice limitations period is not a general discovery rule. A patient who does not realize they were harmed until years later does not automatically get extra time. The two-year clock generally runs from the injury, and the five-year repose wall stands regardless of discovery. This is a frequent source of hard outcomes: an injury discovered in year four of the repose period leaves very little runway, and one discovered after year five leaves none.
Exceptions for minors and other situations
Georgia treats claims involving children differently. The rules shift for minors. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-73, special provisions adjust how these deadlines operate for the youngest patients. The details are specific to the child’s age at the time of the injury, and they do not simply pause every deadline indefinitely.
Other narrow exceptions and tolling situations exist, but they are limited and fact-dependent. The safe assumption is that the standard two-year and five-year deadlines apply unless a specific statutory exception clearly fits.
The repose hard stop
Of everything in this area, the five-year repose period deserves the most attention, because it is the least forgiving. The limitations period can sometimes be affected by the nature and timing of the injury. The repose period, by contrast, functions as an absolute cutoff measured from the negligent act. When it closes, it closes.
Because the interaction of the two-year limitations period, the five-year repose bar, and the narrow exceptions turns on specific dates, a precise deadline analysis is work for a practice that handles these determinations regularly. Adams, Jordan & Herrington, a Georgia medical malpractice practice, represents clients in claims involving contested filing timelines.
Common questions
Does hiring an attorney stop the clock on these deadlines?
No. Retaining an attorney does not pause the statute of limitations or the statute of repose. The deadlines run based on the dates set by statute, regardless of when a lawyer becomes involved. This is one reason the timing analysis is treated as urgent: the clock continues while a case is being evaluated.
If the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, what happens?
Georgia’s procedural rules address how deadlines that land on weekends or legal holidays are treated, generally by moving to the next business day. Because these mechanics are technical and the consequences of a miscalculation are severe, the exact filing date is something to confirm precisely rather than estimate.
Do these same deadlines apply to a wrongful death claim arising from malpractice?
Wrongful death claims arising from medical malpractice involve their own timing considerations, which interact with the malpractice deadlines rather than simply mirroring them. Because the death and the underlying negligent act may occur at different times, the deadline analysis for a wrongful death claim is its own calculation.
For anyone weighing a possible claim, the order of operations is worth keeping in mind. First, identify the date of the negligent act, because that starts the five-year repose clock and sets the outer limit. Second, identify the date of injury, because that generally starts the two-year limitations clock. Third, check whether any narrow exception, such as the foreign-object rule or the provisions for minors, changes the calculation. Because these dates and exceptions turn on specifics, and because the repose wall leaves no room to recover from a miscalculation, the time to have a Georgia medical malpractice attorney run this analysis is as early as possible, not as a deadline nears.