Here's the law that applies to your neighbor. O.C.G.A. § 51-7-40: "A criminal prosecution which is carried on maliciously and without any probable cause and which causes damage to the person prosecuted shall give him a cause of action."
Your neighbor calls the police with a lie. You get arrested, charged, dragged through the system, finally cleared. You can sue him. There's also § 51-7-1 — "An arrest under process of law, without probable cause, when made maliciously, shall give a right of action to the party arrested." And § 51-7-20: false imprisonment is "the unlawful detention of the person of another, for any length of time, whereby such person is deprived of his personal liberty."
Private citizens can be held accountable for all of it. That's the deal.
Now here's the law that applies to the state. Title 50, Chapter 21 of the Official Code of Georgia is called "Waiver of Sovereign Immunity." Sounds generous. The state, in its mercy, will allow you to sue it. Section 50-21-23 says the state "shall be liable for such torts in the same manner as a private individual or entity would be liable under like circumstances."
Liable like a private individual. Same as your neighbor.
Then comes the fine print. Section 50-21-24:
"The state shall have no liability for losses resulting from:
(1) An act or omission by a state officer or employee exercising due care in the execution of a statute, regulation, rule, or ordinance, whether or not such statute, regulation, rule, or ordinance is valid;
(2) The exercise or performance of or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a state officer or employee, whether or not the discretion involved is abused;
(3) The assessment or collection of any tax or the detention of any goods or merchandise by any law enforcement officer;
(4) Legislative, judicial, quasi-judicial, or prosecutorial action or inaction;
[. . .]
(6) Civil disturbance, riot, insurrection, or rebellion or the failure to provide, or the method of providing, law enforcement, police, or fire protection;
(7) Assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, libel, slander, or interference with contractual rights;"
Read item (7) again, slowly. The state has no liability for assault. Battery. False imprisonment. False arrest. Malicious prosecution. The exact torts Title 51 says your neighbor is liable for. The state wrote itself out of the exact list.
Let that sink in.
Your neighbor lies to the police about you: cause of action. The district attorney does it deliberately, with no evidence, to ruin you: "prosecutorial action or inaction" — no liability. A trooper beats you: "assault, battery" — no liability. A state officer takes your cash and your car and never gives them back: "the detention of any goods or merchandise by any law enforcement officer" — no liability. The state fails to protect you while a mob burns your street: "civil disturbance, riot... failure to provide... police... protection" — no liability. Even if the law they were enforcing was invalid, even if the discretion was abused — the statute says those exact words, "whether or not... whether or not." Belt and suspenders.
And that's just the first seven. The list runs to thirteen — inspections, licensing, highway design, financial oversight, the National Guard. They even exempted the Y2K computer bug, and it's still sitting there in a statute the legislature amended in 2018. The list is maintained.
Let me be fair about what the waiver does still cover, because the honest version is more useful than the outraged one. If a state employee runs a red light in a state vehicle and hurts you, that's ordinary negligence, it isn't on the list, and you can bring that case. The waiver is real. It just has the worst conduct carved out of it, and then it has the fine print below.
Because there's more fine print.
If you make it past all thirteen exceptions, you have 12 months — not the usual two-year deadline for injuries to the person, twelve months — to give written notice of your claim, by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, to the Risk Management Division of the Department of Administrative Services. No notice, no lawsuit: the statute says the courts "shall have no jurisdiction thereof unless and until a written notice of claim has been timely presented." Miss the window by a day and it does not matter how badly you were hurt.
If you do file, the state's own investigation file on your claim is "privileged and confidential" and "shall not be subject to discovery by any claimant." The state investigates you, in secret, and you don't get to see it.
And if you win? Section 50-21-29: no person recovers more than $1 million for a single occurrence, and the state's total exposure per occurrence is $3 million. Then the kicker — the statute says the existence of those caps "shall not be disclosed or suggested to the jury during the trial of any action brought under this article." The jury hears your case, decides your damages, thinks it's real money. Then the state pays a fraction of what they awarded. The cap is the law's secret, kept from the twelve people it cheats.
The real insult is where they put it. This is the sequel to O.C.G.A. § 1-3-8 — the statute sitting at the very front of the code, saying the state isn't bound by a law unless it names itself. Here is what happens when the state finally does name itself: it writes a chapter called "Waiver" and fills it with exceptions.
The title is the public relations. The exceptions are the law.
Your neighbor: cause of action. The state: thirteen exceptions, a one-year window, a secret cap, and a case file you're not allowed to see.
Can you believe this?
Yeah. Unfortunately, it's the law.
Statutes discussed, all quoted verbatim from the current code: O.C.G.A. §§ 51-7-1, 51-7-20, 51-7-40 (citizen liability); 50-21-23, 50-21-24, 50-21-26, 50-21-29 (the Georgia Tort Claims Act); 9-3-33 (the two-year limitation for injuries to the person). Section 50-21-24 is amended through Ga. L. 2018, p. 161, § 1/HB 309. On the jury: in superior court civil actions the parties strike from a panel of 24 "until a jury of 12 persons is impaneled to try the case," O.C.G.A. § 15-12-122(b); state court seats six by default, or twelve on written demand when the claim exceeds $50,000, § 15-12-122(a).
A version of this piece first ran on my Substack, Mediocre Suggestions.