---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Tort Claims; venue of actions; provisions; change"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 21 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the state tort claims, so as to change provisions relating to the venue of actions; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "SB 126"
citation: "Georgia SB 126 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Cowsert", "Chuck Payne", "Chuck Hufstetler", "David Shafer", "Ellis Black", "Greg Kirk", "Hunter Hill", "John Albers", "John Kennedy", "Lee Anderson", "Michael Williams", "Mike Dugan", "William Ligon, Jr."]
version_count: 0
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-07"
last_action: "2017-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/26ef45f2-0f1f-451d-a8c3-128c7872e93b"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "5067024107ff29612e2ca39651120d1c24ede54600d85a109da9804619b33d3d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 126 (2017_18) — State Tort Claims; venue of actions; provisions; change

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 21 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the state tort claims, so as to change provisions relating to the venue of actions; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **49–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bill Cowsert — primary (person)
- Chuck Payne — primary (person)
- Chuck Hufstetler — primary (person)
- David Shafer — primary (person)
- Ellis Black — primary (person)
- Greg Kirk — primary (person)
- Hunter Hill — primary (person)
- John Albers — primary (person)
- John Kennedy — primary (person)
- Lee Anderson — primary (person)
- Michael Williams — primary (person)
- Mike Dugan — primary (person)
- William Ligon, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-07** Senate Hopper
- **2017-02-08** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-24** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-27** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-03-03** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-03-03** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-06** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-03-09** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-03-16** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-28** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-28** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-30** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2017-04-04** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-09** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-09** Act 238 `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/26ef45f2-0f1f-451d-a8c3-128c7872e93b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).