Facial Fractures and Disfigurement in Georgia Injury Cases

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A face that strikes a steering column, an airbag, or a windshield can leave an injury that outlasts the fracture itself: an asymmetric cheek, a scar across the lip, a nose rebuilt but not quite the same. Georgia law names disfigurement among the noneconomic damages recoverable for bodily injury, leaves its value to the jury, and makes the claim turn on proof of the physical injury, the surgeries, and the permanence of the change.

What a Facial Fracture Can Affect

MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s consumer health service, describes broken bones of the nose, cheekbone, and jaw as common facial injuries that can cause pain and change how a person looks, and it states that severe facial injuries can affect sight, speech, breathing, and swallowing. Among the treatments it lists for facial conditions are corrective jaw surgery and scar revision. In a damages claim, a lasting change in appearance is measured as disfigurement and a lasting loss of function as physical impairment, both listed as noneconomic damages in OCGA 9-10-184(a).

Where Disfigurement Sits in the Damages Statute

Georgia’s statute on arguing damages defines noneconomic damages as all damages recoverable in tort for bodily injury or wrongful death other than economic damages, and it lists disfigurement among them, together with physical or emotional pain, anxiety, distress, mental anguish, physical impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life; economic damages include medical expenses and the costs of rehabilitation and therapy (OCGA 9-10-184(a)(1), (2)). The measure of noneconomic damages is the enlightened conscience of an impartial jury (OCGA 9-10-184(b)).

A separate statute covers a tort action in which the entire injury is to the plaintiff’s peace, happiness, or feelings, and in that kind of action punitive damages are not awarded (OCGA 51-12-6). A claim that includes a facial fracture involves a bodily injury, so it is not an action in which the entire injury is to feelings, and its damages categories come from OCGA 9-10-184.

Emotional Harm From a Changed Face

In a negligence case, Georgia’s impact rule allows recovery for emotional distress where a physical impact to the plaintiff causes a physical injury, and that physical injury causes the mental suffering or emotional distress (Lee v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co., 272 Ga. 583 (2000)). A facial fracture from a collision or a blow supplies the impact and the physical injury, and the third element ties the distress to the injury. Treatment records from a therapist or psychiatrist are one source of evidence of that link.

Proving Permanence

Expert opinion on prognosis and residual deformity can address whether a change in appearance is permanent, and such testimony must help the trier of fact and must rest on sufficient facts or data, reliable principles and methods, and a reliable application of those methods to the case (OCGA 24-7-702(b)). An expert’s opinion draws on the records and images the expert reviews, such as early medical photographs, surgical and follow-up records, and photographs of the claimant’s appearance before the injury as a baseline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a cap on noneconomic damages for a facial injury?
Georgia’s statutory cap, OCGA 51-13-1, was written for medical malpractice actions, and the Supreme Court of Georgia held in Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, 286 Ga. 731 (2010), that applying it to damages for pain and suffering and loss of consortium violates the right to a jury trial, a holding it reaffirmed in Clark v. Leigh, 324 Ga. 733 (2026).

Can a lawyer suggest a dollar figure for disfigurement?
Only within limits. Argument on the worth of noneconomic damages is allowed only after the close of evidence, at the party’s first opportunity to argue damages, and it must be rationally related to the evidence; counsel who opens and closes may not name a value in the concluding argument unless counsel did so in the opening argument, and may not name a different one (OCGA 9-10-184(b), (c)).

Do the 2025 argument rules apply to a case filed before April 21, 2025?
They can. Apart from Sections 6 and 7, the Act reaches causes of action already pending on its effective date, unless applying it to them would be unconstitutional (SB 68, Section 9(b)).

When are punitive damages available for a disfiguring injury?
Only where clear and convincing evidence shows that the defendant’s actions involved willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or an entire want of care raising a presumption of conscious indifference to consequences (OCGA 51-12-5.1(b)).

  • MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine), “Facial Injuries and Disorders”
  • OCGA 9-10-184(a)(1), (2), (b), (c); SB 68, 2025 Ga. Laws, Section 9(b) (applicability)
  • OCGA 51-12-6; OCGA 51-12-5.1(b)
  • Lee v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co., 272 Ga. 583 (2000)
  • OCGA 24-7-702(b)
  • OCGA 51-13-1; Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, 286 Ga. 731 (2010); Clark v. Leigh, 324 Ga. 733 (2026)

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about facial-injury and disfigurement claims under Georgia law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. What is recoverable depends on the specific injuries, the medical evidence, and the facts of the case. A person with a facial injury should consult a licensed Georgia attorney about the particular situation.

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