ATLANTA (March 4, 2019) | Wednesday, Senate Bill 29 sponsored by Sen. Harold Jones (D –Augusta), passed with favorable consideration from the Senate Special Judiciary Committee. This bill would clarify that sheriffs, sheriff’s deputies and other individual sheriff’s office employees have sovereign immunity in motor vehicle claims.
“Current law does not account for the fact that individual sheriff’s office employees can be sued in motor vehicle incidents while in their official governmental capacity,” said Sen. Jones. “Senate Bill 29 would close this loophole and allow individual sheriff’s deputies to do their job without worry of being sued as an individual, should a car accident occur while they are performing their duties. I was happy to see this bill pass through the Special Judiciary Committee, and I hope to see a vote on the Senate Floor very soon.”
Senate Bill 29 would include sheriffs, sheriff’s deputies and other sheriff’s office employees in the definition of “local government office employee” when it comes to their waiver of sovereign immunity in motor vehicle claims. The bill also defines a “local government entity” as a “county, sheriff’s office, municipal corporation or consolidated city-government of this state.”
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For Immediate Release:
March 4, 2019
Andrew Allison, Broadcast Specialist
andrew.allison@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028