Legal Question in Personal Injury in Georgia

You can sue for as much as you want. Whether, and how, you get paid is a different question.

The overwhelming majority of cases are settled within the policy limits. Basically, if the insurance company offers policy limits, you (and your lawyer) get paid. If you decline policy and seek more, you will have to get a judgment which means the time and expense of trial. Then, if you get an judgment for policy limits or more, the insurance company MAY pay you the policy limits and let you try and collect the rest from its insured. OR, the insurance company may post a bond and file an appeal and then you can't get its money until you win the appeal.

It is theoretically possible that the insured defendant will realize that he has inadequate insurance and in order to avoid a larger personal liability will offer to throw some of his own money into a settlement pot. I recently got such a result for my client in a horrible boating accident case. However, this kind of settlement for policy limits plus a contribution from the Defendant personally is extremely rare. It happens in less than one in a thousand cases.