Georgia State Courts

Georgia Courts

The judicial, executive, and legislative branches of the Georgia state government work in tandem to oversee the state's affairs. The Georgia judicial branch comprises many courts that uphold the state's legislation and administer justice among state residents. Georgia's court system includes a district court in each judicial district, trial courts, and appellate courts. There are also federal courts within the state's jurisdiction, including federal appellate courts that hear appeals from the state Supreme Court.

Georgia has two appellate courts in the state, including the state Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals. These courts hear appeals within their jurisdictions. Specifically, the Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the state regarding Georgia’s constitution. In contrast, the Courts of Appeals hear appeals from the Trial Courts and exercise both appellate and certiorari jurisdiction over cases not reserved for the Georgia Supreme Court. Cases from the Courts of Appeals may sometimes be further reviewed in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has nine justices chosen in non-partisan elections. The Courts of Appeals has 15 members, serving in five divisions across Georgia.

Below Georgia’s Courts of Appeals are the Superior Courts, also known as the trial courts of general jurisdiction. Georgia Superior Courts have jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases. The courts are sectioned into ten Judicial Districts and 49 Judicial Circuits, with each county having its own Superior Court with varying numbers of judges, depending on the judicial circuits.

The lowest level of courts in Georgia are the five classes of trial courts with limited jurisdiction. They include Magistrate, Probate, Juvenile, State, and Municipal courts. The administrative office of each court is responsible for generating and maintaining Georgia court records which provide official accounts of each judicial proceeding.

What is the Georgia Supreme Court?

The Georgia Supreme Court is the highest court in the state’s unified judicial system, and as such, it has the final say in matters regarding the state’s constitutional law. The court has appellate jurisdiction over cases within its jurisdiction, including appellate cases that are outside the jurisdiction of the state’s Courts of Appeals. The Supreme Court superintends over the admission of attorneys to practice in Georgia.

The Georgia Office of Bar Admissions serves as the Administrative Office for the board to determine the fitness of bar applicants and the board of bar examiners. The Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over questions of constitutional matters, title to land, alimony, divorce, the validity of and construction of wills, habeas corpus, convictions of capital felonies, equity, and election contests.

In Georgia, Supreme Court operations are overseen by a Chief Justice and several supreme court justices, and appeals from the court are heard by a federal court or an equal arm within the federal judiciary. However, the State Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over federal cases or matters pertaining to federal law when they occur within its judicial district.

What are Georgia Courts of Appeals?

Georgia’s Courts of Appeals are the intermediate appellate courts in the state that review rulings from the trial courts in civil and criminal cases not under the state’s Supreme Court’s exclusive jurisdiction. It has jurisdiction to try criminal cases involving armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape, provided the lower court did not impose a death penalty. Other cases that the court has jurisdiction over include divorce and alimony cases, cases involving title to land, wills and equity cases (except those relating to trials where a sentence of death is involved), and cases involving extraordinary remedies.

Georgia has five judicial divisions with three judges, including a Chief Judge presiding over each division, making 15 judges in total, elected in a nonpartisan system election. The Chief Judge assigns the Court of Appeals judges to the respective divisions and distributes the cases among the divisions to balance the work as far as is practicable.

What are Georgia Superior Courts?

Superior Courts in Georgia are referred to as the courts of general jurisdiction. These courts hear civil and criminal cases such as civil law actions, misdemeanors, title to land, equity, felonies, and other cases. All Superior Courts in the state have Family Court divisions, with jurisdiction over divorce and family-related issues such as cases involving domestic violence, divorce, child abuse, legitimacy, child support, custody, and paternity.

What are Georgia Trial Courts?

At the base level of Georgia’s judicial system are the trial courts of limited jurisdiction, including the Magistrate, Probate, Juvenile, State, and Municipal Courts. These courts are majorly sponsored by county and city governments and preside over cases that arise within their geographical boundaries, such as traffic cases, civil disputes, small claims, certain misdemeanors, and minor infractions.

Georgia Magistrate Courts

The Georgia Magistrate Court is a small claims court. It is a trial court that presides over a restricted number of criminal and civil cases. It also performs specific functions, some of which include:

Hearing charges for the violation of county ordinances and the penal regulations of state authorities
Punishing contempt of court by imprisonment, not exceeding ten days or by a fine not exceeding $200, or both
Administering oaths which the law does not require to be administered by another officer
Hearing trials of civil claims where the value of the property does not exceed $15,000
Granting bail in all cases where the law does not exclusively dedicate the granting of bail to another court or officer
Handing out subpoenas to constrain witnesses to attend the Magistrate court
Conducting trials and sentence misdemeanor violations related to the issuance of bad checks
Issue subpoenas to enforce the production of documentary evidence in the Magistrate court

The Magistrate Court is a summary court; hence, it does not conduct elaborate proceedings. Instead, the trials are relatively brief.

Georgia Probate Court

The Probate Courts in Georgia were set up to facilitate the speedy resolution of disputes and prosecutions within the State. In accordance with Article VI of the Georgia Constitution, the Georgia Probate Court has exclusive jurisdiction over the following including:

Appointment of guardians
Involuntary hospitalizations
Administration of estates
Issuance of pistol licenses
Probate of wills
Marriage licenses

Furthermore, Article VI, Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA), provides that some State Probate Courts may perform some functions concurrent with the Superior Courts. Some of these functions include:

Approval of settlement agreement
Appointments of new trustees
Motions of DNA testing
Declaratory Judgement
Adjudication of petition

Georgia Juvenile Courts

In Georgia, the Juvenile Courts are the trial courts that preside over cases involving children below 18 years old, who are charged with delinquent acts, status offenses, and traffic offenses. Under the law, a delinquent act is an offense that is considered a crime if perpetrated by a person who is of legal age. In contrast, a status offense is an act that is not considered a crime if committed by an adult. Also, the state’s Juvenile Court may maintain jurisdiction over youths sentenced by the court as juveniles until they reach the age of 21. In a case where the youth commits another offense after turning 17, the case will be presided over by an adult court.

The Georgia Juvenile Court has exclusive original jurisdiction over cases involving children that:

Commit juvenile traffic offenses
Are alleged to be delinquent, unruly, underprivileged, or require treatment due to mental illness or retardation
Are put on probation or under the supervision of the court
Have remained in foster care even after reaching the age of 18 when the case relates to the child's foster care status
Obtained independent living services from the Department of Family and Children Services after reaching the age of 18 when the case is about the child's independent living plan
Require comprehensive services plans

The Juvenile Court also has jurisdiction over proceedings aimed at obtaining judicial consent for the child for employment, marriage, or enrollment in armed services if the law requires such consent. It also holds hearings for emancipation, for a qualified person to become a permanent guardian, to terminate a legal parent-child relationship or the rights of a child's biological father who is not the child's legal father under the law.

The Georgia State Courts were established as trial courts with limited jurisdiction in accordance with Article VI, Section 1 of the Georgia Constitution. The geographical jurisdiction does not exceed a specific county’s borders, and it only hears cases within the county where the State Court is located. Georgia State Courts’ handle family law matters, personal assaults, issues from contractual arrangements, offenses that result in fines or imprisonment of not exceeding 20 days, and cases of persons in possession of marijuana (one ounce or less)

Georgia Municipal Courts

The Georgia Municipal Court is a trial court with limited jurisdiction. The court hears cases relating to traffic infractions, certain criminal misdemeanor cases, and minor civil cases. It is authorized to preside over Municipal ordinance violations, handle preliminary hearings for specific criminal cases, conduct hearings for misdemeanors, issue criminal warrants, and adjudicate traffic infractions. The Superior Courts in Georgia handle appeals from Municipal Courts.

What are Appeals and Court Limits in Georgia?

An appeal involves reviewing a lower court’s rulings to ascertain the case’s eligibility for appeal and determine if any mistakes were made during the court’s proceedings. In appeal proceedings, parties are not allowed to give testimonies before the Court of Appeals or bring forth new evidence that was not earlier introduced in the trial court. The Court of Appeals presides over appeals based only on the trial court record, the parties’ briefs, the law, and, in some cases, the parties’ oral arguments. Appeals may be taken to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia from the judgments and rulings of the state’s superior courts, the constitutional city courts, and other lower courts.

The appeal procedure begins with the appealing party determining the type of appeal to file and which of the state’s appellate courts to file the appeal in (Georgia’s Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court). There are three types of appeals in Georgia: direct appeals, discretionary applications appeals, and interlocutory applications appeals.

Direct Appeals in Georgia

In a Direct Appeal, the party must first file the notice of appeal with the trial court clerk that made the order being appealed. The notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days (or seven days in a dispossessory action) from the date when the trial court rendered its order. OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) specifies directly appealable rulings, some of which include:

Hearing in a criminal case involving a capital offense for which death penalty is sought;
Appeals involving non-monetary judgments in child custody cases;
All final judgments, where the case is no longer pending, except as provided in Code Section 5-6-35;
All rulings or orders directing that an accounting be had;
All rulings involving applications for discharge in contempt and bail trover cases;
All orders or judgments permitting or denying applications for receivers or interlocutory or final injunctions;
All judgments or orders granting or denying applications for attachments against fraudulent debtors

Appellants must specify in the notice of appeal the parts of the trial court records that should be omitted from the copies that the trial court will serve the Court of Appeals before the trial court clerk sends them. Appellants must also specify whether any transcripts should be included and pay fees to trial courts before the appeals are transmitted.

The Court of Appeals Clerk’s Office sends a docketing notice to the appellant(s) and appellee(s) after receiving all of the designated documents from the trial court and giving the appeal case a case number. The case is then assigned to a panel of three judges. The appellant is mandated to file a brief within 40 days of the docketing date or 20 days of the Appellant’s brief filing date. The appellant may also request an extension of time to file the brief.

Discretionary and Interlocutory Applications in Georgia

A discretionary application is accepted only if a reversible error appears to exist, or the Court wants to establish a precedent for this case. On the other hand, an interlocutory application is granted only if:

The matter to be decided is likely to end the case.
The order to be considered on appeal appears incorrect and will possibly cause a significant error at trial.
The order will negatively affect the appealing party’s rights up to the entry of final judgment, in which case the appeal will be expedited, or the Court wants to establish a precedent for this kind of case.

Applicants are mandated to file a notice of appeal within ten days of the Court accepting the application. However, if the Court disapproves the application, the applicant may file a motion to petition the Georgia Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari within ten days.

Refer to the Citizen’s Guide to Filing Appeals in the Court of Appeals of Georgia for more information on the appellate procedure in Georgia.

How Do I Find My Case Number in Georgia?

Case numbers are uniquely assigned sets of numbers allocated to individual court cases to easily search and access case information. A more specific search result is provided with a case number search as opposed to when searching for court records with a party’s name. The search results presented in a name search are usually lengthy as the search portal shuffles and presents the case information of persons with similar names.

To obtain the case number, conduct an online name search with the record’s subject’s full name. On the E-Access Court Records portal, requesters can access court records online by clicking on their specific courts and following the directives available. Interested persons can also visit the courthouses where cases were filed to find their case numbers.

Does Georgia Hold Remote Trials?

Georgia courts hold remote trials using a special program, with lawsuits and other mandatory documents presented electronically. These remote trials are an initiative to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice, Harold Melton, issued an order to suspend non-essential court functions, extending the statewide judicial emergency to hold remote trials. Contact your local court to confirm whether they hold remote trials and the necessary procedure.