O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 10-1-852 (2019)

Factors for determining imposition and amount of civil penalty

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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In determining whether to impose a civil penalty under Code Section 10-1-851 and the amount thereof, the court shall consider the extent to which one or more of the following factors are present:

(1) Whether the defendant’s conduct was in disregard of the rights of the elder or disabled persons;

(2) Whether the defendant knew or should have known that the defendant’s conduct was directed to an elder person or disabled person;

(3) Whether the elder or disabled person was more vulnerable to the defendant’s conduct because of age, poor health, infirmity, impaired understanding, restricted mobility, or disability than other persons and whether the elder or disabled person actually suffered substantial physical, emotional, or economic damage resulting from the defendant’s conduct;

(4) Whether the defendant’s conduct caused an elder or disabled person to suffer any of the following:

(A) Mental or emotional anguish;

(B) Loss of or encumbrance upon a primary residence of the elder or disabled person;

(C) Loss of or encumbrance upon the elder or disabled person’s principal employment or principal source of income;

(D) Loss of funds received under a pension or retirement plan or a government benefits program;

(E) Loss of property set aside for retirement or for personal or family care and maintenance; or

(F) Loss of assets essential to the health and welfare of the elder or disabled person; or

(5) Any other factors the court deems appropriate.

History

Code 1981, § 10-1-852, enacted by Ga.

L. 1993, p. 1092, § 2; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1088, § 10/SB 148.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Complaint only need allege one elderly victim. - In an action in which the plaintiff consumer filed a complaint under the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act (FBPA), O.C.G.A. § 10-1-390 et seq., and the Georgia Unfair or Deceptive Practices Toward the Elderly Act, O.C.G.A. § 10-1-850 et seq., and the lender argued for dismissal because the language of O.C.G.A. § 10-1-851 required conduct directed at more than one elderly

person, the argument was rejected; consistent with O.C.G.A. § 1-3-1(d)(6), and the use of plurals or the singular form in O.C.G.A. §§ 10-1-850, 10-1-852, and 10-1-853, O.C.G.A. § 10-1-851 required only a showing that FBPA was violated against one elderly person. Kitchen v. Ameriquest Mortg. Co., No. 1:04-CV-2750-BBM, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43937 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 29, 2005).

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case (1 in the last 5 years), 2025–2025 · leading case: Ledford v. Ebarle Mktg. Servs. Inc. (M.D. Ga. 2025).
Ledford v. Ebarle Mktg. Servs. Inc. (M.D. Ga. 2025). · cites it 2× “O.C.G.A. § 10-1-852. American Solar Tec violated the GFBPA and the UDPTEA by signing a purchase and financing contract in Mr.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.