O.C.G.A. § 15-7-83 (2019)
Judges, officers, pleadings, process, and papers of municipal court; separate dockets and records
When acting as officers of the municipal court all judges and other officers of the state court shall be styled as judges and officers of the municipal court; and all pleadings, process, and papers of the municipal court shall be styled as such and not as pleadings, process, and papers of the state court. The dockets and other records of the municipal court shall be kept separately from those of the state court.
History
Code 1981, § 15-7-83, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 1161, § 1.
Annotations
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Lack of evidence that a state court was in compliance with O.C.G.A. § 15-7-83 required a finding that the court was acting as a state court and not a municipal court in the handling of city code misdemeanor prosecution and, accordingly, the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction of a direct appeal from the court’s decision. Poole v. State, 229 Ga. App. 406, 494 S.E.2d 251 (1997). Failure to introduce municipal ordinance. - Even though a state court
judge had authority to sit as a municipal court judge pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 15-7-80, but was not, in fact, sitting as a municipal judge in the prosecution of a municipal ordinance violation, the state court judge could not exercise concurrent jurisdiction and authority as a municipal judge, and the prosecutor’s failure to introduce the ordinance rendered the evidence insufficient as a matter of law to warrant a conviction. Reed v. State, 229 Ga. App. 817, 495 S.E.2d 313 (1998).