O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 43-50-45 (2019)

Unlawful acts; penalties; injunctions

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
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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(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to practice veterinary medicine without a valid license or for any person to use the designation veterinarian, licensed veterinarian, or any other designation indicating licensure status, including abbreviations, or hold themselves out as a veterinarian unless duly licensed as such.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to use the designation licensed veterinary technician, licensed veterinary technologist, or any other designation indicating licensure status, including abbreviations, or hold themselves out as a licensed veterinary technician or licensed veterinary technologist unless duly licensed as such.

(c) Any person who violates subsection (a) or (b) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in this Code section, provided that each act of an unlawful practice shall constitute a distinct and separate offense.

(d) Upon being convicted a first time under this Code section, such person shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500.00 for each offense. Upon being convicted a second or subsequent time under this Code section, such person shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 for each offense, imprisonment for not more than 12 months, or both such fine and imprisonment.

(e) The board or any citizen of this state may bring an action to enjoin any person from practicing veterinary medicine without a valid license. If a court finds that the person is violating, or is threatening to violate, this article, it shall enter an injunction restraining him or her from such unlawful acts.

(f ) The successful maintenance of an action based on any one of the remedies set forth in this Code section shall in no way prejudice the prosecution of an action based on any other of the remedies.

VETS/VETERINARY TECHS.

History

Code 1933, § 84-1512, enacted by Ga. L. 1965, p. 92, § 1; Code 1981, § 43-50-33; Code 1981, § 43-50-45,

as redesignated by Ga. L. 2003, p. 615, § 1-1; Ga. L. 2018, p. 770, § 3/HB 956.

Annotations

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "Any person who practices veterinary medicine without a valid license in violation of this article shall be guilty of the misdemeanor offense of practicing veterinary medicine without a license and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in this Code section, provided that each act of such unlawful practice shall constitute a distinct and separate offense."; added subsections (b) and (c); redesignated former subsections (b) and (c) as present subsections (d) and (e), respectively; substituted "If a court" for "If the court" near the beginning of the second sentence of subsection (e); and redesignated former subsection (d) as present subsection (f).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR. - Injunction as available remedy against prosecution or arrest for conducting business or practicing profession without a license, 167 A.L.R. 915.

Practicing medicine, surgery, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, or other healing arts without license as a separate or continuing offense, 99 A.L.R.2d 654.

Recovery back of money paid to unlicensed person required by law to have occupational or business license or permit to make contract, 74 A.L.R.3d 637.

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PART 3 VETERINARY TECHNICIANS

Editor's notes. - Ga. L. 2003, p. 615, § 1-1, effective July 1, 2003, redesignated the Code sections formerly codified as Article 3 as present Part 3 of Article 3 consisting of Code Sections 43-50-50 through 43-50-56.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2018–2022 · leading case: Coates v. State, 818 S.E.2d 622 (Ga. 2018).
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Coates v. State, 818 S.E.2d 622 (Ga. 2018). · cites it 2× “"); OCGA § 43-50-45 (c) ("[E]ach act of an unlawful practice shall constitute a distinct and separate offense.”
Akeem Scott v. State, No. A18A0751 (Ga. Ct. App. July 13, 2020). · cites it 2× “”); OCGA § 43-50-45 (c) (“[E]ach act of an unlawful practice shall constitute a distinct and separate offense.”
David Anthony Carr v. State, 870 S.E.2d 531 (Ga. Ct. App. 2022). · cites it 2× “”48 Indeed, our Supreme Court has made clear that “a criminal statute must be construed strictly against the State, and if reasonable minds disagreed as to whether the statute is, in fact, ambiguous, the rule of lenity .”
Coates v. State, 304 Ga. 329 (2018). · cites it 2× “”); OCGA § 43-50-45 (c) (“[E]ach act of an unlawful practice shall constitute a distinct and separate offense.”
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.