O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 45-15-10 (2019)

Attorney General authorized to prosecute for violations while dealing with or for state; assistance by state court prosecuting officers; commencement of civil forfeiture proceedings

✓ 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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The Attorney General, as the head of the Department of Law and the chief legal officer of the state, is authorized to prosecute in the criminal courts of this state any official, person, firm, or corporation which violates any criminal statute while dealing with or for the state or any official, employee, department, agency, board, bureau, commission, institution, or appointee thereof; and the Attorney General is authorized to call upon the district attorney or the prosecuting officer of any state court to assist in or to conduct such prosecution; and, when so requested by the Attorney General, it shall be the duty of any such district attorney or prosecuting officer of this state to assist in or to conduct such prosecution for and on behalf of the Attorney General and the state. The Attorney General shall be authorized to commence civil forfeiture proceedings, as such term is defined in Code Section 9-16-2, pursuant to Code Section 16-14-7 whenever he or she is authorized to prosecute a case pursuant to this Code section.

History

(Ga. L. 1943, p. 284, § 6; Ga. L. 2002, p. 415, § 45; Ga. L. 2015, p. 693, § 3-26/HB 233.)

Annotations

Editor’s notes. - Ga. L. 2015, p. 693, § 4-1/HB 233, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: ‘‘This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2015, and shall

apply to seizures of property for forfeiture that occur on or after that date. Any such seizure that occurs before July 1, 2015, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such seizure.’’ Law reviews. - For article on the 2015 amendment of this Code section, see 32 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 1 (2015).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS No conflict between giving legal advice and prosecuting. - There is no conflict between the Attorney General’s giving legal advice to officers or employees of the Department of Labor and prosecut-

ing department officers or employees who violate the laws. Such a dual role is authorized. Brown v. State, 177 Ga. App. 284, 339 S.E.2d 332 (1985).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Cooperation in prosecution of certain persons. - The language in this section which empowers the Attorney General to prosecute in the criminal courts of this state any officer, person, firm, or corporation for violation of any criminal statute in dealing with or for the state, clearly indicates that the Attorney

General should, when requested to do so by one of the department heads of this state, cooperate in the prosecution of persons who are violating a criminal statute in dealing with, or refusing to deal with one of the departments of state. 1945-47 Op. Att’y Gen. p. 564.

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 7 Am. Jur. 2d, Attorney General, §§ 15, 21, 28 et seq., 34 et seq.

C.J.S. - 7A C.J.S., Attorney General, §§ 37-39.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 4 cases, 1985–2017 · leading case: Perdue v. Baker, 586 S.E.2d 606 (Ga. 2003).

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Perdue v. Baker, 586 S.E.2d 606 (Ga. 2003). · cites it 4× “[46] OCGA § 45-15-10. [47] OCGA § 45-15-3(6). [48] OCGA § 45-15-12.”

Brown v. State, 339 S.E.2d 332 (Ga. Ct. App. 1985). · cites it 6× “Appellant contends that Almand acted without authorization or permission of the District Attorney of Fulton County, and that the indictment was fatally defective because the district attorney did not sign it.”

Bowers v. Shelton, 453 S.E.2d 741 (Ga. 1995). · cites it 2× “1 This was done pursuant to the authority of OCGA §§ 45-15-10 and 45-15-17. 2 In compliance with the plea, Mr.”

Courtney v. the State, 797 S.E.2d 496 (Ga. Ct. App. 2017). · cites it 2× “OCGA §§ 45-15-10 and 45-15-70, which grant the Attorney General authority to prosecute and investigate matters involving State affairs, do not apply to this case, which involves an alleged violation of OCGA § 16-12-100 (b) and a subpoena issued by an assistant district attorney,…”

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.