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

O.C.G.A. § 50-13-6 (2019)

Rules not effective until 20 days after filed with Secretary of State; maintenance of record of the rules; exceptions; rules governing manner and form of filing

✓ 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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(a) Each rule adopted after July 1, 1965, shall not become effective until the expiration of 20 days after the rule is filed in the office of the Secretary of State. Each rule so filed shall contain a citation of the authority pursuant to which it was adopted and, if an amendment, shall clearly identify the original rule. (b) The Secretary of State shall endorse on each rule thus filed the time and date of filing and shall maintain a record of the rules for public inspection. (c) The 20 day filing period is subject to the following exceptions: (1) Where a statute or the terms of the rule require a date which is later than the 20 day period, then the later date is the effective date; and (2) Any emergency rule adopted pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 50-13-4 may become effective immediately upon adoption or within a period of less than 20 days. The emergency rule, with a copy of the finding as required by subsection (b) of Code Section 50-13-4, shall be filed with the office of the Secretary of State within four working days after its adoption. (d) The Secretary of State shall prescribe rules governing the manner and form in which regulations shall be prepared for filing. The Secretary may refuse to accept for filing any rule that does not conform to such requirements.

History

Ga. L. 1964, p. 338, § 6; Ga. L. 1979, p. 1014, § 2; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 50; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1619, § 4.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Unfiled and unpublished policy manual not entitled to judicial notice. - Policy manual upon which a state agency relies, if never filed with or published by the Secretary of State pursuant to O.C.G.A. §§ 50-13-6 and 50-13-7, is not entitled to judicial notice, even if the manual’s publication is not statutorily required. Commissioner, Dep’t of Human Resources v. Haggard, 173 Ga. App. 676, 327 S.E.2d 798 (1985). Appellate court, on remand from the Supreme Court of Georgia, was unable to

take judicial notice of the Public Service Commission’s transportation rules as those rules had not been filed with the Secretary of State, so the rules had not become effective under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act (APA), O.C.G.A. § 50-13-1 et seq., and were not part of the record; since the state was unable to alert the appellate court to any rule or regulation which served as a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant, the original decision, that a warrantless search of the defendant’s com-

mercial truck was improper, stood. Ponce v. State, 279 Ga. App. 207, 630 S.E.2d 840 (2006). Cited in Cullers v. Home Credit Co.,

130 Ga. App. 441, 203 S.E.2d 544 (1973); Outdoor Adv. Ass’n v. DOT, 186 Ga. App. 550, 367 S.E.2d 827 (1988).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Rules must be properly adopted to be valid. - Any rule, regulation, resolution, etc., by whatever name called, which falls under the definition of a ‘‘rule,’’ as defined by Ga. L. 1965, p. 283, §§ 2-4 (see O.C.G.A. § 50-13-2), must be adopted pursuant to the procedure for adoption of rules, i.e., Ga. L. 1965, p. 283, §§ 6, 7 and 8 and Ga. L. 1964, p. 338, § 6 (see O.C.G.A. §§ 50-13-4 through 50-13-7), if it is to be valid against any person or party. Op. Att’y Gen. No. 71-158. Decision not to file and withdrawal

of rules. - While the language of the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, Ga. L. 1968, p. 338 § 1 et seq. (see O.C.G.A. T. 50, C. 13) is geared to the initial filing of a rule, there is no difference in principle between an initial decision not to file and a subsequent decision to withdraw that which has already been filed; in the context of the purposes for which that chapter was adopted, the statutory requirements and the statutory penalties, both situations would seem to be the same. 1971 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 71-58.

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 2 Am. Jur. 2d, Administrative Law, § 205. C.J.S. - 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Law and Procedure, § 204.

U.L.A. - Model State Administrative Procedure Act (U.L.A.) § 3-101 et seq.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1985–2025 · leading case: Ponce v. State, 630 S.E.2d 840 (Ga. Ct. App. 2006).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Ponce v. State, 630 S.E.2d 840 (Ga. Ct. App. 2006). · cites it 4× “11 OCGA§ 50-13-6 (a), (b). 12 OCGA § 50-13-7 (a).”
Outdoor Advert. Ass'n of Georgia, Inc. v. Dep't of Transp., 367 S.E.2d 827 (Ga. Ct. App. 1988). · cites it 2× “See OCGA § 50-13-6 (a). The copies were accompanied by the certification of appellee’s commissioner that the attached rules were true and correct copies of the DOT rules “as promulgated and adopted on the 4th day of December, 1986.”
Owens v. Georgia Underwriting Ass'n, 476 S.E.2d 810 (Ga. Ct. App. 1996). · cites it 2× “OCGA § 50-13-6. The Secretary of State shall publish such compilation of rules and regulation for public use.”
Comm'r, Dep't of Human Resources v. Haggard, 327 S.E.2d 798 (Ga. Ct. App. 1985). · cites it 2× “Certain eligibility requirements promulgated by the State are apparently specified in the Manual of Policies upon which the agency relied in assessing appellee’s application for benefits.”
Uber Tech., Inc. v. Frank M. O'connell, in His Off. Capacity as Revenue Comm'r of the State of Georgia (Ga. Ct. App. 2025). · cites it 2× “Complying with OCGA § 50-13-6 (a),3 the regulation lists the following “citation of the authority pursuant to which it was adopted”: Ga.”
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.