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

O.C.G.A. § 9-15-9 (2019)

Costs when recovery on contract is less than $50.00

✓ 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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When any action ex contractu is brought in the superior or state court and the verdict of the jury, unreduced by setoff or payment pending the action, is for a sum under $50.00, the defendant shall not be charged with more costs than would have necessarily accrued if the case had been heard before a magistrate. The remainder of the court costs shall be paid by the plaintiff and may be retained out of the sum recovered by the plaintiff and, if that is insufficient, judgment shall be entered by the court against the plaintiff for the balance.

History

(Laws 1809, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 505; Code 1863, § 3604; Code 1868, § 3628; Code 1873, § 3678; Code 1882, § 3678; Civil Code 1895, § 5388; Civil Code 1910, § 5983; Code 1933, § 24-3404; Ga. L. 1983, p. 884, § 4-1.)

Annotations

Cross references. - For further provisions regarding recovery of expenses of

litigation in § 13-6-11.

contract

actions,

see

JUDICIAL DECISIONS This section does not apply to torts. Lea v. Harris, 88 Ga. 236, 14 S.E. 566 (1891). Cited in Robinson v. Towns, 30 Ga. 818 (1860); Officers of Court v. Hines & Hobbs,

33 Ga. 516 (1863); Smith v. Shaffer & Ham, 65 Ga. 459 (1880); Graham v. City of Baxley, 117 Ga. 42, 43 S.E. 405 (1903); Parker v. Rexall Drug Co., 132 Ga. App. 32, 207 S.E.2d 617 (1974).

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case (1 in the last 5 years), 2025–2025 · leading case: Walmart Stores East, Lp v. Leverette, 917 S.E.2d 702 (Ga. 2025).
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Walmart Stores East, Lp v. Leverette, 917 S.E.2d 702 (Ga. 2025). · cites it 8× “One of those statutes, OCGA § 9-15-9, limits costs charged to the defendant to the costs that “would have necessarily accrued if the case had been heard be- fore a magistrate” if the jury awards “a sum under $50.”
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.