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Call Now: 904-383-7448On the effective date of this article:
(1) Superior courts shall continue as superior courts.
(2) State courts shall continue as state courts.
(3) Probate courts shall continue as probate courts.
(4) Juvenile courts shall continue as juvenile courts.
(5) Municipal courts not otherwise named herein, of whatever name, shall continue as and be denominated municipal courts, except that the City Court of Atlanta shall retain its name. Such municipal courts, county recorder's courts, the Civil Courts of Richmond and Bibb counties, and administrative agencies having quasi-judicial powers shall continue with the same jurisdiction as such courts and agencies have on the effective date of this article until otherwise provided by law.
(6) Justice of the peace courts, small claims courts, and magistrate courts operating on the effective date of this Constitution and the County Court of Echols County shall become and be classified as magistrate courts. The County Court of Baldwin County and the County Court of Putnam County shall become and be classified as state courts, with the same jurisdiction and powers as other state courts.
- Art. VI, Sec. IV, Para. XI; Art. VI, Sec. VII, Para. I.
- Effective date of Constitution, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. XI, Sec. I, Para. VI.
State courts, § 15-7-1 et seq.
Magistrate courts, § 15-10-1 et seq.
Establishment of municipal courts and change of name of existing courts with municipal jurisdiction, § 36-32-1.
- For annual survey article, "'Garbage In, Garbage Out': The Litigation Implosion Over the Unconstitutional Organization and Jurisdiction of the City Court of Atlanta," see 52 Mercer L. Rev. 49 (2000).
This paragraph effectively extinguishes small claims courts throughout the state, vesting their jurisdiction instead in magistrate courts. Porter v. Calhoun County Bd. of Comm'rs, 252 Ga. 446, 314 S.E.2d 649 (1984) (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. X, Para. I).
- Under the 1983 Georgia Constitution, the recorder's courts continue to possess limited jurisdiction over state misdemeanor traffic offenses until otherwise provided by law. Wojcik v. State, 260 Ga. 260, 392 S.E.2d 525 (1990).
- Trial of defendant in the Atlanta Traffic Court, a City court which sits in the Fulton County portion of Atlanta, was improper where the state proved that the alleged offense took place in the city of Atlanta but did not offer any proof that it occurred in Fulton County; defendant is entitled to be tried in the county in which the offense was alleged to have occurred. Waller v. State, 231 Ga. App. 323, 498 S.E.2d 362 (1998).
Cited in Smith v. Greene, 274 Ga. 815, 559 S.E.2d 726 (2002).
Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. X, Para. I does not expand the jurisdiction of recorder's courts, but rather continues their previous jurisdiction. 1983 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U83-41.
Recorder's courts do not have the authority to try offenses under former § 33-34-10(f) or33-34-12(a) (see now O.C.G.A. § 40-5-70). 1983 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U83-41.