09 LC 29
3735S
House
Bill 235 (COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE)
By:
Representatives Powell of the
171st
and Lindsey of the
54th
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Article 2 of Chapter 18 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia
Annotated, relating to court reports, so as to remove the requirement of
publishing a volume of rules from the definition of reports; to provide for the
maintenance of a rules compilation; to provide for related matters; to provide
an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other
purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Article
2 of Chapter 18 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to court reports, is amended by revising Code Section 50-18-20, relating to
definitions pertaining to court reports, as follows:
"50-18-20.
As
used in this article, the term:
(1)
'Publisher' means the state publisher of court reports who has been awarded the
contract as defined in this article.
(2)
'Reporter' means the reporter of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals whose
duties are set forth in Chapter 4 of Title 15.
(3)
'Reports' means the official reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court or of
the Court of Appeals, together with the usual title pages, indexes, etc., as
well as the advance reports of the decisions of each
court.
and a
volume
(4)
'Rules compilation' means a compilation of
rules applicable in the courts of this state. The rules
volume
compilation
shall include the Rules of the Supreme Court, the Rules of the Court of Appeals,
the Unified Appeal, the Uniform Transfer Rules, the Uniform Rules for the
various classes of courts, the Rules of the Judicial Qualifications Commission,
the Code of Judicial Conduct, the Bar Admissions Rules, the Rules for Sentence
Review Panel, the Rules and Regulations for the Organization and Government of
the State Bar of Georgia, and any other rules or amendments as promulgated by
the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals, together with all applicable
forms,
title pages, indexes, etc. The rules volume shall consist of a post binder which
will be updated
periodically."
SECTION
2.
Said
article is further amended by revising Code Section 50-18-26, relating to the
content and appearance of reports and number of volumes per year, as
follows:
"50-18-26.
(a)
The reports shall contain the decisions rendered in all cases presented to the
Supreme Court of Georgia and to the Court of Appeals of
Georgia, an
index of all cases reported, the rules and forms described in paragraph (3) of
Code Section 50-18-20, and an index of all
cases reported
and all
rules reported. No report shall contain
any argument or brief of counsel beyond a statement of the major points and
authorities.
(b)
The reporter has the duty to ascertain that the
reports,
with the exception of the rules volume,
are uniform in size and appearance. Whenever it becomes necessary, due to a
variance in the number of decisions rendered, the reporter, in order to maintain
the desired uniformity, may provide for the production of more than one volume
from either court in any one year or may consolidate decisions of either court
from two different years into one volume, but in no case shall the decisions of
the Supreme Court be combined in one volume with the decisions of the Court of
Appeals."
SECTION
3.
Said
article is further amended by revising subsection (a) of Code Section 50-18-27,
relating to the responsibilities of the reporter, as follows:
"(a)
The reporter shall furnish to the publisher the manuscript of the decisions,
rules, and
forms, read the proof and correct the
same, and furnish for each volume an index of the cases
reported."
SECTION
4.
Said
article is further amended by adding a new Code section to read as
follows:
"50-18-37.
The
reporter shall publish a rules compilation in electronic format that is made
accessible to the public through the Internet or other suitable electronic
methods and shall update the rules compilation as
necessary."
SECTION
5.
This
Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or upon its
becoming law without such approval.
SECTION
6.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.