Georgia

Session Laws

Code of Statutes

Register

Administrative Code

Appeals Court Opinions

Supreme Court Opinions

Publications Title Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia Official Code of Georgia Georgia Register Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia Opinions Opinions

Official Status

(Notes)

No No Yes, if it existed No No No
The online session laws are split between two platforms: Georgia Legislative Documents covers 1799-1999, while Georgia Government Publications covers 2000 – present. OCGA 1-1-1 provides “The statutory portion of the codification of Georgia laws prepared by the Code Revision Commission and the Michie Company pursuant to a contract entered into on June 19, 1978, is enacted and shall have the effect of statutes enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia. The statutory portion of such codification shall be merged with annotations, captions, catchlines, history lines, editorial notes, cross-references, indices, title and chapter analyses, and other materials pursuant to the contract and shall be published by authority of the state pursuant to such contract and when so published shall be known and may be cited as the “Official Code of Georgia Annotated.”
OCGA 28-9-5 covers publication of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.
Neither code section references an online or electronic version.
O.C.G.A. 50-25-6 requires the Georgia Technology Authority to “electronically publish or cause to be published a publication entitled the Georgia Register which shall include information made available by the agencies through electronic media related to” and then lists proposed regulations, adopted regulations, etc. This site does not exist, and repeated communications with the GTA regarding the Georgia Register and OCGA 50-25-6 have gone unanswered. “THIS WEBSITE AND ITS CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS." THE STATE OF GEORGIA AND LAWRITER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT AND ARE NOT LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY ERRORS IN INACCURACIES CONTAINED IN THIS WEBSITE.” From the court’s site: “The opinions of the Court of Appeals of Georgia are published in the official advance sheets and in bound volumes of the Georgia Appellate Reports.” DISCLAIMER: These opinions are subject to the parties’ motion for reconsideration, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial changes made by the Reporter of Decisions. An opinion designated as “Final Copy” is the Supreme Court’s official opinion as published in the advance sheets.”

Authentication

(Notes)

No No No No No No

Online Preservation

(Notes)

No No No No No No
OCGA 20-5-2 requires state agencies to provide copies of “public documents,” including electronic documents, to the University of Georgia Libraries. This code section specifically exempts the legislature. The Libraries has added the session laws to its Georgia Government Publications platform, but it is not required by law. OCGA 20-5-2 requires state agencies to provide copies of “public documents,” including electronic documents, to the University of Georgia Libraries. “Public documents” are defined as “books, magazines, journals, pamphlets, reports, bulletins, and other publications of any agency, department, board, bureau, commission, or other institution of the executive branch of state government.” OCGA 20-5-2 requires state agencies to provide copies of “public documents,” including electronic documents, to the University of Georgia Libraries. This code section specifically exempts the courts. OCGA 20-5-2 requires state agencies to provide copies of “public documents,” including electronic documents, to the University of Georgia Libraries. This code section specifically exempts the courts.

Permanent Public Access

(Notes)

No No No No No No

Copyright Claimed

(Notes)

No Yes No No No No
A click-through agreement on the Lexis page: “Your use of this service is subject to Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions do not apply to the Statutory Text and Numbering contained in the Content of the site. However, the State of Georgia reserves the right to claim and defend the copyright in any copyrightable portions of the site. Please indicate your agreement to the Terms and Conditions by clicking "I Agree" below.” The state claims copyright in the print version.
The state sued Carl Malamud after he posted the Georgia Code, with annotations, on the web. He lost.
A click-through agreement (requiring entering name of user and completion of an addition problem): “To access this website, you must agree to the following: These terms of use are a contract between you and/or your employer (if any), and Lawriter, LLC. You agree that you will not copy, print, or download anything from this website for any commercial use. You agree not to use any web crawler, scraper, or other robot or automated program or device to obtain data from the website. You agree that you will not sell, will not license, and will not otherwise make available in exchange for anything of value, anything that you download, print, or copy from this site. You agree that you will not copy, print, or download any portion of the regulations posted on this site exceeding a single chapter of regulations for sale, license, or other transfer to a third party, except that you may quote a reasonable portion of the regulations in the course of rendering professional advice. If you violate this agreement, or if you access or use this website in violation of this agreement, you agree that Lawriter will suffer damages of at least $20,000.” The online version includes no copyright statement, but for the print version, O.C.G.A. 50-18-34 states that “[t]he reports shall be copyrighted and the copyright shall belong to the state.” The online version includes no copyright statement, but for the print version, O.C.G.A. 50-18-34 states that “[t]he reports shall be copyrighted and the copyright shall belong to the state.”
UELMA Adopted No
Universal Citation Adopted No. Pursuant to Georgia Supreme Court Rule 22, “Georgia citations must include the volume and page number of the official Georgia reporters (Harrison, Darby or Lexis).”


More Information

Updates by Anne E. Burnett
Last updated 11/1/2017