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House · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 158: Commerce and trade; filing of registration statements with the office of the Secretary of State; provide

Last action March 25, 2026 · Senate Read Second Time

House Bill 158 would create a statewide electronic registry for Georgia businesses that operate under a trade name, replacing the current county-by-county paper filing system starting January 1, 2027.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia law requires businesses operating under a trade name that doesn't show the owner's identity (often called a "doing business as" or DBA name) to file a registration statement with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the business operates. This bill updates that system by requiring the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority to build a uniform, statewide electronic database of these filings by January 1, 2027. The bill requires registration statements to be notarized and filed electronically using standardized forms created by the Authority, rather than the current paper-based process. It adds a reregistration option for businesses already on file before 2027 so they can be included in the new statewide registry without losing their original filing date. It also adds a formal cancellation process for businesses that stop operating under a trade name, and sets a single combined fee for registration, amendment, reregistration, or cancellation, replacing separate fees currently charged under other code sections. The changes take effect January 1, 2027.

What the bill does

  • Requires the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority to build a uniform statewide electronic registry for trade name filings by January 1, 2027.
  • Requires trade name registration statements to be notarized and filed electronically using standard forms created by the Authority, instead of paper filings.
  • Creates a formal reregistration process so pre-2027 filings can be added to the new statewide registry without losing their original filing date.
  • Adds a cancellation process letting businesses formally end a trade name registration once they stop operating under it.
  • Sets a single combined filing fee for registration, amendment, reregistration, or cancellation, replacing certain existing clerk fees.
  • Requires county superior court clerks to transmit trade name filings and supporting documents electronically to the Authority for inclusion in the registry.

Who it affects

Georgia businesses, partnerships, and individuals operating under a trade name that doesn't show the owner's identity, county superior court clerks who process these filings, and the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, which must build and run the new statewide registry.

Why it matters

Business owners would file trade name paperwork electronically and pay one combined fee instead of navigating separate county paper filings and fees. The public, including creditors and consumers, would gain a single searchable statewide database to look up who actually owns a business operating under a trade name.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 10-1-490 to require, starting January 1, 2027, that new trade name registrations be filed electronically, notarized, and made on forms created by the Authority.
  • Section 1 adds subsection (b) allowing pre-2027 registrations not yet in the statewide registry to be reregistered without losing their original filing date.
  • Section 1 adds subsection (c) setting a single combined fee under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(g)(10) for registration, amendment, reregistration, or cancellation, and exempting these filings from fees under O.C.G.A. §§ 15-21A-6 and 15-21A-6.1.
  • Section 1 adds subsection (e) creating a formal cancellation process using Authority-created affidavit forms for businesses that stop using a registered trade name.
  • Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 15-6-61 to require county clerks to participate in the Authority's electronic information system and transmit filing data to it.
  • Section 3 creates new O.C.G.A. § 15-6-97.4, requiring the Authority to build the statewide trade name registry by January 1, 2027 and to create standard forms and rules for it.
  • Section 4 sets the Act's effective date as January 1, 2027.

From the bill

“By January 1, 2027, the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority shall develop and implement a uniform automated information system for trade, partnership, and other names registered with the clerks of superior court of this state”

This is the bill's core requirement creating the new statewide trade name registry.

Discussed in meetings (10)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee, February 23, 2026

    From 0:03:36 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 158 would create a statewide database of trade names and businesses operating under other names, using the existing Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority. The sponsor explained that those records currently are filed county by county, making statewide searches difficult. Local filing procedures and fees would remain unchanged, but clerks would electronically transfer records to the authority. The sponsor said businesses also could request cancellation of registrations when they close. A committee member asked where the database would be housed and who would pay for the technology. The sponsor pointed to the authority’s existing system and said implementation would be delayed a year to allow preparation while preserving local clerks’ fees. The committee approved the bill for Rules by voice vote, with no opposition heard.

  2. House Rules Committee, February 25, 2026

    From 0:56:58 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 158 would create one place to search trade name and doing-business-as filings by requiring county clerks to forward them to a statewide clerks' authority. The sponsor said county filing requirements and fees, including the clerks' $15 administrative fee, would remain unchanged. The sponsor described the change as avoiding searches across all 159 counties. No questions or scheduling decision followed.

  3. House Rules Committee, March 2, 2026

    From 0:18:16 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1696

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HB 158 on Tuesday’s calendar under modified rules. The motion was seconded, no opposition was heard, and there was no discussion of the bill’s contents.

  4. House floor session, March 3, 2026 (legislative day 26, AM)

    From 1:23:26 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1702

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 158 would create a central, searchable database of trade names and businesses operating under another name. The sponsor explained that county court clerks would continue registering those names and would send records to a statewide court-clerks authority, avoiding separate searches across 159 counties. The sponsor said clerks would retain their 15% processing fee and that the bill would establish a way to remove businesses no longer operating. One member asked whether the bill would replace the Secretary of State's corporate directory or impose search fees. The sponsor said the corporate directory would remain unchanged and existing fees would not change, but could not confirm whether the public would need to pay to search the new database. A second member confirmed with the sponsor that business-formation filings would remain unchanged. The House adopted the committee substitute and passed the bill, 168 to 3.

  5. Senate Government Oversight Committee, March 17, 2026

    From 0:28:08 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair identified the bill as concerning registration statements filed with the Secretary of State's office and announced that it would receive subcommittee review before possible full committee consideration. The subcommittee meeting was announced for Thursday at 2 p.m. in the same room. No substantive presentation or vote on the bill occurred.

  6. Senate Government Oversight Committee, March 24, 2026

    From 0:21:01 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would let county clerks put trade-name and doing-business-as registrations into an existing Superior Court clerks authority database, allowing statewide searches instead of county-by-county searches. The sponsor said it would require no additional state money and would preserve counties’ $15 processing payments. One committee member noted that the database already exists and that Superior Court clerks wanted this approach, which the sponsor confirmed. When the sponsor began describing warranty provisions, the chair clarified that the proposed amendment had been removed as unrelated to the bill. A second member asked whether users could follow links from the Secretary of State’s website to the trade-name records. The sponsor said searches would remain a two-step process on separate websites, with no required link or referral between them. The sponsor described this approach as a compromise after an earlier effort to put everything on the Secretary of State’s website. The committee unanimously voted to recommend passage.

  7. Senate Rules Committee, March 30, 2026

    From 0:32:41 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 158 would consolidate information about businesses operating under trade names into one database, rather than requiring searches across 159 counties. A member asked for the number to be repeated. The measure was not included in the final calendar.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-25Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  2. 2026-03-25Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
  3. 2026-03-04Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  4. 2026-03-03House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
  5. 2026-03-03House Third Readers (House)
  6. 2026-02-24House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  7. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
  8. 2025-02-19House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
Show full history (11 actions)
  1. 2025-01-30House Second Readers (House)
  2. 2025-01-29House First Readers (House)
  3. 2025-01-28House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Lehman Franklin (R, HD-160)Primary sponsor
  • Anne Allen Westbrook (D, HD-163)
  • Tyler Paul Smith (R, HD-18)
  • Mike Cheokas (R, HD-151)
  • Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)
  • Jason T. Dickerson (R, SD-21)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 3, 2026

    168 yea, 3 nay (3 not voting, 3 excused)

    PASSAGE: House Vote #582

Topics

  • trade name registration
  • small business filings
  • Secretary of State records
  • court clerk records
  • business ownership disclosure

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb158.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp

HB158: Commerce and trade; filing of registration statements with the office of the Secretary of State; provide | Georgia Commons